“Peter! There are some initials there!” Judy exclaimed, noticing them first. “Can you see what they are?”
He held the ring in a better light.
“‘G. A. to M. H.,’” he read.
“But that’s George Anderson to Meta Hanley!” Judy exclaimed. “He did buy her the ring. He really did intend to marry her. But then I guess he met this other girl, and love didn’t turn out to be such an everlasting thing for him. Meta ought to know about the ring, though. Shall we take it to her?”
“Not so fast, Angel. That ring isn’t all we’ve discovered,” declared Peter. “Don’t you think, before we deliver the ring, we ought to find out what else is in this house and how it came to be here?”
“You mean—Oh dear!” Judy interrupted herself, knowing too well what Peter meant. “You mean Danny’s father may have been hiding all that loot from the Roulsville flood in his boarded-up house. If the beavers hadn’t broken in—Oh dear!” Judy said again. “I almost wish they hadn’t. It spoils that beautiful romance I was dreaming up for Meta Hanley. She won’t want to marry a thief. She won’t even want this ring.”
“She may. If she really loved him she may want to marry him, anyway, and Danny does need a mother—”
“But his father will be in jail!”
Peter laughed. “We have to find him before we can put him there, or marry him off, either. I think Danny knew the beavers were hauling stuff away from the house where he used to live.”
“Oh dear! Then he knew his father stole it?”