league with the counterfeiters or else he was stung himself for a lot of counterfeit money and decided to get rid of it as smoothly as possible."
Mrs. Hardy was downcast.
"I should have been on my guard," she said. "There has been so much of this bad money going around that I should have been on watch for it, especially with a big sum like eight hundred dollars. It's my own fault, I suppose, but it's hard to lose that much money." She glanced at the heap of bills on the table. "It's not worth the paper it's printed on."
Frank picked up one of the bills and examined it.
"Looks just like the five that the fellow passed on to Joe and me at the station," he commented, testing the quality of the paper. It comes from the same source, I'll bet."
"Eight hundred dollars!" Joe exclaimed. "That's the biggest haul yet. I'd like to have that rug merchant by the back of the neck right this minute. I'd shake the eight hundred out of him in a hurry."
"I guess there's not much chance of catching him now. He has sold the rugs and made his getaway."
Mrs. Hardy was silent. She felt the loss of the valuable rug very keenly, and still more keenly did she feel the ignominy of having been
