The Flickering Torch Mystery Part 7

d.i.c.k was interested to learn what had happened, but impatient to be off to start solving his own problem. He drove rapidly.

"By the way, were you doing any blasting on the road early this evening ?'' asked Frank.

"No, not today. Why?"

The Hardy boy told of the earthquake scare.

"Earthquake!" exclaimed d.i.c.k. "It's news to me. I didn't feel any earthquake."

This made the earth tremor more mysterious than ever. If it had been a real earthquake, why hadn't it been felt at short distances away!

"Something else to puzzle about," said Frank. "This locality is full of mysteries."

The car left the regular road, and turned onto the right-of-way of the construction project.

The Hardy boys peered into the gathering gloom. They saw the flickering lights of the smudge pots. At the end of the new work d.i.c.k stopped the automobile, and the boys got out.

"Lonely spot at this hour," he remarked.

'' Don't you have a watchman around ?'' asked Joe.

75 "Yes. Wonder where he is ? Well, I suppose *we can hide near the tool house and keep watch fora while------"

'' Listen!'' interrupted Frank suddenly.

They stood motionless in the darkness. For a moment they heard nothing. Then, out of the gloom, came an eerie, moaning sound. It was followed by a distant rattling noise. Then again came the blood-chilling wail.

CHAPTER IX.

THE HOODED FIGURE.

1' come on!" said Frank. '' Someone may be hurt!"

He whipped a flashlight from his pocket and leaped across the ditch. The others followed hastily. The boys scrambled over the fence, cut across an open field, climbed another fence into a cornfield. They stopped and listened.

The corn rustled in the night wind. But they did not hear the groans again. After a few moments, however, they noticed the strange metallic rattling. It subsided and died away.

Frank judged the direction of the sound and plunged into the rows of corn. A dark figure loomed in front of him. It was that of a huge, gaunt man with extended arms.

It rose up out of the gloom so suddenly that Frank leaped back with a gasp of surprise.

He turned the beam of the flashlight full upon it, and then he began to chuckle.

"Boy!" he exclaimed. "That, gave me a scare!"

"Me too," admitted d.i.c.k. "I was just getting ready to take off for the fence.''

The grotesque figure was nothing but a scare76 77 crow set up in the cornfield to frighten off the crows. In the dim light the effect had looked particularly human.

"That would scare any crow within an inch of his life,'' declared d.i.c.k.

Frank turned the flashlight into the corn rows. "It still doesn't solve the mystery of those moans and rattles we heard. Let's stay perfectly quiet. Maybe we'll hear them again."

Silently the boys waited, listened. They heard nothing for a time. Then abruptly, as a gust of wind pa.s.sed over the field, the rattling sounds broke out again.

They realized then that the noises came from the scarecrow as it trembled in the bveeze. They investigated the figure more carefully. At the ends of the figure's arms they found tin cans tied to the crossbar. Joe shook one of them. It rattled violently.

"That's one mystery solved anyway," he announced cheerfully. '' The cans have pebbles inside. When the wind blows they rattle, and scare away the birds."

Frank was examining the figure's trouser legs. "Here's something that doesn't have anything to do with the crows," he said gravely. "d.i.c.k, what do you make of this?"

From the trouser leg he dragged a heavy object. The boys gazed at it in the beam of the flashlight. The object was a power drill of the type used in preparing rock for blasting.

"Well, Great Scott!" exclaimed d.i.c.k Ames.

78 "How did that get here? It looks like one of our drills."

"Strange place to hide it," said Frank. "Maybe we've stumbled on something important."

Joe suggested that one of the road workers might have hidden the power drill in the scarecrow for safekeeping."

"There wouldn't be any need for that," objected d.i.c.k. "The drills are supposed to be locked up in the tool house at the end of the day's work."

d.i.c.k was considerably excited by the discovery. Following so close on his altercation with Hefty Cronin about the copper wire, it left him more convinced than ever that sinister forces were at work. He turned to the Hardy boys.

"I'm going to stay on watch for the rest of the night. I don't know where the regular man is. But I can't ask you fellows to stay with me."

'' We '11 do it if you need us," volunteered Joe.

"This is my responsibility," d.i.c.k said. "But I'll tell you what you can do to help me. If you don't mind driving my car back to the village and asking a chum of mine to come out here to help me keep watch------"

"I'll go," said Frank. "In the meantime, you and Joe can hunt for the person or thing that made the moaning sound. What's your chum's name, d.i.c.k, and where does he live?"

"His name is Harry Maxwell, and you'll find 79 Mm at Smith's boarding house. Tell him to bring along some milk and sandwiches.''

'' Right. I won't be long.''

Frank moved off between the corn rows. d.i.c.k and Jca made an intensive search of the area, but came upon nothing except a prowling cat.

"I believe those weird sounds were made on purpose by someone who wanted to keep us away from here," surmised Joe. "Probably the person who hid the power drill." He examined the scarecrow to be sure the machine was still there. "His scheme didn't work, so he left. What bothers me more than that is the disappearance of your watchman.''

"I'll look into that when the others come back," said d.i.c.k.

The boys sat down at a vantage point by the fence, about thirty feet away from the scarecrow, where they could keep an eye on the figure, the road, and the tool shed as well. It was dark, but the moon was rising, and they were pretty sure no one would be able to come near them without being seen.

They were just making themselves comfortable by a fence post, when Joe caught a glimmer of light down the lane that led to the cliffs. He watched tensely. The light disappeared.

"d.i.c.k, we must follow that!" he cried, running down the dirt road.

Bounding a turn, they saw the light again. This time it flared up, flickering.

80 Joe grabbed d.i.c.k's arm. "Would you say that came from a torch?" he whispered.

The light vanished, then flared up. This time there was no mistaking the fact that it was a flame of fire. Someone was standing out there on the cliffs.

"Look! "d.i.c.k cried.

The flickering torch revealed a tall, hooded figure holding the light on high, waving it back and forth.

"It's a signal!" yelped Joe, wild with excitement. '' Come on, d.i.c.k!''

They raced down the lane. As they ran, Joe gasped out a few fragments of information for the benefit of his bewildered friend.

"Big case-Dad's been working on it-told us to be on the lookout for a flickering torchhurry------''

The flaming light flashed again in the night. Once more they could see that sinister figure in a long cloak and hooded like a monk, standing high on the cliff.

"He's signaling to someone in the bay!" panted Joe.

The light flickered out. The person vanished. Both the boys ran on. The ground became rougher and steeper. In the distance they could hear the crash of waves against the base of the steep cliffs.

At the top of the slope the boys halted, panting for breath. Joe played his flashlight around-The cliff top was bare. There was no 81 torch, no hooded figure. Nothing but weeds and bushes rustling in the night wind, nothing but the roar of the water below.

"Lost him!" muttered Joe, disappointed.

'' He can't be far away.''

The boys separated and searched the cliff top thoroughly. But they found no one. The flashlight revealed not even a human footprint. Joe stood on the cliff and gazed out to sea, listening for the sound of a boat.

"I think our friend was signaling to someone. Either the torch was a signal to come in or to stay away.''

A sudden thought struck d.i.c.k. "Maybe that torch was meant for us,'' he said.

'' What do you mean ?''

"The power drill! When we saw that torch, what did we do ? We left the cornfield and ran for the cliff. Maybe that was exactly what the man wanted us to do."

"To lure us away from the scarecrow!" exclaimed Joe. "You might be right at that."

They hurried back down the slope, ran across the lane, and entered the cornf eld again.

Dimly they could see the grotesque shape of the scare* crow. The pebbles rattled dismally in the tin cans. When they reached the object, Joe switched on his flashlight. The tattered trouser legs hung limp.

"The power drill is gone!" gasped d.i.c.k.

CHAPTER X.

THE CLUB WITH THE HOLE.

the Hardy boys were at breakfast next morning when a visitor was announced.

''Mr. Grable is at the front door and wants to see you at once!" said Mrs. Trumper, fluttering into the dining room nervously.

Aunt Gertrude looked suspiciously at her nephews. "I hope you two boys haven't been up to something!" she snapped. "You were out late again last night."

"We met d.i.c.k Ames," explained Frank, as both boys excused themselves and went out onto the porch.

"I hope I haven't disturbed you," said Asa Grable. He looked tired and a good deal more worried than when they had seen him last.

"Anything wrong?" asked Frank.

The scientist nodded. "Another robbery," he whispered.

"When?"

'' Last night.'' Asa Grable was upset and dispirited. "I can't understand it. The place is so well guarded-and yet I lost dozens of my most valuable moths."

"Haven't you any notion of how the theives got in?"

The scientist shook his head. "Everything seemed to be in perfect order when I w.nt into the greenhouses this morning."

"Perhaps we'd better go over and look around," Frank suggested. "We may be able to find some clue you overlooked.''

Asa Grable seemed alarmed.

"No. No-you mustn't do that. Archibald would-I mean, everyone would know you were working on the case for me. I'd rather have you come over quietly, on some excuse, and just look around as you did the other day. I've already thought of a plan."

The scientist explained wh^t L: wanted them to do. It would be best, he thought, if they should go to work as usual at the Experimental Farm in order to divert suspicion.

"I sometimes order special soil from the Farm,'' he said. " I '11 telephone for a load of it this morning. I'll ask the man in charge to a.s.sign you the job of bringing it over to my place.

That will give you a chance to look around."

"Sounds like a good scheme," Joe agreed.

Asa Grable glanced at his watch. "I'll have to be getting back. Archibald is very upset about this affair. Very upset. How in the world I'm going to replace those moths------"