"Ha! perhaps--But no, that couldn't be," murmured Mr. Rover, wiping off the spectacles he wore. "I--er--I really do not understand this, boys."
"Tell us what you've been doing, uncle, and then we'll tell what we know," said Dick.
"Um! Well, you know that some time ago I invested in ten thousand dollars worth of traction company bonds--got them through an agent in New York."
"Well, about a week ago I received a private letter from Mr. Jardell, of the traction company, stating that there was something wrong with the bonds. Some plates had been stolen and counterfeit bonds printed."
"I was asked to keep quiet about the matter, for if the facts became generally known the public would become frightened and the bonds would go down in the stock market. Mr. Jardell said he would meet me at Carwell and have the printer look at my bonds and find out if they were genuine or not."
"And what did you do then?" asked Dick, who began to smell a mouse, as the saying goes.
"I sent Mr. Jardell word I would meet him at the Carwell hotel to-day. We met, and he and his printer, a man named Grimes, said the bonds I possessed were counterfeits."
"Of course I was very much distressed," went on Randolph Rover, calmly. "I did not know what to do. But Mr. Jardell was very nice about it. He said he would take the bonds and get the company to issue good ones in their place. He gave me a receipt for them, and I am to have the good bonds next week."
"Why should he give you good bonds for bad ones?" said Tom, who, like Dick, was almost certain something was wrong.
"I asked that question, too, Thomas, but he said the reputation of his company was at stake. He did not want the public at large to know that bogus bonds were on the market."
"Uncle Randolph, do you know this Mr. Jardell personally?" asked Dick.
"Why--er--not exactly. But his letters----"
As well as he was able Mr. Rover described the man and also his companion. The boys exchanged glances.
"We think those men were swindlers," said Sam.
"Swindlers! Oh, my dear Samuel, impossible!" cried Randolph Rover aghast. "Why, they were very nice gentlemen, very nice. They asked me how my scientific farming was getting along, and both had read my article in the _Review_ on the grafting of grape vines, and----"
