The first telegram carried a counteraccusation. (counteraccusation: countercharge, recrimination, retaliatory accusation) The second repeated the countercharge with greater truculence and four extra adjectives. (countercharge: counteraccusation, recrimination, retaliatory charge; truculence: belligerence, pugnacity, aggressiveness) By the third, a report of a damaged sack had become a vituperative diatribe against the other firm's entire workforce. (vituperative: abusive, scathing, scurrilous; diatribe: tirade, harangue, denunciation) The telegraphist began charging by the epithet.
It was easy to foment enmity when someone else carried the message. (foment: incite, instigate, provoke) The fourth telegram promised retaliation. (retaliation: reprisal, revenge, counteraction) Both managers now had reason to fear a reprisal. (reprisal: retaliation, revenge, counterblow) An escalation might cost more than the warehouse door they claimed had been kicked in. (escalation: increase, intensification, rise) Each found the other pugnacious, each esteemed himself commendably restrained. (pugnacious: combative, belligerent, quarrelsome)
The telegraphist brought the two men to the door. It opened outward. To kick it inward from the street would require leaving a boot on the inside. The only bootprint belonged to a horse. What looked like a nail hole in the damaged sack was a tooth mark. The telegraphist sent one final word to both warehouses: "Oats." The horse ate the evidence.