Read Online The Sign of the Crooked Arrow by Franklin W. Dixon - Free Book Online Page B

don’t they tell you they’re going?” Frank asked.
    â€œThey tell no one. As a result, my foreman hasn’t been able to get all the ranch work done.”
    â€œCan’t you hire new hands?” Joe spoke up.
    â€œThey won’t work here. We’ve advertised, but the story has gotten around that Crowhead is—well—jinxed. Because nobody has heard from the men who disappear.”
    â€œWhat do the police say?” Joe asked.
    â€œThe sheriff has done all he can to try to solve the mystery, but the men keep vanishing into thin air.”
    As their cousin talked, night dropped into the valley. She switched on the living-room lights and said, “You boys must be exhausted. Perhaps you had better go to bed. We get up very early here at Crowhead.”
    â€œAnd I’d like to do some investigating in the morning,” Frank declared. “How about it, fellows?”
    As he rose from his chair he happened to glance out the window. A pair of unfriendly eyes was peering into the room. Then, almost instantly, the image vanished.

CHAPTER X
    A Suspicious Foreman
    â€œSOMEBODY is spying on us!” Frank thought.
    He sidled over to the window, but whoever had been peering through it had disappeared from view. Excusing himself, Frank went into the kitchen and out the back door, hoping to take the spy by surprise.
    He made his way quietly around the building. Nobody was near the window, and it was too dark to check for footprints.
    As Frank listened for a noise to indicate the eavesdropper’s whereabouts, he heard the sound of hoofbeats. They came from the direction of the corral, then rumbled off in the distance like the muffled beat of a drum.
    â€œHe sure got away in a hurry,” Frank thought in disgust.
    When he went inside, his cousin asked him what had happened. Not wishing to worry her, he merely said he was investigating a noise he had heard.
    Frank kept his discovery secret until he and Joe were alone in their room. Chet had already tumbled into bed and was sleeping soundly.
    â€œWe’d better not alarm Cousin Ruth,” Frank said when he had completed his story. “But there’s something I’d like to ask her before we turn in. Be right back.”
    Seeing a light still on in the living room, he went to find his cousin. She was reading.
    â€œOh,” she said in surprise, “would you boys like a snack or something? I forgot to ask.”
    â€œNo, thank you,” Frank replied. “Joe and I were just wondering exactly how many horses are in the corral.”
    â€œWe have twenty-five now,” Mrs. Hardy said, a note of sadness in her voice. “We used to have many more, but I had to sell them.”
    After chatting a while longer, Frank said good night again and went to his room. He suggested a plan to Joe.
    Instead of undressing, the Hardys turned out their light and waited. A few minutes later their cousin went to her bedroom. Half an hour later Crowhead Ranch was cloaked in stillness, broken only by the chirping of crickets and the occasional mournful howl of a far-off coyote.
    â€œOkay,” Frank whispered. “Let’s go!”
    The boys tiptoed downstairs to the kitchen, opened the back door, and made their way to the corral. The horses stirred slightly as they sensed the presence of strangers.
    â€œHope they don’t rouse anybody.” Frank said. Just then the moon, whose ghostly light had been concealed behind a mass of somber clouds, broke into the open sky. In the dim glow cast over the corral, Frank and Joe could see the horses.
    â€œWe’ll both count them,” Frank said.
    After a moment of silence, Joe whispered, “Twenty-four!”
    â€œThat’s what I get!” Frank replied.
    â€œThere’s one missing,” Joe said excitedly.
    â€œThat might mean,” Frank declared, “that the person who looked in the window and rode off works for Crowhead!”
    â€œListen!”