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Rh Frank and Joe read the scrawled warning with interest.

"Trying to frighten you away from the case, are they?" said Frank, as he gave back the note.

"Looks like it."

"You won't pay any attention to it, of course?"

"Not a bit. Although your mother seems to think I'll be carried home on a stretcher any day."

"When did the note come?" Joe inquired with deep interest.

Mrs. Hardy told them how the strange letter had been delivered, and when they learned that it had been left at the door instead of being sent through the post-office both boys became immediately excited. They did not, however, air their suspicions at the time and it was not until they were alone after supper that they discussed the topic between them.

"That settles it!" declared Frank with finality. "The counterfeiters must be right here in Bayport."

"Or near by."

"That's what I mean. If they were out of town, the letter would have been sent by mail."

"It's getting to be a little too much. As dad said, it was adding insult to injury—tricking mother to the extent of eight hundred