"Oh, and after you've looked it over, what then?"
"I'll make my plans there. I don't know what it will be. But whatever
it is, it will be something that won't bring me back to town."
James Tibbetts looked long and hopefully at the browned face of his
young partner; but at what he saw there his hopes vanished.
"You're set on this, I see, Rog," he said sorrowfully.
"Cheer up, Jim!" responded Payne.
"I'll give you a deal that will help you get rich a lot quicker than if
I stayed with you."
Tibbetts shook his head and was silent a long time. "Well, if you're
bound to sell, you won't go out of here exactly busted--after two years
with me," he said at last. "Rog! Do you mean it? We're going to
part?"
"It would be plain hell for me to stick, Jim."
Tibbetts grasped the extended hard brown hand in his own soft white
fingers. After a while he managed to stammer:
"I see. This just had to come!"