THE STRANGE LETTER
The engine roared as Frank Hardy opened the throttle and bore down on
the helm of the _Sleuth_.
The grip of the current about the reef was so strong that, for a
moment, it seemed that the motorboat could not fight against it. Then,
slowly, the craft swung about, seemed to remain motionless for a
moment, and then began to forge ahead, away from the reef.
Fighting against the force of the current, the motorboat made slow
progress. Still, it was gaining ground. The boys waited tensely, as the
craft struggled out of danger. Gradually, the _Sleuth_ drew away from
the reef, gradually the grip of the current relaxed. Frank cautiously
nosed the boat over to the left and managed to get out of the current
altogether.
The whole affair had occurred in a few seconds, but it had seemed an
eternity to the boys in the boat and their chums in the other craft. It
would only have been a matter of moments before they might have been
swept swiftly down onto the treacherous reef.
"That'll teach me to watch where I'm going," said Frank, as he sat back
and mopped his brow.
"There was mighty near a lot more wreckage on that reef," remarked Slim
soberly. "The boat wouldn't have lasted long if we'd piled up on those
rocks."
"I'll say it wouldn't! I think we'd better get away from here. We'll
never be able to get close enough to identify that wreckage. Might as
well go on up the coast."
They drew up alongside the _Napoli_ and, after discussing the narrow
escape they had just had from being cast up on the reef, acquainted the
other boys with their decision to continue the search.
"There's no use trying to get closer to that wreckage," declared
Frank. "It's all in small pieces and we probably wouldn't be able to
say whether it was from the _Envoy_ or not, if we did reach it. We
may as well go on up the coast and keep making inquiries at the other
villages."
This plan they followed, but to no avail.
Their inquiries were fruitless. The _Envoy_, with Chet and Biff,
seemed to have vanished into thin air. At none of the fishing villages
were they able to find any one who had seen or heard of the missing
motorboat. As for the wreckage on the reef, no one was found who could
enlighten them. Two or three fishing boats had been wrecked during the
storm, but they had met their fate farther up the coast and in each
case the scene of the wreck was known to the fishermen.
"It might have been your friend's boat, and it might have been only
some old wreckage washed down the coast by the storm," said one
keen-eyed salt. "You'd best give up the search. If they're drowned,
they're drowned, and that's all there is to it. If they were wrecked
and managed to save themselves they'll make their way to the nearest
village and they'll get home from there without any trouble. If you
haven't found any trace of them by now there isn't much use going any
further, for they would never have got this far up the coast having
been seen by some of the fishermen."
The boys reluctantly agreed that his advice was sound. They turned back
for Bayport.
When they returned to the city and reported that their quest had been
unsuccessful they were scarcely prepared for the sensation that the
news aroused. The Hoopers were frantic with anxiety, as their last
hopes were dashed. The Mortons were almost stunned. They had hoped
against hope that the search would bring them at least some news of
the missing boys.
The local papers featured the story and the city was aroused. In every
village and town along the coast, to north and south, people were
discussing the mysterious disappearance of the motorboat and its human
freight. Fishermen were on the lookout for any trace of the craft. The
coast guards promised to do all in their power to clear up the mystery.
But, when three days more went by and there was still not the slightest
solution in sight, the opinion became general that the boat had been
wrecked in the storm and had gone to the bottom. The two boys were
given up for lost. The Hardy boys and their chums were gradually forced
to the belief that Chet and Biff had perished.
Then came an incident that temporarily drove the tragic affair from
the minds of Frank and Joe, because it concerned their own home more
intimately.
Aunt Gertrude had greeted them on their return with a barrage of
scathing comment on their disobedience in leaving on the trip in spite
of her avowed disapproval, and she expressed the greatest amazement
because they had returned alive after all.
"You may thank Providence that you got back," she declared in her
characteristically brusque fashion. "It was through no skill of your
own, I'll be bound. Your poor mother and me were worried to death all
the time you were away--gallivanting over the ocean."
Aunt Gertrude did not add that Mrs. Hardy's worries had been chiefly
occasioned by her aunt's dire predictions of the certain death that
awaited the boys on the search. However, her tone was modified somewhat
when she realized that they had indeed been hunting for the missing
chums and she made it her business to call on the Hoopers and the
Mortons to condole with them, for she was a good-hearted soul in her
own way--although it is to be feared that her condolences did more to
add to the certainty that the boys were drowned than they served to
cheer up the sorrowing parents.
The third day after the Hardy boys returned she was sorting over the
morning mail, having duly taken charge of every department of the
household.
"Ha!" she exclaimed, holding a letter up to the light. "Here's a letter
addressed to Fenton Hardy. Bad news in it, I'll be bound."
Aunt Gertrude could smell bad news a mile away, Frank often said.
"Bad news in it. I can tell. I dreamed about haystacks last night.
Haystacks! Whenever I dream about haystacks it means bad news. I never
knew it to fail. Open the letter, Laura."
"But it isn't addressed to me," objected Mrs. Hardy.
"Fiddlesticks! It's addressed to your husband, isn't it? You have as
much right to open it as he has. More. It's a wife's duty to help her
husband as much as she can and look after his affairs for him. Man and
wife are one, aren't they? Open the letter."
Mrs. Hardy, with some misgivings, slit open the envelope and Aunt
Gertrude, who was possessed of an insatiable curiosity, immediately
seized the letter.
"I'll read it for you!" she offered.
"'Fenton Hardy--Bayport,'" she began. "'Dear Sir: We wish to inform you
that we have--' My goodness! What's this? What's this? Gracious me!"
She lapsed into unintelligible mutterings as she read the rest of the
letter to herself, frequently giving vent to exclamations of surprise
while her eyes widened with astonishment.
Mrs. Hardy and the boys could hardly contain their impatience until at
last Aunt Gertrude laid down the letter and peered triumphantly at them
over her spectacles.
"Didn't I say so?" she demanded stridently. "Didn't I say there was
bad news in this letter? Didn't I tell you I dreamed of haystacks last
night? Haystacks always mean bad news." She looked at the letter again.
"Although for the life of me I can't imagine what the man means. Hum!
Kidnapped!" She looked up suddenly at the Hardy boys and glared at them.
"You boys haven't been kidnapped lately? No. Of course not. What
nonsense! Has any one tried to kidnap you?"
"No, Aunt Gertrude," said Frank, utterly mystified.
"Then," demanded Aunt Gertrude, pushing the letter across to Mrs. Hardy
and folding her arms as though prepared to wait until doomsday for a
satisfactory answer, "what does this letter mean?"
Mrs. Hardy picked up the letter and read it aloud, while an expression
of amazement crossed her face.
"Fenton Hardy--Bayport," ran the letter. "Dear Sir: We wish to
inform you that we are holding your two sons in a safe place
and that we will not return them to you unless you agree to the
following conditions: You must pay us the sum of $5000 as ransom,
you must agree to refuse to give evidence in the Asbury Park bank
robbery case, and you must further agree to give up your pursuit of
our leader, Baldy Turk. These are our conditions. It will do you no
good to attempt to find your sons, for we will not hesitate to put
them out of the way if you attempt to discover our hiding place.
Furthermore, unless you agree to what we ask, it will go hard with
them. You may signify your agreement to the terms of this letter by
dropping a package containing the money and a signed statement to
the effect that you will drop your pursuit of Baldy Turk and that
you will not give evidence against our associates in the robbery
case from the 5:15 express from Bayport next Thursday afternoon as
it passes the grade crossing at the North Road."
The letter was unsigned.
"What on earth does it mean?" asked Mrs. Hardy.
Frank and Joe looked at one another in astonishment. Frank reached over
for the letter and examined it. The strange document was typewritten
on an ordinary quality of white paper. The envelope bore the Bayport
post-mark, indicating that it had been mailed from the city post-office
early that morning.
"It must be a practical joke of some kind," said Mrs. Hardy, in
perplexity.
"Practical joke, nothing!" scoffed Aunt Gertrude shrewdly. "Did Fenton
Hardy go to Chicago after some criminal?"
"He went to arrest Baldy Turk," replied Frank.
"There!" Aunt Gertrude pounded the table. "That explains the whole
thing. The companions of this Baldy person sent that letter in the hope
that it would bring Fenton Hardy back from Chicago by the next train."
"But the letter is addressed to Bayport."
"Certainly! Why not? They wouldn't know where to reach him in Chicago,
so they sent the letter here and trusted that it would be forwarded
to him. And if _I_ hadn't been here," said Aunt Gertrude, "it very
probably _would_ have been forwarded to him. Am I right?"
"I usually forward his personal mail," admitted Mrs. Hardy.
"There! Didn't I know it? And look what would have happened. Fenton
Hardy would have fallen right into the trap. He would have come back
home, thinking his precious sons were kidnapped, and that would have
given this Turk person time to get away. It's a blessing I was here,
I tell you. I hope this will be a lesson to you, Laura Hardy. _Always
open your husband's mail!_ Always!"