The Hooded Hawk Mystery by Franklin W. Dixon

Author:Franklin W. Dixon
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: &NEW, Kidnapping, Mystery & Detective Stories, Brothers, YA, Juvenile Fiction, Mystery and detective stories, Mysteries & Detective Stories, Fiction, Peregrine Falcon, Detective and mystery stories, Mysteries (Young Adult), Boys & Men, Crime, Falconry, Hardy Boys (Fictitious Characters)
ISBN: 9780448089348
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 1955-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XV

Chef in Trouble

horrified at seeing his brother slip off the cliff, Frank ran toward the brink where Joe had

been. John Fenwick followed.

But the earth, loosened by Joe's plunge, made the footing unsure and it seemed for a

moment as if they too would go over into the chasm. All this time the falcon was circling and

screaming overhead.

"Joe!" Frank wailed. "Joe!"

But his brother could not answer. Plunging down the steep face of the cliff, Joe had

clutched frantically at roots and vines, only to have them snap off or slip through his fingers.

At last, however, his hands gripped a large tree root. It held, and the muscles in his arms

and shoulders jerked painfully as they caught the full force of his descent.

Now, coughing and half blinded from the dust stirred up by his slide, he could only grit

his teeth

113

114 The Hooded Hawk Mystery

and hang on. Blood from the deep scratches made by the falcon's sharp talons was

running down his cheek, and the whole experience had left him weak.

Gradually, however, his strength returned and he looked below. There was a smooth

shelf of rock a short distance beneath him and in relief he dropped to it. The overhang of the

cliff made it impossible for Frank and Mr. Fenwick to see him without leaning out

dangerously over the cliff.

Frantic now, Frank cried, "Joe! Joe!"

"I'm all right!" his brother called back, but a grim smile crossed his face as he watched

the mother hawk heading toward her nest and young.

"Where are you?" Frank called down.

"On a ledge below the rim of the cliff."

Moments later Joe saw a lifeline swinging toward him. Because of the cliff's overhang,

the rope was a bit beyond his reach, and for a while it looked as though he might still

plummet to the depths in trying to reach it. Finally, Joe broke off a length of curling root, and

using it for a hook, managed to bring the rope close enough to grasp it.

Quickly he lashed it around his waist and yelled, "Haul away!"

As Frank and Mr. Fenwick pulled hand over hand on the line, Joe braced his legs

against the rock wall and literally "walked" up the cliff with their help. When he came up over

the edge, Frank gripped the back of Joe's jacket and rolled him to complete safety.

Chet in Trouble 115

At sight of Joe's blood-covered face, Frank asked in concern, "Are you hurt badly?"

Joe managed a grin. "I guess I look worse than I feel. It's mostly my pride that's hurt. I

should have watched for that mother hawk. Thank goodness she finally returned to her nest."

"You learned the hard way," Mr. Fenwick remarked, then pointed out a mountain stream

in which Joe could wash the blood from his face. "I feel it was my fault. We're lucky it ended

so well."

Joe said, "Forget it. But how about my taking a look at the falcon you brought up? I'd like

to see one fledgling, anyway!"

The falcon's tail and wing feathers were short because the bird was so young. Small

tufts of down clung to them. The young bird's feet were a light greenish gray instead of

brilliant orange like the adults'.

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