Read Ebook: The house on the cliff by Dixon Franklin W Rogers Walter S Illustrator

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Ebook has 1439 lines and 38498 words, and 29 pages

opportune time. Then the recollection of the shrieks and the mocking laugh came back to him again and he shivered as he recalled the maniacal intensity of the tones.

"If it was any fellow like ourselves he was a mighty good actor," Frank said to himself. "I've heard of a person's blood running cold, but I never knew what it meant until I heard those yells."

Suddenly his motorcycle began, as he termed it, "acting up." It coughed, lurched, back-fired explosively, and then the engine died.

"What a fine time for a breakdown," Frank said, as he dismounted.

Joe drew up alongside. "What's the matter?" he called.

"Engine broke down."

"Gosh, aren't you lucky!" exclaimed Joe, grinning. "There's a shed over at the side of the road. Bring it over under cover."

He pointed to a tumble-down shed near by. Frank realized that it might take some time to discover the trouble, so he trundled the motorcycle over to the refuge his brother had indicated. In the meantime, Chet Morton had looked back, to find that the others were not following him, and had decided to return. The roar of his machine could be heard through the rain as he rode back toward them.

In the shelter of the shed, Frank first of all took off his coat and cap, which were dripping wet, and hung them up on a projecting board. Then, as Joe and Jerry stood by, glad of the chance to get in out of the rain, he rolled up his sleeves and prepared to find the source of the trouble.

They could hear Chet calling for them, as he drove along the road in the rain.

"Thinks we're lost," laughed Joe. He went over to the front of the shed and hailed their companion. "Come on up here!" he shouted. "Had a breakdown."

Grumbling audibly, Chet dismounted and came over toward the shed.

In the meantime, Frank had opened the tool box of his motorcycle.

The others were startled by a sudden exclamation. Frank was staring at the tool box, with a bewildered expression on his face.

"My tools!" he exclaimed. "They're gone!"

The other boys crowded around. The tool box was empty.

"Did you have them when you left Bayport?" asked Joe.

"Of course I did. I never go anywhere without them. Who on earth could have taken them?"

"You can have mine," offered Joe, going over to his own motorcycle. He snapped open the tool box on his machine and then gave a shout of astonishment.

"Mine are gone too!"

THE CHASE IN THE BAY

The boys stared at one another in bewilderment.

"I know my tool box was full when I left home," said Frank.

"And so was mine," came from Joe. "I was using the pliers just before we started out."

"Where could they have gone?"

"They must have been stolen while the motorcycles were in the shed at the Polucca place," Chet suggested.

"It's the only time they could have been taken," declared Frank. "It was the only time they were left unguarded."

Joe was frankly puzzled.

"But we didn't see any one around the place," said Jerry.

"No--but there was some one there. We heard those shrieks and the laugh. Some one stole those tools while we were in the house."

"It's some kind of a practical joke, that's what I'm beginning to think," declared Frank. "Let's go back and get those tools."

"Not on your life," objected Jerry decisively. "This is a little too much. First of all we hear those shrieks, and then the house almost comes down around our ears, and now we find that the tools have been stolen by somebody we didn't see. We're safer away from there."

Biff Hooper nodded agreement.

"That's what I think. There's something queer about that house. We'll get into trouble if we go butting in any more."

"But we want our tools!"

"Good night!" Chet exclaimed. "Perhaps mine are gone too." He ran out of the shed over to the road and hastily examined the tool box on his machine. Then he straightened up with an audible sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness, they're here! Guess whoever took the others figured he had enough."

"I'm going back!" declared Frank.

"If you do, you'll have to excuse me," Chet said. "You're welcome to use my tools to fix up your machine, but I won't go back with you."

"Me neither," chimed in Jerry and Biff simultaneously.

Frank and Joe were silent. They wanted to go back to the Polucca place and investigate the matter further, but they did not want to break up the party, so they decided it would be better policy to remain with their companions.

"All right," Frank said. "Lend me a pair of pliers and I'll have this trouble fixed up in no time."

He went over to Chet's motorcycle and got the desired tools. Then he began to tinker with his machine. It was only a minor defect, and a few minutes' work sufficed to repair the damage. In the meantime it was apparent that the rain was letting up, and by the time the Hardy boys took their motorcycles out of the shed and regained the road, it had died away to a mere drizzle.

"This has been some holiday!" Chet muttered, as he mounted his machine again. "I'm going home. Jerry, you and Biff had better come up to our place for dinner. How about you and Joe, Frank?"

"Thanks just the same, but we couldn't. We promised to be back home this afternoon."

"There's a side road that turns off here that makes a nice short-cut to our farm. I guess I'll go that way. There should be room for three on this bike, with a little crowding."

Jerry and Biff Hooper clambered on the motorcycle with Chet Morton and started off. The Hardy boys followed on their own machines until they reached the side road, about a hundred yards away. There the others left them, after shouting good-bye. Frank and Joe watched Chet's motorcycle, heavily loaded, disappear into the mists that hovered over the road, and then they prepared to continue their journey back to Bayport.

The shore road dipped at that point and wound down along the edge of the bay in a deep spiral, which brought them at one point almost back to the cliff at the top of which the Polucca place was located, although by now they were nearer the water's edge. From there the road sloped directly down to the shore, then ran along the edge of the bay and in toward the city.

Frank looked up toward the top of the cliff that loomed high above them. They could not see the Polucca place from where they were, as it was on the high ground and almost masked by trees, but the mystery of the place still preyed on their minds.

"I'd like to go back there yet," said Frank suddenly. "That affair of the tools has me guessing."

"Me too. But I think we'd better go on home. We can come back some other time and look for them."

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