The Flickering Torch Mystery Part 13

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."

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.