on for
years. But the gang is in the toils, just now, and little redheaded
Josie O'Gorman is going to score a victory that will please her
detective daddy mightily." Josie was surely elated when she ventured
to boast in this manner. The others were duly impressed.

"You don't mean to arrest those men alone, do you, Josie?" asked the
Colonel somewhat anxiously.

"No, indeed. I'm not yet quite ready to spring my trap," she replied.
"When the time comes, I must have assistance, but I want to get all my
evidence shipshape before I call on the Secret Service to make the
capture. I can't afford to bungle so important a thing, you know, and
this ten dollar bill, so carelessly given the storekeeper, is going to
put one powerful bit of evidence in my hands. That was a bad slip on
old Cragg's part, for he has been very cautious in covering his tracks,
until now. But I surmise that Mary Louise's pleading for Ingua, this
morning, touched his pride, and having no real money at hand he
ventured to give the storekeeper a counterfeit. And old Sol, having
been caught by a counterfeit once before--I wonder if Old Swallowtail
gave him that one, too?--became suspicious of the newness of the bill
and so played directly into our hands. So now, if you'll excuse me,
I'll run to town without further delay. I won't rest easy until that
bill is in my possession."

"I'll go with you," said Mary Louise eagerly.

Half an hour later the two girls entered the store and found the
proprietor alone. Mary Louise made a slight purchase, as an excuse, and
then Josie laid ten silver dollars on the counter and said carelessly:

"Will you give me a ten dollar bill for this silver, Mr. Jerrems? I
want to send it away in a letter."

"Sure; I'd ruther hev the change than the bill," he answered, taking
out his wallet. "But I wouldn't send so much money in a letter, if I
was you. Better buy a post-office order."

"I know my business," she pertly replied, watching him unroll the
leather wallet. "No; don't give me that old bill. I'd rather have the
new one on top."

"That new one," said he, "I don't b'lieve is good. Looks like a
counterfeit, to me."

"Let's see it," proposed Josie, taking the bill in her hand and
scrutinizing it. "I can tell a counterfeit a mile away. No; this is all
right; I'll take it," she decided.

"Yer like to git stung, if ye do," he warned her.

"I'll take my chances," said Josie, folding the bill and putting it in
her purse. "Y