"Dixon, Franklin W - Hardy Boys 111 - Three-Ring Terror" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dixon Franklin W)

"What are you going to do?" Joe asked.
"We've got to get the ball away from him," Frank told his brother, holding on tightly to the whip. The lion seemed to be keeping an eye on them while he pawed away at the ball.
"If there's a message inside the ball," Joe said, "that lion's going to get at it. Hurry."
"I am hurrying," Frank insisted as he uncoiled the whip.
"But be careful, too," Joe warned.
Frank nodded. He stepped back a few paces and drew back the whip, keeping his eyes on a spot about a foot in front of the lion. Then he snapped the whip. It flew through the bars and hit the floor of the cage with a loud crack. The lion opened his jaws wide and let out a huge roar.
"Hey!" Joe shouted, jumping back.
"Keep cool," Frank said, quietly. He snapped the whip at the spot in front of the lion again. This time the lion jumped up and backed away, leaving the ball behind.
"Hurry!" Joe yelled. "Get the ball."
Frank quickly snapped the whip at the ball, sending it flying into the far corner of the cage. The lion roared again, louder this time, and began to paw at the whip.
"Grab the ball!" Frank told Joe. "I'll keep him back!"
Joe darted to the side of the cage and swiftly reached his hand inside. He had almost managed to grab the ball when he heard a voice call out, "Hey, you! Get your hands out of there!"
Joe turned to see Justine standing in the doorway with a man by her side. The man rushed over, pulled Joe away from the cage, and held him by the shoulders.
"What do you . . . clowns . . . think you're doing?" he demanded.
Joe was about to explain when Frank stepped up. "That's our ball in there," he said. "We were trying to get it out."
"Real smart," the man said, letting go of Joe. ""You guys could have been killed." With that, he grabbed the whip out of Frank's hand, unlocked the cage, and stepped inside. In a few trained movements, the man had the lion sitting back on his hind legs, his paws in the air. "Stay, Brutus," the man told the lion sharply. He then walked over to the corner of the cage and picked up the ball. He tossed it through the bars of the cage, and Joe caught it neatly between his hands.
"Thanks!" Joe yelled out.
"Next time," the man warned, "don't mess with these animals. They may be trained, but that doesn't stop them from attacking." He passed the lion a tidbit from his pocket, backed out of the cage, and locked it up.
Frank took the ball from Joe and wiped it clean. He looked it over carefully. "Is there anything inside?" Joe asked his brother.
"Nope," Frank said. He tried twisting the ball, but Joe could see it wouldn't budge.
"Now are you satisfied?" Justine asked, her arms crossed in front of her. "If you're through with the ball, I'd like to give it back to Carl."
"Not so fast," Joe told her. He took the ball back from Frank and examined it himself. His brother was right—there was no way of opening it up, which meant there had to be something else important about it. He looked at the gems carefully. Like the ones on the other ball, these looked like rhinestones, about an inch in size each.
"Is there a knife around?" he asked the animal trainer. The man gave Joe a quizzical look but pulled a pocketknife from his pants pocket and gave it to Joe.
Joe opened the knife and scratched away at one of the gems. It broke into a few pieces and fell to the ground.
"Rhinestones?" Frank asked, realizing what his brother was up to.
"Or glass," Joe replied. "Let's try another." One by one, Joe scratched at the gems, and one by one, all of them broke into pieces.
"Give it up, Joe," Frank suggested. "This is another dead end."
But Joe wasn't about to give in so easily. He knew there had to be a reason why Rosen and Nash had acted so suspiciously, and this ball held the clue. He went at the last gem. He scratched its surface, expecting it to fall apart, too. But it didn't. Instead, the gem shone out even more brilliantly. Joe caught his breath, realizing what they'd found.
"Not a scratch!" he announced, his voice rising in excitement.
Frank took one look at the gem and let out a long whistle. "You don't mean… ?"
Joe nodded. "Unless I'm wrong, we've got our hands on a real diamond!"
Chapter 14
Cracking the Code
Justine gasped and looked nervously at Frank and Joe. Frank braced himself, ready to stop her from running off. If she was involved, he was sure she'd try to get away.
But the trapeze student just stood there, staring at the ball. "No," she said softly, her eyes filling with tears. "Not Carl."
"Not Carl?" Joe repeated. "Just what do you know about this, Justine?" he demanded, holding up the ball.
Justine hid her face in her hands. Frank went over to her and put his hand on her arm. "It's okay," he told her. "Why don't you calm down, and then you can tell us what you know." He took the ball from Joe. "Did you know Rosen was passing diamonds to Nash?" Frank asked quietly.
"I knew the ball was important," Justine said, holding back her tears. "Carl told me to meet that guy at exactly eleven o'clock, but he also told me that if anything happened, I should hold on to the ball ho matter what and pretend I didn't know anything. Which I don't, really."
Joe tapped his foot impatiently. "You knew more than you were letting on before," he insisted.
"That's enough, Joe," Frank said firmly. He turned to Justine and asked, "Why couldn't Carl meet Rosen himself?"
Justine wiped a tear from her eye. "He said it was too dangerous, with you guys prowling around. He said Rosen would understand why he needed an intermediary."
"So Carl picked you," Frank concluded, feeling sorry for the young woman. "Weren't you worried it would be dangerous for you?" he asked.
"I love Carl," Justine confessed. "I'd do anything for him."
"But now you see what kind of person he is," Joe said. "It looks like he's messed up with the theft of a diamond, at the very least," he said.
Frank followed through on Joe's reasoning. "Nash and Rosen are accomplices in something illegal. They're doing their best to hide it by passing juggler's balls and coded messages back and forth. And now that we know this ball has a diamond in it, I'm beginning to wonder if we're looking at a smuggling ring or the theft of one diamond."
"What did you mean just now about coded messages?" Justine asked, her eyes wide.
Joe quickly explained about the code and told Justine that her initials were in it, too. "Did Carl tell you to plan to meet Rosen again on January third?" he asked, referring to the date that corresponded to Justine's initials on the code.
Justine shook her head. "No. I'm going back to Florida after the circus is finished in Bayport. My family is there, and I want to spend Christmas and New Year's with them. Nash is going home, too."
"Rats," Frank said, realizing their theory was shot again. Nash could be using Justine to pick up another of Rosen's drops, but only if both Rosen and Justine were on tour together. "Did Nash ever ask you to continue with the tour in January?" he pressed, trying to fit the facts into the theory.
"No," Justine said again. "Look, I don't know what Carl is involved in, but I'm sure there's got to be an explanation," she said, trying to sound convincing. But one look at the ball in Frank's hands made her cut the speech short. "I've got to go," Justine said abruptly. "I have to get ready for our performances this afternoon. Circus U. students are putting on a show for the Montero, and I need to get ready."