"If we were dishonest we could palm this off on almost any one, just as we had it palmed off on us," said Joe. "Oh, well--live and learn. I hate to think of that fellow laughing at us, though. It's a nice price to pay for a lesson not to be too trustful of strangers after this." "It cost me more than it cost you," Frank pointed out. "It was just my luck that I had three dollars on me and you had only two." This phase of the matter had not occurred to Joe before, so he felt considerably more cheerful in the thought that he had not, after all, been the chief loser. They went back to the store and dolefully reported to Mr. Moss that he had been right in his surmise about the bill. "It was bad, all right," Frank told him. "The cashier took one look at it, and that was enough." Mr. Moss nodded sympathetically. "Well, it's too bad you were stung," he said. "But I'd rather it was you than me. In business, we have to be careful. As a matter of fact, I think it would have fooled me, only the bank warned me this morning that there was some counterfeit money going around and that I'd better be on my guard against any new bills. The minute I saw your five was fresh and new I got suspicious. It's certainly a clever imitation. Whoever is putting the stuff out is a real artist at that game." "We'll be back for the pie-plates later," promised Joe. "But we didn't want you to think we were trying to pass bad money on you." Mr. Moss laughed at the idea. "The Hardy boys pass counterfeit money!" he exclaimed. "I know you better than that, I hope. I'll keep the plates for you, or you can take them now and bring back the money later. _Good_ money, though," he added, wagging his finger at them. "We'll be back," they told him. They went toward the station to wait for the local train on which they expected their father to arrive, and while they waited, sitting on a platform bench, they gloomily discussed the imposition of which they had been the victims. "It isn't so much losing my three dollars," declared Frank. "It's the thought of being fooled by such a simple trick. We should have known that the fellow had plenty of time to get his money changed at the lunch counter or at the cigar stand, or even the ticket office. Instead of that we dug into our pockets like lambs--" "Lambs don't have pockets," Joe pointed out. "All the better for them. They're so innocent they'd be fleeced of everything they put in 'em, anyway. Just like us. We handed over all our money to a total stranger and let him give us a bad bill that we didn't even take the trouble to look at. I wish somebody would kick me all around the block." While the Hardy boys are sitting on the bench, gloomily awaiting the arrival of their father and preparing to tell him of how they had been fooled by the stranger, it will not be out of place to introduce them still further to the readers of this volume.