“Yep. Her name was Mary Bender then, and she inherited it from her father. I got parts of the story from people who knew Mr. Jefferson well. It seems he has always been a collector of antiques and old coins and stamps and things, but one thing he had set his heart on was the Bender stamp collection. But he couldn’t buy it. Either Mr. Bender wouldn’t sell or Elroy Jefferson couldn’t raise the money—but somehow he could never buy them stamps he had set his heart on.”
“So he married Mary Bender?”
“Well, now—maybe he didn’t marry her entirely on account of the stamps. You see, he used to call at the Bender house quite often, trying to get Mr. Bender to sell the stamps, so in that way he met Mary Bender. I’ve no doubt he fell in love with her, but, anyway, they got married, and after Mr. Bender died his daughter got the stamps. So, of course, then Mr. Jefferson got ’em. His wife turned ’em over to him as soon as she inherited them.”
“And then what?” asked Joe, interested.
“Then,” said Amos Grice, with great effect, “the stamps disappeared.”
“Disappeared?”
“They went.”
“Stolen?”
“Nobody knows. They just went.”
“Haven’t they been found?”