and so he talked to the boss , and for thirty minutes you could see them going at it hammer and tongs through the glass window of the boss 's office , and the boss got out from behind his desk and got right up to shep and shep did not give an inch and both of them were wearing these vein-bulging faces and then finally shep turned on his heels and marched back to his desk and quietly sat there doing what he usually did when he was thinking about a problem he could not solve he began stacking pencils in various shapes .