The Secret Warning Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  CHAPTER I - A Ghost Walks

  CHAPTER II - Close Combat

  CHAPTER III - Mystery Map

  CHAPTER IV - Danger Signal

  GHAPTER V - The Golden Pharaoh

  CHAPTER VI - A Madman’s Scrawl

  CHAPTER VII - The Midnight Wrecker

  CHAPTER VIII - Egyptian Fake

  CHAPTER IX - The Shattered Cat

  CHAPTER X - A Four-legged Menace

  CHAPTER XI - A Clever Dodge

  CHAPTER XII - Key 273

  CHAPTER XIII - A Lost Anchor

  CHAPTER XIV - A Cave Clue

  CHAPTER XV - Trouble Ashore

  CHAPTER XVI - Double Disappearance

  CHAPTER XVII - Secret of the Mummy Case

  CHAPTER XVIII - Danger Below

  CHAPTER XIX - Strong-Room Surprise

  CHAPTER XX - Rhamaton’s Curse

  THE SECRET WARNING

  STRANGE events involve Frank and Joe Hardy in a mystery which shrouds an ancient treasure—the golden head of the Pharaoh Rhamaton IV. First, a cryptic unsigned warning from Egypt; second, the ghost of a bloodthirsty pirate of the eighteenth century, who, according to legend, haunted nearby Whalebone Island years ago and recently has reappeared.

  The owner of the million-dollar golden Pharaoh’s head claims it was aboard the freighter Katawa, which sank not far from Whalebone Island. But suspicious developments indicate that Mehmet Zufar may be trying to defraud the shipping line’s insurance company. Frank and Joe enthusiastically accept the challenge of their famous detective father to assist him in investigating the complex case for Transmarine Underwriters.

  A puzzling clue leads the Hardys to Whalebone Island, where they almost lose their lives in a violent explosion. Someone desperately wants to get rid of them. But who? Is it the ghostly pirate?

  Frank and Joe’s perilous scuba-diving search in the ocean depths off the island yields electrifying discoveries that cap the climax of this exciting mystery.

  A chill of fear struck the Hardys as they approached the

  trapped diver

  Copyright © 1994, 1966, 1938 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, Inc., a member of The Putnam & Grosset

  Group, New York. Published simultaneously in Canada. S.A.

  THE HARDY BOYS® is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Grosset & Dunlap, Inc.

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 66-12695

  eISBN : 978-1-101-07631-6

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  CHAPTER I

  A Ghost Walks

  A LOUD ring of the doorbell startled the Hardy boys as they sat watching a TV mystery. Joe tuned down the volume. “Who could that be at this time of night?” the blond, seventeen-year-old youth wondered aloud.

  “Maybe a client of Dad’s. It can’t be Mom and Aunt Gertrude—they have a key.” Frank, dark-haired and a year older than his brother, got up and strode to the door.

  A telegraph messenger was standing on the front porch. “Cablegram for Fenton Hardy.”

  Frank signed for the message and took it back to the living room. “For Dad,” he reported. “Coming from overseas, this may be urgent.”

  “We’d better open it,” Joe suggested.

  Frank slit the yellow envelope and read the contents. “Good grief!” he exclaimed. “ ‘Beware the Pharaoh’s head. Doom to all who seek it!”’

  “The Pharaoh’s head? What does that mean?”

  Frank shrugged. “Search me.”

  “Well, who sent it?”

  “I don’t know that, either,” Frank said, perplexed. “There’s no name on the message, but it came from Cairo, Egypt.”

  Joe took the cablegram, studied it intently, then hurried out to the hallway telephone and called the local telegraph office. When he hung up, he frowned in puzzlement.

  Frank, coming into the hall, queried, “What did they say?”

  “The message was received just that way—unsigned. Apparently there’s no rule requiring a sender to include his name.”

  “I think we’d better contact Dad right away,” Frank decided.

  Fenton Hardy, formerly a detective in the New York City Police Department, had retired to the seaside town of Bayport and soon had become nationally known as a crack private investigator. His two sons, Frank and Joe, who had inherited their father’s sleuthing talents, often helped out on his cases.

  The boys hurried upstairs to switch on the powerful short-wave radio in the detective’s study. Mr. Hardy always carried a compact transceiver in order to be able to communicate with his home in cases of emergency.

  Frank beamed out the usual code call repeatedly. But the only response was a jumble of static.

  “He must be away from his hotel, or wherever he’s staying,” Joe said.

  “Could be.” Frank glanced at the window as a flash of lightning brought an extra loud crackle from the speaker. “Or maybe we’re not getting through. That storm brewing out there may be interfering with our transmission.”

  After a few more minutes, the boys gave up for the time being and went back downstairs. A loud clap of thunder sounded as they reached the living room.

  “Boy, looks as if we’re in for a real cloudburst,” Frank remarked anxiously. “I sure hope Mom and Aunt Gertrude don’t get caught in it.”

  He was about to resume his seat in front of the television when he heard Joe gasp.

  “Thought I saw something at the window.”

  Frank stared quizzically at his brother. “You mean a person—or what?”

  “I don’t know,” Joe said. “It was just a fleeting impression. May have been my imagination. Is the prowler alarm on?”

  “Not yet. Mom said to leave it off till they got home.” Frank added with a grin, “You know Aunt Gertrude—she’d really pin our ears back if the alarm system went off just as they were coming up to the house.”

  Joe chuckled as he imagined his tall, peppery aunt’s reaction to being caught in a blaze of floodlights, accompanied by a shattering alarm signal. “Think I’ll take a look outside, anyhow,” he told Frank. “It won’t hurt to make sure.”

  Joe was just starting into the hallway when the doorbell rang. “Now what?” he muttered as he switched on the porch light. He yanked open the front door. A man stood clutching a cane. He wore a felt hat and Navy officer’s raincoat.

  “Captain Early! Welcome aboard, sir!”

  The man’s ruddy, weather-beaten face broke into a wide grin. “Howdy, Joe!” He saluted and gave the boy’s hand a brisk squeeze as he limped inside.

  Hearing their voices, Frank hurried to greet the visitor. “Dad will be sorry he missed you,” he said as they shook hands.

  Captain Phil “Pearly” Early was an old friend of the Hardys. Now retired, he lived alone in a house on the coast, north of Barmet Bay, and devoted his time to writing books on sea lore.

  “I probably should have phoned,” the captain apologized, “but I had to come to Bayport on an errand, anyhow, so I took a chance.” He doffed his hat and coat, revealing a crisp gray crew cut and a slight but wiry build.

  As Joe took his things, there came the sudden sound of a drenching downpour. Rain pelted the roof and splattered against the windows.

  “You got here just in time,” Frank said.

  Captain Early nodded and tapped his thigh. “Hurricane weather. My game leg always tells me when we’re in for a blow.” His ruddy face turned serious. “By the way, did you boys just have a visitor?”

  Frank shook his head. “No, sir. Why?”

  “When my t
axi drew up here, I saw a man standing just outside the hedge around your grounds. He darted off as the headlights beamed on him.”

  Joe exchanged a quick, startled glance with his brother. “What did he look like?”

  “Rather odd,” said Captain Early. “I suppose that’s really why I mentioned him. He had a black cloak or coat, a bushy red beard, and—well, something strange about the eyes.”

  The boys escorted their visitor into the living room. As Frank turned off the TV, Captain Early asked, “You fellows home alone?”

  “We are just now,” Joe replied. “Mom and Aunt Gertrude have gone to a concert.” Seeing the captain’s thoughtful frown, he added, “Did you want to see Dad, sir?”

  “As a matter of fact, I did. But I might as well put the case in your hands.”

  Frank settled eagerly into a chair. “You have a mystery you want investigated?”

  The captain nodded as he filled his pipe. “Doesn’t amount to much, probably, but all the same I’d like to know what’s behind it. Twice recently, my house has been broken into at night.”

  “Was anything stolen?” Joe inquired.

  “No, because both times I woke up and scared the intruder off.” The first time, Captain Early related, his study had been ransacked. On the second occasion, the burglar had come into his bedroom.

  “Did you see him well enough to give us a description?” put in Frank.

  “No, I hardly saw him at all. By the time I switched on the light, he was out the window and away over the back porch roof.”

  “When did this happen?” Joe asked.

  “The first time was on Friday, and the second attempt was just last night—Sunday.”

  Frank said, “Any idea what the thief was after?”

  “None at all. I never keep any large amount of money in the house.” Captain Early puffed on his pipe for a moment. “Incidentally, I’ve had a strange feeling of being followed several times lately—including tonight on my way to Bayport. But that may be pure bosh.”

  Again the boys exchanged glances. Captain Early, with his brilliant war record, was certainly not a man given to fearful flights of imagination.

  “Jumpin’ Jupiter, you really have given us a mystery to work on,” said Joe. “Have you told the police about the break-ins?”

  “Yes, but naturally there wasn’t much they could do, except check for fingerprints—and there weren’t any.”

  “Look,” Frank said. “We were trying to contact Dad earlier on another matter. Suppose I try again.”

  Leaving Joe to entertain their guest, Frank hurried to the short-wave set in their father’s study. This time, his code call brought an immediate response. Mr. Hardy, speaking from Philadelphia, explained that he and his operative, Sam Radley, had just returned to their hotel.

  When Frank mentioned the mysterious cablegram, the sleuth reacted with keen interest. “That message relates to the case we’re working on, son, and it could provide an important lead. I’ll fill you and Joe in on all the details as soon as I return.”

  Next, Frank told about Captain Early’s visit.

  “Hmm. Certainly sounds as if something more is involved than an ordinary case of breaking and entering,” Mr. Hardy said. “But there’s not much I can do from here. You and Joe will have to handle it for the time being. Say, there is one thing you can do for me.”

  “Yes, Dad?”

  “Ask Captain Early what he knows about the legend of Whalebone Island.”

  Mystified, Frank signed off and returned to the living room. At the mention of Whalebone Island, Captain Early’s ruddy face paled.

  “Great Scott!” he exclaimed. “It can’t be!”

  “What’s wrong, sir?” Frank asked.

  The Navy man hesitated before replying. “Whalebone Island, as you probably know, lies off the coast, south of here. In colonial days it was the hideout of a ruthless pirate named Red Rogers. Of course you’ve heard the term ‘Jolly Roger’?”

  Frank said, “The skull and crossbones?”

  “Right. And the same name was sometimes given to Red Rogers because of his bloodthirsty sense of humor.”

  Captain Early went on slowly, “Red Rogers always wore a black cloak and had a bushy red beard and a scar which pulled down the corner of one eye.”

  “Wow!” Joe gasped. “Just like that fellow you saw outside tonight!”

  Captain Early nodded. “Exactly. After Rogers was killed in a sea fight, the island was pretty much avoided. In fact, it was said to be haunted.”

  At that moment the captain’s story was interrupted by a flash of lightning, followed by a deafening clap of thunder which seemed to shake the whole house. A second later the darkness outside was lit up by a blinding flash of lightning.

  “Look!” Joe yelled and pointed.

  A red-bearded figure in a black cloak was peering through the window!

  A ghostly figure was peering through the window!

  CHAPTER II

  Close Combat

  THE lightning flickered out, and the ghostly figure was gone almost instantly. Frank and Joe leaped to their feet and rushed to the front door, followed by Captain Early hobbling on his cane.

  Ignoring the gusty torrents of rain, the boys dashed out into the stormy darkness and around the corner of the house. Not a soul was in sight. The Hardys separated to search the whole yard, but even when another jagged flash of lightning lit up the night with daylike brilliance they could see no sign of the figure which had appeared at the window.

  “It’s hopeless!” Frank groaned. “Let’s get back inside before we drown!”

  Drenched to the skin, the brothers changed into dry clothes before resuming their conversation with Captain Early.

  “Did anyone live on Whalebone Island in those old days that you were telling us about?” Frank asked.

  “No, except for fishermen who camped there overnight or put up temporary huts from time to time. I suppose the stories of ghosts on the island may have arisen because members of Red Rogers’ crew were said to be returning there secretly.”

  “Maybe to dig up buried treasure!” put in Joe.

  “Possibly,” the Navy man agreed with a smile. “Or fugitives from the law may have hidden there occasionally. At any rate, the spooky legends of Jolly Roger and his cutthroats finally died out, and sometime in the eighteen-hundreds a lighthouse was erected on Whalebone Island. Then, in the closing days of World War II, a lighthouse keeper there named Tang went out of his mind.”

  “How come?” Frank asked.

  Captain Early gave a shrug. “He claimed the island was being haunted again by Red Rogers’ ghost. More likely, he’d just cracked up under the loneliness and isolation, I suppose. Anyhow, soon after that the lighthouse was closed down.”

  “Because of what happened to Tang?” Joe asked.

  “No, no. The equipment was outdated and a new light, much more powerful, had been built on Dory Point to serve that same general coastal area.”

  “What’s on the island now?” Frank inquired.

  “Nothing. It’s abandoned as far as I know.”

  The brothers were greatly intrigued. Any hint of mystery attracted them, and many times had plunged them into exciting sleuthing adventures. One of their first had been locating The Tower Treasure. Recently, they had successfully uncovered the secret of A Figure in Hiding.

  Captain Early tucked his pipe into his pocket. “Well, boys, it’s been a pleasant visit, but I’d better be starting back. As a matter of fact, this is far later than I intended to linger in town.”

  The navy officer explained that he had had motor trouble while driving to Bayport. “I had to call for a tow car from a garage. That’s why I arrived here by taxi. By the way, may I use your phone?”

  “Of course. Help yourself,” Frank replied.

  The captain checked with the garage and hung up, frowning. “Drat the luck, my car needs a new distributor, and they can’t get one till morning.”

  Frank and Joe immediately urge
d Captain Early to stay overnight. Grateful but embarrassed, he accepted. Frank showed the captain to the first-floor guest room and laid out pajamas and bathrobe, while Joe wrote a note to his mother and aunt telling them about the unexpected overnight guest. He stuck it on the hall mirror.

  Then the boys went upstairs to bed, leaving only a hallway light burning for their mother and Aunt Gertrude. Soon the household was dark and silent, except for the steady patter of the rain.

  Some time later Frank awoke with a start. From below came confused sounds, topped by a shrill angry voice and punctuated by the sudden clash of china being broken. The latter noise roused Joe.

  “Good night!” he muttered. “What’s going on?”

  “That’s Aunt Gertrude’s voice!” Frank exclaimed. “Come on! We’d better get down there!”

  The boys dashed downstairs, almost colliding with their slim, attractive mother, who was on her way up.

  “What’s wrong, Mom?” Joe cried out.

  “G-g-goodness, I hardly know!” Mrs. Hardy stammered. “Somebody peeked out of our guest room as we entered the house, and Aunt Gertrude went after him.”

  Gulping with dismay, Frank and Joe ran to the scene of combat.

  “Take that, you scoundrel!” they heard Aunt Gertrude shriek. “I’ll teach you to break into houses.”

  Frank groped for the wall switch and instantly the guest room was ablaze with light. Captain Early was backing toward a closet, striving to protect himself, while the boys’ tall, angular maiden aunt poked at him with her wet umbrella.

  “Aunt Gertrude! Please!” Frank exclaimed. “This is Captain Early—our guest!”

  “Oh, my goodness, it is!” said Aunt Gertrude, adjusting her spectacles. “Why on earth didn’t you say so?”

  “Madam, I’ve been trying to,” the captain replied, slipping into his bathrobe.

  He explained that when he had heard footsteps in the hall, he thought it might have been the intruder they had seen at the window.

  “So I peered out the door,” he said, “and—wham!” Then, to the relief of the Hardys, Captain Early burst into hearty laughter. Even the women had to chuckle at his predicament, and when Joe mentioned the note on the mirror, Miss Hardy confessed she had not seen it.