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 chair. "Is it fair?" returned Ned. "Well! Why not?" "How can it be fair? We have nothing and you have everything. All the leases and all the sheep and all the cattle and all the improvements belong to you. We've got to work to live and we can't work except for you. What's the sense of your saying that if we don't like the agreement we needn't take it? We must either break the agreement or take it. That's how we stand." "Well, what do you object to in it?" "I don't know what the others object to in it. I know what I object to." "That's what I want to know." "Well, for one thing, when I've earned money it's mine. The minute I've shorn a sheep the price of shearing it belongs to me and not to the squatter. It's convenient to agree only to draw pay at certain times, but it's barefaced to deliberately withhold my money weeks after I've earned it, and it's thieving to forfeit wages in case a squatter and I differ as to whether the agreement's been broken or not." "There ought to be some security that a pastoralist won't be put to loss by his men leaving him at a moment's notice," asserted Strong.