The Clue of the Hissing Serpent Read online

  “Yes, but I didn’t have time to check in the back.”

  “Okay, let’s do it now,” Frank said, and led the others through the door and to the rear of the cabin.

  Phil noticed something far off in the weeds. “What’s that?” he asked, running toward it. He reached into the tall grass and pulled at a dirty tarpaulin. Beneath it was a neatly packed balloon!

  Within minutes, the boys had spread open the envelope. “It’s the serpent!” Joe exclaimed.

  “What a find!” Tony said.

  “We’ll take it to the police as evidence,” Frank decided. “It’s the balloon from which we were shot at!”

  As they repacked the nylon envelope, Tony spied a piece of paper which apparently had fallen from the folds.

  “Frank, Joe, look at this!”

  “What is it?” Frank asked.

  “A cablegram from Hong Kong!”

  The boys crowded around as Tony read the message aloud: “‘Ming Do very ill. Hurry via Queen. Serpents.’ ”

  “What do you suppose that means?” Phil asked.

  The Hardys studied the cable carefully and Frank said, “A person named Ming Do wants someone to hurry by the way of Queen something or other.”

  “And Serpents means the serpent gang,” Biff added.

  “But what is Queen? Is that some kind of code word?” Joe wondered.

  “The balloon won’t fit in the car,” Tony said. “I’ll drive back to town and get our pickup.”

  “Good idea,” Frank said and handed him the keys.

  Tony returned shortly and the boys loaded up the balloon. On the way back to Bayport, they speculated about the turn of events. The evidence they had found certainly advanced the Hardys’ case. Or perhaps, as Frank secretly thought, it had plunged them even deeper into an insoluble mystery!

  When they arrived at police headquarters, Chief Collig was amazed to hear their story. He accepted the serpent balloon as evidence and looked at the cable.

  “Whoever they’re talking about is going to Hong Kong soon,” he conjectured. “If only we had a way to stop him. But we don’t even know who’s involved!”

  He shook his head slowly. “I have some news, too,” he continued. “Not good, I’m afraid.”

  “What happened?” Joe asked.

  “Frank, Joe, look at this!” Tony said.

  “Gerard Henry escaped from the Ocean Bluffs jail.”

  “How’d he do that?” Biff asked.

  Collig said that Henry had feigned illness and fooled an inexperienced guard. When his cell was opened, he had jumped the officer, disarmed him, and raced right out the front door.

  “Listen,” Joe said. “Do you suppose he was that third man in the woods?”

  “Might have been,” Collig said.

  After they had made their report, the Hardys thanked their friends for their help. “We couldn’t have pulled this off without you,” Frank said.

  “You’ll make detectives out of us yet,” Tony said as he drove them back to his house where he had left the Hardys’ car.

  Frank and Joe decided to visit Krassner in his office to tell him that his tormentors had apparently fled. And perhaps the man could shed some light on the mysterious cable. On the way they dropped Phil off at his house.

  Krassner occupied a suite in Bayport’s newest office building and received the boys cordially.

  “We’ve got some exciting news for you,” Joe said.

  The financier looked pleased, but as the story unfolded, his face clouded with fear and apprehension. When Frank mentioned the contents of the cable, Krassner paled.

  “Call my wife!” he ordered his secretary. When she reported that his home phone was dead, Krassner jumped up. “The worst has happened!” he cried and ran outside.

  Frank and Joe followed him, trying to find out what had upset him so.

  “Later,” Krassner said. He leaped behind the wheel of his sports car and started the engine. Then he drove off.

  Frank and Joe took their own car and followed. “Do you think he’s going home?” Joe asked.

  “Looks that way,” Frank replied. “Funny. We never saw his wife. I didn’t think he had one.”

  “Maybe he feels she’s in danger,” Joe said.

  They pulled into Krassner’s driveway directly behind him and the three hurried into the house. The banker called for his wife, but she was not there.

  “It’s the servants’ day off, too,” Krassner said, rushing into the library. He tried the handle to his vault. It was locked.

  “Maybe the worst hasn’t happened after all,” Joe said. “That is, if you were talking about the theft of the Ruby King.”

  Krassner did not reply. With trembling fingers he dialed the combination, turned the handle, and pulled open the steel door. Everyone gasped.

  The Ruby King was gone!

  CHAPTER XIV

  The Oriental Connection

  FOOTSTEPS sounded and a woman entered the library. She was slightly built, with a calm and lovely Oriental face.

  “Albert! What happened?” She looked at Krassner in alarm. He stood as if in a trance in front of the yawning vault.

  His mouth moved, but no words came out.

  “The King has disappeared,” Joe explained. “Are you Mrs. Krassner?”

  “Yes. Oh dear!” The woman stepped forward and put an arm around her husband, who finally regained enough composure to talk.

  “What’ll I do?” he repeated over and over. “What’ll I do?”

  Frank turned to the woman, who tried to calm her husband. “Did you just come home, Mrs. Krassner?”

  “Yes. I left this morning to visit a friend.”

  “Did you see anything unusual when you left?”

  The woman thought for a moment, then she said, “Yes, two men. They were in a car near the entrance to our driveway.”

  “Did you get a good look at them?” Joe asked.

  “Their faces were turned away.”

  “Weren’t you suspicious?”

  “No. Not really. People often stop to admire our place.”

  Frank took his brother aside and spoke to him quietly. “Those two men probably were Fong and Eggleby. And the Ruby King might be what Ming Do wants!”

  “It wouldn’t surprise me!”

  Mrs. Krassner summoned the Franklin Township Police, and they arrived in a few minutes to look for clues. Fingerprints were found on the safe, but they proved to be those of Krassner, who by now had gone to his bedroom in a virtual state of collapse.

  After calling a doctor, Mrs. Krassner thanked the boys and ushered them to the door. Outside, they were startled to see their father drive up.

  “Dad! When did you get back?” Frank asked.

  “About an hour and a half ago. Mother said you had gone to see Mr. Krassner. I called his office and was told all three of you had dashed out of there in a hurry because his home phone was dead. It sounded like trouble so I came out.” Mr. Hardy pointed to the police car. “I take it the Ruby King has been stolen.”

  Joe nodded. “Dad, we’ve got an awful lot to tell you.”

  “I have some news, too,” Mr. Hardy said. “Let’s stop at the next diner and talk.”

  Frank and Joe led the way in their car until they came to a new restaurant at a traffic circle. They pulled into the parking lot and their father followed.

  Inside, they found a comfortable isolated booth, where nobody could overhear their conversation. Frank and Joe ordered hamburgers and coke, while Mr. Hardy was content with a cup of coffee.

  “Wait till you hear about Mrs. Krassner!” Joe said after a waitress had taken their order.

  “She’s—”

  “Chinese,” Mr. Hardy said.

  “How’d you know?”

  “I found out in New York. Also learned a few other tidbits.”

  “Come on, Dad, out with it!” Joe urged.

  “For one thing, Krassner is originally from Hong Kong. One of his grandmothers was a Chinese, which makes him o
ne fourth Oriental.”

  “So that’s what gives him that odd look,” Frank said.

  “His wife’s family,” Mr. Hardy went on, “is very prominent in Hong Kong circles. Her father is Moy Chen-Chin, a social big wheel and very rich.”

  “So now the chop suey thickens,” Joe quipped. “What else?”

  As the boys munched their hamburgers, Mr. Hardy filled them in on Krassner’s career. “As a youth, he got involved in a smuggling ring. His father-in-law got him out of that scrape and Krassner came to this country. He’s been a citizen of the United States for the past twenty years.”

  “Funny,” Frank said. “I never quite trusted him.”

  “He’s been straight ever since and has a fine record as an investment banker. Much of his work involves Oriental securities,” Mr. Hardy said.

  “And his father-in-law is his Oriental connection,” Joe put in. “No doubt an invaluable asset.”

  “Wait a minute,” Frank said. “There was no sign of forced entry in this theft. Maybe Krassner returned to his crooked ways and stole the piece himself! Was it insured?”

  “You caught on fast. Yes. He took out a large policy on the Ruby King several weeks ago,” Mr. Hardy said.

  Joe looked dubious. “I can’t quite believe that. I have another theory.”

  “What’s that?” Frank asked.

  “Krassner was intimidated by Fong and Eggleby. We know that he was afraid of them. Maybe they discovered his past and threatened to expose him unless he handed over the Ruby King!”

  “Could be,” Frank said. “That would be a better reason for his not wanting to go to the police. I never believed his story that he was afraid of the publicity. After all, he was the official custodian of this valuable antique. Just because someone was after it, Krassner’s reputation wouldn’t have been ruined!”

  Mr. Hardy nodded. “Of course anyone buying an expensive object like that would insure it properly. I tend to agree with Joe’s reasoning.”

  “Our next step is to find the King,” Frank said. “And we’d better be fast about it or Ming Do will get it.”

  Mr. Hardy looked puzzled, and the boys clued him in on their adventure in the woods, the cable they had found, and Mrs. King’s information on the old chess piece.

  Mr. Hardy was thoughtful for a while, then he said, “The most logical way of transporting an item like that would be by sea. Perhaps there’s a ship in the harbor named Queen!”

  “Let’s go home and call the harbor master,” Frank urged, and stood up.

  Mr. Hardy paid the bill and soon they were on their way. It was dark when they turned into Elm Street and they were surprised to see their security spotlights casting a dazzling glow all around the house.

  “Oh, oh, something’s happened,” Joe said as Frank drove toward the garage. An alarm bell was ringing.

  “Something’s definitely wrong,” Frank said.

  All three jumped out of their cars and raced inside. Joe shut off the electronic alarm system, then followed his father and Frank into the living room, where Mrs. Hardy and Aunt Gertrude rose to meet them.

  “Laura, what’s the matter?” Mr. Hardy asked.

  “We’re a little frightened, Fenton.”

  “I’m scared to death!” Aunt Gertrude said. “It’s on account of those terrible criminals.”

  “Easy,” Frank said. “Just tell us from the beginning.”

  “We received a package!” Aunt Gertrude pointed to a cardboard shoe box lying on the coffee table. Frank went to open it.

  “Don’t touch it! You’ll get bitten!”

  “By what?”

  “A snake! A big venomous snake!” Gertrude Hardy cried.

  Mrs. Hardy spoke up. “It’s not really big, and I don’t think it’s poisonous. But you never can tell.”

  “How’d you get it?” Joe asked.

  Mrs. Hardy said it was delivered to the door shortly after dark. “We jumped out of our skin when we opened it,” she concluded.

  Frank set the box on the floor and took the lid off. Inside lay a small garter snake. He picked it up and it crawled over his hand and up his left arm. “I’ll take it out in the yard,” he said.

  “No doubt it was a warning from the serpent gang,” Mr. Hardy said.

  “Fenton, you’d better drop this case while we’re still healthy!” his sister implored him.

  “If I dropped my cases because of threats, I’d soon be out of business,” Mr. Hardy said. “But let’s turn the alarm system on again, just to be on the safe side.”

  “Now that the Serpents have the Ruby King, why are they still bothering us?” Frank asked.

  “They know we’ll keep after them and might nail them yet,” Joe said.

  Mr. Hardy put in a call to the harbor master’s office. “They’ll check and let us know,” he told his sons after he had finished.

  The next morning during breakfast the phone rang. Frank took it, listened tensely for a few seconds, then hung up.

  “Guess what!” he said. “There’s a Japanese ship in the harbor that’s due to sail day after tomorrow at midnight.”

  “Where to?” Joe asked.

  “Hong Kong. And her name’s Queen Maru!”

  CHAPTER XV

  Faked Out!

  “THAT’S the Queen mentioned in the cablegram!” Joe exclaimed. “It has to be!”

  Frank was skeptical. “I doubt that the Serpents would be that obvious about it.”

  “I’m convinced,” Joe said. “I’ll bet that Fong and Eggleby are still in the area and they plan to ship the Ruby King on the Queen Maru.”

  “It’s a strong possibility,” Mr. Hardy agreed. “Better drive down to the harbor and take a look at the Queen Maru.”

  Before the boys left, the phone rang again. It was Conrad Greene’s father. He told Joe that his son was still on the chess exhibition tour. “He’s due to play in Bayport tomorrow night,” Mr. Greene said, “at the VFW Hall.”

  “Thanks for letting us know,” Joe said. “We’d like to see the match.”

  Half an hour later, Frank and Joe arrived at the dock and parked near the Queen Maru. On her deck giant booms were hoisting heavy machinery into her hold.

  The Hardys climbed the gangway, asked for the captain, and were directed to a neat forward cabin. At the door they were greeted by a short, smiling, barrel-chested Japanese named Taro Ono.

  “May I help you?” he asked cordially.

  The boys explained they were detectives and were looking for a wooden box, roughly two-feet-two by six, containing contraband destined for Hong Kong.

  “About the size of a coffin,” Captain Ono said, stroking his chin. “No. We carry only large crates of machinery, as you can see for yourself.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I know my cargo well,” the captain answered, still maintaining his pleasant look.

  “Well, thank you, sir,” Frank said and the boys clambered down the steel gangway to the dock.

  “Now what?” Joe asked.

  “The ship doesn’t leave till tomorrow night. We’ll have to keep a constant watch on it.”

  Joe sighed. “Okay. Let’s get our reinforcement team for help.”

  Biff, Phil, Tony, and the Hardys staked out the freighter all day and night. No suspicious box was loaded and nothing unusual happened. Tony had drawn the late-night shift, and Frank and Joe arrived in the morning to spell him. After a few encouraging words from their tired pal, they settled in a strategic spot and prepared for a long wait.

  About ten o’clock an old hearse drove up next to the freighter. At the wheel was a youth not much older than the Hardys. He hopped out, opened the back of the hearse, and began pulling out a pine box.

  “Joe! We might have hit pay dirt!” Frank said excitedly.

  “Come on, Frank. Let’s find out and ask this character a few questions!”

  Frank and Joe ran up to the youth. “You work for an undertaker?” Frank asked.

  “No. What’s it to you, anyhow?”


  “Where’d you get the hack?” Joe asked.

  “At the junkyard. Not bad, eh? The girls really like it. Say, who are you guys?”

  Frank told him. “And what’s your name?”

  “Oscar.”

  “If you don’t work for an undertaker, Oscar,” Joe said, “what are you doing delivering a coffin?”

  “Oh, is this a coffin?” The youth eased it onto the dock.

  “Don’t try to be funny,” Frank said. “We want straight answers.”

  “Okay, okay. So I’m delivering a coffin,” Oscar said. “Some Oriental-looking guy asked me to bring it to this ship. And he paid me twenty-five bucks. That’s all I know. Why don’t you get off my back?”

  “You can’t deliver a corpse without a license,” Joe said.

  “I’m getting out of here!” Oscar slid in beside the wheel and started off as Frank jotted down his license number.

  Joe sat on the pine box while Frank went to call Chief Collig. When the policeman arrived with another officer, Joe related their suspicion that the Ruby King was hidden in the wooden box.

  “We can find out soon enough,” Collig said. He ordered the policeman to open the box, the lid of which was fastened by eight screws.

  The officer got a screwdriver from the trunk of the squad car and went to work.

  Finally he was finished. The Hardys held their breath as the top was removed. Then they let out a groan!

  Inside lay a five-foot log!

  Chief Collig turned the piece of wood over and examined it. “This doesn’t look like contraband, fellows,” he said.

  Meanwhile, Captain Ono had noticed the police and came off his ship to investigate. When asked about the box, he denied any knowledge of the strange cargo.

  “What am I supposed to do?” he asked, puzzled. “I can’t load it without papers.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Chief Collig said. “You’re not loading it at all. I’m taking it to headquarters.” He turned to the boys. “We’ll give it the once-over in the lab. I’ll let you know if we find any clues.”

  “Thanks, Chief,” Frank said.

  Then Frank and Joe discussed the ruse. “When the gang suspected that we had found the cable,” Joe said, “they must have figured we’d be watching the ship. So they went to all this trouble to keep us here, meanwhile transporting the Ruby King some other way.”