The conference of the four men was amicable in the extreme.
Dyke, studying the figures on the back of the envelope, came forward again.

Absorbed only in his own distress, he ignored the editor and the cow-puncher.
"Say," he hazarded, "how about this?
I make out---- "We've told you what our rates are, Mr.Dyke," exclaimed the clerk angrily.

"That's all the arrangement we will make.

Take it or leave it." He turned again to Genslinger, giving the ex-engineer his back.
Dyke moved away and stood for a moment in the centre of the room, staring at the figures on the envelope.
"I don't see," he muttered, "just what I'm going to do.

No, I don't see what I'm going to do at all." Ruggles came in, bringing with him two other men in whom Dyke recognised dummy buyers of the Los Muertos and Osterman ranchos.