For days thereafter he had been nervous, almost apprehensive, and his nervousness had increased when he secured the back files of the Dallas papers and read those issues which he had missed while out of town.

Since that time he had made excuses to avoid trips into the Ranger field and had conducted much of his work over the telephone.

Perhaps for that reason it was that trouble with drilling crews had arisen, and that one well had been "jimmed"; perhaps that explained why a deal as good as closed had gotten away, why a certain lease had cost fully double what it should have cost, and why the sale of another tract had not gone through.
Be that as it may, it was this generally unsatisfactory state of affairs that accounted for the junior Nelson's presence in Wichita Falls at this time.

He and Bell had spent a stormy forenoon together; he was in an irritable mood when, early in the afternoon, a card was brought into his office.
Nelson could not restrain a start at sight of the name engraved thereon; his impulse was to leap to his feet.

But the partition separating him from the bank lobby was of glass, and he knew his every action to be visible.