Free the Drift Fence (1992) by Zane Grey

thet!"
    "The Diamond is in for some new experience, Jocelyn. And you may as well know fence-building is one of them."
    "Haw! Haw! It shore is. A tenderfoot dude foreman! Then barbed-wire fence! My Gawd! what's the range comin' to?"
    Jocelyn had turned to his companions, to whom, in fact, his exclamation had been directed. Jim shot out a hand and spun him around like a top.
    "Did you call me a tenderfoot dude foreman?" he queried, and despite his temper he was quick-witted enough to ascertain that Jocelyn was not armed. Otherwise he would wisely have restrained himself altogether.
    "Wal, Mister Traft, I reckon I did," he drawled. He expressed the usual cowboy nonchalance, but there was also a vindictive quality in his words, if not their content.
    Jim knocked him flat. He had not calculated consequences. In accepting his uncle's job he had burned his bridges behind him. But when Jim saw Jocelyn lying there, then slowly rising, his hand to his face, which was black as a thundercloud, he awoke to another sensation. He would not, however, have recalled the blow.
    "Jocelyn, you're fired," he said, as coolly as the cowboy had spoken.
    "But if you come out to the ranch and apologize to me I'll take you on again."
    "You better be packin' a gun," declared Jocelyn, darkly.
    "Aw, shut up, if you can't talk sense," returned Jim, in disgust. "You insulted me. And if you're not man enough to own up to it you can bet there's no place on the Diamond for you."
    Jocelyn's two friends laid hold of him and drew him away. Whereupon Jim turned to enter the hotel, where among several persons who had been spectators of the little by-play were his uncle and Ring Locke.
    "Hello! Say, I'm sorry you happened to see that," said Jim, regretfully.
    "But, Uncle, he just made me boil."
    "Come inside," rejoined Traft, and when the three of them were out of earshot of bystanders he turned to Locke. "Ring, he called Hack's bluff.
    An' mebbe he didn't poke that puncher's snoot! I damn near choked myself to keep from yellin'."
    "Uncle!" exclaimed Jim, as surprised at this speech as at Traft's glee.
    "Son, the only fault I can locate in you so far is you talk too quick an' too much. It'll get you in serious trouble."
    "But I nearly burst at that," expostulated Jim.
    Ring Locke shook his lean hawklike head forebodingly. "Wal, it's six for me an' half a dozen fer the other," he said. "It's bad an' good. More good, I'd say. If the new foreman of the Diamond had stood fer that--wal, he couldn't have had a chance. Mebbe the boys put Hack up to it. If so he'll be as nice as pie an' come back to square himself. If not--" Here Locke shook his head gravely.
    "Ring, I'll bet you four bits he'll be out here tomorrow," said Traft.
    "But suppose he doesn't come?"
    "Can't we fill his place?" asked Jim, anxiously.
    "Nope. We can't fill the place of any of thet outfit," rejoined Locke.
    "But I was thinkin' of what it'd mean... Young man, this same Hack Jocelyn has shot fellars fer less."
    "It's true, son," corroborated Traft, sombrely. "That's the worst of it.
    This gang of yours has made way with nine men since they rode for me. Six years! Shore some of them were damn good riddance."
    "More'n nine, boss," corrected Locke. "Lonestar Holliday got drove out of Texas fer a shootin'."
    "What!" gasped Jim. "Those fine clean boys murderers?"
    "Jim, you're out West now," said his uncle, testily. "When two men get into an argument or quarrel an' draw--it ain't murder if one is killed.
    We couldn't run the range without cowboys an' they're shore a tough crowd of young roosters... Ring, fetch round the buckboard an' we'll go home."
    On the way out Traft dilated on the serious and uncertain side of range life. Jim realized that his education on the West had but just begun. He had not been ignorant of facts, but they seemed vastly significant and perturbing at close hand. During the ride out and at supper he maintained silence. Later, when he had recovered from the effect of this first clash,