The House on the Cliff (13 page)

“They can't be Coast Guard men,” said Mr. Hardy. “We'll listen a few seconds, then we'd better run in the other direction. I know the way out to the grounds.”

From below came an ugly, “You double-crosser, you! This loot belongs to the whole gang and don't you forget it!”

“Listen,” said the second voice. “I don't have to take orders from you. I thought we was pals. Now you don't want to go through with the deal. Who's to know if we got ten packages or five from that friend o' Ali Singh's?”

“Okay. And the stuff'll be easier to get rid of than those drugs. They're too hot for me. Snattman can burn for kidnapin' if he wants to—I don't.”

The voices had now become so loud that the Hardys did not dare wait another moment. “Come on!” the boys' father urged.

He led the way back to the corridor and along it to the door at the end. Suddenly Frank and Joe noticed him falter and were afraid he was going to faint. Joe recalled that his father had had no food except the candy bar. Ramming his hands into his pockets, he brought out another bar and some pieces of pretzel. Quickly he filled both his father's hands with them. Mr. Hardy ate them hungrily as his sons supported him under his arms and assisted him to the door.

As Frank quietly opened it, and they saw a stairway beyond, the detective said, “These steps will bring us up into a shed near the Pollitt house. There's a trap door. That's the way Snattman brought me down. Got your lights? We haven't any time to lose.” Mr. Hardy seemed stronger already. “I'll take the lead.”

As they ascended, Frank and Joe wondered if they would come out in the shed where they had seen the man named Klein picking up small logs.

When the detective reached the top of the stairs he ordered the lights out and pushed against the trap door. He could not budge it.

“You try,” he urged the boys. “And hurry! Those men we heard may discover Malloy.”

“And then things will start popping!” Frank murmured.

The boys heaved their shoulders against the trap door. In a moment there came the rumble of rolling logs. The door went up easily.

Frank peered out. No one seemed to be around. He stepped up into the shed and the others followed.

The three stood in silence. The night was dark. The wind, blowing through the trees, made a moaning sound. Before the Hardys rose the gloomy mass of the house on the cliff. No lights could be seen.

From the direction of the lane came dull, thudding sounds. The boys and their father assumed the smugglers' truck was being loaded with the goods which were to be disposed of by the man named Burke.

Suddenly the Hardys heard voices from the corridor they had just left. Quickly Frank closed the trap door and Joe piled up the logs. Then, silently, the Hardys stole out into the yard.

LITHE as Indians the three Hardys hurried across the lawn and disappeared among the trees. They headed for the road, a good distance away.

“I hope a bus comes along,” Frank said to himself. “Then we can get to a phone and report—”

His thought was rudely interrupted as the boys and their father heard a sound that struck terror to their hearts—the clatter of the logs tumbling off the trap door!

An instant later came a hoarse shout. “Chief! Red! The Hardys got away! Watch out for them!”

“He must be one of the men we heard coming up from the shore,” Joe decided. “They must have found Malloy trussed up!”

Instantly the place became alive with smugglers flashing their lights. Some of the men ran from the truck toward the road, shouting. Others began to comb the woods. Another man emerged from the trap door. He and his companion dashed to the ocean side of the house.

Two burly smugglers flung open the kitchen door and ran out. One shouted, “They ain't in the house!”

“And they're not down at the shore!” the other yelled. “I just talked to Klein on the phone down there.”

“You guys better not let those Hardys get away!” Snattman's voice cut through the night. “It'll be the pen for all of you!”

“Fenton Hardy's got a gun! He took Malloy's!” came a warning voice from the far side of the house. The two men who had gone to the front now returned. “He never misses his mark!”

When the fracas had started, the detective had pulled his sons to the ground, told them to lie flat, face down, and not to move. Now they could hear the pounding steps of the smugglers as they dashed among the trees. The boys' hearts pounded wildly. It did not seem possible they could be missed!

Yet man after man ran within a few yards of the three prone figures and dashed on toward the road. Presently Mr. Hardy raised his head and looked toward the Pollitt mansion.

“Boys,” he said tensely, “we'll make a run for the kitchen door. The men won't expect us to go there.”

The three arose. Swiftly and silently they crossed the dark lawn and slipped into the house. Apparently no one had seen them.

“When Snattman doesn't find us outdoors,” Joe whispered, “won't he look here to make sure?”

“Yes,” Mr. Hardy replied. “But by that time I hope the Coast Guard and State Police will arrive.”

“Joe and I found a hidden stairway to the attic,” Frank spoke up. “Snattman won't think of looking in it. Let's hide up there.”

“You forget the ghost,” Joe reminded his brother. “He knows we found that stairway.”

“Nevertheless, Frank's suggestion is a good one,” Mr. Hardy said. “Let's go to the attic. Were any clothes hanging in the closet that might be used to conceal the door?”

“Yes, a man's bathrobe on a rod.”

The Hardys did not dare use a light and had to make their way along by feeling walls, and the stair banister, with Frank in the lead and Mr. Hardy between the boys. Reaching the second floor, Frank looked out the rear window of the hall.

“The smugglers are coming back!” he remarked in a low voice. “The lights are heading this way!”

The Hardys doubled their speed, but it was still slow going, for they banged into chairs and a wardrobe as Frank felt his way along the hall toward the bedroom where the hidden staircase was.

Finally the trio reached it. Just as Frank was about to open the door to the attic, a door on the first floor swung open with a resounding bang.

“Scatter and search every room!” Snattman's crisp voice rang out.

“We're trapped!” Joe groaned.

“Maybe not,” Frank said hopefully. “I have a hunch Klein was the ghost. It's possible that he's the only one who knows about this stairway and he's down at the shore.”

“We'll risk going up,” Mr. Hardy decided. “But not a sound.” He slid the bathrobe across the rod, so that it would hide the door.

“The stairs creak,” Joe informed him.

Mr. Hardy told his sons to push down the treads slowly but firmly with their hands and hold them there until they put one foot between them and then raised up to their full weight.

“And lean forward, so you won't lose your balance,” he warned.

Fearful that he could not accomplish this, Frank opened the door carefully and started up in the pitch blackness. But the dread thought of capture made him use extreme caution and he reached the attic without having made a sound.

After closing the door, Joe and his father quickly followed. The three moved noiselessly to a spot out of sight of the stairway behind a large trunk. They sat down and waited, not daring even to whisper. From downstairs they could hear running footsteps, banging doors, and loud talk.

“Not here!”

“Not here!”

“Not here!”

The search seemed to come to an end, for the second-floor group had gathered right in the room where the secret stairway was.

“This is it! The end! They're going to search up here!” Frank thought woefully.

His father reached over and grasped a hand of each of his sons in a reassuring grip. Someone yanked open the closet door. The Hardys became tense. Would the robe over the entrance to the secret stairway fool him?

“Empty!” the man announced and shut the door. The smugglers went downstairs.

There were fervent handshakes among the detective and his sons. Other than this they did not move a muscle of their bodies, although they inwardly relaxed.

Now new worries assailed the Hardys. It was possible that Snattman and his gang, having been alerted, would move out and disappear before the police or Coast Guard could get to the house on the cliff.

Frank's heart gave a jump. He suddenly realized that his father was hiding to protect his sons. Had he been alone, the intrepid detective would have been downstairs battling to get the better of Snattman and break up the smuggling ring.

“What a swell father he is!” Frank thought. Then another idea came to him. “Maybe being here isn't such a bad plan after all. Dad might have been fatally shot if he'd been anywhere else on the property.”

A moment later the Hardys again became aware of voices on the second floor. They recognized one as Snattman's, the other as Klein's.

“Yeah, there's a secret stairway to the attic,” Klein announced. “I found it when I was playin' ghost. And them Hardy boys—they found it too. I'll bet my last take on those rare drugs we're gettin' tonight that the dick and his sons are up in that attic!”

The Hardys' spirits sank. They were going to be captured again after all!

They heard the door at the foot of the stairway open. “Go up and look, Klein,” ordered Snattman.

“Not me. Fenton Hardy has Malloy's gun.”

“I said go up!”

“You can't make me,” Klein objected in a whining tone. “I'd be a sure target 'cause I couldn't see him. He'd be hiding and let me have it so quick I'd never know what hit me.”

Despite the grave situation, Frank's and Joe's faces were creased in smiles, but they faded as Snattman said, “I'll go myself. Give me that big light!”

Suddenly a brilliant beam was cast into the attic. It moved upward, accompanied by heavy footsteps.

“Hardy, if you want to live, say so!” Snattman said, an evil ring in his voice.

No answer from the detective.

“We've got you cornered this time!”

Mr. Hardy did not reply.

“Listen, Hardy!” Snattman shouted. “I know you're up there because you moved that bathrobe. I'll give you just one minute to come down out of that attic!”

Still no answer and an interval of silence followed.

Then came Snattman's voice again. “This is your last chance, Hardy!”

Nearly a minute went by without a sign from the two enemy camps. Then Snattman moved up the stairs a few more steps.

“Hardy, I have a proposition to make to you,” he said presently. “I know you don't want to die and you want those boys of yours to live too. Well, so do I want to live. So let's call it quits.”

The detective maintained his silence and Snattman continued up the steps. “Give you my word I won't shoot. And I know you never fire first unless you have to.”

A moment later he appeared at the top of the stairs, empty-handed except for the light. In a moment he spotted the Hardys with his high-powered flashlight.

“Here's the proposition—your lives in exchange for mine and my gang's.”

“How do you mean?” Mr. Hardy asked coldly.

“I mean,” the smuggler said, “that you are my hostages.”

“Hostages!” Frank and Joe exclaimed together.

“Yes. If my men and I can get our stuff moved away before the police or the Coast Guard might happen in here, then you can leave a little later.”

“But if they do come?” Frank asked.

“Then I'll bargain with them,” Snattman answered. “And I don't think they'll turn me down. They don't know where you are, but I'll make them understand I mean business. If they take me, you three die!”

Frank and Joe gasped. The famous Fenton Hardy and his sons were to be used as a shield to protect a ruthless gang of criminals!

The boys looked at their father in consternation. To their amazement he looked calm, but his mouth was drawn in a tight line.

“It won't do you any good to shoot me, Hardy,” the smuggler said. “Mallory said all the chambers in that gat are empty but one. If the gang hears a shot, they'll be up here in a minute to finish you all off properly.”

The Hardys realized that if Snattman's remark about the gun were true, they were indeed at the mercy of this cunning, scheming, conniving smuggler. He now started backing toward the stairway.