CHAPTER HI

caught !

''All set, Joe?"

Frank sat at the wheel of the brothers' car, studying a map, while Joe stowed away a second suitcase in the luggage trunk. It was barely forty-five minutes ago that their father had told them to find Perry. Since time was an all-important factor under the circumstances, the boys had packed hastily.

"All ready, Frank," sang out the younger Hardy lad as he swung himself into the seat beside his brother.

Suddenly there was a shout, and two rough-looking men stepped alongside the car.

"Wait a minute, you!" snarled one of them gruffly, seizing Joe by the sleeve.

"Come out of there, both of you!" snapped the other. "We have a little matter to settle with you."

The Hardys recognized them as the men who had occupied the other motorboat which had figured in the mix-up that morning.

"Well, what do you want!" Frank inquired with a look of annoyed surprise.

"Here!" snorted the thick-set individual who V

18 The Secret Warning

had spoken first. "What are you going to do about this?" He shoved a paper at Frank.

"Malwey Boat Works," the lad read aloud. "Repairs to motorboat, sixty-five dollars. Sixty-five dollars! Say, what is this?"

"You'll find out soon enough, if you don't pay up pretty quick!" growled the thick-set man.

"Maybe they don't remember runnin' us down this morning, Simon," sneered the other. He was a thin, undernourished-looking fellow.

Joe felt himself reddening with anger.

"Look here, you two," he blurted out. "I'm not so sure we ran you down. If we did, we caused no sixty-five dollars' worth of damage, and you know it!"

The two ruffians laughed derisively.

"Funny guy, eh?" snorted the thin one. "Well, you'll pay it or we'll promise you more trouble than you'd like to have." At the last word he scowled ominously.

"Tell you what we'll do," suggested Frank. "We'll all go down to Malwey's and find out about it."

"And no funny business!" warned the one addressed as Simon. The two strangers headed for their car, which apparently was parked around a corner.

At the boat shop Jim Malwey, who had known the Hardy boys since their infancy, drew his young friends aside. "Listen," he whispered, "these fellows are trying to frame you. The

Caught! 19

accident caused about five dollars' worth of damage. The rest of the bill is for equipment they want me to install. They're trying to make you pay for all of it."

'' Thanks, Jim. Say, who are they, anyway !'' Frank inquired of the elderly shipbuilder.

"Thin one's named Ed Bock. The other fellow is Pete Simon. They come in here once, in a while for repairs to their boat. Don't know where they 're from. Can't say I like their looks much."

"Nor do I!" agreed Joe emphatically.

The strangers were becoming impatient. "Say, what's all this whisperin' about?" demanded Bock, advancing toward the boys from their boat, where he and his companion had been inspecting the repairs.

"Yeah," agreed Simon. "What's going ou here? How about that money? We ain't got all day!"

Prank strolled over to Bock, who was standing with his arms defiantly set on his hips.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Bock," he said, restraining with difficulty an impulse to knock down the impudent fellow, "but the bill for the damage we caused you is only five dollars. We'll pay that much and no more."

'' Huh!'' snorted Simon. '' You think you can get away with that?"

"We'll give you five dollars and not a cent morel" stated Joe flatly.

Suddenly the shop door swung open and a

20 The Secret Warning

plump figure waddled in. "What's all the shooting about?" came in a ludicrous drawl.

Bock and Simon spun around simultaneously. Joe laughed. "Hello, Chet!" he chuckled. "You're just in time for a hold-up. These fellows are trying to charge us sixty-five dollars for running into their boat this morning!"

Chet thoughtfully munched an apple. "If you're the chaps whose boat I ran into this morning, I'll pay you for it," he offered innocently.

"Oh, so you're the kid that ran us down!" Bock spat. "Well, you owe us sixty-five bucks!"

Frank held up his hand. '' I think we Ve done enough arguing," he said decisively. "We'll pay you five dollars and no more. That's that!''

Bock spluttered with rage. "You'll pay for this a thousand times over!" he fairly screamed at the chums. "You'll-----"

His stocky companion seized him by the arm.

"Calm down, Bock," he muttered. "These guys and their friend Perry will be sorry soon enough. They'll find out that it won't do 'em any good to trifle with us!"

"That's right," agreed the other. Then he turned to Frank with an evil smile. "Be kind of funny, wouldn't it, if your friend Perry should get his lifeline cut some timef" he hissed.

The older Hardy lad felt a chill at mention of Perry. Was that remark merely a cowardly

Caught! 21

bluff to frighten them, or was it a secret warning! He could not decide at the moment. Nevertheless, he waa unable to shake off a feeling that these cruel-looking strangers were going to cause them trouble.

The chums talked over the matter among themselves, then decided to remain firm. Frank placed a five-dollar bill on a nearby desk.

"There," he announced, "that pays for the damage we did to your boat. Come on, fellows, let's get going. See you later, Jim."

The chums filed out, leaving the elderly shipbuilder to smile triumphantly at Bock and Simon, who stood glaring after the boys and muttering threats.

"Good work, Frank!" exclaimed Joe admiringly as the brothers clambered back into their car. "Serves them right! Jump in, Chet!"

"I wonder," mused his brother, "if they really meant what they said about Mr. Perry's lifeline. Golly, I'd hate to have anything happen to him!''

"So would I," Joe agreed. "We'd better warn him about it when we find him at Bailey's Landing."

"Bailey's Landing!" blinked Chet from the rear seat. "Say, what are you two planning now ! Another trip ?"

Joe laughed. The Hardys had been so concerned with Bock and Simon that they had completely forgotten to tell their chum the

22 The Secret Warning

latest difficulty. Now Chet begged to be taken along on the boys' projected search for Perry. Though he seldom was of any real assistance in solving their problems, his genial good nature had relieved them of much worry and nerve strain on many occasions.

"All right, Chet," Frank agreed. "We'll drive around to your house at once and tell your family."

No sooner had the boys entered the Morton home than Chet uttered a shout.

"Cookies!" he exclaimed. "Golly! We're just in time! Smell 'em?"

He made a bee-line for the kitchen. In a few moments he returned, grinning broadly. "I was right! The girls are making cookies I Whoopee!"

His sister Tola emerged from the kitchen with her chum Gallic Shaw. Upon hearing of the boys' projected journey, the girls promptly wrapped up a generous supply of cookies as a farewell gift. Then the brothers and Chet jumped into the car, waved gaily, and headed for the distant hills. Late that night they halted at a rambling structure whose neon sign proclaimed it to be the Mountain Inn.

"And now for some real steak and potatoes!” exclaimed Chet.

During supper the boys noticed an old man watching them closely from another table.

"Wonder what's the matter with him!" Joe mused, swallowing a juicy piece of meat.

Caught! 23

"Maybe the trouble lies with, us," suggested his brother.

"What's the matter with anything?" queried Chet. "I never tasted a better dinner!"

Suddenly the old man summoned a waiter.

'' Say, where's my cane ? " he snarled. '' I put it right there beside that radiator when I came in."

The waiter stepped to the place indicated and glanced around it.

"I'm afraid it isn't here, Mr. Suttonwood."

"Isn't there!" thundered the old man. "Well, where is it? I put it there. Ask these people around here! Ask those boys!"

By this time every patron in the dining room was staring in astonishment at the eccentric old man. The waiter was plainly flustered as he approached the chums.

"I'm sorry to disturb you young men," he said, "but Mr. Suttonwood seems to have lost his cane. Have you seen it ?"

"No, we haven't," Frank replied. "We've only just come in."

Mr. Suttonwood fixed his beady eyes on the lads. When Frank disclaimed any knowledge of the cane the old man jumped up.

"You're hiding it! You're hiding it!" he screamed wildly. '' Waiter, I demand that these boys be searched!"

The dining room was in an uproar. A moment later the hotel manager appeared and urged his guest to follow him into his private

24 The Secret Warning

office, promising to investigate the matter there.

"Golly!" exclaimed Chet when the turmoil had subsided. "That old fellow's crazy as a loon! Why should we know anything about his cane?"

"Another mystery," smiled Frank. "But let's take them one at a time. Finding Mr. Perry is our present job."

The boys left word at the hotel desk to be called at five in the morning. The sun had just peeped over the hills when they were ready to etart out again.

"Just a moment," said the hotel clerk in an undertone as the older Hardy boy paid their bill. "I'd like to speak to you." He motioned Frank to follow him into an office. "Just wanted to let you know that Mr. Suttonwood called the police about that cane of his. He described you fellows and said he suspected you to be the thieves. Don't suppose anything'11 come of it, but I thought I'd warn you."

Frank thanked the fellow and repeated his words to his chums.

"Oh, the old man's crazy," Joe shrugged. "If the police had intended to make trouble for na they'd be here by now, anyway."

"Just the same," said Chet, "I'll feel a lot more comfortable when we get out of this place."

As Frank turned the car into the highway a man standing on the road hailed them.

Caught! 25

"Mind giving me a lift to Johnsville?" he inquired in a pleasant voice.

"Sure-there's plenty of room," Chet announced without waiting to consult the others. Bather than risk offending the stranger, Frank agreed, though he was not particularly enthusiastic about accommodating him.

The man climbed in with Chet and chatted amiably with the fat lad until the car drew up before a traffic light. Suddenly the tone of his voice changed.

"Pull over to the curb, young fellow," he ordered curtly, tapping Frank on the shoulder.

Before any of the boys could say a word he had leaned from the car and blown three blasts on a police whistle. The Hardys were nonplussed. What was the meaning of this!

They had not long to wait for the answer. A uniformed police officer came running to the car. He touched his cap as he spied the man whom the boys had thought to be a hitch-hiker.

"Howdy, Detective Jones. What've you got here?" he queried.

"Just nabbed these boys for robbery, Williams. They stole a wad of money from an old fellow up at Mountain Inn. Look here."

The detective casually lifted the rug on the floor of the car and withdrew a gold-headed cane.

"See!" he said, and flicked open its handle.

To the horror of the chums a large roll of banknotes tumbled out.