Mountrail county executed and delivered to said bank a certificate of redemption in due form. Later, and apparently under some arrange ment with the plaintiff, one A. J. Ghusm, took over the interest of the—Citizens’ State Bank of Stanley in said premises; and on July 10, 1912, said bank executed and delivered to said Ghusm a warranty deed for said premises, which deed recites that it is given for the sole purpose of reconveying the land therein described as per a certain agreement made between Hammid Hassen and said Citizens’ State Bank of Stanley at the time deed was given to the said bank by said Hassen.
Later the plaintiff had certain difficulty or misunderstanding with Ghusm—i. e., Ghusm refused to give him a contract for deed. There- upon, in the fall of 1912, the plaintiff went down to Ft. Ransom, in Ransom county, in this state, where the defendant Solomon Hodge was located, and solicited said Hodge to take over the interest of Ghusm in the land. The defendant Hodge informed the plaintiff that he would come to Stanley later in the fall to visit a sister, and while there would :00k into the proposition. In December, 1912, the defendant Hodge cime to Stanley and, on December 27, 1912, he paid Ghusm the amount of money Ghusm had put into the deal, and Ghusm executed and delivered a warranty deed to Hodge. Later, Hodge paid off a first mortgage, making a total amount of $2,300 invested by Hodge in the premises it that time. One of the few undisputed facts in the record is that Hodge actually did pay out $2,300 in cash at or about the time he received the deed from Ghusm. Another undisputed fact is that since that time the defendant Hodge has paid all the taxes assessed against the premises. There is, however, a square conflict in the testimony as to the arrangement made between the plaintiff and the defendant Hodge at the time Hodge received the deed from Ghusm. The plaintiff claims that Hodge at that time gave him a contract for a deed, whereby Hodge agreed to convey the premises to the plaintiff, upon the payment of $2,300 and interest. Hodge on the other hand claims that he did not want to go into the deal unless the plaintiff got his (plaintiff’s) brother-in-law, one Abdel Hadey, to join the plaintiff in the agreement to purchase the premises from Hodge. Hodge gives this version of the conversation then had:
“I say, ‘How long you been living here?’ He say, ‘About 12 years.’ I say, ‘How much you broke on that land?’ ‘About 12 acres.’ I say, ‘If you been on that land 12 years and only break 12 acres, how you going to
