Free No Way Out by Franklin W. Dixon

nearby.”
    Joe poked around the kitchen, but didn’t find any evidence of someone being there. He turned on a small stove burner, and the gas fire flamed up. “The stove is still connected to a gas line, did you know that?” Joe asked.
    â€œActually, no,” Ray said, joining Joe in the kitchen. “I’ll tell Dad.”
    â€œSpeaking of your dad,” Joe said, “let’s get out of here and keep looking.”
    They grabbed a couple of coils of heavy rope and some tent spikes and hurried out of the cottage and back up to the beach where Frank was waiting.
    The Hardys and Ray roped off a wide area around the sinkhole where Frank had fallen into the mine. They secured the ropes around the spikes and drove the wood into the ground with a couple of large rocks.
    â€œDid you get hold of Kay?” Joe asked his brother as they pulled the rope tight.
    â€œI did,” Frank said. “They were back at the house. They found nothing at the maze, and there’s still been no word from Alan.”
    â€œDid you tell them what happened here?” Ray asked.
    â€œNo—we can tell them when we get back,” Frank said. “The police are on their way out to the house right now. They’ll probably be there by the time we get back.”
    â€œI’m going to ask you guys not to mention this to the police until I get a chance to talk to Dad about it. This is private property, and I know Dad: He’ll want to fix this himself—and probably haul in the contractors who were supposed to make that mine totally inaccessible in the first place. Dad’s not going to want the whole village to know that the mine has been opened up.”
    â€œYou mean because of the curse?” Joe asked. “That’s crazy!”
    â€œI’m sure it seems like that to you,” Ray agreed. “But to a lot of people around here, the curse is very real. They are descendants of people who lost their lives in that mine. If Dad wants to tell everyone what happened, okay. But I’m not saying anything about it until I talk to him. And I’m asking you two to please keep quiet until then too.”
    Frank looked at Joe, and they both nodded. “Okay,” Frank said. “It’s your place—we’ll do it your way.”
    The three walked back to the ATVs and headed inland. It took them forty-five minutes to get to the house, by which time Officer Chester had arrived. He, Kay, and Penny were talking in the sunroom. The officer remembered Joe fromFriday night, and Ray introduced him to Frank.
    â€œWhere have you been, Frank?” Kay asked. “You look like you’ve been digging in dirt!”
    Everyone told the officer about the individual searches they had launched for Alan, and Joe asked him whether the police had figured out who the flaming arrow archer was.
    â€œNo,” Officer Chester said. “But we’re working on it.”
    â€œDid Dad get a chance to show you the arrow shaft that Frank found on the site?” Ray asked.
    â€œNo, I haven’t heard anything about that,” Officer Chester said. He had an odd way of speaking—very slow and deliberate. “Like to see it for myself, though.”
    â€œIt’s in Dad’s desk in the library,” Ray said. “I’ll get it.”
    â€œLike to talk more about these fellas, too,” Officer Chester said, checking his notebook, “Vincenzo Blackstone and Bruce David MacLaren. Like to know more about how they figure in with your family.”
    Penny and the Kay began talking at once, and Ray joined in when he returned with the arrow shaft. It was information Frank had already heard, so he gestured to Joe, and the Hardys quietly left the kitchen.
    â€œI’ve got to get cleaned up,” Frank said.
    â€œI’ll go with you,” Joe said. “I want to copy thestuff I pulled up about Blackstone and give it to Officer Chester.”
    Frank and Joe took