CHAPTER XVII

THE SECOND BTJRGLABY

As soon as the whistle sounded, the Hardy boys saw a dark figure emerge from the shrubbery in front of the Wakefield house and race down a path toward the back.

"Come on!" shouted Joe, heading for the door. "This looks like action."

Frank was at his brother's heels. Jerry Gil-roy scrambled out with them.

They leaped down the steps and tore across the street. As the boys ran, they heard two men talking excitedly in the back yard of the Wakefield place.

"Bit me!" cried one. "Bit my hand as soon as I blew my whistle."

"Well, let's go after them."

"We're supposed to be on guard here. The chief said not to leave the place for a minute.''

Frank and Joe realized that the two men were detectives from the Bayport police force, posted there by Chief Collig to guard against any attempt to steal Doctor Wakefield's fine coin collection.

"What happened?" shouted Frank.

The detectives looked up. One of them was

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nursing an injured hand. Both men recognized the Hardy boys.

"I was watching the rear of the house, when a fellow sneaked down the alley and began working at the cellar door with a skeleton key,'' said Detective Gibbs, the man with the injured hand. "I blew my whistle to warn Casey, who was watching the front of the place. The moment I whistled, a dog rushed out from nowhere and bit me."

"I think we'd better chase that fellow," grumbled Casey.

"I took a shot at him as he was going over the fence," said Gibbs. "But I missed," he added ruefully. "You can chase him if you want to, but Collig said to stay here.''

Frank had a sudden thought. He remembered the episode at the Hardy home, when the house was burglarized while everyone was distracted by the dog fight in the back yard.

'' While we 're standing here talking,'' he exclaimed, "perhaps the real thief is making off with Doctor Wakefield's coin collection."

He ran up the back steps and tried the rear door. It was locked; but in a moment the professor opened it. Frank, followed closely by the other boys, hurried into the house.

"What's going on here?" demanded the old coin collector, who had on a dressing gown and pajamas. "A man can't get to sleep in this neighborhood any more without being kept

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awake by the racket. Whistles, dogs, guns, people shouting------"

"Your coin collection, Doctor!" said Frank. "Is it safe?"

Doctor Wakefield hlinked at him in surprise.

"Why shouldn't it he safe? I locked it up just before I went to bed. It's in a cabinet in the living room."

He turned and led the way toward the front of the house. When he entered the living room, he gasped, then cried out:

"My collection! It's gone!"

The cabinet had been forced open. The valuable coins had disappeared.

Detectives Gibbs and Casey had followed the boys into the house. Now they looked dumbfounded and crestfallen when they learned what had happened.

"But how could anyone steal the collection from under our noses?" demanded Gibbs plaintively. "I was watching the back door like a hawk, and Casey was watching the front." He glared at his colleague. "You, Casey!" he thundered. "Somebody must have got past you.''

"Nobody went in the front door except an old man calling on the doctor, and he stayed only a minute.''

"We saw him," said Joe.

'' That was Mr. Eatchy,'' explained Professor Wakefield. "He wanted to see the coins, but

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I told Mm I was ready for bed and he'd have to come some other time.''

"Batchy? Who's Ratchy?" demanded Detective Gibbs suspiciously.

"The old man we saw go into the house," Frank told him. "Let's see if the front door is unlocked. He may have slipped the latch and sneaked in here while all of us were in the back."

The boys investigated the front door. Sure enough, the latch had been fixed to permit entrance without a key! The detectives were chagrined.

"I hate to report this," said Gibbs.

"Me too," added Casey.

Doctor Wakefield was greatly upset by his loss. The boys did their best to console him, telling the elderly man that at least they had a clue to the thief. They gave the two detectives a complete description of Ratchy before they left.

'' We '11 get him,'' declared Gibbs confidently. "Now that we know who he is, how can we miss?"

After the Hardys had thanked Jerry Gilroy for his help and were on their way home, Frank pointed out that various elements of the coin case were beginning to dovetail.

"I think the man who sneaked into our house and the thief who stole Doctor Wakefield's collection are either in league, or the same man

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working with pals. The scheme was carried out the same way both times. They staged a disturbance at the back of the house to take everyone away from the front, so that the theft could be accomplished.

"I believe you're right. And there was a dog in each case, too.''

It was late when the boys reached home, so they did not have a chance to show Chet's coins to their father, or to tell him about the evening's affair and the discovery of the melted coins until breakfast the next morning. Fenton Hardy praised his sons, and advised them to work on the mystery along the lines they had adopted.

"Wish I could help you," he said, "but I start this morning on my trip West in connection with that stolen gold I was telling you about. I 'm taking the ten o 'clock train.''

"Will Frank and I have to stay here with 'Mr. Spanish?' " asked Joe. "We'd like to work on the melted coin case."

"I'll make arrangements to have a plain-clothesman come and stay here while I'm away," replied his father, just as Aunt Gertrude came downstairs and entered the room.

She became excited at once.

"What! Isn't it bad enough to have the house all cluttered up with a crazy man for a guest? Now you're going to bring a detective here to live. I won't stand for it! I'll cut my vacation short. I'll leave."

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"Now, Gertrude, you don't mean that, I'm sure," said Mrs. Hardy. " 'Mr. Spanish' is no trouble, and as for the plainclothesman, he will be here for your own protection."

"There's something mysterious about this whole business that I don't know about," grumbled Aunt Gertrude. "Why can't I be told what's going on anyway? The boys are out at all hours of the night. Burglars get in here. A man without a memory eats and sleeps here. Why must I be kept in the dark?"

Frank decided that curiosity, rather than resentment, was behind Aunt Gertrude's little outburst. It would do no harm, he decided, to let her in on part of the mystery at any rate. From his father he got the two coins that had been found in the Morton field.

"It all began with these, Aunt Gertrude," he said, handing them to her.

The woman took the objects and examined each with grim interest. Then, to the utter astonishment of her nephews, she looked up and said:

"Well, as I live and breathe-a Pine Tree Shilling and a piece of Hog Money! Where in the world did you get these? They're very rare!"

<' Why, Aunty!'' exclaimed Frank. '' How do you happen to know so much about old coins ?''

Aunt Gertrude had spoken impulsively. For a moment she looked flustered. Then she glared at her nephews.

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"Surely a body can have some secrets!" she said tartly.

Whereupon, in considerable confusion, she stalked from the room, muttering something they could not hear. Fenton Hardy raised his eyebrows inquiringly and glanced at his wife.

"Seems as if my sister knows a good deal more than we've given her credit for," smiled the detective.

Frank and Joe were thinking fast: first of the episode at the railroad station when their relative had told them about the counterfeit coins; now, of her revelation about Chet's pieces; and last of all, her reference to a secret.

"Aunt Gertrude accuses us of being mysterious," said Joe. "She's pretty mysterious herself."

"What do you suppose the secret is, Dad?" asked Joe.

His father shrugged his shoulders. "I have often thought my sister should have been a detective," he replied. "She certainly can keep things to herself, she reads character pretty well, and sometimes she hits the nail on the head by combining intuition with deduction.''

"I wonder if she really does know something about coins and counterfeiters that we ought to find out from her," mused Frank.

"It would be a challenge to try," replied Mr. Hardy with a smile.