"Yes."
"To whom?"
"To Jim Scott."
"Jim Scott! I won't agree to it," returned Fox, in intense disgust, for he knew that he could not cheat his new partner.
"Your permission was not needed," said Paul. "Either of you had a perfect right to dispose of his share of the property to any one he pleased."
"Why didn't you offer it to me?" asked Fox, looking deeply disappointed.
"To be plain with you, Mr. Fox, because it has been your policy to depreciate the property. You wouldn't have paid five thousand dollars, while Scott has paid me more than twice as much."
"I must see him," muttered Simeon Fox; and he went back to the hotel, looking as if he had just been invited to his own funeral.
Two days afterward Jim Scott drew Paul aside.
"Paul," he said, "I have just sold my share of the mine to Simeon Fox."