“What can we do for you?” Dick asked, wasting no time on words.
“I suppose this mine is fair?”
“Yes. It is straight, as far as I know.”
“It has no agreement.”
“But we are ready to sign one whenever it is presented.”
The delegate drew a worn wallet from his pocket, extracted a paper, and tendered it.
“I anticipated no trouble,” he said, but without smiling or giving any sign of satisfaction. “Would you mind looking that over, and seeing if it meets with your approval?”
Dick stepped to the high desk at the side of the room which he had been utilizing as a drawing board, laid the sheet out, and began reading it, while Bill stood up and scanned it across his shoulders. Bill suddenly put a stubby finger on a clause, and mumbled: “That’s not right.”
Dick slowly read it; and, before he had completed the involved wording, the finger again clapped down at another section. “Nor that. Don’t stand for it!”