"Uncle Dock offered you two counterfeit bills and the other man was afraid they would be detected and that you would know where they came from."
"I suppose that was his idea. But it made me suspicious. After that, Joe and I kept watching the place and as everything seemed to indicate that something suspicious was going on at the mill we made up our mind to pay them a visit."
"And a very lucky thing it was that you did. It was a smart piece of work and I want to assure you that the Government won't forget it."
The Government did not forget it. Before the month was out, the Hardy boys had received a check for one thousand dollars as a reward for the part they had played in the capture of the counterfeiters.
"Enough money," Chet Morton said when he heard of it, "to buy gas for the motorboat for a couple of years, anyway."
As for Uncle Dock and his gang, they were all sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. Frank and Joe made particular inquiries about Lester and they asked their father to see to it that the boy was well taken care of. The result of Mr. Hardy's efforts in Lester's behalf was the discovery that "Uncle Dock" was not the boy's uncle at all, but a rascally impostor who had made claim for the lad at an orphan asylum and who had planned to bring him up in a life of crime.
A well-to-do citizen of Bayport, who heard of the case, offered to give Lester a home and see that he was sent to school. The boy was accordingly assured of a brighter future than had confronted him while he was with Uncle Dock, and no one was more pleased than the Hardy boys.
"We'll take you out with us in the motorboat, Lester," they told him.
"Will you?" he asked, his face lighting up with pleasure.
"Sure—you're one of the gang now."