“Never mind, my chance may come yet,” the boy thought, as he went to bed, to dream of being captured by a band of counterfeiters who were about to melt him into a big half-dollar to get rid of him, when he awoke with a start. The sun was shining in his eyes through his window and it was time to get up and go to work. He found plenty of things to do at the office that day, and so had no chance to speak to Mr. Newton about the money matter. He was somewhat surprised to read an item in the paper bearing on the very subject that was uppermost in his mind. There was an account of an investigation that the United States authorities had started, to discover the source whence a number of bad coins seemed to be circulating about New York. A number of detectives had been detailed on the work of running the counterfeiters to earth, the article said, and, in the meanwhile, the public was cautioned to be careful what money was accepted in change. Bad half-dollars were especially numerous, it was stated. Larry felt sure that the men, in the room below his, were the counterfeiters. He was confirmed in this belief that same day when he had gone on an errand for Mr. Emberg to police headquarters. As he was standing in the main room, waiting for Mr. Newton, to whom he had been sent with a note, he saw two detectives, whom he knew by sight, talking earnestly together in a corner. Larry did not want to listen to a private conversation, but he could not help overhearing what the men were saying. He caught the words, “counterfeiters,” “bad half-dollars,” and then the men mentioned the number of the house and the street where Larry lived. “They’re after the men below our apartment!” thought Larry. “Those men are counterfeiters, just as I suspected. This will make a fine story for the paper. I hope it will be a beat!” He saw that the detectives were two who were in the habit of figuring rather prominently in the police reports of the papers. Larry recollected that Mr. Newton had once said that both the officers were not as good as some others who did not get half the publicity they deserved. “And they’re the same ones that treated Mr. Newton so mean on that robbery story,” reflected Larry, referring to the officers in conversation. “They wouldn’t give him the story. I wish they were not going to capture the counterfeiters. It’s too good a job for them. They don’t deserve it.” He hardly knew how to act. He knew he must not interfere with the course of the law, yet he would have been glad to see some other detectives, who were more friendly to the newspaper men than the two he heard conversing were, make the capture. Larry realized that to catch the counterfeiters would mean quite a feather in the caps of the officers.