People said that they knew all along that Mr. Robinson was innocent of the theft, and went as far out of their way to be nice to him as they had gone out of their way to be unkind to him and ignore him when he was accused of crime.
People too, were loud in their praises of the Hardy boys, and everybody predicted a bright future for them and said they knew all along that the lads were bound to solve the mystery if they kept at it long enough. All of this the boys took with a grain of salt, as the saying is, for they knew that the public is fickle and as quick to condemn failure as it is to praise success.
Frank and Joe did not let the adulation turn their heads.
"When we couldn't find the treasure everybody said we were just nuisances—little boys trying to play detective," laughed Frank. "Now that we have found it, all that is forgotten. The main thing is that we've proved to dad that we know how to keep our eyes and ears open."
"And we've got a thousand dollars between us."
"A mighty nice start for a bank account."
"I'll say it is! I wish another mystery would come along."
"We can't expect to get a reward for every case we work on—and we can't expect to solve 'em all, either," Frank pointed out.
"We can't expect to get many cases to try our hand at. We're not professionals just yet."
"No, but we will be, some day."