Read Online The House on the Cliff by Franklin W. Dixon - Free Book Online Page B

a real break in picking up the stolen drugs!” Frank added. “Maybe we should pass along our suspicions to the Coast Guard.”
    â€œNot yet,” Joe objected. “All we have to go on is Pretzel Pete’s statements about Ali Singh. Maybe we’ll learn more this afternoon and then we can report it.”
    â€œI guess you’re right,” Frank concluded. “If those smugglers are holding Dad, and find out that we’ve tipped off the Coast Guard, they’ll certainly harm him.”
    â€œYou have a point.”
    When Frank and Joe reached the Prito boathouse at two o’clock, Tony and Chet were already there. Tony was tuning up the motor, which purred evenly.
    â€œNo word from your dad yet?” Tony asked. The Hardys shook their heads as they stepped aboard.
    The Napoli was a rangy, powerful craft with graceful lines and was the pride of Tony’s life. The boat moved slowly out into the waters of Barmet Bay and then gathered speed as it headed toward the ocean.
    â€œRough water,” Frank remarked as breaking swells hit the hull. Salt spray dashed over the bow of the Napoli as it plunged on through the white-caps. Bayport soon became a speck nestled at the curve of the horseshoe-shaped body of water. Reaching the ocean, Tony turned north. The boys could see the white line of the shore road rising and falling along the coast. Soon they passed the Kane farm. Two miles farther on they came within sight of the cliff upon which the Pollitt house stood. It looked stark and forbidding above the rocks, its roof and chimneys silhouetted against the sky.
    â€œPretty steep cliff,” Tony observed. “I can’t see how anyone could make his way up and down that slope to get to the house.”
    â€œThat’s probably why nobody has suspected the place of being a smuggling base,” Frank replied. “But perhaps when we look around we’ll find an answer.”
    Tony steered the boat closer toward the shore, so that it would not be visible from the Pollitt grounds. Then he slackened speed in order that the sound of the engine would be less noticeable, and the craft made its way toward the bottom of the cliff.
    There were currents here that demanded skillful navigation, but Tony brought the Napoli through them easily, and at last the boat was chugging along close to the face of the cliff.
    The boys eagerly scanned the formidable wall of rock. It was scarred and seamed and the base had been eaten away by the incessant battering of waves. There was no indication of a path.
    Suddenly Tony turned the wheel sharply. The Napoli swerved swiftly to one side. He gave it power and the craft leaped forward with a roar.
    â€œWhat’s the matter?” Frank asked in alarm.
    Tony gazed straight ahead, tense and alert. Another shift of the wheel and the Napoli swerved again.
    Then Chet and the Hardys saw the danger. There were rocks at the base of the cliff. One of them, black and sharp, like an ugly tooth, jutted out of the water almost at the boat’s side. Only Tony’s quick eye had saved the Napoli from hitting it!
    They had blundered into a veritable maze of reefs which extended for several yards ahead. Tony’s passengers held their breaths. It seemed impossible that they could run the gantlet of those rocks without tearing out the bottom of the craft.
    But luck was with them. The Napoli dodged the last dangerous rock, and shot forward into open water.
    Tony sank back with a sigh of relief. “Whew, that was close!” he exclaimed. “I didn’t see those rocks until we were right on top of them. If we’d ever struck one of them we’d have been goners.”
    Frank, Joe, and Chet nodded in solemn agreement. Then, suddenly, Frank cried out, “Turn back! I think I saw an opening!”
    Tony swung the boat around. The opening which Frank had spotted was a long, narrow tunnel. It led right through the cliff!
    â€œThis might be the secret