”Oh?” Malcolm asked innocently.
”We dug up a square fifty yards on a side around the spot on that map. Nothing. Not a trace. My up-time rube has withdrawn his offer to buy the whole parcel. I can’t believe we went through all that and she didn’t get the right place. God knows where she put them.”
Kit had received his own confirmation from up-time sources that Goldie was, for once, telling God’s own truth.
Malcolm put in, “Well, Margo buried them what? Four hundred fifty years ago? Anything could have happened. A flash flood might have washed the whole mess out. Or someone could have dug the stuff up years ago and quietly sold it off. Who could tell? It was a great idea, Goldie. Too bad it didn’t work.”
”Yeah,” she said glumly. “Too bad. Damn that girl…
Kit consoled her by ordering Goldie’s favorite. She sipped disconsolately.
”How much money did you lose?” Kit asked quietly.
”Ten thousand dollars! I paid for that whole benighted expedition, not to mention that worthless piece of farmland! It’s so riddled with tse-tse flies you can’t even run cattle on it!”
”I feel really terrible,” Kit said earnestly. “After all, I did train Margo. Her mistake is my mistake.”
Goldie sniffed again. “You always were too nice for your own good, Kit. Thanks anyway. I’m still out ten thousand.”
”Tell you what. I’m determined to drive home the lessons Margo’s learning from this fiasco. How about I make her pay you back?
”Pay me back?” Goldie echoed. “Why?
”To teach her the value of getting her geography right.”