HARDY BOYS: 17. THE SECRET WARNING

CHAPTER 12. A VISIT TO ASYLUM

Two days later, a man with a thin unpleasant face lounged alongside the Crux Brothers diving barge. None of the workmen scurrying around appeared to notice him, but he watched every activity intently.

At length the barge pilot gave the order to sail. There was a rattle of chains, the sharp lup of heavy rope slithering along the deck, and the long-drawn-out hoot of the whistlemingling with the cries of dock-hands and seamen. Then the vessel eased slowly from the pier, pointing her bow toward a distant buoy riding the long swells on the horizon.

The lounger spat disgustedly and sidled away toward a patch of shrubbery behind the boathouse. "Pete?" he called in a low voice a moment later.

"Yeah. Here I am." Another man, short and heavy-set, arose from behind a fir tree to meet his companion. "Did you see 'em?"

"No! They're not there! We must've scared them away with that hose-cutting idea of
Kuntz."

"Not there? Are you sure, Ed? Didn't yon see any of 'em?"

"I tell you, Simon, they didn't go on the barge. What do you suppose I got eyes for?"

"Well, even if you didn't see 'em maybe they're there. Might be hidin' on the barge. Why didn't yuu get on the thing and have a look?"

"I couldn't. There was a cop standin' right on the pier. He took a good squint at everybody that got on."

"So the Hardy brats didn't get on, eh?"

"Naw! Nobody but some divers and sailors and dock-hands. Oh, and a funny-lookin' fellow, a professor or somethin'. Doin' some research, one of the sailors said. He had a colored fellow taggin' along with him, probably his handyman or somethin'."

Simon made a grimace. "I can't figure out where those Hardys disappeared to!"

"Never mind, we'll find 'em!" Bock's thin lips were twisted into a sly smile.
Together the ruffians disappeared over a hill in the direction of town, while at the same time Joe lay on the barge deck, doubled up with laughter.

"Fooled them completely!" he cried. '  Even Chet fooled them!"

The fat boy raised his officer's nightstick in playful protest. "What do you mean, even he fooled them!" he drawled. "Why, I did the best job of all! Bock thought I was the realest cop he ever saw!'' He removed a trim policeman's cap and mopped his brow.

"And look at Frank!" The younger Hardy lad was still convulsed.

"Professor Ima Dodo himself!"
Frank surveyed his disguise. "Thanks to the Bailey Vaudeville Players, I think I'ri a pretty good-looking scholar," he observed with a grin. "Horn-rimmed glasses, wig, cutaway
coat-everything!''

"Well," said Joe at length, "now that we've made our escape, for the time being I'm going to scrape off the paint. I think I've been a colored boy long enough!"

"And these whiskers are getting into my mouth," observed Chet, spitting out a clump of bristles.

"But just for luck," admonished Frank,

"we'd better plan to put our costumes on again when we get back to the dock. Those fellows probably will be hanging around and there's no telling what they'll try next, once they spot as."

"Yes, let's get the Carona up before we invite any more trouble," suggested Perry. He had been a highly amused spectator at the pier when Bock had attempted to gain entrance
to the barge.

After six days of hard work in which the chums participated actively as members of the barge crew, the sunken Carona was raised to the surface. During this entire period the boys had taken care to have their disguises well adjusted whenever they approached the pier, either to land or to embark.