Hardy Boys Mysteries - 003 The Secret Of The Old Mill by Franklin W. Dixon

Author:Franklin W. Dixon [Dixon, Franklin W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub

CHAPTER XI

Sinister Tactics

“WHAT do you mean you can’t slow down?” Chet yelled. “Turn off the engine!”

“Joe can’t,” Frank said grimly. “He has the throttle to off position and we’re still traveling at full speed.”

There was no choice for Joe but to swing the Sleuth into another wide, sweeping turn. It would have been foolhardy to enter the river at such speed, and Joe knew that under the circumstances he needed lots of room to maneuver. The motorboat zoomed back into the middle of the bay. It seemed to the boys that suddenly there was tar more traffic on the bay than there had been before.

“Look out!” Chet yelled. Joe just missed a high-speed runabout.

He turned and twisted to avoid the small pleasure boats. The young pilot was more worried about endangering these people than he was about colliding with the larger vessels, which were commercial craft.

“Keep her as straight as you can!” Frank shouted to Joe. “I’ll take a look at the engine and see what I can do with it.”

Frank stood up and leaned forward to open the cowling in front of the dashboard, as the boat leaped across the waves in the bay.

“Watch out!” Chet yelled, as Frank almost lost his balance.

Joe had made a sharp turn to avoid cutting in front of a rowboat containing a man and several children. Joe realized that the wash of the speeding Sleuth might upset it.

“If those people are thrown overboard,” he thought, “we’ll have to rescue them. But how?” Fortunately, the boat did not overturn.

Frank quickly lifted the cowling from the engine and stepped into the pit. He knew he could open the fuel intake and siphon off the gas into the bay, but this would take too long.

“I’ll have to stop the boat-right now!” he decided.

Frank reached down beside the roaring engine and pulled three wires away from the distributor. Instantly the engine died, and Frank stood up just as Joe made another sharp turn to miss hitting a small outboard motorboat that had wandered across their path.

“Good night!” Chet cried out. “That was a close one!”

Even with the Sleuth’s reduction in speed, the other boat rocked violently back and forth as it was caught in the wash. Frank grasped the gunwale, ready to leap over the side and rescue the man if his boat overturned.

But the smaller craft had been pulled around to face the wash. Though it bounced almost out of the water, the boat quickly resumed an even keel.

The lone man in it kept coming toward the Sleuth. As he drew alongside, he began to wave his arms and shout at the boys.

“What’s the matter with you young fools?” he yelled. “You shouldn’t be allowed to operate a boat until you learn how to run one.”

“We couldn’t-” Joe started to say when the man interrupted.

“You should have more respect for other people’s safety!”

Frank finally managed to explain. “It was an accident. The throttle was jammed open. I had to pull the wires out of the distributor to stop her.

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