“I imagine this has been a lesson to him. He told me that if he was ever lucky enough to get Eileen back he would never do another thing to cross her as long as he lived. He was afraid she might be tempted to do something desperate, you see.”
“I guess he was right. If you could call passing counterfeit five-dollar bills desperate,” remarked Amy, and Darry took her up quickly.
“That is just the point,” he countered. “The girl didn’t know the bill was counterfeit.”
“That is what they all say,” remarked Amy, unconvinced. Jessie broke in before Darry could voice his exasperation.
“How did she happen to get this bill, Darry?” she asked quietly. Darry turned to her with a gesture of relief.
“She befriended a strange woman, prevented her being run over when she was crossing the street. Eileen told me when I hunted her up at Gibbonsville that the woman seemed to be in a befuddled condition, whether from liquor or drugs she could not say, and she had given Eileen in return for her service a five-dollar bill.”
“The counterfeit!” cried Amy, dramatically. “At last we are on the trail!”
“We were!” Darry unexpectedly agreed with her. “Amazed at the magnificence of this gift for so comparatively small a service, Eileen made inquiries and found that the woman in all probability was a member of a gang who had been suspected at different times of trying to pass counterfeit money——”
“And so Eileen presented me with her counterfeit bill!” remarked Amy, ignoring Darry’s irritated glare. “Pretty clever work, I should say.”
“Link’s sister had already asked you to change the bill before she found out—or rather, suspected—that it was counterfeit,” he told her coldly.