"Lots of things may turn out to be counterfeit, Thad, men as well as
bank bills, but that one was perfectly good. I could even see the
colored threads of silk fiber that the Government uses in the paper
to protect the currency. So don't let that bother you again."

"I'm glad to hear you say so, because it would be terrible if poor
Matilda should get into more trouble on account of passing bad money.
But is this going to alter our plans any, Hugh?"

"I don't see why it should," came the steady reply.

"We'll continue to do business at the old stand, shall we, then?"
pursued Thad; "and try our level best to find out some way to force
that leech to let go the hold he has secured on his sister?"

"We'll keep on trying to learn something about Luther that will give
us an advantage, so we can make him do just what we want," explained
Hugh; and it might have been noticed that he was now very particular
just what words he used when he spoke of the reformed tramp.

"Huh! there's only one answer to that," grunted Thad; "which is to
influence him to move on his way, and clear out. Scranton will
never miss Brother Lu; and the wide world he loves so well beckons
to him to come on. After all, once a tramp always a tramp, they say;
and as a rule such fellows die in the harness."

"It's really a disease, I've read, like the hookworm down South, that
makes so many of the poor, underfed whites in the mountain districts
seem too lazy for any use. It gets in the blood when they are boys,