"Dixon, Franklin W - Hardy Boys 044 - The Haunted Fort (b)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dixon Franklin W)

"Me-back out?" Chet swallowed, then resolutely replaced the coonskin cap on his round head-backward. "Fur Nose Morton will pick you up tomorrow morning at ten sharp. Don't forget to pack some warm duds!"

The girls protested in vain. After making the boys promise not to be away for the whole summer, they wished them a safe and pleasant trip. As Frank drove the car down the drive, Joe leaned out the window.

"We'll take a rain check on that hootenanny, girls. See you in the morning, Chet!"

Full of anticipation about their new mystery, the Hardys drove directly to their tree-shaded house at the corner of High and Elm streets. After securing permission from their parents for the trip to Crown Lake, the excited boys spent the rest of the evening packing three large suitcases. Before retiring, they quickly perused several school-books on the history of the Crown Lake region. It had been an area of conflict during the French and Indian War.

"Here's a fort!" Joe remarked. "Senandaga! That may be the place Chet's uncle mentioned.

According to this, Senandaga was an impressive stronghold, though it didn't play a large role in the campaigns."

"If a fort's haunted, we can't expect it to be historical too," Frank said, grinning.

"Wait a minute!" Joe looked up. "There's a small painting of this fort right in the Bayport Museum!"

"The same one?"

"Yes. What say we have a look at it tomorrow before Chet gets here?"

After a sound night's sleep the boys awoke a half-hour earlier than usual the following morning and quickly arranged their luggage on the front porch. Leaving word that they would be back by ten, they drove in their convertible to the Bayport Museum.

A small, pug-faced man carrying a large sketch pad was just leaving the building as they reached the top of the marble steps. After bumping into Frank, he bowed nervously, then hastened down the steps and up the street.

"He's sure an early-bird artist," Joe remarked.

They passed into the cool, echoing foyer and were just about to enter the American Collection Room when they heard running footsteps and a cry for help. A distraught, bespectacled man waved to them and pointed ahead.

"That man-stop him-he's stolen our fort painting!"

CHAPTER II.

Highway Chase.

"FORT painting!" The words set Frank and Joe racing after the thief. They darted outside and down the marble steps three at a time! Frank went in one direction, Joe the other. But there was no sign of the fugitive.

After the Hardys had checked several side streets, they headed back and met at the museum.

"No luck," Frank said.

"He must have had a car," Joe declared.

"Another thing," Frank said, "I'll bet he hid the painting in that big sketch pad of his."

In the foyer of the museum, the brothers were questioned by two policemen. After Frank and Joe had given their statements to the officers, they spoke with the museum director, the man who had alerted them to the theft. As Frank suspected, the thief had apparently concealed the small painting in his sketch pad.

"I don't know why he chose the picture of Fort Senandaga," the director lamented, "but I'm sorry he did. So far as I know, ours was the only work of the Prisoner-Painter in this area."

The Hardys started in surprise. This was the same artist whose pictures had been disappearing from Millwood Art School!