“Your story interests me very much,” he said. “I’ll be very glad to take the case, on one condition.”
“What condition is that?”
“On condition that you accept our invitation to stay here for a while until you are feeling better.”
So Evangeline Todd was prevailed upon to stay and Fenton Hardy at once prepared to take up the trail of the missing professor. He had no important cases in hand at the time, so he was able to spare a few days for preliminary investigation work and he decided that his best plan was to go directly to the college town where the Todds had their home.
“Sometimes a professional, and a stranger, can pick up clues that wouldn’t fall in the way of a police detective who is known in the town,” he said. “I’ll run up there and see what I can discover.”
Mr. Hardy was accustomed to being called out of town suddenly and the family were used to his abrupt departures. The detective was a man who acted quickly, once he had made a decision, and Miss Todd was surprised to see him leaving immediately.
“No use wasting any time,” he explained cheerfully, having paused only long enough to pack a bag with a few essentials. “I’ll get busy at once.”
Although Frank and Joe Hardy were curious to learn further details of the latest mystery on which their father was working, and in which they had taken a small part, Miss Todd had evidently suffered more from her adventure in Barmet Bay than they had at first thought. She was obliged to keep to her room over Sunday and the lads had no chance to talk to her, as Mrs. Hardy decided that their guest should not be disturbed. Wisely, Mrs. Hardy wanted to keep the woman’s mind off the matter of her brother’s disappearance and she knew that if the boys besieged her with questions her state of anxiety would be only rendered worse.
On Monday, when the boys returned to school, they were met at the gate by Chet Morton, heading a group of grinning chums. Chet, a plump, jovial youth, equally fond of food and fun, held up a restraining hand.
“We would fain talk with thee, noble youths,” he said. “Humble varlets though we are, we would crave your indulgence for a time.”
“You sound like Shakespeare or somebody,” said Joe.
“Probably somebody,” Chet agreed. “Young masters, we have gathered here today to do honor to two brave and bright young men whom we are proud to call our chums. Perhaps,” he went on, in the manner of an orator, “in the years to come, when we are poor and unnoticed people, we may be able to say to our grandchildren that once upon a time we went to school with the Hardy boys, that we went swimming with them, and that they often gave us rides in their motorboat. However, that is not getting to the point—”
“What’s it all about?” asked Frank. “What’s all this speech for?”
“Patience. Patience. Our little committee has waited patiently for your arrival and now we wish to show you our esteem and regard. It has come to our notice that on Saturday, the fourteenth instant, you did bravely, heroically, and nobly perform the humane act of hauling an old lady out of the water when she had swallowed several gallons of Barmet Bay and was in grave danger of drowning. As a slight token of our appreciation we wish you to accept these little tokens—” here Chet gestured to Biff Hooper, who grinned and stepped forward with two shiny objects on an old cushion—“not so much for their intrinsic value, which is considerable, but for the spirit in which they are meant.”
Chet took a deep breath.
“I don’t know whether that’s all quite correct,” he said, “but I learned some of it from a book.”
Then, very gravely, he picked up the shiny objects, which proved to be impromptu medals carved from the tops of tin biscuit boxes, dangling from red ribbons, and pinned one on the chest of each of the Hardy boys.
There were loud cheers and shrieks of laughter from the boys at this mock ceremony, and the Hardy boys joined in the laugh as well. However, behind all the nonsense, the lads realized that their chums were proud of them. The tin medals were embarrassing, and the boys watched for their first opportunity to take them off.
“Seriously,” said Chet, some time later when he was alone with the brothers, “the fellows think you did some mighty smart work fishing that lady out of the water. The captain of the boat told people about it when the yacht docked.”
“We couldn’t very well stand by and watch her drown,” said Frank. “If Biff and Tony could have got there first they’d have done the same.”
“Sure! But the point is, you chaps got there first and saved her life. If you hadn’t been there, Biff and Tony couldn’t have done very much, for their boats aren’t fast enough. Where is the lady now? Did she give you her name?”
Frank and Joe then told Chet about Miss Evangeline Todd and about the coincidence that her visit to Bayport had been with the object of seeing Fenton Hardy. Chet was greatly interested when they told him about her search for the missing professor.
“A professor missing, eh? That’s something new. If one of the professor’s students had disappeared there wouldn’t be much mystery about it. I know one student of this high school who would like to drop out of sight for a while—until after these exams are over, at any
