CHAPTER II
The Desert Giants
"Boy, it's dark tonight!" exclaimed Joe, after the brothers had walked with Mr. Dodge to the front porch and made arrangements to come to his office the next day.
"Won't make any difference to Chet's infrared camera," Frank replied. "Let's see what's on his films."
From where they stood the boys could see the light in the laboratory window. Knowing every inch of the ground, they started for the garage on the double.
Joe, who was in the lead, tripped over something and sprawled headlong. Recovering his balance with a near somersault, he called back, "Wow! What was that?"
"Chet!" cried the amazed Frank, stooping down. "He's been slugged."
Supporting the heavy, limp form of Chet Mor-
10
The Desert Giants 11
ton between them, Frank and Joe re-entered the living room. Exclamations of alarm and concern filled the house as the other members of the Hardy family came on the run.
Laura Hardy, the boys' slim and attractive mother, quickly brought cold towels and spirits of ammonia, while her husband loosened the unfortunate Chet's clothing and chafed his wrists.
Aunt Gertrude, Fenton Hardy's unmarried sister, clucked in concern. "I knew it! I knew it! This is what comes of meddling with mysteries!"
Nevertheless, Aunt Gertrude herself, a tall, angular woman of great vigor, took charge. She soaked a gauze pad in the spirits of ammonia and passed it expertly, not too close, under Chet's nose. As the pungent fumes reached his nostrils, the boy gave a sudden start and moaned.
"Whew!" The entire Hardy family breathed in relief, and Joe, to test Chet's mental state, said, "Chet! Aunt Gertrude has just baked a fresh chocolate cake!"
The stout boy roused himself still further. "D-did you say chocolate cake?" he asked weakly.
Completely aroused by this time, Chet was bombarded with questions, but could only say, "Don't ask me who did it. There I was, rushing to find you two-when biff, I saw stars."
"But why would anyone hit poor Chet?" asked Mrs. Hardy.
"Because he was helping the Hardy boys on a
12 Mystery of the Desert Giant
mystery again, that's all," answered Chet with great sympathy for himself. "I had just made an important discovery."
"The pictures!" Frank and Joe exclaimed.
Chet nodded. "The first one-the fellow who went away-was just some man. I don't know who. The other one I snapped fast, and my aim wasn't too good. I didn't get much of Mr. Dodge. But I got the full face of somebody crouching in the bushes under your living-room window!"
"Great mackerel!" cried Joe, rummaging in his friend's pockets. "Let's see those pictures!"
To the Hardys' dismay, both prints were missing. Chet smiled. "You can always take a look at the copies I left in the lab."
"Better get them now, boys," Fenton Hardy suggested. "We must find out if the person who slugged Chet is someone interested in the case I'm working on, or the Grafton case. The picture may help to identify the prowler."
The brothers hurried to the laboratory. To their surprise and dismay the place was a shambles-it was evident that someone had made a hurried search. As the boys quickly straightened the equipment, they found no sign of the other set of prints which Chet had mentioned.
"That settles it," said Joe. "The thief doubled back after striking Chet to get any other prints and the negatives."
"Now we can't possibly identify him," Frank
The Desert Giants 13
moaned. A moment later he whistled. "Look!"
Tacked to the wall at the end of the laboratory was a small hastily printed note: hardys beware!
Beneath the note was a crude stick drawing of a man with an arrow aimed toward his heart.
"Not much of an artist, is he?" Joe mused. "Say, Frank, what does this remind you of?"
"By stretching the imagination I'd say that the figure could be the outline of a desert giant with an Indian arrow pointing to his heart."
"If only we hadn't lost the pictures!" Joe sighed.
"You can always print another set." Chet grinned. "I hid the negatives in that secret compartment of your workbench. What kind of a detective do you think I am, anyway?"
Frank and Joe applauded Chet's action and hurried to make prints from the negatives. Then, returning to the house, the Hardys and Chet held a brief council. None of them knew the dark-haired, muscular eavesdropper or the slender, gray-haired man who had started to turn into the Hardys' walk.
"The unknown eavesdropper," Frank said, "probably heard everything that was said to Mr. Dodge. Why did he come, unless he's connected with Willard Grafton's disappearance?"
"And with the mysterious telephone call," Joe added. Briefly, he told his father of the warning.
14 Mystery of the Desert Giant
"What I say is this," broke in peppery Aunt Gertrude. "That terrible man outside heard you boys discussing some new mystery, and he hit poor Chet on the head to warn you to keep out of it!"
"Why, Aunt Gertrude," Joe teased with a straight face, "we're only going to take a quiet vacation in sunny California."
"I know how quiet it will be," snapped their aunt. "Just one danger after another."
Calm, sensible Mrs. Hardy worried a little too, but she had implicit faith in her sons' ability to take care of themselves. "Just be careful," she cautioned.
The next morning Fenton Hardy and the boys drove to police headquarters, in downtown Bay-port, with the pictures. The detective had always worked closely with the police, and this had earned him the respect and friendship of Chief Ezra Collig.
"Humph. No trouble about this one," grunted the husky chief as he examined the picture of the visitor who had changed his mind and walked away from the Hardys' house. "He's Charles Blakely, trustee of the Bayport Savings Bank, and one of our fine citizens. Probably he didn't know your neighborhood and mistook your house for another one. But this fellow in the bushes looks like a mean customer. We'll have to check the rogues' gallery on him."
The Desert Giants 15
The picture was compared to those in the police files, but without results.
"Tough luck, boys," their father said. "And now I must hurry back to my own case."
He left them and the boys went to Mr. Dodge's office. The lawyer introduced them to a tall, bald-headed man wearing a conservative gray suit.
"Clement Brownlee, boys. Willard Grafton's uncle."
Mr. Brownlee's face grew serious as the brothers described the attack on Chet Morton. "Boys," he began with feeling, "I've no right to expose you to any danger on my nephew's account. Perhaps we'd better drop the case."
"We can't quit now, Mr. Brownlee. We're making progress!" Joe protested. "Don't you see, the attack proves your nephew didn't just wander off in the desert and get lost? He is in the hands of somebody who doesn't want him found."
"This fellow," Frank added, producing the photograph.
Both men examined the picture eagerly, but to Frank's and Joe's disappointment, they ended by shaking their heads. "A complete stranger. But we'll let you know if anything turns up," the lawyer promised.
Frank and Joe spent the next day making plans and packing for the trip.
"Sunglasses and wide-brimmed hats," said Joe,
16 Mystery of the Desert Giant
checking these articles. "The sun will be broiling hot. And canteens, also."
"Take warm clothes, too," his brother warned. "The desert nights are plenty cool."
The following morning Joe jumped out of bed singing "California, here we come!"
Mrs. Hardy and Aunt Gertrude gave the boys a hearty farewell breakfast of steak and hash-browned potatoes.
"Where's Dad?" Frank asked.
"Out before breakfast on his own mystery," Aunt Gertrude replied tartly. "Such a household!"
After breakfast Joe telephoned Chet Morton at his farm a mile outside Bayport. "Ready?"
"I was just thinking," the chubby boy said in a worried voice. "Suppose that guy who conked me is out there? I don't want to be knocked out again."
"What's he talking about, Joe?" Frank said impatiently.
"I think he's a little scared," Joe answered loud enough for Chet to hear, and with a wink at Frank.
"Say, I am not," Chet protested. "I can't wait to get out West and try some of that Mexican food!"
An hour later the three friends met at the airport and walked to the trim, blue six-seater monoplane which Fenton Hardy had purchased recently. Lean, tanned Jack Wayne, who was Mr.
The Desert Giants 17
Hardy's pilot, had given Frank and Joe flying lessons. Now Frank would pilot the plane to California.
"We'll tune her up, and she'll be ready to go," Jack greeted them.
Meanwhile, Chet stowed the baggage in the fuselage, finding a special place for his infrared camera. When he had filed his flight plan, Frank started the engine to taxi out for take-off.
Joe's keen eyes spotted a powerful car speeding up the road to the airport. "Hold it, Frank! I think Dad's coming."
Frank cut the engine as the detective hurried out to the plane.
"Glad I caught you, boys! I've been on the go since dawn-uncovered one of the neatest ways of defrauding the government I've ever run into. No time to explain now, but it will keep me here several days. I hope to meet you later. Good luck!"
"Any instructions, Dad?" Frank asked.
The experienced detective thought for a moment. "Play your hunch-the desert giants," he advised. "One other thing," he added. "I'm going to bring my birth certificate with me, in case I find it necessary to leave the country. Here are photostats of yours for you to keep in your wallets. And here is Chet's too. I picked his up on the way out here."
The three boys took them and called their
18 Mystery of the Desert Giant
thanks. Frank started the engine and taxied the plane into position. Then, with a full-throated roar, she streaked down the runway and rose gracefully into the sunny morning sky.
Frank held course directly for Chicago. By afternoon the boys could see below them the blue rippling waters of Lake Erie. Later, the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, with Chicago at its southern tip, came in sight. The late afternoon sun gleamed upon numerous planes all circling in the vicinity of the Chicago airport.
"Oh-oh! Looks as if we're going to be stacked up here!" Frank flipped on his transmitter. "56D to tower! Request landing instructions!"
"Your position, 56D?"
"Over S.W. chimney stack."
"Tower to 56D. Hold where you are until traffic clears."
Resigned, the boys joined the other craft circling above the airport. Finally their landing instructions came. Expertly Frank brought the blue ship down and into line with his designated runway. As the wheels gently touched ground, the boys stared ahead of them in sudden horror.
From the opposite end of the runway a small Cub was racing toward them in a take-off run downwind!
Frank's mind worked desperately. "If I swerve,
The boys stared ahead of them in horror
20 Mystery of the Desert Giant
we'll crash! If I brake her, she'll nose over! If I pull up, I might hit the other ship in mid-air! Straight ahead, then, braking slowly!"
Observers gasped as the two planes rushed toward each other. At the last instant, the Cub pulled into the air. The boys could see her wheels passing a few scant feet above their heads.
"Wow!" cried Chet, who was shaking with fright.
Not another word was said until an airline pilot, who was the first to reach the boys after the near collision, pumped Frank's hand. "Well done! That fool pulled onto your runway from nowhere. Better go over and file a violation. They'll have his license in two shakes!"
Unfortunately, nobody had noticed the Cub's registration markings. The pilot had not been cleared for take-off and could not be traced. The report was the same the next morning when Frank, Joe, and Chet winged their way southwest across the plains.
At Amarillo, Texas, they stopped to rest and refuel. From here they followed the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks west. When they picked up the silvery, snakelike course of the Colorado River, Frank turned north.
"Sharp lookout for giants, everybody!" he ordered.
Dropping to an altitude of six hundred feet, he began crisscrossing the river. Eagerly the youth-
The Desert Giants 21
ful detectives searched the flat surface of the California desert and the mountainous Arizona terrain.
"Frank! There-at two o'clock! A desert giant!"
Banking, Frank circled the spot, a large flat bluff a hundred feet above the water on the Arizona side.
"Long-legged fellow, isn't he?" Chet remarked. "Say, one of his feet has been bitten off by that cliff!"
"Erosion, probably," Frank guessed. "But what do you make of that smaller fellow, and those other markings next to him?"
Alongside the big giant was a figure perhaps half as large. The outline of this second giant was dug into the ground rather than scraped into the surface like his mate, so he looked more substantial.
"That's a funny design between them," Chet observed. "Looks like a cross."
"It is-a Maltese cross, an old European design. It was the emblem of a group of Crusaders called the Knights of Malta," Frank explained.
"But I thought these pictures were made by Indians," Chet objected.
"That's right," Joe agreed. "The cross seems to prove the Indians had had some contact with Spanish explorers when this giant was made."
"This wasn't the place where Willard Grafton
22 Mystery of the Desert Giant
disappeared, was it?" Chet asked. "You mentioned Blythe, California."
"Right. And we'll head there next."
Frank went on to the California side of the river, and in a few minutes spotted another desert giant. Near him in the gravelly ground was the figure of a mammoth dog. Some distance away was a lone giant.
"This is where Grafton's plane came down," said Frank.
"It's sure amazing," Joe remarked. "I can't wait to do some investigating."
After flying over still another group of a giant and a horse, Frank said, "Guess we'd better get to the airport."
He consulted his chart and turned toward the Riverside County Airport. Frank, after getting radio instructions, brought the plane down in a perfect landing and taxied toward the hangars.
As the boys piled out of the cabin and stretched their legs, a stern, unfriendly-looking man approached them.
He introduced himself as an official of the Federal Aviation Agency. "All right, boys. Which one is the pilot?"
Surprised, Frank handed over his pilot's license, which the man scrutinized carefully. "You're the one all right," he announced gruffly. "You'll have to come with me!"