The Stone Idol

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  1 A Mysterious Advertisement

  2 A Strange Message

  3 Aku-Aku

  4 A Thief Escapes

  5 Mistaken Identity

  6 Disguised as Natives

  7 Downhill Danger

  8 A New Plan

  9 Penguin Attack

  10 The Sno-Cat

  11 Lost in the Antarctic

  12 Two Suspects

  13 Rescued in Time

  14 Airport Chase

  15 The Wizard

  16 Guardian of the Sacred Cave

  17 The Bird Man

  18 The Inca Chief

  19 Explanations

  20 The Final Clue

  WHEN an ancient stone idol disappears, the Hardy Boys are off on another fast-paced adventure. An important clue takes them to a primitive village of the South American Andes Mountains. They almost catch the cunning criminal, but instead are nearly caught themselves!

  Suddenly, a call for help sends them flying off to the Antarctic to assist their father, Fenton Hardy, who is investigating a ring of thieves pilfering U.S. Navy bases. The Hardys fight the frigid cold to escape the ruthless traps set by the thieves, and finally outwit the gang.

  But the valuable sculpture is still missing, so the brothers pursue a string of clues to Easter Island. There, an elusive birdman threatens their lives. But by using fine investigative skills, the Hardy Boys find that the mystery of the stone idol is not what it seems!

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  Copyright © 1981 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved. Published

  in 2005 by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. THE HARDY BOYS® is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. S.A.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-07674-3

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  1 A Mysterious Advertisement

  “Joe, listen to this!” said Frank Hardy, who was standing at the window holding a newspaper.

  His brother was relaxing on the bed with a sports magazine. “What is it?” he asked, looking up. “Yesterday’s baseball game at Yankee Stadium?”

  “Maybe a game,” Frank replied, “but it sure isn’t t baseball. It’s an ad in the Times: ‘Wanted: A sleuth to investigate a strange mystery.’ ”

  Joe got off the bed and joined Frank at the window. They studied the ad together.

  The Hardy boys had just solved an embezzlement case for a New York bank and were in their hotel room trying to decide whether to stay in the city for a few more days or to return home.

  “What do you make of this ad?” Frank asked.

  Joe shrugged. “Why don’t you call up and see what it’s about? School vacation isn’t over for a month yet, so we have plenty of time to solve another mystery.”

  Eighteen-year-old Frank pushed a strand of dark hair from his forehead and grinned. “Good idea. ” He dialed the number while his blond brother, who was a year younger, held his ear close to the receiver so they both could hear.

  “South American Antiquities,” a woman answered. “May I help you?”

  “I’m calling in reference to your ad in the Times,” Frank said.

  “You want to speak to Mr. Kimberley,” she replied. “I’ll ring him for you.”

  A man’s voice came on a moment later. “This is Kim Kimberley. My secretary tells me you’re calling about our ad. You must be a detective.”

  “That’s right, sir. My brother and I are amateur detectives.”

  “Any credentials?” Kimberley barked.

  Frank described the bank embezzlement case they had just solved.

  The antique dealer sounded impressed. “I saw the newspaper accounts. They say you boys cracked the case all by yourselves. You’re the kind of detectives I need. Do you want to come to my office for an interview?”

  Frank looked inquiringly at Joe, who nodded eagerly, Joe was the impulsive Hardy boy. He liked to plunge into any kind of mystery, while Frank was more likely to figure out a game plan first.

  “Well, are you interested?” Kimberley asked impatiently.

  “Yes, we are,” Frank assured him. “We’ll be right over. ”

  “Empire State Building, seventy-fifth floor,” the man said and hung up.

  The Hardys left their hotel and flagged down a passing taxi. Soon they were riding through the rush of Manhattan traffic amid a din of honking horns and squealing brakes. Crowds of pedestrians crossed at the corners as the lights changed.

  “A bit more lively than Bayport,” Joe quipped.

  Bayport was their hometown, where their father had moved the family after spending years as a New York City detective. Now Mr. Hardy was a famous private investigator who had trained his sons to follow in his footsteps.

  The taxi deposited them on the sidewalk in front of the Empire State Building. At the seventy-fifth floor, they found South American Antiquities. In the waiting room, they spoke to the secretary. Smiling, she ushered them into Kimberley’s office.

  The antique dealer was a short, wiry man with red hair and a red beard. He kept flexing his fingers in a nervous manner.

  He’s worried about something, Joe thought.

  Kimberley motioned for the Hardys to sit in front of his desk.

  “I’m a partner in South American Antiquities, a business dealing in art objects from South America and its islands,” he explained. “We sell artifacts from such places as the Andes Mountains and Easter Island.”

  “What’s your problem, Mr. Kimberley?” Frank inquired.

  “It concerns an idol from Easter Island,” Kimberley revealed.

  “Wow!” Joe exclaimed. “You mean one of those big stone heads?”

  Kimberley smiled. “I’m not talking about the huge stone heads. This is a small figure of one of the ancient gods of the island. It was bought at the branch of South American Antiquities in Santiago, Chile.”

  “Easter Island belongs to Chile, doesn’t it?” Frank asked.

  “That’s right. We maintain the Santiago office to handle pieces from Easter Island as well as from Chile itself ”

  “Who obtained the idol?” Joe asked.

  “I did,” Kimberley declared. “I was in our Santiago office when a Scandinavian collector came in and offered it for sale. I saw it was authentic, so I bought it. Later I showed it to my partner, Charles Bertrand. He agreed that I should take it to New York and sell it to a museum. Easter Island artifacts are much in demand, so it would fetch a good price. ”

  “How did the idol get out of Easter Island?” Joe wanted to know.

  “That’s a good question,” Kimberley said. “I see you boys are aware that the ownership of art objects is often in dispute.”

  “We’ve investigated cases for museums and private collectors,” Frank admitted.

  Kimberley nodded and made a pyramid of his fingers. “So you want to know if South American Antiquities has title to the Easter Island piece. Well, it’s all open and aboveboard. The Scandinavian collector gave me this document. ”

  He reached into his desk drawer, removed a paper, and pushed it across the top. It was a copy of an official certificate stating that the idol had been legitimately purchased on Easter Island. Only the name of the buyer was blocked out.

  “We can’t tell who the Scandinavian collector is,” Frank
noted.

  “He wants to remain anonymous,” Kimberley stated. “I have the original with his signature in my safe. I can produce it should it ever be needed. At this point, I prefer to respect his right to privacy.”

  “So the purchase was legitimate and you brought the idol to New York,” Joe said. “Where’s the mystery?”

  “But I didn’t bring it to New York!” Kimberley spoke up.

  “Why not?”

  “Well, I put it in my handbag in Santiago. I took the bag to the airport and brought it with me to New York. At customs, I opened the bag for inspection. ”

  “And then?” Joe prompted him.

  “The idol was not there! It had been stolen!”

  2 A Strange Message

  “Someone must have sneaked the idol out of your bag on the trip,” Joe suggested.

  Kimberley shook his head. “Impossible! I had the bag with me from the hotel to the Santiago airport, where I took it aboard the plane and kept it between my feet during the flight. No one could have opened it!”

  “Maybe someone switched bags on you,” Frank said. “Someone might have taken yours and left a dummy while you were buying your ticket at the airline counter.”

  Kimberley shook his head again. “I carried a number of small artifacts in the bag. The others were there when I opened it in New York. Only the Easter Island piece was missing.”

  “Then it must have been stolen in Santiago,” Frank concluded.

  “That’s what I think!” Kimberley boomed.

  “Do you suspect anyone?”

  “Not really.”

  “Did anyone else know you had the idol in your bag?”

  “Charles Bertrand, my partner. But he can’t be the thief.”

  Frank shrugged. “Mr. Kimberley, if Bertrand is the only other person who knew about the idol, he’s a suspect. Would he have any motive for stealing it?”

  Kimberley hesitated. “Well, if I were out of the way, Bertrand could take over the company,” he said finally.

  “But how would the theft of the sculpture get you out of the way?” Joe asked.

  “Because I have to account for it. You see, whenever we take a piece from the office, we sign a release for it. I signed one for the Easter Island idol. I’m responsible for it, and I have no idea where it is. I could be accused of stealing it myself

  “Tell us what happened in Santiago,” Joe suggested.

  Kimberley squinted as if to gather his thoughts. “I took the piece from our office in my handbag. Bertrand came to my hotel that evening and we discussed the price we might place on it in New York. The bag was in the room, zippered and locked.”

  “Did you leave the hotel room at any time?” Frank inquired.

  “Only once. I had to go down to the jeweler’s in the lobby to pick up my wristwatch. I was having it repaired. ”

  “Did Bertrand stay behind?”

  “Yes. But I don’t know whether he was in the room all the time.”

  “If he had left, even for a few moments, someone else might have sneaked in. ”

  “I’d like to think so,” Kimberley insisted. “I don’t like to throw suspicion on my partner.”

  “The handbag was locked,” Joe commented. “Whoever opened it must have had a key. Could Bertrand have made a duplicate of your key?”

  “It’s possible,” Kimberley confessed. “I’ve often left my key ring lying on the desk in our Santiago office. Anyway, it didn’t occur to me to unlock the bag and check the contents at the time. I carried it all the way to New York without realizing that the idol was missing.”

  Joe looked puzzled. “Since it was stolen in Santiago, why don’t you ask the Santiago police to find it?”

  “I can‘t!” Kimberley protested. “I’d be the prime suspect. After all, I had the idol in my possession, and now I can’t produce it!”

  “So you want us to go to Santiago and investigate?” Frank asked.

  Kimberley nodded. “I need someone smart enough to find the idol without any undue publicity. That’s why I placed the ad in the Times. You boys were the first to call me.”

  “What does the idol look like?” Joe inquired.

  Kimberley took a photograph from his desk drawer and handed it to him.

  Frank looked over Joe’s shoulder and saw a stone head with eyes like circles, a broad nose, and an open mouth. A fierce scowl distorted the features. The most noticeable thing, however, were the ears, with the lobes hanging down almost on a level with the chin.

  “The Easter Islanders did that deliberately,” Kimberley commented, pointing to the ears with his finger. “You can see the lobes are pierced. People hung weights on them so they would become enlarged. Of course, the practice has stopped in modern times. But long ears have always been a feature of Easter Island art.”

  “How big is this sculpture?” Frank wanted to know.

  “About six inches high,” Kimberley informed him.

  “Then it’s not heavy. You wouldn’t have felt the loss of its weight in your bag. ”

  “No,” Kimberley agreed. “I never noticed that the bag was lighter, not with all those other stone artifacts in it. Well now, let’s get down to the bottom line. You boys are obviously top-notch detectives. I’d like you to take the case. What do you say?”

  The Hardys explained that they would have to talk to their father first.

  “Fenton Hardy?” Kimberley queried. “Yes, I saw he was mentioned in the newspaper reports about the embezzlement case you just solved.”

  “If we take your case,” Frank said, “we need a little more to go on besides what you’ve told us so far—some clue or starting point. We can’t just go to Santiago and hope we’ll be lucky.”

  “I have something,” Kimberley said slowly. “A strange message I received. Here it is.” Again he reached into his desk drawer and drew out a piece of paper, which he handed to the boys.

  The message was composed of words cut from a newspaper and pasted on a South American Antiquities letterhead bearing the Santiago address. It read: WHEN THE MOUNTAINS ARE COVERED WITH MIST, AND THE FULL MOON IS OVER THE PEAK, THE IDOL IS SAFE IN THE CAVE.

  Frank and Joe looked baffled.

  “Mr. Kimberley, where did you get this?” Frank asked.

  “And what does it mean?” Joe wanted to know.

  “It came in the mail from Santiago,” the antique dealer told them. “And I have no idea what it means. But since it mentions an idol, I think it must refer to the Easter Island god figure.”

  “It’s on note paper from your Santiago office,” Joe pointed out.

  “True. But lots of people have access to that.”

  “The message must be a clue,” Joe stated. “Maybe it came from somebody who knows where the idol is but doesn’t want his identity revealed. ”

  “It might be one of our Santiago employees,” Kimberley said.

  “Well, whoever wrote this is telling us to investigate the Santiago office,” Frank declared. “That’s where we’ll begin if we take the case. ”

  “When can you let me know?” Kimberley asked in a tense voice.

  “After we talk to our father,” Frank replied. “We’ll phone you this afternoon.”

  When the Hardy boys returned to their hotel, Frank called long distance to Bayport.

  Aunt Gertrude, who was their father’s sister, answered. “Why aren’t you home yet?” she demanded in a tart voice.

  “Well, we might have another case, Aunty,” Frank said. He knew that although Aunt Gertrude was often critical of her nephews, she was basically proud of their accomplishments.

  “Hmph!” Miss Hardy snorted. “Don’t you ever give up? Can’t you stay home for a change like other boys? Seems to me that if you’re not in danger, you’re not happy.”

  “Don’t worry, Aunt Gertrude, this case isn’t dangerous,” Frank said and quickly explained what had happened. “And now may I talk to Dad, please?” he added when he was finished.

  “Just a moment. ”

 
Fenton Hardy took the phone. “I found out how you solved the mystery,” he began. “An old friend of mine in the New York Police Department called me about it.”

  “It was easy,” Frank said modestly.

  Fenton Hardy chuckled. “That’s not what my friend reported. He considers your performance a remarkable example of detective work. What are you going to do now?”

  “More detective work—maybe,” Frank announced. “If you think we should take the case.”

  “What does it involve?”

  Frank described their conversation with Kim Kimberley and his request for their services.

  Fenton Hardy thought for a moment, then said, “Go ahead. It should be interesting.”

  Frank detected a slight hesitation in his father’s voice. “You sound as if you’re not all that happy with the idea. ”

  “Well, I’ve just taken a new assignment, and I might need your help. It concerns the theft of government materiel from several naval bases. The navy has no idea who the thieves are, and hired me to find out. ”

  “Shall we come home, then?”

  “No, not yet. You see, I’ll have to tour the naval bases where the thefts have occurred. If I do need you, it won’t be until after the tour is over and I’ve checked out several clues. ”

  His father paused a moment, then went on, “Tell you what. Go to Santiago for the time being, and stay at the Inca Arms Hotel. I’ll get in touch with you there if necessary.”

  After Fenton Hardy had hung up, Joe rang Kimberley’s office and told him that they would be able to work on his case, but might have to take time off to help their father.

  The antique dealer hesitated for a moment, then said, “Okay, why don’t you come back here and we’ll talk about it. ”

  “We’ll be right over, sir.”

  Joe hung up and the boys taxied to the Empire State Building for the second time that day. The secretary showed them into Kimberley’s office, and he motioned for them to sit down.

  “I’m hoping you’ll find the idol before your father needs you,” the antique dealer said. “If not, I’m in trouble. But I decided to give you the job anyway because I feel that boys your age will be less conspicuous. You realize, of course, that you can’t walk into our Santiago office and tell my partner I hired you to investigate him and his staff.”