I forced myself to breathe. Never in my life had I seen so much money. I didn’t want to believe what lay before me, and I didn’t know what to do next. Inhaling a deep breath, I steadied myself. Thomas said he’d been saving his wages so he could provide a home for Kathleen. Could all of this belong to him? It appeared to be far too much money for one young man to accumulate. Maybe all of the men kept their savings in the bag together, but that made no sense. If they’d all placed their money in the bag, there would be no reason to hide it, for other than Sister Margaret and me, no one else ever came into the dormitory. Maybe Thomas had come into a large sum of money before he came to Iowa. Or perhaps he’d worked someplace that paid exceedingly high wages, or maybe he’d been rewarded for some meritorious act. But with all this money, why hadn’t he gone in search of his sister? Why had he come to the colonies instead? He could have hired a detective to help him find Kathleen.
