“I did,” Gale acknowledged calmly.
“But she hasn’t——” Valerie began. “Wait a minute! Gale Howard! Have you been doing detective work on something unbeknownst to us?”
“It is a long story, gals,” Gale said. “Come up to my room and I will unfold a tale that will make you throw away your latest detective novel for lack of interest.”
Comfortably ensconced on her bed beside Valerie, while Carol and Janet hovered at comfortable if ungraceful angles on Phyllis’ cot, Gale told them the story she had earlier unfolded to Phyllis. The girls were as astounded and as sceptical as Phyllis at first had been. However, they were all glad things had turned out so happily and profitably for Phyllis.
“Imagine,” Carol said dreamily, “he gets lost in the jungles of Brazil and comes home to meet his daughter whom he hasn’t seen for nigh onto eighteen years.”
“He hasn’t been lost in the jungle all these years,” Janet corrected her friend.
“No,” Carol admitted, “but isn’t it wonderful?” she repeated. “Do you suppose,” she continued hopefully, “he would lend us his yacht to go cruising this summer?”
“And get ourselves lost in the jungle as he did?” put in Janet. “No thanks! I have no desire to get eaten by a ferocious tiger.”
“I just mentioned it,” Carol said soothingly. “Besides, he wasn’t eaten by a tiger.”
“It was only a matter of time,” Janet said knowingly. “He probably would have been eventually.”