CHAPTER XXV
Schemers and Skeletons
"safe!"
Sheriff Paul's whisper broke the silence after the tremendous blast and crash of the tower.
As they all looked back in awe at the mass of debris, one of the rangers said, "If we'd even been in the clearing, we might have been killed."
"The danger isn't over yet," Sheriff Paul reminded them. "That gang will be coming up to check on their job. Let's put some distance between them and us!"
Hurriedly, the little group moved cautiously down the steep slope, finally stopping to rest in a quiet glade near the base of the mountain.
"With Chet and Cap out of the cave, the next step is to find Dad," Frank proposed.
Then the brothers told about their escape from the refrigerator car, the train wreck, and the capture of one of the truck drivers. When they related
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how they had persuaded Charlie, the driver's assistant, to help them, the sheriff showed keen interest.
"Charlie, you say his name is? Say, that might be Brace, one of the local boys here."
After the Hardys had described their new ally, the sheriff nodded. "That's Charlie, all right. A nice young fellow, but he's been getting mixed up with a bad crowd lately."
"Well, now he's going straight," Joe said. "At least we hope he is."
Discussing the circumstances, all agreed that the next move should be toward the cache of oil drilling equipment.
"No doubt we'll find some of the gang there," the sheriff observed, "and maybe we can surprise them and nab them a few at a time."
They had barely started in the direction of the gang's stock pile when they heard the distant rumble of a motor.
"Sounds like a heavy truck," Joe said.
"Must be on that old logging trail over the next rise," the sheriff ventured. "Hurry. We'll see who it is."
Careful to conceal themselves in the natural cover, they reached the old trail in time to see a truck stop a short distance away. The driver hopped out.
"Charlie!" the Hardys gasped, and Sheriff Paul
206 The Secret of Wildcat Swamp
nodded. Had he kept his promise, the boys wondered as they watched his actions.
The young fellow seemed to be waving at someone he could see through the trees, but who was hidden from their view. However, they didn't have long to wait, for almost immediately four men emerged from the woods to join Charlie in the road.
Turk, Snide, and two others!
For a couple of minutes the five men stood talking in the center of the road.
Suddenly the back gate of the truck fell with a clatter-and out poured a swarm of men!
Frank's eye caught the foremost of the new arrivals. "Dad!" he shouted.
"Jack Wayne and Sam Radley!" Joe yelled in astonishment.
At the same time the detective's posse surrounded Snide and his three thugs, disarming them and snapping handcuffs on each of them.
Charlie had kept his promise!
Overjoyed, the onlookers left their hiding place. For a moment, all was confusion as Fenton Hardy greeted his sons and their friends.
"But, Dad, we thought you were hurt!" Frank exclaimed.
"No. Jack and I had a rough time, but we won the fight at the plane. Then I made Flint broadcast the story about our capture, to throw the rest of the gang off. Flint's in jail, and so is Snake Fliegel."
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"Who's Fliegel?" Frank asked.
Stepping forward with a smile, Charlie Brace said, "Don't you know him? Fliegel is the one who followed you from Bayport to Green Sand in his plane."
"The beady-eyed character who slithers along like a snake!" Joe exclaimed.
"That's the guy," Charlie continued. "He was in with Flint and Willie long before any of us local chaps got mixed up in the affair. Flint told me the whole story."
"How'd he get started after the oil?" Frank wanted to know.
"Flint used to travel around the country a lot," Charlie explained, "riding the rails and scratching out a living where he could. He was doing pretty well in a small town somewhere in the West when he ran into a sick, old wildcatter."
Turk glared at the man who was turning state's evidence, but Charlie continued:
"This old fellow claimed his memory had just returned after a long siege of illness. He was broke, but he said that if Flint would stake him until he could get a job he would tell Flint a tale that might make him rich."
"And Flint believed him?" Joe asked.
"He figured it was worth a gamble," Charlie said. "Anyway, the old man told Flint that fifty years before he had been one of a group of wildcatters
208 The Secret of Wildcat Swamp
who had found a rich deposit of oil. But they had had bad luck. A cave in buried twenty of 'em. Only the old man escaped."
"So that's what the sign meant," Frank said.
"Yes. The poor wildcatter nailed the sign over his friends' common grave. The shock was too much for him, though, and he lost hi^ memory."
All the listeners crowde close around Charlie to hear the fantastic story.
"After Flint had staked him to a place to live and had stocked it with food, the old man led him to the spot-the place you've been calling Wildcat Swamp. Shortly after that, the poor chap died.
"Before he could do anything about the oil, Flint was caught in a train robbery and was sent to prison. That's where he met Willie."
"I wonder why he decided to share the loot with that creep," Joe remarked.
"Well," Charlie said, "I guess he figured Willie would be able to forge the documents to get the land away from Mrs. Sanderson. Then they added Turk to the 'team' because his knowledge of radio would come in handy."
"How did Snide fit in?" asked Joe with a glance at the glowering captive.
"He was an old friend of Willie's and an experienced oil man. They contacted him and he brought Fliegel in with him. They gave Snake the job of trying to stop you and Cap Bailey from finding the
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swamp. He was the one who tampered with your plane so it would crack up before you got off the ground."
"Jack outfoxed them on that one." Joe grinned and saluted Wayne.
"Yes," Charlie said, smiling. "When he flew off and left you at Green Sand Lake, Flint and Turk didn't know what to make of it. They followed you in FliegePs plane, and Snake was on hand to help them break out of the jail there. Then he piloted them to a field outside Red Butte."
"That's where we came in," one of the rangers spoke up. "We saw his plane land and noticed it had no license number. We investigated and found these cowboy friends of Snide's meeting the plane. Our sudden interest must have scared them."
"Right," said another ranger. "They held us at gun point, stole our uniforms, and shut us up in that old tower until you Hardy boys found us."
"Don't blame it all on us," Turk snapped. "The cowpokes had plenty to do with this deal. They toppled that big boulder over, and sent the fake message to the sheriff's office. Then they called on his wife and fouled up his radiotelephone, returning later to steal it, so nobody'd use it."
The Hardy boys had listened intently to this recital, as it pieced together various parts of the mystery. A few more questions cleared up the rest of the plot.
210 The Secret of Wildcat Swamp
They learned that it was Willie and Snide who had read the story about Bailey's fossil hunt and had held up Cap in his car; that it was Snide who had lost the pencil code message they had found; and it was also he who had shot down the antenna balloon. The skeleton, Charlie said, had been planted in the cave to scare off intruders.
After congratulating his sons on solving the mystery, Mr. Hardy said, "We ought to go to the fossil pit now to find out how Cap and Chet are."
Several members of the posse were commissioned to take Snide and his henchmen off to join Flint, Turk, and Fliegel in jail.
Then the rest of the group started for the swamp. They had gone about halfway when they met Mrs. Sanderson and Mrs. Paul riding toward them, both looking very much worried.
"We have good news for you, too," said Mrs. Sanderson. "Your friends Cap and Chet captured Willie the Penman just as he was trying to force me to sign away my property."
When they heard this news Frank and Joe let out a whoop.
"You have nothing more to fear now," Mr. Hardy told Mrs, Sanderson. "I'll be glad to get a reputable oil company to check on the old wildcatters' theory of a large oil deposit here."
Soon the party reached the foot of the sandy slope in which the fossil was buried. There was the sound
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or pick and shovel from the pit, and in answer to Frank's "halloo" two heads popped up over the rim. Cap and Chet dashed down the incline.
"I certainly am glad to see you all with a whole skin!" Cap declared as he shook hands with the Hardys.
The brothers grinned. They had indeed pulled themselves out of a tight fix. Not many weeks were to elapse before they again found their lives in danger while trying to solve the mystery of THE CRISSCROSS SHADOW with Chet playing an important role.
"But wait till we tell you what's happened here," Chet said with pride.
"Now what?" Joe inquired.
"Remember when that explosion went off? Well, we could feel the earth shaking and heaving way over here. We happened to look down into the old cave, and you should see it now."
"It was like a little earthquake," the science teacher added. "The explosion opened a subterranean cavern as beautiful as any in the whole world. I've seen a good many of them and few can compare with this one. It's full of gorgeous stalactites and stalagmites. Mrs. Sanderson, you own a very valuable piece of property even if it turns out that there isn't a drop of oil on it."
"Sure, Chet said, "and we were the first sight-seers. Now I qualify for a job as guide."
"A guide!" Joe needled. "You have a job back home-how about that swimming pool? You never finished it!"
"You fellows all ran out on me," Chet said reproachfully. "After all the help I've been to you, I should think you'd want to dig it for me."
"I'll help you," offered Cap. "I think there might be some fossils in that bog even more valuable than the brachiopods you found!"
Chet's eyes shone.
"Frank, Joe, you heard the man!" he exclaimed. "Let's go!"
THE END
THE SECRET OF WILDCAT SWAMP
By FRANKLIN W. DIXON
No. 31 in the Hardy Boys series.
This is the original 1952 text.