At any time before the proceedings for forfeiture provided for in section 76-408 by the county attorney shall be instituted, or at any time before final decree in any such proceedings, the widow, heirs and devisees, or either of them, of deceased nonresident aliens, may, by answer in said proceedings, or by independent action in the district court of any county in which any such lands are situated, instead of the forfeiture, have the lands sold as in partition, except that it shall not be necessary for the referee or referees to report that the land cannot be divided, but the same shall be ordered sold by the court at once, and the proceeds, after the payment of costs as in other cases of partition, shall be divided according to the respective interests of the parties the same as if there had been no escheat. The purchaser at any such sale shall acquire the same title to the lands purchased which he would have acquired if the nonresident alien had been a resident or citizen. In case there is only one party in interest, he may maintain an ex parte proceeding and have the land sold in the same manner, and the purchaser shall receive the same title as if there were several parties in interest, and after the payment of costs the proceeds of the sale shall be paid to the sole party in interest.