The Tower Treasure: The Hardy Boys Series

CHAPTER ONE

THE SPEED DEMON

A fter the help we gave dad on that forgery case I guess he'll begin to think we could be detectives when we grow up.

"Why shouldn't we?

Isn't he one of the most famous detectives in the country?

And aren't we his sons?

If the profession was good enough for him to follow, it should be good enough for us."

Two bright-eyed boys on motorcycles were speeding along a shore road in the sunshine of a morning in spring. It was Saturday and they were enjoying a holiday from the Bayport high school.

The day was ideal for a motorcycle trip and the lads were combining business with pleasure by going on an errand to a near-by village for their father. The older of the two boys was a tall, dark youth, about sixteen years of age.

His name was Frank Hardy.

The other boy, his companion on the motorcycle trip, was his brother Joe, a year younger. While there was a certain resemblance between the two lads, chiefly in the firm yet good-humoured expression of their mouths, in some respects they differed greatly in appearance. While Frank was dark, with straight, black hair and brown eyes, his brother was pink-cheeked, with fair, curly hair and blue eyes.

These were the Hardy boys, sons of Fenton Hardy, an internationally famous detective who had made a name for himself in the years he had spent on the New York police force and who was now, at the age of forty, handling his own practice.

The Hardy family lived in Bayport, a city of about fifty thousand inhabitants, located on Barmet Bay, three miles in from the Atlantic, and here the Hardy boys attended high school and dreamed of the days when they, too, should be detectives like their father.

As they sped along the narrow shore road, with the waves breaking on the rocks far below, they discussed their chances of winning over their parents to agree with their ambition to follow in the footsteps of their father.

Like most boys, they speculated frequently on the occupation they should follow when they grew up, and it had always seemed to them that nothing offered so many possibilities of adventure and excitement as the career of a detective.

But whenever we mention it to dad he just laughs at us, said Joe Hardy.

Tells us to wait until we're through school and then we can think about being detectives.

Well, at least he's more encouraging than mother, remarked Frank.

She comes out plump and plain and says she wants one of us to be a doctor and the other a lawyer.

What a fine lawyer either of us would make! sniffed Joe.

"Or a doctor, either!

We were both cut out to be detectives and dad knows it."

As I was saying, the help we gave him in that forgery case proves it. He didn't say much, but I'll bet he's been thinking a lot.

Of course we didn't actually do very much in that case, Joe pointed out.

"But we suggested something that led to a clue, didn't we?

That's as much a part of detective work as anything else.

Dad himself admitted he would never have thought of examining the city tax receipts for that forged signature. It was just a lucky idea on our part, but it proved to him that we can use our heads for something more than to hang our hats on."

"Oh, I guess he's convinced all right.

Once we get out of school he'll probably give his permission.

Why, this is a good sign right now, Isn't it?

He asked us to deliver these papers for him in Willowville. He's letting us help him."

I'd rather get in on a real, good mystery,' said Frank.

It's all right to help dad, but if there's no more excitement in it than delivering papers I'd rather start in studying to be a lawyer and be done with it.

Never mind, Frank, comforted his brother.

We may get a mystery all of our own to solve some day.

"If we do, we'll show that Fenton Hardy's sons are worthy of his name. Oh boy, but what wouldn't I give to be as famous as dad!

Why, some of the biggest cases in the country are turned over to him.

That forgery case, for instance. Fifty thousand dollars had been stolen right from under the noses of the city officials and all the auditors and city detectives and private detectives they called in had to admit that it was too deep for them."

"Then they called in dad and he cleared it up in three days.

Once he got suspicious of that slick bookkeeper whom nobody had been suspecting at all, it was all over but the shouting. Got a confession out of him and everything."

It was smooth work. I'm glad our suggestion helped him. The case certainly got a lot of attention in the papers.

And here we are, said Joe, plugging along the shore road on a measly little errand to deliver some legal papers at Willowville. I'd rather be on the track of some diamond thieves or smugglers-or something.

Well, we have to be satisfied, I suppose, replied Frank, leaning farther over the handlebars.

Perhaps dad may give us a chance on a real case some time.

Some time! I want to be on a real case now!

The motorcycles roared along the narrow road that skirted the bay. An embankment of tumbled rocks and boulders sloped steeply to the water below, and on the other side of the road was a steep cliff.

The roadway itself was narrow, although it was wide enough to permit two cars to meet and pass, and it wound about in frequent curves and turnings. It was a road that was not often travelled, for Willowville was only a small village and this shore road was an offshoot of the main highways to the north and the west.

The Hardy boys dropped their discussion of the probability that some day they would become detectives, and for a while they rode on in silence, occupied with the difficulties of keeping to the road.

For the road at this point was dangerous, very rough and rutty, and it sloped sharply upward so that the embankment leading to the ocean far below became steeper and steeper.

I shouldn't want to go over the edge here, remarked Frank, as he glanced down the slope.

Even as he spoke the automobile flashed into sight.

It came around the curve behind and so swiftly did the driver take the dangerous turnoff that two wheels were off the ground as the car shot into view. A cloud of dust and stones arose, the car veered violently from left to right, and then it roared at headlong speed down the slope.

The boys glimpsed a tense figure at the wheel. How he kept the car on the road was a miracle, for the racing automobile swung from side to side.

At one moment it would be in imminent danger of crashing over the embankment, down on the rocks below; the next instant the car would be over on the other side of the road, grazing the cliff.

He'll run us down! shouted Joe, in alarm.

The idiot!

Indeed, the position of the two lads was perilous.

The roadway was narrow enough at any time, and this speeding car was taking up every inch of space. In a great cloud of dust it bore directly down on the two motorcyclists. It seemed to leap through the air. The front wheels left a rut, the rear of the car skidded violently about.

By a twist of the wheel the driver pulled the car back into the roadway again just as it seemed about to plunge over the embankment. It shot over toward the cliff, swerved back again into the middle of the roadway, and then shot ahead at terrific speed.

Frank and Joe edged their motorcycles as far to the right of the road as they dared. To their horror they saw that the car was behind again. The driver made no attempt to slacken speed. The automobile came hurtling toward them.

CHAPTER TWO

THE STOLEN ROADSTER

The auto's brakes squealed.

The driver of the oncoming car swung the wheel viciously about. For a moment it appeared that the wheels would not respond. Then they gripped the gravel and the automobile swerved, then shot past. Bits of sand and gravel were flung about the two boys as they crouched by their motorcycles at the edge of the embankment.

The car had missed them only by inches!

Frank caught a glimpse of the driver, who turned about at that moment and, in spite of the speed at which the automobile was travelling and in spite of the perils of the road, shouted something they could not catch at them and shook his fist.

The car was travelling at too great a speed to enable the lad to distinguish the driver's features, but he saw that the man was hatless and that he had a shock of red hair blowing in the wind.

Then the automobile disappeared from sight around the curve ahead, roaring away in a cloud of dust.

The road hog! gasped Joe, as soon as He had recovered from his surprise.

He must be crazy! Frank exclaimed angrily.

Why, he might have pushed us both right over the embankment!

At the rate he was going I don't think he cared whether he ran anyone down or not. Both boys were justifiably angry.

On such a narrow, treacherous road there was danger enough when an automobile passed them travelling at even a reasonable speed, but the reckless and insane driving of the red-headed motorist was nothing short of criminal.

If we ever catch up to him I'm going to give him a piece of my mind! declared Frank.

Not content with almost running us down he had to shake his fist at us.

Road hog! muttered Joe again.

Jail is too good for the likes of him.If it was only his own life he endangered it wouldn't be so bad.Good thing we only had motorcycles.If we had been in another car there would have been a smash-up, sure.

The boys resumed their journey and by the time they had reached the curve ahead that enabled them to see the village of Willowville lying in a little valley along the bay beneath them, there was no trace of the reckless motorist.

Frank delivered the legal papers his father had given to him, and then the boys had the rest of the day to themselves.

It's too early to go back to Bayport just now, he said to Joe.

What say we go out and visit Chet Morton?

Good idea, agreed Joe.

He has often asked us to come out and see him.

Chet Morton - was a school chum of the Hardy boys.

His father was a real estate dealer with an office in Bayport, but the family lived in the country, about a mile from the city.

Although Willowville was some distance away, the boys knew of a road that would take them across country to the Morton home, and from there they could return to Bayport.

It would make their journey longer, but they would have the pleasure of visiting their chum.

Chet was a great favourite with all the boys, not the least of the reasons for his popularity being the fact that he had a roadster of his own, in which he drove to school every day and with which he was very generous in giving rides to his friends after school hours.

The Hardy boys drove along the country roads in the spring sunlight, enjoying the freedom of their holiday as only boys can.

When they had reached a culvert not far from the Morton place, Frank suddenly brought his motorcycle to a stop and peered down into the clump of bushes in the deep ditch.

Somebody's had a spill, he remarked.

Down in the bushes lay an upturned automobile. The car was a total wreck, and lay bottom upward, a mass of tangled junk.

Must have been hitting an awful clip to crumple up like that, Joe commented.

Perhaps there's someone underneath. Let's go and see.

The boys left their