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Rh decade, laboriously emerging from the taxicab. She was a large woman with a strident voice, and the Hardy boys could hear her vigorously disputing the amount of the fare. This was a matter of principle with Aunt Gertrude, who always argued with taxi drivers as a matter of course, it being her firm conviction that they were unanimously in a conspiracy to overcharge her and defraud her at all times.

With Lavinia under one arm and a huge umbrella under the other, Aunt Gertrude withered the taxicab driver with a fiery denunciation and, when he helplessly pointed to the meter and declared that figures did not lie, she dropped both cat and umbrella, rummaged about in the manifold recesses of her clothing for a very small purse, produced the exact amount of the fare in silver, counted it out and handed it to the man with the air of one giving alms.

"And, just for your impudence, you shan't have a tip!" she announced. "Carry my bags up to the house."

The driver gazed sadly at the silver in his hand, pocketed it and clambered back into the car.

"Carry 'em up yourself!" he advised, slamming the door. The taxi roared away down the street.

Frank chuckled.