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.