"Then let us postpone it. I shall probably be at my office if you are anxious to see me."
Quarrier looked at him, then laid aside his hat and sat down. There was little to be done in diplomacy with an oaf like that.
"Mr. Plank," he said, without any emphasis at all, "there should be some way for us to come together. Have you considered it?"
"No, I haven't," replied Plank.
"I mean, for you and me to try to understand each other."
"For us?" asked Plank, raising his blond eyebrows. "Do you mean Amalgamated Electric and Inter-County, impersonally?"
"I mean for us, personally."
"There is no way," said Plank, with conviction.
"I think there is."
"You are wasting time thinking it, Mr. Quarrier."
Quarrier's velvet-fringed eyes began to narrow, but his calm voice remained unchanged: "We are merely wasting energy in this duel," he said.
"Oh, no; I don't feel wasted."
"We are also wasting opportunities," continued Quarrier slowly. "This whole matter is involving us in a tangle of litigation requiring our constant effort, constant attention."
"I beg your pardon, Mr. Quarrier, but you take it too seriously. I have found, in this affair, nothing except a rather agreeable mental exhilaration."
"Mr. Plank, if you are not inclined to be serious--"
"I am," said Plank so savagely that Quarrier, startled, could not doubt him. "I like this sort of thing, Mr. Quarrier. Anything that is hard to overcome, I like to overcome. The pleasure in life, to me, is to win out. I am fighting you with the greatest possible satisfaction to myself."
"Perhaps you see victory ahead," said Quarrier calmly.
"I do, Mr. Quarrier, I do. But not in the manner you fear I may hope for it."
"Do you mind saying in what manner you are already discounting your victory, Mr Plank?"
"No, I don't mind telling you. I have no batteries to mask. I don't care how much you know about my resources; so I'll tell you what I see, Mr. Quarrier. I see a parody of the popular battle between razor-back and rattler. The rattler only strives to strike and kill, not to swallow. Mr. Quarrier, that old razor-back isn't going home hungry; but--he's going home."
"I'm afraid I am not familiar enough with the natural history you quote to follow you," said Quarrier with a sneer, his long fingers busy with the silky point of his beard.
"No, you won't follow me home; you'll come with me, when it's all over. Now is it very plain to you, Mr. Quarrier?"
Quarrier said, without emotion: "I repeat that it would be easy for you and me to merge our differences on a basis absolutely satisfactory to you and to me--and to Harrington."