The Sinister Signpost Part 7

In a moment the boys were shinning up the pillars of the veranda. They grasped the ledge and hauled themselves up onto the roof. Here another setback awaited them; the window of their room was closed and locked.

The only one open was that leading to Aunt Gertrude's quarters. It was halfway up. Did they dare run the risk of disturbing their eccentric relative?

"I'm game if you are," Frank whispered.

"You go first," said his brother in stifled tones.

Frank crept along the roof. If luck were with them they might be able to enter Aunt Gertrude's room and gain the hallway beyond without awakening her.

Gently Frank reached out to raise the window a 74 little higher. He almost tumbled off the roof in surprise as he did so, for a white figure suddenly appeared in front of him. A pistpl was thrust through the open s.p.a.ce and pointed at his chest.

"Get away from here this minute or I'll shoot!"

It was Aunt Gertrude, standing there in curling papers and a voluminous cotton nightgown.

"It's only Frank," her nephew a.s.sured her hastily. "Don't shoot!"

"Who?" she demanded.

"Your nephew, Frank. Joe and I couldn't get in."

Aunt Gertrude glared at the boys.

"Brats!" she snapped. "Come in off that roof. I'm a nervous wreck. I might have killed you if-if-----"

Frank reached out and took the pistol from his aunt's fingers. He was fearful it might go off.

There was no danger, however! It was only a toy gun. Although the joke had been on the boys, they now used it to tease their relative.

"Where did you get this, Aunt Gertrude?" Frank asked as he crawled through the window, followed by Joe.

"I-I keep it under my pillow-for protection," quavered the lady, furious that her deception had been found out.

Joe could not repress a snicker. Aunt Gertrude grabbed the toy pistol from Frank's hand and thrust it under her pillow.

"Get out of here!" she ordered wrathfully. "The very idea! Climbing in through my window in the middle of the night. It's lucky I didn't drop dead of heart failure. Leave the room this very instant and go 75.

to bed. I'll have something to say to your mother about this in the morning, my fine young gentlemen."

"We'll tell her you pointed a toy gun at us," chuckled Frank, as the pair hustled out of the good lady's room. She slammed the door behind them with a bang.

For once the boys had a joke on their temperamental aunt. Moreover, she never said a word about their unorthodox manner of entering the house.

The moment Frank and Joe awakened the following morning, they began to discuss the events on the river the evening before.

"We started out to find Topnotch Topnotch and now we've stumbled upon another kind of and now we've stumbled upon another kind of mystery," was the way Frank summed up the situation.

"Let's stick to the Topnotch Topnotch affair," Joe said. "We've made some progress on that case affair," Joe said. "We've made some progress on that case by locating the van."

The boys had no additional success during the next few days. They scanned the papers eagerly every morning for word of the missing race-horse, but learned nothing new. They could not even find any mention of a search being made for the animal. At length, becoming impatient, they set out for Spurtown and looked up Ivan, the jockey, whom they found at the race-track.

"No, Topnotch Topnotch isn't back yet," he told them in answer to their inquiries. isn't back yet," he told them in answer to their inquiries.

Mr. Prescott, owner of the horse, had been in communication with the kidnappers, he said. His method of replying to them was by means of "personal" advertis.e.m.e.nts inserted in the Spurtown newspaper.

"He has just about decided to pay the ransom, but of course he wants to be sure that the men actually have j6 the horse," Ivan said. "That is the hitch now. He is demanding proof from them that the animal will be returned unharmed if he hands over the money. By the way, Mr. Prescott is coming to Bayport tomorrow. I'll tell him to call on you."

Ivan was as good as his word. Next morning a lanky, kindly-faced old gentleman with white moustache and goatee called at the Hardy home and introduced himself as the owner of the Prescott stables. Frank and Joe thereupon told him of their interest in the Topnotch Topnotch case and of finding the missing van.

The man was deeply interested.

"I may not have to pay that ransom after all!" he exclaimed. "Perhaps you young gentlemen would be good enough to take me to the place where you saw the truck?"

"Sure thing 1" they both agreed.

They drove Mr. Prescott to the abandoned road, and then walked down the trail past the forbidding signs. They armed themselves with stout sticks in the event of an encounter with the dog, but their precautions were needless. The animal did not appear, and they discovered the clearing without being molested.

A surprise awaited them. The boys gasped in disappointment.

"Why, the van is gone!" exclaimed Joe.

CHAPTER X the foreigner's house.

mr. prescott glanced at his companions sceptically. He was wondering if the boys really had seen the truck. But their obvious dismay and bewilderment soon rea.s.sured him that they had.

"What could have happened to it?" wondered Frank.

"I suppose the thieves came and drove it away," replied Mr. Prescott. "Too bad we had to make this journey for nothing."

The Hardy boys were greatly chagrined, but the elderly gentleman made light of the matter. After all, he told them, it was the horse he wanted and not the van. He doubted that the vehicle would have given any clue as to the whereabouts of Topnotch. Topnotch.

"If you two lads would care to continue your investigation," he told them, "I should appreciate it very much. I don't mi'nd telling you that I will gladly pay a reward of two thousand dollars for the return of my horse."

"We've started on this case and we don't intend to give up now," they told him, with the a.s.surance that they would do everything in their power to effect the return of the missing race-horse.

That evening the boys started discussing not only this mystery but also the strange affair of Vilnoff and the secret that lay behind his appearance on Barmet Bay at a time when Fenton Hardy presumably had left him in New York. It was Frank who offered a solution to this problem when he ventured the theory that perhaps the traveller had a brother who resembled him in appearance.

"We saw a man who looked like Vilnoff. Dad is positive he talked with Vilnoff in New York. The fellow couldn't be in two places at once; therefore, Vilnoff must have a double,"

reasoned Frank logically.

"What do you say to our going back to his house? We may be able to pick up some information."

"Isn't the place closed up?"

"No, I heard today that the servants are still in charge."

"Maybe we can persuade them to tell us something," said Frank.

One dim light was shining in a lower window of the Vilnoff residence when the boys arrived.

They ascended the front steps and rang the bell. At first there was no answer, but after some moments they heard footsteps in the hall. The door then swung open, and a butler appeared before them.

"Is Mr. Vilnoff at home?" inquired Frank.

The man shook his head.

"I am sorry. Mr. Vilnoff sailed for Europe several days ago."

The boys pretended that this information came as a great surprise to them.

"When do you expect him back?"

"I'm sure I can't say, sir," replied the butler non-committally.

79 "Then," said Joe, "may we speak to his brother, the other Mr. Vilnoff?"

The butler's face was impa.s.sive.

"Mr. Vilnoff has no brother, as far as I am aware, sir," he returned.

"I always thought he had a brother," said the Hardy boy.

"Indeed, sir? I am afraid you have been mistaken. No brother of Mr. Vilnoff has ever stayed here."

At this moment there came an interruption. From the lower part of the house there issued a sudden loud droning sound as if a motor had started up. This was followed immediately by a whirring noise.

The butler's face lost its look of studied impa.s.sivity. He was startled and evidently very much frightened.

"One moment, please 1" he exclaimed hastily, and hurried down the hall, leaving the door wide open.

"Now's our chancel" whispered Frank, excited.

"What do you mean?"

"There's something queer about this place. I believe Vilnoff is is here. Joe, you hide in the here. Joe, you hide in the hall. When the butler comes back he'll think you have left. Then, later on, you can watch for a chance to let me in and we'll do some investigating."

The peculiar sounds of droning and whirring in the bas.e.m.e.nt suddenly ceased.

"Hurry ["urged Frank.

Joe slipped across the threshold and glided into the hall. In die distance he could hear the sound of the butler's footsteps on the cellar stairs. Joe looked around for a hiding place, saw a heavy sofa in the room just off the hall, and dived behind it.

80 THE SINISTER SKJN POST.

He was not a moment too soon. The servant appeared a few seconds later. He looked a little surprised when he found Frank waiting alone.

'"Oh, the other boy is gone?" he said. Then, "I'm very sorry I cannot help you. But I am quite sure Mr. Vilnoff has no brother."

Frank pretended to be satisfied with the butler's statement.

"Very well," he answered. "I'm sorry if I have bothered you."

"Not at all, sir," replied the servant, and closed the door.

Frank went down the steps, conscious that the man was watching him through the gla.s.s in the door. Then he made his way along the front path. As soon as he was out of sight of the veranda he ducked into the shrubbery. A few minutes later the porch light was extinguished, and he began creeping toward the house in the darkness.

He and Joe were running a big risk, it was clear to him. If they should be trapped this time they would not escape as lightly as they had on the previous occasion when the gardener and the chauffeur had caught them.

Frank eventually reached the big porch safely, and stole quietly up the steps. As he did so he saw a quick, sudden gleam of light at the window of the room in which Joe had hidden himself. For a moment the bright rays alarmed him. Then he realized that his brother had switched on his flashlight as a signal.

Frank moved silently across the veranda and waited at the entrance. He heard the k.n.o.b rattle. Then the 81 door swung open. At the same instant a bell in the house began ringing shrilly.

"Burglar alarm!" whispered Frank.

It had never occurred to the Hardy boys that the Vilnoff home might be protected in this manner. It was too late to back out now. Frank stepped inside and closed the door quickly.

In the darkness Joe grabbed his arm.

"This way!" he whispered, and led Frank into the adjoining room. Joe had made good use of his time by sizing up the situation, and headed toward the heavy velvet curtains that hung before the front windows.

The bell was still ringing, and its jangling aroused the entire household. Frank and Joe could hear excited voices downstairs, followed by running footsteps. Someone came hurrying into the front hall and turned on the light. Another switch clicked, and the bell stopped ringing.

They heard a voice. It was answered by a second one. There were two men in the hall.

The boys recognized one as that of the butler, but he was speaking in a foreign language.

His companion answered in the same tongue.

Both servants then began a diligent search of the house. They entered the room in which the boys were hidden, and looked behind the sofa and chairs. One of them approached the window curtains, but just as he was about to draw them aside his companion called to him from the hall and the man withdrew. Frank and Joe, who had been breathless with suspense, were greatly relieved as they listened to his retreating footsteps.

82 The two lads experienced a bad ten minutes as the search continued, but finally the servants returned to the hall, examined the burglar alarm mechanism, and concluded that the contrivance must have gone off by accident. The pair held a long discussion in their own language, but finally went away, grumbling.

Frank and Joe remained hidden behind the curtains for some time. After a while they heard someone ascending the stairs at the rear of the house, and surmised that the buder was going to his own room. The place then became quiet.

"I guess we'd better clear out of here," whispered Joe. "We're lucky they didn't catch us."

"Now that we're in the house we might as well investigate that cellar again," returned Frank in guarded tones. "We may never have another chance."

Joe wasn't any too enthusiastic about the idea, but he offered no objections and followed his brother as he stole out from behind the drapes and moved quietly toward the hall. By the aid of Joe's flashlight they made their way into the kitchen. There the boys discovered a door that evidently led into the bas.e.m.e.nt. They opened it and went down the flight of steps.

The beam of the electric torch revealed the workbench they had seen on the previous occasion when they had viewed the bas.e.m.e.nt through the window. There seemed to be even more machinery in the place now. The stand was littered with sc.r.a.ps of metal and coils of wire. The boys became curious.