Gretzinger unbuttoned his overcoat and sought his cigarette case.  His scowl as he struck a match was lighted by vicious gleams from his eyes.

“Why didn’t you stop work when you received notification from the state engineer of the Land and Water Board’s action?” he demanded.  “When you yet had the bulk of the money?”

“I preferred to continue.”

“And now you’re sinking it all.”

“It costs money to move frozen dirt,” said Bryant.

“Well, I tell you the bondholders won’t put up another penny unless——­” The Easterner paused, growing thoughtful.  Some minutes passed before he resumed:  “There’s one condition on which they’ll do it, and I’ll guarantee their support.”

“And the condition?”

“That you surrender your stock to them.”

“For the twenty or twenty-five thousand dollars more that will be needed?  My shares representing a hundred thousand?  And I presume I should have to withdraw altogether.”

“Naturally,” Gretzinger responded.  “I should then take charge.”

Bryant’s expression exhibited a certain amount of curiosity.

“Do you really think you could finish the ditch on time?” he inquired.

A slight sneer was the answer.  Gretzinger was one not given to wasting time with men of Bryant’s type.

“How about it?  Am I to take back to New York with me your agreement to this?” he asked, curtly.

The other spread his feet apart and hooked his thumbs in his coat pockets and directed his full regard at the speaker.

“You think you have me in a hole, Gretzinger,” he said.  “You propose to take me by the throat and shake everything out of my pockets and then throw me aside.  Well, I’m in a hole, no use denying that.  But you haven’t me by the throat and you’re not going to loot me.  If I go broke, it won’t be through handing over what I have to you and your gang of pirates, just make up your mind to that.”

“Then you intend to wreck this project.  A court action will stop that, I fancy.”

“The only court action you can demand is a receivership for the company, and not until my money-bag is empty at that,” Lee rejoined, coolly.  “And the time will expire and the company be a shell before it’s granted, at the rate courts move.”

The New Yorker considered.  Finally he began to re-button his overcoat.

“I’ll leave the offer open,” said he.  “I was uncertain before about returning, but I’ll probably do so now.  You’ll find as the pinch comes that my proposition will look better—­and we might pay you two or three thousand so you’ll not go out strapped.  Besides, if we took over and completed the project, it would save your face; you wouldn’t be wholly discredited; you would be able to get a job somewhere afterward.  Might as well make the most you can for yourself out of a bad mess.  Think it over, Bryant.”  He set his cap on his head with a conclusive air.