Korina kicked at the ground. Bang, bang, BANG! Her mouth was gagged, tied with a white scarf. Ropes wound around her feet and legs. She sat bound to a wooden post, her hands tied behind her.

"Uhmmm! Uhmmm!" she mumbled behind her gag.

Tobias came puffing up the stairs and through the doorway. At the sight of Korina tied up, Tobias gasped. "Oh my goodness!" he said. "You poor girl!"

Tobias, Christopher, and Alex scrambled to the rescue and began to untie Korina. Tobias removed the gag.

"Thank you," Korina gasped. Then she turned to Alex. "It's about time you got here!"

"Me?" Alex asked.

"Yes, you!" said Korina. "You'r e the only one who knew I'd moved my laboratory up here."

"I did not!" Alex protested.

"What lab?" Christopher asked.

"I've been running experiments on the counterfeit moneyamong other things," Korina answered him. "One of my experiments on paper blew up on Saturday. My parents said I couldn't have a lab at home anymore."

"Your parents?" Alex repeated, thinking of the red-haired woman who had yelled down to Korina. "You mean that woman wasn't a spy? She's your mother?" Alex's head w as swimming as he tried to put all the pieces together.

"You really do jump to conclusions, don't you, Alex," Korina said with a start. "You were suspicious of me just because I'm different, because of the way I look. That's wrong, Alex! For your information, I'm adopted. That's why I don't look like my mother." She reached down and finished untying the rope at her ankles.

"Yeah, well you ran into me, ignored me, and you think you're so much better than me," Alex replied angrily.

"Hold on you two," Tobias interrupted. "We've had enough excitement around here without you two being angry with each other. How about forgiving each other instead?" Tobias looked first at Korina, then at Alex.

"Okay," Korina said with a sigh. "I'm sorry I ignored you, Alex, and I forgive you for suspecting me just because I'm different. I know you were worried about Tobias."

Tobias smiled. "Thank you Korina. I know that wasn't easy for you to do. Forgiveness is hard sometimes. I just remember how Jesus forgives me and that will help me forgive others." Tobias looked kindly at Alex.

Alex looked down at his shoes, then at Korina. "I'm sorry too," he said. "You must be a good scientist to have all this equipment."

"I saw you following me, you know," Korina said. "That was a pretty good disguise. I didn't notice you until I ducked in here."

"But you didn't duck in here," Alex said. "You disappeared into thin air!"

"There's a secret passage leading up here," Korina said. "It's behind th e bush in the alley." She stood up, brushed herself off, and led them to a big metal circle that looked like part of the wall. "Watch."

Korina pressed a button and the circle opened to reveal a chute. "It slides all the way to the alley," she explained. "I got in here by crawling up through the chute."

"Well, I'll be," said Tobias.

Christopher stepped forward to check it out. "A secret passage," he said. "So that's how they set off the sprinklers in the curiosity shop without leaving footp rints. All they had to do was sneak in and out through here. Who did this to you, Korina? Who tied you up? And why?"

"Was it ghosts?" Alex asked. He peered around the attic room for the first time. In the center of the room was a metal table with bottles, wires, paper, and weird tools on it. Probably Korina's experiments. The only other things in the whole dusty room, except for litter on the floor, were a chair and a couple of big boxes in the back corner.

"Not ghosts," Korina said. "Those coun terfeiters!"

"Were these the men?" Christopher asked, pulling the wanted poster out and showing it to Korina.

"Those are the men, all right," she said. "I'd recognize them anywhere. This morning, I was right in the middle of an experiment when I heard someone climbing up the chute. I thought it might be Alex snooping around. Instead, those two counterfeiters found me.

"They've been using your shop attic to make counterfeit money," Korina told Tobias. "That's why they tried to ruin your bus iness. They didn't want you to find out what they were up to. Anyway, when they found me, they got scared. They tied me up and ran off. They left the plates right over there." Korina pointed to the boxes in the corner.

Alex and Christopher ran to investigate. Inside the box were metal plates with cut outs of $20 and $50 and $100 bills.

"Wow!" Alex exclaimed.

"Korina," said Tobias, "if you're sure you're all right, I'll go down and call the sheriff."

"I'm fine," Korina said. "And I'm sorry about using your attic without permission. I just thought it was an empty storage room."

"I'm just glad you weren't hurt, dear," said Tobias. "The Lord was watching over you." Tobias ran downstairs to phone Sheriff Marshall.

"I don't get it," Christopher said, taking out the plates and examining them. "Why would the counterfeiters leave without the counterfeit plates?"

"Because their boss is coming for the plates," Korina said.

"Their boss?" Christopher asked.

"They kept talking about him," Korina said. " 'Counterfeit Bill' they called him. They're scared to death of him. They said he'd take care of me."

Korina dug for something in her pocket. "I almost forgot." She pulled out a piece of paper or part of a card. "The two counterfeiters had a postcard they got from their boss that said he was coming for the plates. One of the men tore up the card, but I managed to grab a piece of it before they tied me up."

Alex wondered if he would have been that brave. He looke d at the chunk of postcard Korina held out. You couldn't make out what the picture on the card might have been. On the back, he couldn't make sense out of any of the partial words. It looked as if they'd saved Korina, but the counterfeiters had escaped.