The End of the Trail
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Joe and Frank are stonewalled when they ask about the money. The roads are washed out, the phones are down, and a crumbling mansion hides a gold mine of secrets. Every fork in the road leads to more danger...and everyone in Morgan’s Quarry seems bent on making sure the boys don’t make it out alive
Franklin W. Dixon
Franklin W. Dixon is the pen name used by a variety of different authors (Charles Leslie McFarlane, a Canadian author, being the first) who wrote The Hardy Boys novels.
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Book preview
The End of the Trail - Franklin W. Dixon
THEHARDY BOYS®
A TOWN OF DEADLY SECRETS—AND NO WAY OUT OF THE WOODS!
Hiking the Appalachian trail with their friends Chet, Phil, and Biff, the Hardys hit a snag when daredevil Biff gets hurt. The old mining town of Morgan’s Quarry is the nearest place for help. But even the run-down, isolated town turns menacing when two tough locals drop a bag full of money in front of the brothers!
Joe and Frank are stonewalled when they ask about the money. The roads are washed out, the phones are down, and a crumbling mansion hides a gold mine of secrets. Every fork in the road leads to more danger... and everyone in Morgan’s Quarry seems bent on making sure the boys don’t make it out alive!
THE END OF THE TRAIL
ALADDIN
Simon & Schuster
Cover art copyright © 2000
by Jeff Walker
Ages 8–12
www.SimonandSchuster.com
Look Out Below!
Frank polished off a cracker and washed it down with a swig from his canteen. Well, looks like it’s time to hit the road again.
Hey!
said a voice from above. You really can see water of some sort.
Frank, Chet, Joe, and Phil turned to see Biff hanging from a tree limb.
I’ll be down in a minute,
Biff said. Great view up here. If I move a little farther out on the limb, I might be able to see all the way back to Bayport.
That’s highly unlikely,
Phil replied. Bayport’s too far over the horizon. Maybe you could see all the way to—
A loud snapping sound interrupted Phil. Biff had shinnied out to the far end of the tree branch, his legs and arms wrapped around it.
Stunned, they all watched as the branch split in two and Biff plummeted twenty feet to the ground!
The Hardy Boys
Mystery Stories
#109 The Prime-Time Crime
#110 The Secret of Sigma Seven
#139 The Search for the Snow Leopard
#140 Slam Dunk Sabotage
#141 The Desert Thieves
#143 The Giant Rat of Sumatra
#152 Danger in the Extreme
#153 Eye on Crime
#154 The Caribbean Cruise Caper
#156 A Will to Survive
#159 Daredevils
#160 A Game Called Chaos
#161 Training for Trouble
#162 The End of the Trail
#163 The Spy That Never Lies
#164 Skin & Bones
#165 Crime in the Cards
#166 Past and Present Danger
#167 Trouble Times Two
#168 The Castle Conundrum
#169 Ghost of a Chance
#170 Kickoff to Danger
#171 The Test Case
The Hardy Boys Ghost Stories
Available from MINSTREL Books
and ALADDIN Paperbacks
titleThis book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
First Aladdin Paperbacks edition August 2002
First Minstrel edition July 2000
Copyright © 2000 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.
ALADDIN PAPERBACKS
An imprint of Simon & Schuster
Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
THE HARDY BOYS and THE HARDY BOYS MYSTERY STORIES are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
ISBN-13: 978-0-671-04759-7
ISBN-10: 0-671-04759-0
ISBN 978-1-44247-227-3 (eBook)
Contents
Chapter 1: On the Appalachian Trail
Chapter 2: Morgan’s Quarry
Chapter 3: Vietnam Revisited
Chapter 4: No Exit
Chapter 5: Shelter from the Storm
Chapter 6: The Horse Whisperer
Chapter 7: All Bets Are Off
Chapter 8: To the Rescue!
Chapter 9: Hay Ride
Chapter 10: The Lady Vanishes
Chapter 11: All Wired Up
Chapter 12: Smoked Out
Chapter 13: Road Warriors
Chapter 14: A Bridge Too Far
Chapter 15: Stream of Unconsciousness
Chapter 16: A Friend in Need
half1 On the Appalachian Trail
I can see the ocean from here!
Joe Hardy shouted excitedly.
He was hanging from the lowest branch of a towering pine tree, on top of an even more towering mountain in the Appalachian range. A beautiful summer sky arched above him as the sun rose above the horizon.
That’s impossible!
Phil Cohen shouted up at him from twenty feet below. The ocean’s more than a hundred miles away! You must be seeing a lake!
If you break your neck, I’m going to ask Dad if I can have your room,
Joe’s brother, Frank, yelled, staring up at him along with Phil, Chet Morton, and Biff Hooper.
Oh, relax,
Joe said. Hanging from this limb is no worse than doing the parallel bars in gym class. I could hang here all day.
Frank smiled and ran his fingers through his dark brown hair. Frank, at eighteen, was a year older than Joe, and sometimes his younger brother drove him a little crazy. When they and their three friends had set out on this 250-mile hike along the Appalachian Trail, he had promised his father, Fenton Hardy, that he would get everybody through in one piece. Joe was doing his best to thwart Frank’s plan.
Maybe,
Frank said slyly, the rest of us will eat breakfast while you’re up there. Won’t be much food left when you get back down.
All right!
Chet exclaimed, raising his eyes from the hand-held game machine where he was playing a game called Bear Hunter. "I thought we’d never eat!"
Why do you keep playing a game about hunting bears in the woods?
Biff asked. "You really are in the woods. And you really could bump into a bear or two."
Somehow the game is more fun,
Chet said, not looking up. If I get eaten by a bear in this game, at least I can hit Start and play again. But if I get eaten by a bear along the trail...
Some lucky bear will have the best meal of its life,
Frank said, gazing at Chet’s ample girth.
Joe began working his way along the limb, back toward the tree trunk. You guys are not going to eat breakfast without me.
Frank smiled. Joe knew that he was being tricked into climbing back down, but Chet alone could finish off their daily breakfast ration in five minutes. Chet was known for his voracious appetite, and it was dangerous to leave food unattended when Chet was hungry—which he almost always was.
Biff, who looked like a weight lifter and wasn’t bothered by the task of lugging seventy-five pounds of gear up mountains, grabbed the backpack full of food that was lying next to his sleeping bag. Okay, I’ve got the food. Someone divvy it up.
I will,
Chet said.
Huh-uh,
Frank said. I’ll divide up the food. Last time I let you do it, you ate all the beef jerky.
That was an accident,
Chet protested.
Joe came rushing up, his T-shirt and blue jeans covered with bark and pine needles from the tree he had just climbed down. Here I am. Nothing like a refreshing climb after spending the night in the woods. So, did you save anything for me?
A drumstick, stuffing, and pumpkin pie,
Frank said. Knock yourself out.
The quintet of teenagers looked down at their meal. Frank had laid out two tins of sardines, five whole grain crackers, and five canteens of water.
Sardines again?
Chet moaned. "We’ve had the same thing since we started hiking a week ago. Couldn’t you at least open another tin of sardines? I’m starving to death."
We agreed when we set out that we’d have sardines for breakfast,
Frank said.
And trail mix for lunch,
Joe said.
And jerky for dinner,
Biff added. I’m sick of jerky.
Hey,
Frank said to Biff. "If you want to carry a pack filled with two weeks’ worth of gourmet meals, we’ll stop