The Hidden Harbor Mystery Read Online Free PDF

antagonistic eyes on the Hardys.
    â€œNot yet,” Joe spoke up without flinching. “We’d like to talk to your man, Grover. He saw that fight, too.”
    â€œGrover’s older brother in Chicago is very ill,” Blackstone returned promptly. “He begged me to let him go to see him, and I did. It’s his first vacation in many years, and I won’t have him brought back for any such nonsensical reason.”
    Blackstone accompanied the boys and the police officer when they returned to the waiting patrol car. “Chief Gerald,” he said warningly, “these boys have already trespassed on my land. Now they practically accuse me of something underhanded. If they ever set foot on my property again, or annoy me in any way, I’m going to ask you to arrest them!”
    Turning quickly, he strode back to the house. Then the police car drove out of the long private road and back toward Larchmont.
    â€œWell, boys,” the chief told them, “you’ve made a powerful enemy.”
    â€œThat doesn’t bother us,” Frank said. “Not if we find out the truth.”
    That afternoon, back at their camp, the three young detectives held a conference. “We must find out why that pond is so important,” Frank insisted. “I’m for going back there tonight with our skin-diving gear, and tracking down the monster!”
    That evening, as a big, round yellow moon rose above the trees of the dark swamp, the three boys stood at the pond’s edge. Frank and Joe, in bathing trunks, held diving face masks and flippers. Each had an aqualung strapped to his back. Chet stood by with a Thermos of hot broth.
    â€œWell, here goes,” said Frank quietly. He put on his mask, adjusted his breathing hose, and slipped into the black water.
    The next instant Chet and Joe were startled by a sudden crash of brush on the far side of the pond. As the boys stared almost hypnotized, a huge shape making remarkably little noise wrig gled off the bank into the water.
    Seconds later, a saw-tooth fin broke the smooth moonlit surface of the pond and headed straight for the spot where Frank had gone underl

CHAPTER V
    Marooned!
    â€œTHE monster! It’s after Frank!” cried Joe as the creature’s long serrate fin disappeared beneath the pond’s surface.
    Quickly adjusting his own face mask and breathing tube, Joe plunged into the dark, menacing water. He kicked powerfully with his flippers, and shot down through the water. The bottom of the pond was absolutely black, but just enough of the moon’s pale light filtered down through the murk for him to distinguish violent thrashing motions dead ahead.
    Instantly Joe encircled his brother’s shoulder with one arm. At the same time, he came to grips with something cold and slippery that was tugging Frank’s limp body deeper into the pond.
    Fearlessly Joe attacked. But the creature possessed great power and gradually wrestled him down into the thick ooze at the bottom.
    Joe gritted his teeth but never let go his hold on Frank. In a moment he wrenched himself loose from the monster. It closed in again. Desperately, Joe shook off his flippers and kicked with all his might against the cold, slimy body of the attacker.
    This propulsion speeded the boys upward through the water to the surface. With a frantic one-arm stroke, Joe swam to the shore, still grasping his unconscious brother. Chet waded out and helped pull them in. A few minutes later Frank was sitting up and shaking his head groggily.
    â€œDrink this,” ordered Chet, handing over the Thermos of beef broth. “What happened?”
    â€œThat thing got me from behind,” Frank reported, after a gulp of the hot broth. “My air line was nicked. Started to get a trickle of water. I held my breath till I blacked out!”
    Joe, meanwhile, had removed his own equipment and was examining his brother’s air hose. “A jagged cut,” he told them.