Part 13 (2/2)

Mrs. Hardy gasped. ”Oh, dear, oh, dear!” she said, and hurried into the house.

Aunt Gertrude followed, but Mr. Hardy examined the damage from the outside. The boys walked around with him, and they showed him the torch handle Chet had found.

141 ”Come into my office and tell me everything that's happened,” he said. ”I hurried here as soon as I received your wire, Frank. But I admit I didn't expect anything like this.”

”Do you think one of the flickering torch gang left the handle here to show you how smart he is?” asked Joe.

”Possibly,” replied his father. ”It's certainly like flaunting something in my face. My own case!”

”Why do you think the house was set afire? None of the gang outside gained anything by it,” said Frank.

”I'm afraid they did, Son,” replied Fenton Hardy.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE MISSING BOTTLE.

it was a full hour before the boys finished telling their father the story of their adventures.

How they had seen the flickering torch and the hooded figure on the cliff; how they had discovered the power drill hidden in the scarecrow; how Chet had found the torch handle in the Hardy yard; and how Joe had seen a stack of the odd implements in Asa Grable's cellar.

They told of their encounters with Boots and Mr. Wortman, and Frank added what had happened in the bay the previous night.

Fenton Hardy paced back and forth in his study. '' Well,'' he said finally,'' that only confirms my idea about this fire. I think the place was set ablaze to get us back here.”

”But why?”

”We'll probably discover that something big has happened, either where I have come from, or where you have. I shouldn't be surprised if there was an extensive robbery out in the Trumper territory, for instance. I'm very interested in what you've told me about the torches, but how Grable fits in is baffling. He doesn't seem like the type of person to be mixed up in the sort of case I've been investigating.”

142.

143 ”Maybe he's a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” Joe suggested,'' leading a double life. Innocent scientist in the daytime and a big time thief by night.”

'' Possible,'' said Fenton Hardy. '' However, we have more clues now than we had a few days ago, and we'll have to do some hard work. I'll follow the leads you've given me. And later I'll pay a call on Mr. Grable. In the meantime, you boys had better go back to the farm and return to your duties as if nothing had happened. But keep your eyes open for trouble.”

Aunt Gertrude and Mrs. Hardy already had made considerable headway in cleaning up the kitchen. Chet, interested in breakfast, made himself useful. He even had gone to the store for food, and by the time Fenton Hardy and his sons had finished their conference, their mother had an appetizing meal prepared. Immediately afterward Frank and Joe got in the car of their friend d.i.c.k Ames to drive back to the farm.

”Let me know if you want any more detecting done,'' grinned Chet as his chums moved off.

On the way the Hardy boys recovered their car from the ditch. Joe asked Frank if he had any idea who the truckman was who had forced him off the road. ”Hefty Cronin?” he suggested.

”I didn't get a look at the fellow. But the truck was like one he drives,” Frank agreed.

The front wheels of the boys' car were out of 144 alignment, so they stopped at the garage in Midvale and left orders for the damaged automobile to be repaired. As it was still early, they drove to the boarding house where d.i.c.k Ames lived.

”I brought back your automobile safe and sound,'' reported Joe. '' Thanks a lot for lending it to me.”

”How about the fire at your house?” asked their friend. '' And where did you find Frank f''

Joe told him.

”I was hoping to see you boys,” said d.i.c.k. ”I just had a phone call from the watchman out at the road. There was a robbery last night.”

Joe whistled. '' How bad was it ?”

”A big one. The man tells me a lot of stuff was taken. Wire and tools and other things.

He hasn't had time to check the loss yet. But it's certainly going to be serious for me.”

”Your new watchman didn't prove to be so good,” sighed Joe.

”I don't believe he's to blame. He says he sat down to rest, after making one of his rounds, and suddenly smelled a very peculiar scent. It was overpowering, he told me. He became groggy immediately, and must have fallen asleep. It sounds to me as if he were drugged. I'll tell you more about it later. Right now I have to call one of the company officials and report the robbery.”

”We'll come out to the job later, and see what we can find out,” promised Frank, as the boys 145 left and headed for Mrs. Trumper's. ”Dad was right,” he said quietly to his brother. ”As soon as our backs were turned, something big happened.”

They were in the midst of telling the widow about the fire at the Hardy home, when the telephone rang. Frank picked up the instrument.

”This is Asa Grable speaking,” said the quavering voice of the scientist. '' I thought I 'd better tell you about what happened here last night.”

”Don't tell me you were robbed, Mr. Grable!”

”I certainly was!” declared the scientist wretchedly. ”The biggest robbery yet. Some of my finest moths and silkworms were taken.”

”We'll come right over.”

”No, don't do that,” said the scientist sharply. ”At least, not until I send for you.” The receiver clicked.

When Frank told Joe what Asa Grable had reported, the brothers looked at each other questioningly. They were nonplussed over the scientist's att.i.tude. One minute he wanted their help; the next he did not. Was he honest, but being threatened ? Or was he using the boys as a foil in some underhanded scheme of which he was the brains and others the brawn?

”He wasn't in any hurry to get rid of me last evening,” said Joe.

”But someone wanted to get us away from the greenhouses for a while,” said Joe. ”And 146 it was someone who knows who we are and that we're interested in the thefts there.”

”A lot of queer goings-on around these parts last night,” said the Widow Trumper, pa.s.sing through the hall. '' Trucks on the road. Strange voices. They kept me awake half the night. I looked out the window once-it must have been very late, around three or four o'clock in the morning-and I saw Wortman coming in with his his truck. What so many trucks could have truck. What so many trucks could have been doing, I can't imagine.”

The boys had plenty to think about when they set out for the Experimental Farm and reported to the Gra.s.ses and Lilies section for the day's work. Mrs. Trumper's remark about Wortman and the truck stuck in their minds. They had not forgotten that Boots had berated his friend for having talked to the boys about keeping money in his cellar.

”Maybe there's more down there than there should be,” mused Joe.

'' Might be a good idea to keep an eye on Boots today. If he's a friend of Wortman's, he'll stand watching, too,” suggested Frank.

”I still think he was trying to have us discharged from the Experimental Farm,” declared Joe.

When the boys reported for work, they had no opportunity of searching for Boots. The foreman instructed them to go to the office, as the director of the Farm wanted to talk to them.

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