Page:The Secret of the Old Mill.pdf/138

130 money was bad. And perhaps it's the same way with the fellow who bought the ticket at the steamboat office."

"It's queer that most of the fuss is being raised right around this city. You don't hear much about it from other places."

"It's my idea," said Frank, "that the counterfeiters have their plant right in this vicinity."

"Do you think so?"

"Just as you said—most of the counterfeit money seems to be passed in and around Bayport."

"Where do you think they could be making the stuff?"

Frank shrugged.

"You never can tell. Perhaps in some cellar of one of the downtown buildings, for all we know. Personally, I've got an idea. It may be foolish, but I've been turning it over in my head for a few days, and the more I think of it, the more reasonable it seems."

"Spring it."

"You remember the day we were at the old mill?"

"I'll say I do! Those fellows wouldn't let me dry my clothes in the mill after I'd fished that precious kid out of the water."

"But one of them offered us a reward, didn't he?"