HARDY BOYS

CHAPTER II

Thief at Work

JOE was first to slide through the broken window. "Wait a moment, fellows," he called out, "until I unlock this."

Quickly he turned the catch, raised the window, and the other three boys stepped inside the library. No one was there and they ran into the large center hall.

"Hello!" Frank shouted. "Where are you?"

There was no answer. "Maybe that person who was calling for help has passed out or is unconscious," Joe suggested. "Let's look around."

The boys dashed in various directions, and investigated the living room with its old-fashioned furnishings, the dining room with its heavily carved English oak set, the kitchen, and what had evidently been a maid's bedroom in days gone by. Now it was heaped high with empty boxes and crates. There was no one in any of the rooms and the Hardys and their two friends met again in the hall.

"The man must be upstairs," Frank decided.

He started up the front stairway and the others followed. There were several bedrooms. Suddenly Chet hung back. He wanted to go with his pals but the eeriness of the house made him pause. Biff and the Hardys sped from one to another of the many rooms. Finally they investigated the last of them.

"Nobody here! What do you make of it?" Biff asked, puzzled.

Chet, who had rejoined the group, said worriedly, "M-maybe the place is haunted!"

Joe's eyes were searching for an entrance to the third floor. Seeing none, he opened three doors in the hall, hoping to find a stairway. He saw none.

"There must be an attic in this house," he said. "I wonder how you get to it."

"Maybe there's an entrance from one of the bedrooms," Frank suggested. "Let's see."

The boys separated to investigate. Suddenly Frank called out, "I've found it."

The others ran to where he had discovered a door behind a man's shabby robe hanging inside a closet. This in turn revealed a stairway and the group hurriedly climbed it, Chet bringing up the rear.

The attic room was enormous. Old newspapers and magazines were strewn around among old-fashioned trunks and suitcases, but there was no human being in sight.

"I guess that cry for help didn't come from the house at all," Biff suggested. "What'll we do now? Look outdoors?"

"I guess we'll have to," Frank answered.

He started down the steep stairway. Reaching the foot, he turned the handle of the door which had swung shut. To his concern he was not able to open it.

"What's the matter?" asked Chet from the top of the stairway.

"Looks as if we're locked in," Frank told him.

"Locked in?" Chet wailed. "Oh, no!"

Frank tried pulling and pushing the door. It did not budge.

"That's funny," he said. "I didn't see any lock on the outside."

Suddenly the full import of the situation dawned on the four boys. Someone had deliberately locked them in! The cries for help had been a hoax to lure them into the house!

"You think somebody was playing a joke on us?" Biff asked.

"Pretty rotten kind of joke," Chet sputtered.

Frank and Joe were inclined to think that there was more to it than a joke. Someone had seen a chance to steal a valuable telescope and two late-model motorcycles!

"We've got to get out of here!" Joe said. "Frank, put your shoulder to the door and I'll help."

Fortunately, the door was not particularly sturdy and gave way easily. Frank glanced back a moment as he rushed through and saw two large hooks which he had not noticed before. They had evidently been slipped into the eyes and had been ripped from the framework by the crash on the door.

The other boys followed, running pell-mell through the hallway and clattering down the stairway. They dashed out the front door, leaving it open behind them. To their relief, the telescope still stood at the edge of the cliff, pointing seaward.

"Thank goodness!" said Joe. "I'd hate to have had to tell Dad the telescope was gone!"

Frank rushed over to take a quick look through the instrument. It had occurred to him that maybe some confederate of the smugglers had seen them spying. He might even have tricked them into the house during the very time that a smuggling operation would be within range of the telescope!

When Frank reached the edge of the cliff and tried to look through the instrument, he gasped in dismay. The eyepieces from both the finder and the telescope tube had been removed!

As he turned to tell the other boys of his discovery, he found that they were not behind him. But a moment later Joe came running around the corner of the house calling out:

"The motorcycles are safe! Nobody stole them!"

"Thank goodness for that," said Frank.

Chet and Biff joined them and all flopped down on the grass to discuss the mysterious happenings and work out a plan of action.

"If that thief is hiding inside the house, I'm going to find him," Joe declared finally.

"I'm with you," said Frank, jumping up. "How about you, Biff, guarding the motorcycles and Chet taking charge of the telescope? That way, both the front and back doors will be covered, too, in case that thief comes out."

"Okay," the Hardys' friends agreed.

As Frank and Joe entered the front hall, Joe remarked, "There's a back stairway. If we don't find the person on the first floor, I'll take that to the second. You take the front."

Frank nodded and the search began. Not only the first, but the second and attic floors were thoroughly investigated without results.

"There's only one place left," said Frank. "The cellar."

This area also proved to have no one hiding in it. "I guess our thief got away," Frank stated.

"And probably on foot," Joe added. "I didn't hear any car, did you?"

"No. Maybe he went down the cliff and made a getaway in a boat," Frank suggested.

In complete disgust the Hardys reported their failure to Biff and Chet. Then they packed up the telescope and strapped it onto Frank's motorcycle.

"We may as well go home," Joe said dolefully. "We'll have a pretty slim report for Dad."

"Slim?" said Biff. "I haven't had so much excitement in six months."

The boys climbed aboard the motorcycles. As the Hardys were about to start the motors, all four of them froze in the seats. From somewhere below the cliff came a demoniacal laugh. Involuntarily the boys shuddered.

"L-let's get out of here!" Chet urged.

Frank and Joe had hopped off the motorcycles, and were racing in the direction from which the eerie laughter was coming.

"It may be another trap!" Chet yelled after them. "Come back!"

But the Hardys went on. Just before they reached the edge of the cliff they were thunderstruck to hear the laughter coming from a completely different area. It was actually in back of them!

"What gives?" Joe asked.

"Search me," his brother answered. "The ghost must have a confederate."

The brothers peered over the edge of the cliff but could see only jagged rocks that led to the booming surf below. Frank and Joe returned to then, chums, disappointed that they had learned nothing and had no explanation for the second laugh.

"I'm glad it stopped, anyhow," said Chet. "It gave me goose pimples and made chills run up and down my spine."

Biff looked at his wrist watch. "I really have to be getting home, fellows. Sorry to break up this man hunt. Maybe you can take me to a bus and come back."

The Hardys would not hear of this and said they would leave at once.

They had gone scarcely a mile when the motor on Frank's cycle sputtered and backfired, then died. "A swell time for a breakdown," he said disgustedly as he honked for Joe to stop.

Joe turned around and drove back. "What's the matter?"

"Don't know." Frank dismounted. "It's not the gas. I have plenty of that."

"Tough luck!" Joe said sympathetically. "Well, let's take a look at the motor. Better get out your tools."

As Frank opened the toolbox of his motorcycle, an expression of bewilderment came over his face.

"My tools!" he exclaimed. "They're gone!"

The others gathered around. The toolbox was indeed empty!

"Are you sure you had them when you left Bayport?" Chet asked.

"Of course I did. I never go anywhere without them."

Biff shook his head. "I suppose the guy who took the eyepieces stole your tools too."

Joe dashed to the toolbox on his own motorcycle and gave a cry of dismay.

"Mine are gone, too!"

Srinivas
VII B