Part 13 (1/2)
When he saw Frank, he hurried over.
'' This is one night I 'm not getting any sleep,'' he mumbled with his mouth full of bun and frankfurter. ”I knew I should have stayed at home right from the minute you showed up, Frank Hardy.”
”Did you send in the fire alarm, Chet?” Joe asked.
Joe had been standing in the shadows. When he appeared suddenly in front of Chet, the fat boy gasped as if he had seen a ghost. He choked on a bite of hot dog.
”Frank,” he mumbled, blinking, ”I'm not 136 seeing things, am I? I'm not losing my mind. That's really Joe, isn't it?”
”Why shouldn't it be?” Joe demanded. ”Why are you staring and goggling at me like that?”
”But that man on the cliff-the fellow in the hood-he grabbed you! We saw him, didn't we, Frank?”
”I didn't even go to the cliff,” declared Joe.
”The man out there grabbed somebody!” somebody!” gurgled Chet. ”Who was he? Now there's gurgled Chet. ”Who was he? Now there's another mystery!''
”We'd better try figuring that out later,” said Frank. ”Let's see how much damage that fire did. I hope dad's office wasn't burned.”
The boys went around to the rear of the house. That part of the dwelling still smouldered.
But the firemen had worked quickly and efficiently. They had arrived in time to prevent any great damage. The boys picked their way over wet lines of hose, through puddles of water, and went into Mrs. Hardy's usually neat kitchen. It was now a scene of dirt and disorder.
”Just wait until Aunt Gertrude sees this!” sighed Frank. ”She'll faint dead away.”
'' By the way, where is is Aunt Gertrude!'' Joe had forgotten his domineering relative in all Aunt Gertrude!'' Joe had forgotten his domineering relative in all the excitement. He knew that if she were anywhere in the vicinity, she would have been making her presence heard and felt by this time.
13Y ”She left Mrs. Trumper's place before I did. She took a taxi.”
They went outside and asked the fire chief, who knew Aunt Gertrude.
”No,” he told them, shaking his head, ”I've seen no sign of her around here tonight.”
The boys decided Aunt Gertrude's taxi must have broken down, or that the driver lost his way to Bayport. Whatever had happened, they hoped it was nothing serious. Frank turned to Chet.
”You haven't told us how you happened to turn in the alarm. Did you see the fire first?”
Chet nodded modestly.
”How did it happen?”
”I was on my way home after I left you, Frank. I thought I'd take a short cut in back of High Street. I happened to glance over toward your house, and I saw a queer sort of flickering light in the back garden.”
”A flickering flickering light?” light?”
”After seeing those torches tonight, my eyes almost popped out of my head. I thought some of those flickering torch fellows had decided to pay the house a visit. So I came through for a closer look. Then I'll be hanged if I didn't find the back of the house on fire. So I ran for the nearest alarm box.”
Joe slapped him on the back. ”With the thanks of the Hardy family!” he said. Chet Morton had been a friend indeed.
”But that isn't all,” said the fat boy. ”1 138 found something. Maybe you fellows won't think I'm such a bad detective. Look here-----”
He led them toward a corner of the fence, reached into the tall gra.s.s and proudly held up an object that the Hardy boys recognized instantly.
”A torch handle I” Frank exclaimed.
It was identical with the queer clublike stick the boys had found near the Grable greenhouses. And it was the same as the one Joe had seen Asa Grable use for his weird experiment in the laboratory cellar.
Joe took the stick from the fat boy's hands and examined it carefully. ”I think you've discovered something mighty important, Chet,” he said excitedly. ”Where did you find this!”
”Stumbled over it in your back yard.”
This was a sensation. It was even more of a sensation to Chet when Joe told him of his experiences at the greenhouses that night. For the first time, the Hardy boys began to wonder if Asa Grable was the innocent, eccentric old gentleman he appeared to be.
”This puts a whole new angle on our mysteries,” said Frank.
The firemen went away, after giving the embers a final dousing. Although the back of the house had been gutted by the flames, the bedrooms were intact, so the Hardy boys went upstairs. Chet decided to stay overnight.
”I won't get any sleep, of course,” he said, 139 ”but if I should walk home, it would probably be time to get up when I arrived.”
Chet was correct in his idea that he would not get much sleep. The boys had too much to talk about. It was almost daybreak before they closed their eyes. To Frank and Joe it seemed that they had no more than closed them when they were aroused by a tremendous racket at the front door.
”I won't pay it!” declared a shrill, angry voice. ”I tell you, I won't pay it. You can put me in jail, you can sue me, you can do anything you like about it. But I will not pay that taxi bill!”
”But, lady,” argued a gruff, male voice, ”if you'd given me the right directions in the first place, I wouldn't have spent all night gettin* here.”
The boys peeped out of a window. Down on the sidewalk, Aunt Gertrude was standing with folded arms, glaring at a taxi driver who looked thoroughly cowed.
”It's your business to get the directions right!” she snapped.
”But, lady, you were so excited you said you wanted to go to Eastport to see a fire. So when I drive sixty-five miles to Eastport, you say you didn't want to go there at all. Now that wasn't my my fault, was it?” fault, was it?”
”I made a mistake, probably, but you should have known better. n.o.body would want to go 140 to Eastport to see a fire. I won't pay that taxi fare. Not a cent.”
Chuckling, the boys scrambled into their clothes. They hurried downstairs. But before they could intercede in the argument between Aunt Gertrude and the driver, another taxi swept around the corner and pulled up at the curb. The door opened and out stepped Fenton Hardy.
”Dad!” whooped the boys.
”Looks like a family reunion,” said Fenton Hardy as he helped his wife out of the taxi.
”And high time, too!” Aunt Gertrude sniffed. ”Fenton, come here and tell this idiotic driver I'm going to have him thrown in jail for overcharging. Make him go away.''
Frank and Joe hugged their mother, while Mr. Hardy went over to discuss with Aunt Gertrude's chauffeur the little matter of an all-night taxi drive.
”Do I smell smoke?” Mrs. Hardy said. ”Has there been a fire somewhere on the street?”
”Just a little one, Mother,” said Joe. '' That's why Frank and I are home. Our house caught fire last night.”