Free The Secret of the Soldier's Gold by Franklin W. Dixon Page B

violent,” Joe said.
    â€œThat’s for sure,” Frank said.
    Joe could see that Isabel was getting tired, so he stood up and said, “Let me have the shovel. You dig with your hands.”
    As Isabel handed the shovel to Joe, he leaned close enough to her to whisper, “Just pretend to dig. We’re trying to come up with a plan.”
    â€œOkay,” Isabel whispered back.
    As if on cue, Frank said, “Hey, de Feiras! The dirt down here is like concrete. It’ll take forever to get this suitcase out of here.”
    Joe looked up to see the de Feiras’ reaction and saw that Antonio was folding up a cell phone. “I just had a conversation with a friend of mine at the Lisbon Police Department,” he said. “Inspector Oliveira has been in Porto all day. There is no way you could have had dinner with your father before you came over here, Senorita Oliveira. You weren’t telling the truth, were you?”
    Isabel gave the de Feiras a hard look, then picked up some dirt and threw it at them. It fell short of reaching the brothers. “I’ll not dig anymore!” she said.
    â€œDon’t antagonize them, Isabel,” Frank whispered. “We’ll figure out some way to get out of here.”
    Isabel knelt back down and started digging. “I’m sorry, I really am,” she said. “I thought if I lied to them about telling my father, they might let us go, but it didn’t work.” She looked at Frank. “Do you think we can get out of here alive?” she whispered.
    â€œWe’ve always been able to find some way out ofevery bad situation,” Joe said, “and we don’t plan to give up now.”
    Paulo and Rafael kept their flashlights aimed into the hole where the Hardy boys and Isabel were digging.
    It took them almost thirty more minutes before Joe whispered, “I think I’ve reached the bottom of the suitcase on my side.”
    â€œMe too. Let’s see if we can get our fingers under it and move it,” Frank said. He looked up at Paulo and Rafael. “That light is causing my eyes to tear up, making it hard for me to dig. We’re almost there, I think—so could you just shine it away for a while?”
    Paulo and Rafael grunted but didn’t argue. They shone the flashlights on the ground at the edge of the hole, leaving the Hardy boys and Isabel in darkness.
    â€œIsabel, continue digging,” Frank whispered. “I want the de Feiras to think we still have a long way to go yet.”
    While Isabel dug, Frank and Joe were able to get their fingers under the suitcase and move it.
    â€œOkay, it’s a little heavier than I thought it would be, but I think we can get it out now,” Frank said. “We have to figure out how to make sure this suitcase leaves with us, though, and not with the de Feira brothers.”
    â€œFrank, you pick it up—then I’ll jump out of the hole and take the suitcase from you,” Joe whispered.“Once I have it, maybe I can say something like, ‘Tell me where you want me to take it.’ Knowing how the de Feiras feel about being other people’s servants, maybe they’ll like it if somebody is doing the hard work for them.”
    â€œGood thinking, Joe—but where is all of this going to end up?” Frank said. “You don’t want to take the suitcase where they tell you to take it.”
    â€œNo, you’re right. That’s where Isabel’s acting comes in,” Joe whispered. He leaned closer to Isabel. “Somewhere closer to the house, where we can be heard, I want you to fake some kind of an attack—like a stomachache or something. Roll around on the ground if you have to.”
    â€œThat’ll be easy,” Isabel said. “I did that in a commercial once.”
    At that moment Paulo and Rafael turned the flashlights back on them.
    â€œWe heard you whispering,” Paulo said. “What’s going