The Battle of Bayport (14 page)

“Frank!” I called down. “Brother, it sure is good to see you. Are you okay?”

“Joe?” he asked as he struggled to sit up. “Is that really you? I thought you were an angel.”

I laughed. “That's funny. A second ago, I was sure I was a ghost.”

A minute later I had climbed down into the hidden chamber and was helping my brother up. He was a bit dazed and bruised, but otherwise A-OK. As we tied up Bernie and untied Mr. Lakin, we were able to piece together what had happened.

Mr. Lakin had been drugged by Bernie and was pretty much still incommunicado. The last thing he seemed to remember was being hit from behind while on his way to see Dirk Bishop. He didn't know it had been Bernie who had kidnapped him or that he had been framed for murder, and he didn't seem to have a clue about the treasure, either. What a relief that our favorite history teacher was innocent.

He was pretty shocked to wake up in a hidden chamber under the cargo hold of the
Resolve
, surrounded by gold coins. The King's Pride Treasure was real, and it had been hidden right here aboard the
Resolve
for more than two centuries before Don Sterling found it and Bernie stole it from him. Who would have thought that all these years after
Frank and I used to play treasure hunters and pirates looking for the legendary lost gold as kids that we'd be the ones to actually recover it? Pretty cool, huh? We had written a new chapter for the history books after all. Maybe we'd even get our own display in the museum.

I put my arm around Frank. “It sure is good to be alive.”

And man, did I mean it. There's nothing like a close call with a musket ball to make you really appreciate things. I was going to make sure to give Dad and Aunt Trudy big bear hugs when we got home. I was looking forward to telling Mikey he wasn't the shooter, too. Maybe he'd put in a good word for me with his sister. I was really kind of hoping Jen and I could start over now that I'd helped clear her brother's name.

By the time we it made back up onto the deck of the
Resolve
, Bishop and his briefcase were long gone. You could see the bullet hole in the side of the ship where the ball had missed me and passed all the way through the hull. We figured Bishop had been getting ready to buy the treasure from Bernie, but had probably heard the shot and taken off running for the first flight back to jolly old England. I had a feeling we hadn't seen the last of him, but for tonight our work was done.

When Chief Olaf finally arrived (late, as usual), the first thing he saw was Bernie Blank tied up on the dock, guarded by a groggy Mr. Lakin.

“Rollie?” he asked in disbelief.

“Evening, Chief,” Mr. Lakin said, and hiccuped.

Then the chief looked up on the deck of the
Resolve
and saw Frank and me.

“Hardys! I demand to know what is going on here!” For some reason Chief Olaf never seems happy to see us.

“Sorry, Chief,” I called back down. “We know you said you'd arrest us if we went near the ship, but we figured you might be willing to give us another get-out-of-jail-free card in exchange for the real killer.”

“And Bayport's legendary long-lost treasure,” Frank added, flipping one of the gold coins high in the air and catching it in his palm.

The chief just sighed and shook his head.

A photographer from the
Bayport Bugle
had shown up as well, and the next morning the paper ran a picture of the Hardy boys on the front page. Our clothes were torn and tattered, but we had big grins on our faces as we stood triumphantly by one of the cannons, looking like patriotic pirates with our cutlasses, old George Washington hats, and a heaping pile of gold treasure.

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ALADDIN

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First Aladdin hardcover edition June 2014

Text copyright © 2014 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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Library of Congress Control Number 2013948653

ISBN 978-1-4814-0007-7 (hc)

ISBN 978-1-4814-0006-0 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-4814-0008-4 (eBook)