Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/709

 riRST NAT. BANK V. BIS8ELL. 696 �mines and sharing in the proceeds according to their respect- ive interests, so that the relations of the parties were uot the fiubject of express contraet, and must be ascertained from their ownership of the property and their oonduct in working it. In the month of September, 1878, the parties were greatly harassed by adverse claimants of the property, and Hand- ley, Eobertson, and Rawlings became anxious to dispose of "their interest. The Winnemuc property was known to be valuable, having yielded about $40,000, vrhich was paid for the seven-sixteenths interest in the New Discovery in this month of September, There was also in bank to the credit of the Com- pany eomething like $16,000, one-fourth of whioh belonged to the Handley party. Bissell and Foss, who were on the ground, were anxious to purchase the interest so offered, not solely on account of its intrinsio value, but also to prevent -adverse claimants from acquiring an interest in their title, and thus securing a foothold on their side. So anxious were they that they agreed to decry the property as much as possi- ble, and to magnify the dangers besetting it, in order to increase the alarm of the Handley party and induce them to sell at a low price. The subject of the purchase became a matter of consultation and conference between Bissell and Foss, and they agreed as to the propriety of making it, if the property could be had at a reasonable price. But it does not appear that there was any definite understanding as to what sum should be paid for it, or where the money for that pur- pose should be obtained. .Whether the money in bank to the •credit of the company was available for that purpose, or hàd been pledged to persons who had entered themselves as surety in certain attachment suits which had been brought against the company, has beeome a subject of controversy in the record. Probably it was a part of the plan to represent to the Handley party that the money in bank was so pledged in order to induce them to sell at a low price. To pro- pose to pay for the property out of the company'g funds would bave opened the eyes of the Handley party to the nature of the transaction, if anything could produce that jesult. Hence the necessity for some pretence that the money ����