CHAPTER VIII

Council of War

frank had no idea how long he had lain unconscious. When he regained his senses, his head was throbbing and there was a painful gash on his forehead.

He touched it gingerly, then shook his head to clear his brain. As if from a great distance, he heard the sound of voices-then realized they were only a few feet away, on the other side of the bushes. Sweeper and the short man were searching the car!

Footsteps approached, and the boy shrank back against the grass, feigning unconsciousness. Through almost closed eyes, he saw the two men staring down at him.

"Come on," Sweeper said at last. "We can't get any information out of him."

Frank waited until he heard the roar of their motorcycle. It misfired, then disappeared into the night with a peculiar uneven rhythm.

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62 The Secret or Skull Mountain

Frank stood up shakily and went back to the car. There was evidence of a search in the open compartments and the litter of keys, flashlight bulbs and crumpled papers and maps on the seat.

Frank started the motor and guided the car onto the dirt road. Around a bend in the road he saw a farmhouse, and stopped to ask permission to use the phone.

Fenton Hardy himself answered the call.

"What's wrong, son?" he queried with immediate concern. "You sound as if you're sick."

"Not sick, Dad," Frank replied. "Just a little shaky. But I'll be all right."

He told his father of the holdup. Mr. Hardy was greatly interested in Frank's description of the men and the possibility that one of them might be the tall, thin stranger Frank had seen on the mountain and later entering Klenger's shop.

"It looks to me, Dad," the boy said, "as if the mystery of the disappearing water is tied up somehow to your disappearing scientist!"

"It certainly does, Frank," the detective agreed. "And it looks as ir Bayport was the place named in the telegram after all!"

Frank hung up, after promising his father to be careful, and paid the farmer for the call. But the farmer's wife refused to allow the boy to leave the house until she had applied a bandage to his cut forehead.

It was late when Frank arrived at Carpenter's

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camp. There had been a rain squall on the mountain that afternoon, and the narrow, slippery trail made climbing slow and dangerous.

Joe and Chet greeted him with enthusiasm, which changed to concern when they saw the bandage on his forehead.

"What happened?" Joe asked.

Frank told them, beginning with Mr. Hardy's return home and concluding with the masked holdup.

"Zowie!" Chet exclaimed, shaking his head won-deringly. "Everything happens to you!"

Frank grinned, and gave his friend the package of clothes he had brought.

"Here, Chet," he said. "Now you can join Joe and me when we go after those holdup men."

"Huh?" Chet gulped. "Not me!" he declared, cradling the package in his arms and walking toward his tent. "I'm too delicate for strong-arm stuff!"

The Hardy boys laughed. Frank looked around and noticed that the two engineers were not in camp.

"Where are Bob and Dick?" he asked.

"They went down toward the dam," Joe replied. "This afternoon Bob painted a white stripe on a slab of rock, to mark the water level. They've gone to see whether the water line is the same as it was earlier in the day."

As the boys walked toward their tents, Joe brought

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Frank up to date on his activities. That afternoon he had seen another column of smoke rising from the crest of the mountain. Joe had located the spot carefully with his eyes, but when he had climbed to the spot, two hours later, he had been unable to find any trace of a fire.

"It was the same old story," he concluded gloomily, "I got nowhere fast!"

Chet ducked his head out of his pup tent.

"Hey!" he called. "How about some chow? I'm starved!"

With Chet leading the way, the boys went to the shack familiarly known as "Carpenter's Cottage." There, after a late snack of sandwiches, soda pop and what remained of Aunt Gertrude's cake, Frank called a council of war.

"For the past few days," he said, "the water shortage has been a serious problem, fellows. But now it's becoming dangerous. I hope Bob finds the leak in the reservoir before much more time goes by!"

"You said it," Chet agreed. "But how?"

"All we're sure of," Joe pointed out, "is that Potato Annie and Sailor Hawkins are determined to save their homes and would do anything to keep the water out of the valley."

"I'm convinced that there are more important people than the squatters interested in keeping Tarnack Reservoir from filling," Frank told him. "I think we've got to look for something that ties

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in with Dr. Foster, the scientist Dad is searching for."

Chet crammed another sandwich into his mouth.

"You moan that secret process Dr. Foster was working on when he disappeared could be tied up in some way with Skull Mountain?" he mumbled.

"Possibly," Frank said, smiling.

"I don't see the connection," Joe disagreed.

"I don't either, Joe-yet," said his brother. "But everything I found out today points to a tie-up between Klenger, Dr. Foster and the thin man called Sweeper. And we saw the thin man on the mountain!"

"That's true," Joe nodded. "But what about Bob's theory?" he demanded after a moment. "Bob's still convinced the water is running out through an underground channel."

"I don't believe there is any old tunnel," Chet grumbled. "I poked away at every likely spot along the shore with that old pole and nothing happened."

"Nothing but a ducking," Joe reminded him with a grin.

Chet sniffed.

"There's got to be a tunnel," Frank said determinedly. "There's no other way for the water to escape."

"Uh-huh," Joe scoffed. "But where is it? It doesn't start in the river bed, or the men who built the dam would have discovered it. And Bob and

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Dick and Chet have searched along the sides of the reservoir."

"Yes, I know," Frank admitted. Then suddenly a thought struck him. "Wait a minute!" he said excitedly.

"What is it?" Joe wanted to know.

Frank looked at him. "Didn't Dick say the water rises in the reservoir in the daytime?"

Joe nodded. "But he said it never rises above twenty feet."

"And remember when Bob picked up the shingles after he'd planted them?"

"Sure," said Joe. "It was just before nightfall."

"Then that's it!" Frank exclaimed excitedly.

"That's what?" Chet interrupted.

Frank turned to him. "If there is an underground channel," he explained, "and I'm betting my bottom dollar that there is-it's draining the water off at night! That's why the shingles didn't reveal any currents that would indicate where the water is escaping!"

"Why wouldn't the tunnel drain off the water in the daytime, too?" Joe objected.

Frank shrugged. "There you've got me. But there's one way to prove whether the geologist Bob told us about had the correct theory about an underground channel. That's by planting some stuff in the reservoir at night!"

"And if the tunnel exists, the stuff will be carried

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through and we can watch for it at the other end!" Joe finished, reflecting Frank's excitement.

"But where is the other end?" asked Chet skeptically.

"According to the book Bob read, the underground river emptied into the bay at Bayport," Frank replied. "But since then the whole coast line in this area has been sinking. The river mouth could be away out in the bay now."

The boys were silent for a moment, each considering the possibilities of the plan. If it worked, they'd be much closer to solving the mystery.

"Hey!" Chet said suddenly. "I smell smoke!"

The boys sniffed.

"See if something's burning on the stove, Chet," Frank suggested.

Chet rose heavily from his chair and went to the stove.

"Nothing here," he reported.

Chet started back, then stared. Wisps of smoke were curling through the floor boards of the wooden shack!

"Fire!" he yelled, pointing to the floor.

Frank and Joe leaped to their feet.

"Come on, Frank!" yelled Joe. "It's under the floor!"

"Take that bucket of water with you!" Frank ordered, pointing behind his brother.

Joe grabbed up the bucket as Frank ran for the

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door. The elder Hardy boy pulled on the knob, but the door refused to open. He pulled again with all his strength.

"Chet!" he gasped. "Give me a hand!"

Young Morton also gripped the doorknob, and to-gather they strained at it.

"It must be jammed," Frank breathed. "It won't budge!"

"Try the windows!" Joe shouted.

They ran to the two windows in the shack, then drew back. Flames were already licking the window sills!

Joe emptied the water bucket on them, but the flames continued to mount. The boys looked at one another. They were trapped!