Balloon Blow-Up by Franklin W. Dixon

Author:Franklin W. Dixon [Dixon, Franklin W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781442453722
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2013-12-03T08:00:00+00:00

“There he is!” Joe said, pointing. “There’s the guy who ripped the Green Crawler balloon!”

Adam coolly strolled out from behind the barn. “Who, me?” he asked innocently.

The other scarecrows had stopped dancing. They stood on the float, watching everything.

“Go ahead, Boris and Dash,” Frank said. “Check Adam’s pockets for scissors or something else sharp.”

Another scarecrow let out a laugh.

“Good luck with that!” he said. “Our scarecrow costumes have no pockets!”

“Yeah!” a teenage scarecrow with a flowered hat complained. “I have nowhere to put my cell phone.”

“Or my gum!” a younger scarecrow added.

“That was my idea, you guys,” Taylor said, and smiled. “I don’t want any snacking or texting on my float.”

“Want to check my pockets now, losers?” Adam sneered at Frank and Joe.

“And no name-calling on my float, either,” Taylor scolded Adam.

The bodyguards now loomed over Adam.

“What are you doing back here, anyway?” Boris demanded. “You were fired.”

“Fired?” Joe asked.

“He tied my manager’s shoelaces together earlier this morning,” Taylor said. “What a pest!”

“I’m going, I’m going!” Adam groaned.

“Don’t forget to return your costume at the tent.” Dash pointed two fingers at his own eyes, then at Adam’s. “I’ll be watching you, wise guy!”

Adam stomped his way out of the barn.

“We’d better go too,” Frank murmured to Joe.

“Wait!” Joe said. “We forgot something important.”

“We did?” Frank asked. “What?”

“We forgot to get Taylor’s autograph!” Joe said with a smile.

Taylor was happy to give Frank and Joe signed pictures. The brothers thanked Taylor, then left to meet their parents outside the park.

“How did parade practice go?” Fenton Hardy asked as the boys climbed into the backseat of the car.

Frank and Joe traded embarrassed looks.

“Well,” Frank said slowly, “we got to meet Taylor Smyth.”

“Taylor who?” Mrs. Hardy asked.

“She’s a singer, Mom,” Joe explained. He took a deep breath before adding, “Um . . . we also got fired from the parade.”

“What?” Mr. and Mrs. Hardy exclaimed at the same time.

Frank explained all about Adam’s causing Joe to fall on the balloon, and how everyone blamed Joe.

“I’m sure the balloon wasn’t ripped after I fell on it,” Joe said.

“Hmm,” Fenton said as he drove. “Sounds like you guys were framed.”

“Do you want your father and me to talk to Mr. Lively?” Mrs. Hardy asked over her shoulder.

“No thanks, Mom,” Frank said. “We want to find the real balloon ripper ourselves.”

“So the Hardy brothers are on the case.” Fenton smiled. “Do you have any suspects?”

“Only two left, Dad,” Joe said. “Kit the bandleader and the Nutty the Squirrel fan club.”

“We’ll never be able to question the club,” Frank said. “Sammy Kernkraut knows we’re not big Nutty fans.”

“We can pretend we want to join the club,” Joe said. “I’ve heard them talk about it and they meet every Saturday at Sammy’s house at eleven.”

“But we don’t know where Sammy lives,” Frank said.

“I do,” Mrs. Hardy said. “It’s in the middle of the block on Mortimer Street.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Joe said.

“But it’s more than an hour until eleven o’clock,” Fenton said. “What do you boys want to do before the club?”

Joe’s stomach growled loudly.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.