"Well, I was on my way to New York, expecting to complete a business deal. I fell asleep in the car, for I was quite tired, and I guess I had been thinking pretty hard on that business matter. You see a fellow offered me an option on a small, but good, concern, for four hundred dollars. I knew if I could clinch the deal, and get the option, that some friends of mine would invest in it, and I'd have a good thing for myself. "Well, as I say, I fell asleep. Then I dreamed someone was trying to get my pocketbook. It was a sort of nightmare, and I guess I struggled with the dream-robber. Then, all of a sudden, I woke up, and--" "Was your pocketbook gone?" asked Mollie. "No, but my money was. And that was the funny part of it. How anyone could get the money without taking the pocketbook I couldn't see. And there wasn't anyone in the car with me but a boy--a peddler, I think he was." The girls looked at each other. Matters were beginning to fit together most strangely. "I didn't know what to do," the young man went on. "I didn't want to say anything that would seem as if I accused the boy, and I felt the same about the trainmen. I knew if I said the money had been taken and the pocketbook left they would only laugh at me. I was all knocked out, and hardly knew what I was doing. I jumped off the train, and went back over the line, thinking the bill might have blown out of the window. But--" "That is just what did happen!" cried Betty. "What's that?" the man exclaimed, excitedly. "I say that is exactly what happened!" went on the Little Captain. "At least, that is how I account for it." "What sort of a bill did you lose?" asked Mollie, trying not to get excited. "It was one of five hundred dollars, and--" "Did it have a--anything pinned to it?" exclaimed Betty. "It did--a note. Wait, I can tell you what it said on it." He hesitated a moment and then repeated word for word the writing on the note pinned to the bill the girls had picked up. "But I don't see how you know this!" he added, wonderingly. "We know--because we found your five hundred dollar bill!" exclaimed Betty. CHAPTER XXIV BY TELEGRAPH The man stared at the girls as if he could not believe what Betty had said. A strange look came over his face. "If this is a joke, please drop it," he began. "I am almost crazy as it is. I don't know what I am doing. I--" "It isn't a joke!" declared Betty. "It may sound strange, but it's all true. We did find your bill, under the railroad bridge in Deepdale. It's in my father's safe now." "That's great--it's fine. I'd given it up long ago. I advertised, and put up a notice in the post-office, and--" "Yes, my mother wrote me about it," said Betty. "But she did not give your address, for some naughty boys tore it off the notice." "And do you really think someone tried to rob you?" asked Mollie. "I don't know what to think," frankly admitted the young man. "There was a boy in the same car--" "He never took it!" exclaimed Grace.