“You’re hopeless,” laughed Frank, and just then the opening bell rang, cutting off further conversation.
When the boys returned home at noon they found that Miss Todd had recovered sufficiently to come downstairs. She seemed in much better spirits and the rest had evidently done her a great deal of good, because she was not in the highly nervous state of the previous Saturday.
“It’s such a relief to know that the case is in good hands,” she said. “If Fenton Hardy can’t find poor Todham, I’m sure no one can. Though he may turn up of his own accord,” she added.
“We’ll hope for the best,” said Mrs. Hardy quietly.
“Dad didn’t like to question you too much on Saturday,” Frank remarked. “He didn’t want to bother you more than he could help.”
“I’m afraid I wasn’t in any condition to tell him many details.”
“Perhaps if you would tell us anything you overlooked, we might be able to help out a little, too.”
Miss Todd was thoughtful for a moment.
“There were a few things about Todham that would identify him almost anywhere,” she said. “For instance, he was very careless about his shoes.”
“His shoes?” echoed the boys.
“He would not keep them laced. It was simply impossible to keep an eye on that man, and if I didn’t watch him he was just as likely as not to go out to classes in the morning with his shoelaces dragging on the ground, and he wouldn’t notice them unless he tripped over them. He was very absentminded.”
“That’s a pretty good clue to go on. What did your brother look like, Miss Todd?”
“He was tall and rather thin. His hair was white and he was clean-shaven. His eyes and his teeth were very good. Even in spite of his age and all the reading and studying, he never had to wear glasses. Oh, yes—there’s something else. He had an expression he often used, about as near swearing as he ever went. ‘By jing!’ it was. Whenever he was excited about anything or wanted to emphasize something he had said, he would always exclaim ‘by jing!’ I remember that he forgot himself in a lecture one day and said that. The dean spoke to him about it.”
“ ‘By jing!’ ” remarked Frank thoughtfully. “It isn’t an expression one hears every day.”
“It was the only expression I can remember that was quite characteristic of Todham.”
Miss Todd had little of further value to tell them, and when the Hardy boys were by themselves later on they discussed the peculiarities of the missing professor.
“He forgets to tie his shoelaces and he says ‘by jing!’ ” observed Joe. “It should be easy enough to pick him out with a description like that. It’s strange he hasn’t turned up long ago.”
“Unless he met somebody who knew he was missing and who had heard of those little habits, he wouldn’t be noticed. And it’s just about a thousand chances to one that we would ever run across him.”
“Well, we can at least make a note of it and tell Dad when he comes back. Chances are, he will never hear about those things, and Miss Todd may forget to tell him. It might help him a lot.”
“I guess this is one mystery where we won’t have much chance to help,” said Frank ruefully. “Still, we’ll do what we can.”
But the Hardy boys were destined to take an even more active part in the mystery of Todham Todd than Fenton Hardy himself.
V
Plans for a Trip
Vacation time came, as it always does, although the days dragged, and when the last examination was written and the Hardy boys and their chums faced the long summer holidays, the boys had more exciting concerns than the affair of Todham Todd.
Miss Todd had left the Hardy home, after profuse thanks for the hospitality the family had shown her, and had returned to the college town. Mr. Hardy, after spending a day or so there, had gone on to parts unknown and it was assumed that he was following clues that he hoped would lead to the discovery of the missing professor.
“What are you going to do now?” asked Chet, on the first day of the holidays, when a number of the boys were sitting in the barn back of the Hardy home.
“Joe and I were figuring on a motorboat trip,” said Frank.
“Good idea,” Tony Prito remarked. “Where are you going?”
Frank shrugged.
“No place in particular. We hadn’t come to that.”
“As long as you go somewhere, it’s all right with you, eh?” suggested Chet.
“That’s about the size of it.”
“I’d like to go on a motorboat trip myself,” said Biff Hooper slowly. “As a matter of fact, I know of a place to go, but I don’t know whether we can reach it in a boat.”
“Where’s that?”
“I was talking to an old sailor the other day in one of the villages down the shore and he was telling me a story about some caves that are said to be down on the main shore. We were talking about buried treasure, and that’s how he brought the matter up. He said that there were old rumors of treasure in these caves.”
“Treasure!” exclaimed Chet, brightening up. “That’s our meat!”
“Of course, I’m not saying there is treasure in these caves. But the old chap said he had heard the story and he thought there might be something in it.”
“In the caves, you mean,” said the irrepressible Chet.
“Sure! These caves are out on the coast, south from the mouth of Barmet Bay.”
“It wouldn’t take us very long to go down and look the place over,” Frank remarked.
“They’re not easy to reach. I’m not sure that we can get to them by motorboat. But I believe there’s a road runs down the coast in that neighborhood and we might be able to get there by land.”
“We have the motorbikes,” said Joe promptly.
“I’ll find out more about it from the old chap and let you know,” Biff promised.
“Find out more about the treasure,” advised Chet. “Find
