Hardy Boys -2: Secret of the Old Mill

Nightly Excursion

"You're doing what?" exclaimed Chet.

Joe sighed. Chet was on his list of friends to call after church. Frank was in the study right now, on the phone with Phil. "You heard me," he said. "We're going to the old mill tonight to see if we can find any clues, and we're just making sure we can get some back-up."

"I know, I know," grumbled Chet, "I heard you the first time. Just wanted to be sure I heard you right." There was a pause.

"Well?"

"I'm thinking about it, OK? This farm can't exactly run by itself, knucklebrain, and Mom and Dad would ground me for life if I left all the work to Iola."

"Listen, we looked it up, Elekton closes its gates for the night around six. We figured we'd head out there around nine and look for clues until midnight. Does that work for you?"

"Well . . . yeah, I guess so."

"Thanks Chet, you're the best!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," said Chet with a bit of smugness in his voice. Joe bit his lip to hold back a chuckle. "I do owe you for getting Queen back, after all."

"Well that's good to know," said Joe cheerily, but a bit of sarcasm was poking through in his voice.

"Yeah, uh-huh." There was a slight pause. "You're absolutely sure nothing's going to happen tonight? What if the counterfeiters are there?"

"Well, that's why we're bringing back-up," replied Joe. "We know there's at least two of them, if it just ends up being, you, me, and Frank, we can take them."

"I'd rather just be the getaway driver," mumbled Chet. "But if no one else goes, I'll be there with you."

"Thanks man, we'll pick you up around eight-thirty."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll see you tonight."

"Great. Bye!"

"Bye."

Joe huffed as he hung up the phone. He glanced at the next name on the list. One down, three more to go. He quickly called up each one, but Biff was the only other one who could make it on such short notice. Well, at least they had two guys as back-up. Joe left the boys' room to go check up on Frank's progress.

Frank huffed when Joe approached their father's desk. "Please tell me you got at least one person to come along."

Joe grinned. "I'll do you one better, I got two. Chet and Biff."

Frank sighed with relief. "Oh thank God."

"Chet would rather be on getaway car duty and Biff wouldn't mind going with us into the cave."

Frank chuckled. "Go figure."

"We should have figured that Jack might not have been able to make it for the same reasons as Tony, and Jerry had already made plans with his family, but why couldn't the rest go?"

Frank sighed. "Well, Slim and Pete had actually planned to go help their dads at work for a few days to get some cash for the summer, and Phil's actually heading out of town tonight for a family emergency."

Joe gasped. "Oh no."

"Yeah, but he didn't give me specifics. Guess we'll find out when he gets back. But at least we have two of the gang along for the ride."

Joe nodded. "Yeah, told them we'd pick up Chet around eight-thirty and we'd pick up Biff around eight-forty-five."

Frank nodded. "Sounds good. Now, think we should pack first or take a nap first?"