The Apeman's Secret by Franklin W. Dixon Page B

make it shut again.” He added a moment later, “Look—he didn’t even leave any scratches!”
    â€œBut why worry about all that?” Joe asked. “If he’s going to sabotage our boat, what difference does it make whether we know he broke in or not?”
    â€œJust a nasty sense of humor, I guess. If we knew the boathouse had been broken into, we’d be prepared to find something wrong with the Sleuth. This way, we don’t discover the sabotage till we’re all set to shove off.”
    â€œGreat!” said Joe, looking disgusted. “So how’re we going to pick up Buzz?”
    â€œMaybe we can get Tony Prito to take us in his boat,” Frank suggested.
    â€œGreat idea! Let’s give him a call!”
    The Hardys tried Tony’s number from a nearby phone booth. Their high-school chum readily agreed to take them out to the Ark in his motorboat, the Napoli.
    While they were sitting at the boat landing, waiting for Tony to appear, Frank remarked to Joe,
    â€œYou know, there could be another reason why our boathouse was broken into.”
    â€œSuch as?”
    â€œThe intruder might have been looking for something, maybe to see if we had any incriminating information in connection with one of the cases we’re working on.”
    â€œWe haven’t used the Sleuth so far,” said Joe, “in investigating the Apeman mystery.”
    â€œNo, but we did the night we spotted those flashing-light signals from Buzz and went aboard the Ark to find Sue,” Frank reminded his brother.
    â€œThat’s right! So maybe the captain of the Ark or one of Noah’s stooges got worried that we might be watching their ship, maybe snapping pictures of everyone who goes aboard.”
    â€œRight—or even just keeping a log of how many people come and go. Perhaps they hoped to find something in the boathouse that would tip them off to what we’re up to, and sabotaging the Sleuth was just an afterthought.”
    â€œThat would explain it, all right,” Joe agreed.
    Presently, Tony Prito’s Napoli pulled alongside the boat landing. Frank and Joe clambered into the cockpit with him, and the trio were soon knifing out across the sunlit waters of Barmet Bay.
    They could see a number of people, including white-robed culties, sailors, and at least one officer, watching them from the deck of the Ark as they approached the big converted cruise liner.
    Frank cupped his hands and shouted up, “We’ve come for Buzz Barton!”
    â€œWatch out, then!” the officer called back. “Here he comes!”
    He turned and gestured to someone behind him with a wave of his hand. The Hardys and Tony saw a struggling figure being dragged toward the rail.
    Next moment the prisoner was picked up bodily and hurled out over the side, hitting the water with a mighty splash not far from the Napoli!
    Luckily the husky, freckle-faced youth seemed unharmed by his dunking. He swam toward the Napoli with brisk, powerful strokes, and the three Bayporters helped him scramble into the boat.
    â€œWhat a bunch of yellow punks!” Tony exploded angrily, glaring up at the grinning faces on the deck of the Ark.
    â€œDon’t waste your breath on ‘em,” Buzz Barton advised. “The poor saps aren’t worth it.”
    On their way back to the harbor, Buzz related what had happened on the evening that he went aboard the cult ship. “They must’ve known beforehand that I was Sue Linwood’s boyfriend and maybe that I was working with you Hardys, too,” Buzz conjectured. “As soon as I went below, a couple of the culties grabbed me, and one of them jabbed me with a needle. After that, everything’s a blur!”
    â€œYou were probably injected with something to make you talk,” said Joe, “like a hypnotic drug. That’s how they must have found out Frank and I were coming later and the signals to lure us