e should be nervous he could not have explained.
But he was cool enough when, after a minute's delay, a clerk led Melsom
and himself through a smaller archway opening from this great office hall
and up a carpetted stone stairway loading between two great bare walls
and along a long lofty passage, wherein footfalls echoed softly on the
carpetted stone floor. Finally they reached a polished, pannelled door
which being opened showed Strong writing busily at a cabinet desk placed
in the centre of the handsomely furnished office-room. The great
financier greeted Melsom cordially, nodded civilly enough to Ned and
agreed with the latter's immediate statement that he came, as a private
individual solely, to see a private individual, at the request of Mr.
Melsom.

"Now, where do we differ?" Strong asked, when Melsom had gone.

"We are you and me, of course," said Ned, putting his hat on the floor.

Strong nodded.

"Well, you have sat down at your desk here and drawn up a statement as to
how I shall work without asking me. I object. I say that, as I'm
concerned, you and I together should sit down and arrange how I shall
work for you since I must work for you."

"In our agreement, that you refer to, we have tried to do what is fair,"
replied Strong, looking sharply at Ned.

"Do you want me to talk straight?" asked Ned. "Because, if you object to
that, it's better for me to go now than waste words talking round the
subject."

"Certainly," answered Strong. "Straight talk never offends me."

"Then how do I know you have tried to do fairly?" enquired Ned. "Our
experience with the pastoralists leads us to think the opposite."

"There have been rabid pastoralists," admitted Strong, after a moment's
thought, "just as there have been rabid men on the other side. I'll tell
you this, that we have had great difficulty in getting some of the
pastoralists to accept this agreement. We had to put considerable
pressure on them before they would moderate their position to what we
consider fair."

Ned did not reply. He stowed Strong's statement away for future use.

"Besides," remarked Strong, after a pause, during which he arranged the
letters before him. "There is no compulsion to accept the agreement. If
you don't like it don't work under it, but let those who want to accept
it."

"I fancy that's more how it stands than by being fair," commented Ned,
bitterly.

"Well! Isn't that fair?" asked Strong, leaning back in his office cha