the Drift Fence (1992) by Zane Grey

feet of which were to stand above ground. Jim had thought out his plan and it bade fair to work. Bud Chalback, Lonestar Holliday, and Hump Stevens had volunteered to handle the wire, which, next to post-hole digging, seemed to be the most obnoxious to these aristocrats of the range.
    Fortunately for Jim, it was not necessary to build the drift fence in a straight line. A general direction to the south, keeping to levels and the easiest way, was the rule. Jim marked the line and the holes for a certain distance, then went back to help in all details of the labour. It had happened that not so many months ago he had built a barbed-wire fence round his father's farm in Missouri. He had not forgotten that. His father had not only been an exacting employer, but he knew how to go about fence-building. So Jim had a distinct advantage over his cowboys. who certainly had never had any share in such work. All the same, they found fault with every single detail of Jim's plan and execution, sometimes so guilelessly and with such apparent sincerity that he knew they had begun their mischief. He took especial care, however, in every instance to explain and prove to them the fallacy of their criticisms.
    Here was too good a chance to miss.
    The first day ended, and a dirty, sweaty, hungry string of cowboys walked back to camp.
    "Who'd a thunk it? Hoofin it to camp! As if barbed-wire-fence buildin' wasn't enough. Boys, we'd be better off in the pen at Yuma," declared Cherry Winters, throwing his sombrero.
    "It's a helluva good thing none of us has to cook on this job," said Uphill Frost. "You've all got to thank the boss fer thet."
    "Wal, Up," replied someone, "we'd liefer you was the cook, 'cause then we'd soon be daid."
    "Look aheah, Jackson Way," retorted Frost. "You hungry-lookin' jack rabbit! I kin beat you makin' sour-dough biscuits any day."
    "Shore you can. I ain't no cook."
    And so the badinage went on. Jim shut his ears when he was a little way off, to avoid hearing their facetious remarks about him, but on occasions he caught some of it.
    The amazing day ended with Jim's adding a lame back and blistered hands to his other ills. They had camped in the open field, where a few straggling pines had escaped the lumbermen, and the site was far from pretty. Jim unrolled his tarpaulin under one of them. He had never slept out in the open in his life. The cowboys would have laughed if they had seen him in his room at the ranch-house, struggling over the rolling and roping of that bed.
    The cook had been highly recommended to Jim, by no less a person than himself, and that, too, in writing. He claimed to hear fairly well, but he was dumb. Shot in the throat once, by a vicious cowboy!
    "Say, when is thet cadiverous galoot a-goin' to yell, 'Come an' get it'?" demanded Hack.
    "Anybody know what his handle is?" asked another.
    "Boys, our cook's name is Jeff Davis," announced Jim, importantly. "He hails from Alabama. He can't talk, but he wrote he could hear fairly well."
    "Why cain't he talk?" asked Hack.
    "A dumb cook! Holy Jupiter! We're Jonahed fer keeps!"
    "Fine. He cain't cuss the daylights out of us."
    "Wal, if he can cook--O-Kay!"
    "Thar's enough rebels in this heah outfit now without havin' a rebel cook," growled another.
    "Boys," added Jim, by way of answer to all these remarks, "Jeff claims to have been shot in the throat by a vicious cowboy. Made dumb forever.
    Think of it!"
    "Wal, he might have been one of these fellars who talk too much," declared Hack, significantly.
    The sudden and violent beating of a tin pan appeared to be Jeff's call to supper.
    Uphill Frost, who had fallen into a doze, leaped up with a yell, "Injuns!"
    He was the last to reach the chuck-wagon, perhaps by the fraction of a second. The things they said to the grave-faced cook, as he filled their plates and cups, were enough, Jim thought, to make a dumb man swear.
    Probably he alone caught a curious little gleam in Jeff's deep-set eyes.
    That gave Jim food for