Rick's Blog

The Hardy Boys

Frank and Joe Hardy were cool. They had several books and a TV show. I only knew about the show because I could watch reruns of it on Channel 20 in metro Detroit when we visited Grandma and Grandpa Morgan. The TV show wasn’t exactly in line with the books, but it was good nonetheless. I thought I was more like Frank Hardy and aspired to be the keen, intelligent one. The Hardy Boys series is what caused me to become interested in reading — not to mention interested in mysteries … Simple and to the point, Franklin W. Dixon knew what it took to hook us!

The following is an excerpt from the original Hardy Boy book, The Tower Treasure.

FRANK and Joe Hardy clutched the grips of their motorcycles and stared in horror at the oncoming car. It was careening from side to side on the narrow road. 

"He'll hit us! We'd better climb this hillside- and fast!" Frank exclaimed, as the boys brought their motorcycles to a screeching halt and leaped off. 

"On the double!" Joe cried out as they started up the steep embankment. To their amazement, the reckless driver suddenly pulled his car hard to the right and turned into a side road on two wheels. 

The boys expected the car to turn over, but it held the dusty ground and sped off out of sight. 

"Wow!" said Joe. "Let's get away from here before the crazy guy comes back. That's a dead-end road, you know." 

The boys scrambled back onto their motorcycles and gunned them a bit to get past the intersecting road in a hurry. They rode in silence for a while, gazing at the scene ahead. On their right an embankment of tumbled rocks and boulders sloped steeply to the water below. 

From the opposite side rose a jagged cliff. The little-traveled road was winding, and just wide enough for two cars to pass.

 "Boy, I'd hate to fall off the edge of this road," Frank remarked. "It's a hundred-foot drop." 

"That's right," Joe agreed. "We'd sure be smashed to bits before we ever got to the bottom." Then he smiled. "Watch your step, Frank, or Dad's papers won't get delivered."