the Drift Fence (1992) by Zane Grey Read Free Book Online Page A

about, Ring," went on Traft. "He has come West to run the Diamond outfit."
    Jim tried to bear well the scrutiny given him by this range boss of his uncle's, a right-hand man who had been with him twenty years.
    "Uncle should have said I'll try to run that outfit, Mr. Locke," said Jim, frankly. "I'm not afraid. But I'm an awful tenderfoot."
    Perhaps his earnestness favourably impressed Locke, for he smiled and replied, dryly, "Wal, it ain't bad to start when you're a tenderfoot, just so long as you know it."
    "You bet I know it," continued Jim, hastening to follow that up. "When Uncle's letter came I was sure up a tree. It sounded wonderful. But I had listened to Uncle Jim's stories about gunmen and bad cowboys, wild steers and bucking bronchos, stampedes and rustling. It wasn't easy to decide... But here I am. And I can take a licking."
    "Wal, reckon you're likely to get it," rejoined Locke. "But in this heah country a lickin' ain't nothin', so long's it's not for keeps."
    Jim took almost instantly to the lean Texan. But the three cowboys standing by, apparently like hitching-posts, yet with still eyes and faces, gave him an uncomfortable sensation. To be sure, they heard every word. What clean-cut, lithe-limbed young men! The one holding the horse had a gun hanging low from his belt. Jim faced this triangle of judges, for so they seemed, expecting to be introduced. But his uncle apparently neglected or avoided it.
    "We'll go back to the house," he said, and led Jim away. "Have a good trip out?"
    "You bet. I've got a stiff neck from looking out of the car window," replied Jim, enthusiastically. "No matter what you've read or heard, you can't get any true idea till you see it. I mean the plains, hills, valleys, ranges, and mountains... Uncle, I liked all the whole long ride out. But Arizona best."
    "An' how's that?"
    "I don't know yet. Maybe the great red walls--the canyons."
    "Ahuh... Sorry I didn't meet you at the train. I reckoned I would. How's your mother?"
    "Fine and well. Uncle, she was crazy to have me come, but scared stiff."
    "Good! An' how's that storekeeper brother of mine, your dad?"
    "He hasn't been so well lately, but I guess it's nothing much. He sent a letter and some things which I have for you."
    "Did he kick about your comin' out?"
    "No. All he kicked about was my making good. He gave me a stiff talk, you bet."
    They reached the house, where Jim was conducted to a large light room, with walls and floor of clean yellow pine. A few deerskin rugs, a wood-burning stove, a table with lamp, an old bureau and mirror, and spare blanketed bed, constituted the contents, the simplicity of which pleased Jim.
    "Come out on the porch and we'll talk," his uncle had said. And Jim, after securing the letter and parcels he had mentioned, hurried out to deliver them.
    "Thanks. I'll look at them later... Wal, Jim, you've growed. You're a pretty husky chap. Too heavy, mebbe, but ridin' the range will soon change that. By the way, have you been ridin' much since I saw you last?
    You used to take to hosses."
    "Had two years of riding every day. You know I tried farming."
    "Yes, your dad mentioned it. How'd you make out?"
    "I fell down, Uncle," replied Jim, regretfully. "I just couldn't do it."
    "An' why not?" asked Traft, as if he already knew.
    "I don't know, unless it was too tame. Every day the same! I thought I'd die. But I stuck for two years. Then dad sold the farm, which was lucky for me.
    "What else you been doin' these four years since I seen you?"
    "I was still in school for a year after you last visited us. Then the two years on dad's farm. And the last year I tried several jobs, only one of which I was any good at."
    "An' what was that?" asked Traft, kindly. "Reckon it wasn't clerkin' in the store?"
    "No. I'm almost ashamed to tell you, Uncle. It was on my own hook, though. I got an idea some shade trees would look fine round our place.
    So I drove out to the river and dug up cottonwoods and planted them. Dad laughed