The footprints explained

"Well, Hardy!" the ship owner was saying. "You walked right into the trap, didn't you?"

"So it seems," agreed the detective, with apparent chagrin.

"I was too smart for you that time," Orrin North laughed shortly. "As if I didn't know you were following me today I Why, the minute I got wise I said to myself, 'Follow me, eh? I'll let him follow me right into a trap.' And here you are."

"What do you intend to do about it?" inquired Fenton Hardy.

"I'm going to ask you some questions. That's what I'm going to do first of all. Who set you to followin' me?"

"That's for you to find out."

"I'll tell you what I think," growled North. "I think you're workin' for the authorities. For the government. What I thought you were doing for me, you were doing for my enemy."

"I never accepted your proposition," Fenton Hardy reminded him. "You asked me to work for you in helping to break up the smuggling ring but I never gave you my answer. I didn't trust you, North. I thought I knew why you "wanted to engage me. It was to remove suspicion from yourself."

"So you decided to work for the authorities?"

"Exactly."

"And what has it got you?"

"Well," said the detective, "I think I have some evidence against you and Louie Fong. Not as much as I should like to have, but enough to break up your smuggling ring."

"And you're going to use that evidence?"

"If I get out of here–yes."

"Well, you're not going to get out of here long enough to use it. I'll show you what your meddling has brought you. Come here."

He rose from his chair, and still keeping the revolver trained on Fenton Hardy, strode to the door of the chamber in which the boys were imprisoned. He unlocked it and flung the door open. Louie Fong, who emerged from the shadows behind Fenton Hardy, viewed the scene, grinning with delight.

"Look there!" said North.

Fenton Hardy was staggered.

"My boys!" he exclaimed. "How did they get here?"

"By meddlin'. Same as you," Orrin North told him. He slammed the door before father and sons could exchange a word.

" Now," continued the ship owner, after giving the key a careless twist, "maybe you'll think twice before you turn your evidence over to the authorities."

"You won't harm my sons?" demanded Fenton Hardy incredulously.

There was a shrill, diabolical laugh from Louie Fong.

"Won't we?" said North. "If you turn that evidence over to the authorities you'll never see your boys alive again."

"In that case," said Fenton Hardy, "I must admit defeat."

"But that isn't all," said North. "I don't trust you, Hardy. I don't trust you a bit. You're too slippery. I'm going to get rid of you."

"How?"

"One of my boats is leavin' Bayport tonight, on a voyage to South America. You're goin’ to be on that vessel.''

The boys felt a thrill of horror as they listened intently to the conversation beyond their prison.

"How can I be sure that my sons will be safe?" asked Fenton Hardy.

"You'll have to trust Louie Fong for that," said North with a wicked, cruel wink toward the Chinaman. "You may as well make up your mind to it, Hardy," the ship owner rasped. "You're through. We're goin' to ship you out of here tonight and you're never comin' back. As for those precious boys of yours, we'll attend to them ourselves. You got yourself into this mess and it's no concern of mine what happens to you as long as you're out of my way. Understand?"

Frank had not been wasting his time. The moment Orrin North had closed the door, he had sprung toward the lock. On the floor of the chamber he had found a small wedge of wood, which he had swiftly slipped into the catch before the ship owner could turn the key.

Frank, now at the door, quietly tested the knob. Had his scheme worked? If it had failed he knew that all hope was lost.

He turned the handle, pulled slightly on the door. It moved. The device had not caught. On this point Frank Hardy had outwitted the sinister jailers.

"You and your boys are better out of the way, so far as me and Louie Fong is concerned," he could hear North snarling. "I'm not takin' any chances on a term in the penitentiary."

Tom Wat sped across the cell and grabbed Frank by the arm. He sensed what the boy had in mind.

"Me run velly klick!" he whispered. "Go get help."

Frank hesitated not a moment. He decided to let Tom Wat make the first attempt to flee. Even if the Chinaman were caught he would occupy the attention of North and Louie Fong sufficiently to open the way to escape on the part of himself and Joe.

He opened the door slightly. Tom "Wat peered out, and gestured to Frank as a signal that he was ready. Frank flung the door open, and like a flash his disguised Chinese friend leaped over the threshold. He was halfway across the room before Orrin North or his companion saw him.

There was a screech of rage from Louie Fong, who immediately sprang at the flying figure, but he was too slow. Tom Wat was across the room, had wrenched open the door, and disappeared.

Roaring with fury, Orrin North jumped to his feet. The revolver wavered. In that instant Fenton Hardy, who had been coolly awaiting his opportunity, leaped at him.

At the same moment Frank and Joe sped out of the cell. They were met by Louie Fong, who snatched up a hatchet from the floor, and sent it whizzing through the air. Frank dodged the missile and then crashed against the Chinaman.

The Oriental screeched for help. A door opened, and three of his servants rushed in from an adjoining room. Confusion prevailed. One could scarcely distinguish friend from foe. Fong was trying desperately to regain possession of his hatchet-he would stop at nothing.

Fenton Hardy and North struggled desperately in the middle of the room. Joe tackled one of the Chinamen and sent him crashing against the wall with a well-aimed blow that caught the fellow on the point of the jaw. Louie Fong, his long fingers grappling at Frank's throat, gasped as the boy's fists smashed against his evil face. He stumbled back. Frank flew at him and they went crashing over the table and plunged to the floor in a flurry of kicking legs and flailing fists. Shouts, groans, shrieks and yells mingled with the thud of blows, the crash of furniture.

Suddenly from outside came a great pounding and clattering, ending in a terrific smash. There was a shot, a thudding of feet on the stairs, a roar of voices. A door swung open. Policemen swarmed into the room.

They swung their clubs right and left. The battle ceased as suddenly as it began. When it was over, Orrin North, Louie Fong and the Chinamen were in handcuffs, aghast and subdued.

"We didn't get any signal, Sir, from you," said a burly officer as he saluted Fenton Hardy, "but when a girl with slanty eyes came up and said there was a murder going on here, we came on a run!"

"Quite right, Officer," replied Fenton Hardy, smiling. "You came in the nick of time. I wasn't in any position to give you a signal as I had promised."

He turned to his sons. "Boys, it was you who saved the day." The fond parent gripped a hand of each of his brave lads.

"But what's the meaning of it, Dad?" demanded Frank when the first joyous greetings were over. "We thought you were out of town, and we knew there was danger here, so we were trying to help solve the mystery."

"I knew there was real danger," he told them. "I realized North was trying to set a trap for me-I have been watching the crook. I had planned to send for help, but of course in the final scrimmage which was so unexpected, I couldn't do that because North had me covered. But the escape, through your efforts, of that girl friend–by the way, who is she? How did you come to be imprisoned here? I want to know all about it."

The story was soon told. Frank and Joe related to their father how they had first become involved in the affair, beginning with the arrival of Henry Pinkerton and the discovery of the footprints under the window. When they explained what they had learned about the activities of the smuggling ring, Fenton Hardy was delighted.

"Just the evidence I need to complete my case!" he exclaimed. "With your friend Sam Lee as a witness I can break up that smuggling ring so thoroughly that it can never be revived."

Once more the Hardy boys had proved their worth; so much so that their father was to send them soon to solve "The Mark on the Door." Just now he was high in his praise.

"I wanted to work secretly on the case," he explained, "and it suited my purpose to have Orrin North believe I had gone away. I never accepted his proposition at any time. As a matter of fact, I went back to the house one night and took the papers in the case from my coat pocket and mailed them to him. I slipped in quietly because I didn't want you to know I was still in Bayport. But I didn't see this impostor of yours–Henry Pinkerton. I looked in the window first, because I wanted to see if everything was all right at home."

"And you lost a note?" exclaimed Joe.

"Did you find it?" said Fenton Hardy. "Yes, I lost a note I had picked up in one of the Chinese places when I was shadowing Louie Fong."

"Then," said Frank solemnly, "Aunt Gertrude must have dreamed about that Chinaman after all. And now, I know whose footprints we have been tabulating."

"Do you?" said Joe. "I, too, have a hunch."

And have you guessed by this time, my readers, that the footprints under the window were those of the famous detective, Fenton Hardy!

THE END

Текст подготовлен эксклюзивно для группы ВК

Dare to read: Нэнси Дрю и Братья Харди

(https://vk.com/daretoreadndrus)

СПАСИБО, что читаете книги!