There was a moment of silent amazement. It was broken by Chub. “Huh,” he grunted. “I knew you weren’t any book agent!” “And I knew you knew it,” laughed Billy. “I’m sorry I had to sail under false colors, but I had a difficult job on hand and I was forced to take every precaution. And when you say I was not a book agent you aren’t altogether correct, for I really have been a book agent for nearly two months this time, and I’ve acted the same part before. As a matter of fact I’ve taken orders for nineteen sets of Mr. Billings’ ‘Wonders of the Deep’ during my stay around here.” “Were you trying to arrest some one?” asked Dick eagerly. “Just that,” was the reply. “The Department found nearly a year ago that some one was getting out some very clever imitations of ten-dollar bank-notes of the series of 1902. I was instructed to find the counterfeiters and arrest them. With me was a man named Brady. You’ve seen him.” “The man at the wharf!” cried Chub. “The fellow that helped us with the launch that day, Roy! Remember? Isn’t that right, Mr. Noon?” “That’s right. He was watching the freight and people that went out from Silver Cove because I discovered finally that the counterfeit money was being sent to New York from this point. I took up the vocation of book agent since it provided me with an excuse for visiting all the houses around here. About the time you boys came to the island--I was camping on the shore of the mainland then--we got word from New York that a new batch of the bills had made their appearance there. We knew that they didn’t go by express, and satisfied ourselves that they hadn’t gone by freight; so we concluded that they had been taken by messenger, probably by one of the gang itself. As it is easier to come and go unnoticed by boat than by train we decided that the messenger had traveled by river. For awhile I thought that perhaps he had a small boat of some sort and was making trips up and down in it, but after watching closely for over two weeks I gave that notion up. Brady found the messenger when he returned,--spotted him the moment he put his foot off the boat,--and followed him out of town only to lose him finally about three miles north. Then I took up the hunt again and finally located the outfit in a small cabin up in the hills some four miles from here. But we wanted to get all the evidence we could, press, plates that the bills are printed from, and some of the counterfeit money itself; and we wanted to get the whole gang.