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19 - Hardy Boys The Mystery of Cabin Island by Franklin W Dixon · Hardy Boys: The Mystery of Cabin Island

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  Speaker 1: Chapter nineteen Disappointment. Frank Hardy sprang forward. He crouched down
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  Speaker 1: in the fireplace and looked up. He could see Joe's
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  Speaker 1: wildly plunging feet a short distance above. Kick yourself free,
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  Speaker 1: advised Chet helpfully. That's all I can do, kick, replied
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  Speaker 1: the prisoner. My elbows are wedged in against these rocks,
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  Speaker 1: and I can't get loose. Old Steady. A second, Frank said,
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  Speaker 1: I'll try to drag you out. He reached up and
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  Speaker 1: seized one of Joe's feet. He tugged, but Joe was
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  Speaker 1: evidently firmly wedged in the chimney. Keep on climbing and
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  Speaker 1: come out. At the top, called Chet, wait till I
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  Speaker 1: get you, answered Joe. This isn't funny. Come on, you chaps,
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  Speaker 1: said Frank to the others, lend a hand. We'll just
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  Speaker 1: have to drag him out by main force. Gingerly, Biff
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  Speaker 1: and Chet entered the fireplace. The three boys were crowded together.
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  Speaker 1: They reached up to grab Joe by the feet, just
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  Speaker 1: as the prisoner made another struggle and sent more soot
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  Speaker 1: pouring down on him his rescuers. Within a few seconds,
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  Speaker 1: the three were liberally covered with the black substance all
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  Speaker 1: together now, said Frank. When they had grabbed Joe by
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  Speaker 1: the ankles, Paul, they pulled with surprising quickness. Joe came loose.
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  Speaker 1: He came plunging down into the fireplace on top of
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  Speaker 1: the others, each of whom lost his balance and sat
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  Speaker 1: down heavily. There was more soot. The four lads were
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  Speaker 1: piled in a heap in the fireplace, so blackened and
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  Speaker 1: dirty as to be unrecognizable. Joe, of course, had the
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  Speaker 1: worst of it. His face was as black as coal.
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  Speaker 1: He was a bedraggled, sooty object, but not much sorrier
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  Speaker 1: sight than his companions. As they sat up and looked
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  Speaker 1: at one another, the humor of the situation suddenly struck them.
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  Speaker 1: Oh boy, you chaps look funny, yelled Chet, and burst
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  Speaker 1: into a howl of laughter. No funnier than you, roared Biff.
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  Speaker 1: You look like a chimney sweep. They scrambled out of
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  Speaker 1: the fireplace, laughing in spight of themselves. If somebody could
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  Speaker 1: have seen us all when Joe came down out of
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  Speaker 1: that chimney, laughed Frank, I'll bet we looked funny. What
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  Speaker 1: a glorious tumble. I vote we all take a bath,
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  Speaker 1: said Chet mournfully. We certainly need it, and the fire
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  Speaker 1: is out and we have no hot water. They looked
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  Speaker 1: gloomly at each other, black and wretched, and then they
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  Speaker 1: began to laugh again. What did you find, Joe, soot,
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  Speaker 1: returned the victim. We know you did, But what else
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  Speaker 1: did you find? Or didn't you have a chance to
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  Speaker 1: explore the chimney. I explored it all right, and I
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  Speaker 1: can tell you this. There's nothing hidden up there. This
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  Speaker 1: announcement was a shock to them all. Didn't you find anything,
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  Speaker 1: demanded Frank. Joe shook his head. I turned on the
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  Speaker 1: flashlight and examined the inside of the chimney very carefully.
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  Speaker 1: The rocks and mortar are just as solid inside as
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  Speaker 1: they are on the outside. I didn't find a trace
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  Speaker 1: of anything unusual. You looked on the left hand side
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  Speaker 1: at the front, exactly as the cipher said, and I
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  Speaker 1: tried to figure it out at about nine feet from
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  Speaker 1: the floor. Just to be sure, I examined every inch
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  Speaker 1: of the chimney on that side. I was just going
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  Speaker 1: higher when I got stuck. Even the grime could not
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  Speaker 1: hide the disappointment expressed in the boy's faces. Just then
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  Speaker 1: I guess that message was just a fake, said Biff. Finally,
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  Speaker 1: but the hardy boys would not agree with this. If
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  Speaker 1: it is a fake, why was Hanley so frightened lest
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  Speaker 1: we would be able to read it? Asked Frank. Well
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  Speaker 1: shrugged Biff. If it isn't a fake, why isn't there
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  Speaker 1: something queer about that place in the chimney. We've examined
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  Speaker 1: it from the front, and Joe has examined it from
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  Speaker 1: the inside, and there is certainly nothing hidden there. I
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  Speaker 1: can't understand it, Frank admitted just the same. I believe
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  Speaker 1: that message means something. It is certainly disappointing to find
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  Speaker 1: ourselves up against a blank wall, just when we thought
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  Speaker 1: we were going to solve the whole mystery. The boys
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  Speaker 1: lighted the fire again, and after they had heated water,
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  Speaker 1: they scrubbed themselves thoroughly and had a good cleaning up.
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  Speaker 1: Within an hour they were presentable again. The soot had
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  Speaker 1: been swept up from the floor, and all evidences of
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  Speaker 1: their adventure in the chimney had been removed. I wonder,
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  Speaker 1: suggested Joe, if there is another cabin island not in
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  Speaker 1: Barmet Bay, said Frank, Perhaps somewhere else, Perhaps this message
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  Speaker 1: refers to an island in some other part of the
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  Speaker 1: country altogether. Perhaps Hanley merely guessed that this was the place.
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  Speaker 1: There may be something in that. It's just possible that
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  Speaker 1: Hanley is in the same boat as we are, and
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  Speaker 1: that we are all being fooled. Well, said Chet. We've
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  Speaker 1: done the best we could, and there is something wrong somewhere,
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  Speaker 1: so why should we worry about it any longer. We
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  Speaker 1: came here for an outing, not to solve puzzles. That's right,
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  Speaker 1: declared Biff. If this chap Hanley comes back, we'll try
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  Speaker 1: to get the truth out of him, but we won't
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  Speaker 1: do ourselves any good by wrecking our brains over this business.
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  Speaker 1: Forget it. So the subject of the cipher message was
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  Speaker 1: officially dropped to Frank. However, their failure to discover anything
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  Speaker 1: of importance in the Big Chimney had been very disappointing.
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  Speaker 1: He had been elated by his success in solving the
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  Speaker 1: mystery of the cipher message, and he had looked upon
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  Speaker 1: the entire riddle as being near solution. The setback was
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  Speaker 1: a hard pill to swallow. In spite of the fact
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  Speaker 1: that Biff thought the message was a fake, Frank clung
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  Speaker 1: stubbornly to the belief that it was genuine and important.
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  Speaker 1: Hanley wouldn't have made such a fuss about it, he argued,
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  Speaker 1: unless there was something important behind it. He regretted Hanley's escape. Now,
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  Speaker 1: Frank longed to meet the man again. He wanted another
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  Speaker 1: chance to force the fellow into an explanation of how
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  Speaker 1: he came to be in possession of Sparewell's notebook, And
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  Speaker 1: above all, he wanted to know what the cipher message
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  Speaker 1: referred to. What was hidden in the chimney. We'll find out,
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  Speaker 1: he insisted. Perhaps in the long run it will all
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  Speaker 1: turn out to be just as simple as that cipher.
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  Speaker 1: He looked gloomily at the big chimney. What mystery did
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  Speaker 1: it hide? Was there any mystery? Was the whole message
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  Speaker 1: just a hoax? He could not believe this. In any case,
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  Speaker 1: Hanley knew something about the mysterious Sparewell. Else how did
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  Speaker 1: he get possession of the notebook, And in this respect alone,
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  Speaker 1: the mystery was worth following up. That evening, the Hardy
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  Speaker 1: boys and their chums were gathered around the fire. Check
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  Speaker 1: and Joe were playing checkers. Biff had rigged up the
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  Speaker 1: punching bag, had donned his boxing gloves and was making
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  Speaker 1: the bag drum in a lively manner. Frank was still
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  Speaker 1: studying the cipher, wondering if there might not be some
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  Speaker 1: little clue he had missed once in a while. He
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  Speaker 1: referred to the pages of the notebook again. It was
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  Speaker 1: growing colder outside, and the boys had to keep a
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  Speaker 1: roaring fire in order that the cabin should be warm enough.
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  Speaker 1: The wind was rising and there were fitful slices of
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  Speaker 1: snow against the windows. More dirty weather, growled Biff, dealing
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  Speaker 1: a particularly vicious blow at the punching bag. Seems it's
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  Speaker 1: done nothing but snow since we came here, said Chet.
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  Speaker 1: It's your move, Joe reminded him. Chet moved his checker,
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  Speaker 1: and Joe promptly captured it with a king as well.
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  Speaker 1: The scene was peaceful. The boys would have been interested
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  Speaker 1: if they had known of what was happening in a
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  Speaker 1: little house in Bayport. Just then. Hanley was preparing to
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  Speaker 1: return to Cabin Island. End of Chapter nineteen