"Three thousand!" Peter, who had been leaning forward, earnestly
attentive, echoed in relief.

"That was all. Dad had about three hundred. They had to have a
laboratory and some expensive retorts and things, it seems. Dad
did all the work, and put in his three hundred, and Uncle Vincent
put in three thousand--and the funny thing is," Alix broke off to
say, musingly, "Uncle Vincent was perfectly splendid about it; I
myself remember him saying, 'Don't worry, Lee. I'm speculating on
my own responsibility, not yours.'"

"Well?" Peter prompted, as she hesitated.

"Well. They had a written agreement then, giving Uncle Vincent a
third interest in the patent, should it be sold or put on the
market--"

"Ha!" Peter ejaculated, struck.

"Which, of course, was only a little while before Uncle Vincent
died," Alix went on, with a grave nod. "The agreement lay in Dad's
desk all these years--fancy how easily he might have burned it
many's the time! But he didn't. George Sewall says that Anne is
right."

"But wasn't Anne third heiress anyway, under his will? I know I've
heard--"

"Certainly she was. But a third interest now, in a diminished