"Yes," the woman assented. "They're in that bottom drawer there, if you'll trouble to get them for me."
Nan opened the drawer indicated and took from it a packet of papers. The documents bore marks of frequent folding and unfolding.
"May I look at them?" Nan asked, as she brought them to the bedside.
"Surely," was the ready answer. "And if one of you will just hand me my specs, I'll look over them with you and tell you all about them."
The three girls bent eagerly over Mrs. Bragley as she opened one paper after the other, prospectuses, several of them, highly colored illustrated leaflets and descriptive circulars. Then came a certificate for forty shares in the Sunny Slopes Development Company. The only individual name on any of the papers seemed to be that of Jacob Pacomb, who, it appeared, was the manager and the developer of the tract.
"It's extremely strange that no answer ever came to any of your letters," remarked Rhoda, as she scanned the documents. "Did any of the letters ever come back?"
"Not one," was the reply.
"Perhaps the man did not receive them," conjectured Nan.
"In that case," Mrs. Bragley replied, "the letters would have been returned to me, as I put my name and address on the outside."
"This man, Pacomb," suggested Bess, "may have died and all of the letters may have been destroyed."