“How long ago was it that your father died?” the Brownie leader inquired.
“Twenty-nine years ago.” The carpenter drew a deep sigh. “How fast time passes! It hardly seems possible.
“In those twenty-nine years I’ve tried repeatedly to make Minnie come to her senses. She’s as stubborn as a mule! She took the attitude that disappointment over me hastened my father’s death. Minnie just hasn’t been rational on the subject.”
“It seems funny that five hundred dollars could just disappear,” Connie offered her opinion. “Maybe it was spent.”
“I rather doubt that.”
“What do you think did become of it?” Veve asked.
“I wish I knew, little girl. Your guess is as good as mine. I’ve thought, though, that my father might have hidden the money somewhere and forgotten about it.”
“From what you say, he could have done exactly that!” declared Miss Gordon.
“Unfortunately, the money never came to light. And it never will.”
“I don’t suppose so,” Miss Gordon regretfully admitted. “Thirty years, or twenty-nine, to be exact, is a very long time.”