HARDY BOYS: 17. THE SECRET WARNING

CHAPTER 15. ANOTHER SECRET WARNING

Fob an instant Frank was undecided as to what to do. Should he remain still and find out what the intruder was up to, or should he give a sudden alarm?

As possible plans for quick action raced through his mind, he caught the glint of
something metallic about midway up in the blotchy outline. A weapon to injure him. He thought of Perry's warning. With a sudden spring he flung himself out of bed.

"Joe! Chet!"he called.

There was a muffled rush of footsteps and a dull clang outside the window.
"What's the mattert" Joe cried, instantly awake.

He dived for the wall-switch. As the light went on Frank sprang to the window, his brother at his heels.

"There it goes!" the older Hardy exclaimed, pointing toward a dim figure that had just leaped from the fire-escape and was running down the street. An instant later the fugitive
had ducked into an alley and was gone.

'' Well, I '11 be- I" Joe stared at his brother.

"What happened?" yelped Chet, who had only just roused himself.

"Boy, that was a close call I" Frank whistled. "I woke up a few minutes ago and saw somebody creeping toward my bed. Whoever it was must have planned to hurt me-I could see something shining in his hand in the moonlight. I jumped up and called you two, and the fellow dashed out the window and down the fire-escape. ''

"Golly!" Chet exclaimed breathlessly.

"Say, this is the last straw. I'm not staying here any longer!""Perry's warning must have come with good reason," Joe observed. "No doubt our
visitor was Kuntz, or------"

"Or Bock or Simon," finished Frank. "Yes, it looks as if they mean business this time."

"Well, I'm packing up right this minute!" Chet shivered. "I've had enough!"

Joe suddenly exploded. "If Kuntz and his gang are going to scare us away as easily as all this, then I 'm for the three of us going home on kiddie-cars."

"And I'm with you," agreed his older brother, "except that we're not going home. We must get the better of Kuntz and his cronies and land them behind the bars where they
belong!"

"Eight! How about it, Chet? Are you still with us?"

The thought of leaving his chums and going home alone was more intolerable to the stout lad than was facing the danger at hand.

"Well, all right, I give in again," he said reluctantly. '' But I still think we 're all crazy!''

"We're in a tight place," Frank admitted.

"Kuntz and Bock and Simon are dangerous characters, there's no doubt about it. But with us out of the way it will be easier for them to carry through plans to wreck the Crux Brothers' work and perhaps make good their threat to
cut Perry's lifeline. What about that?"

"We have a big job ahead of us," Joe agreed, "and if we don't do it successfully we probably won't live to tell the tale."

It was some time before the chums were able to get to sleep. Chet suggested that one of them remain on guard throughout the rest of the night but Frank vetoed the idea.

"Whoever came in wouldn't be foolish enough to try it again the same night," he decided, and at length the boys slumbered off.

The next thing they knew the sun was streaming in through the window.

"Golly, we've overslept!" Joe exclaimed.

"Yes, it's six o'clock already," Chet muttered ironically.