“It’s sure not our boat,” Sandy said in hushed tones, for in the locker there was no food at all. Instead, where food should have been, was what appeared to be a fortune in fresh, green money!
CHAPTER SEVEN
A Million Dollars’ Worth of Trouble
Sandy and Jerry, stunned for the moment, stood in silence, gazing at the neatly wrapped stacks of tens, twenties, fifties, hundreds and five-hundred-dollar bills—more money than either of them had ever dreamed of!
“I don’t know whose boat this is,” Sandy said, “but whoever he is, he can sure afford a larger one!”
Awed by the sight of the money, Jerry reached out and slipped a five-hundred-dollar bill from its wrapper. “I just want to look at it for a minute,” he said. “I’ve never seen a five-hundred before!”
Sandy joined him to look at the crisp bill. “Neither have I,” he said. Then, stooping to look closer, he took the bill from Jerry’s hand and examined it with the most intense interest.
“Jerry!” he said, almost in a whisper. “I think we’ve found more than a stack of money in a peculiar place! I may be mistaken, but I think this thing is counterfeit!”
“Counterfeit!” Jerry said, with a gasp. “How can you tell, if you never saw a five-hundred-dollar bill before?”
“Come on over into the sunlight where we can see better,” Sandy replied, “and I’ll show you what I mean.” They moved to the rear of the little cabin, where the sun poured in through the open hatchway cover. Sandy held the money up to the light.
“Look at the corners,” he said, pointing to the lower right-hand corner of the bill. “You see all those fine hair lines that make the looping, criss-cross pattern you see on all paper money? Well, I read once that those loops and swirls are the hardest part of a bill to counterfeit, and if you’re on the lookout for phony money you should always look there first. Ones or one-thousands, they’re all very complicated to engrave. On a genuine bill the lines are sharp and clear. On a counterfeit, they’re usually a little fuzzy, especially where two lines cross. Look over here, right next to the five-hundred-dollar mark, for instance.”