Who Let the Frogs Out?

by Franklin W. Dixon

  “Unless you ordered fully grown frogs from Blurpy Bob’s,” Joe suggested, “so you could throw them in the mud run yesterday.”

  “Blurpy Bob is here today,” Frank pointed out, “so he must know you.”

  “What’s the matter, Ollie?” said Joe, folding his arms across his chest. “Forget your complimentary frog chow?”

  “First of all, I told you I hate the name Ollie!” Oliver insisted. “Second of all, do you really think I put those frogs in the mud pit?”

  “It depends,” Frank said. “Where were you early yesterday morning from about seven to ten?”

  “That’s easy,” Oliver said with a smile. “I was working on my latest mud-sterpiece.”

  “The one out in the yard?” Joe asked.

  Oliver nodded and said, “I wanted to get an early start so it would be dry by today.”

  “So the video on the tablet is of you making that sculpture?” Frank asked.

  “You bet,” Oliver agreed. He picked up the device and held it out to the brothers. “Play it and see for yourselves.”

  Frank took the tablet and pressed the arrow on the screen. The video began showing Oliver sculpting a big pile of mud. But that wasn’t all the Hardys noticed.

  “The video has the time and date in the corner,” Frank told Joe. “It was shot yesterday morning at seven ten.”

  “It also shows how long the video is,” Joe said. “It’s three whole hours!”

  “Three hours of total genius!” Oliver declared. “I started at around seven and ended at ten.”

  Joe tugged Frank a few feet away from Oliver. “If Oliver was sculpting yesterday morning,” he whispered, “he couldn’t have been in the park.”

  “So he couldn’t have dumped those frogs in the mud pit,” Frank whispered back.

  Oliver’s mom suddenly called down from the top of the stairs, “Oliver, please unveil your sculpture before it rains. The sky is getting darker and darker by the minute!”

  “Coming, Mom!” Oliver called back.

  As the boys headed upstairs, Joe said, “I thought you had no mud to make your sculpture, Oliver.”

  “That’s what I thought,” Oliver said with a grin. “So was I surprised when I came across a whole mud pit in my backyard.”

  “How’d you miss a mud pit in your own backyard?” Joe asked.

  Oliver just shrugged. “I don’t know, guess I’ve been kind of wrapped up in this project.”

  “Makes sense,” Frank said as they all walked outside. “Sometimes we can only focus on the mystery we’re trying to solve.”

  Oliver nodded and headed over to his mud sculpture. Frank and Joe walked toward the crowd.

  Joe sighed. “With Oliver innocent, we have no more suspects. Zero . . . zilch . . . zip.”

  Before joining the others, the brothers checked out one last thing: a shallow pit at the end of the backyard filled with mud!

  “Oliver wasn’t lying about mud in his backyard,” Joe concluded. “There’s plenty here for ten whole sculptures.”

  “That’s for sure,” Frank agreed. “Now let’s go see what Oliver made with all that mud.”

  He and Joe joined Chet at the covered sculpture. By now all the guests had gathered for the big reveal.

  “All this fuss for a mud pie,” Chet whispered. “Give me a break.”

  Soon all eyes were on Oliver as began his speech:

  “Thank you all for celebrating the reveal of my latest mud-sterpiece. To me a new creation can only represent—”

  “Oliver,” Mrs. Splathall interrupted. “The rain!”

  “We need speed, son,” Mr. Splathall called. “Not accuracy.”

  Oliver glanced up at the darkening sky. “Oh yeah,” he said. “So without further ado, may I proudly introduce—A Breath of Spring!”

  Mrs. Splathall pointed her camera at Oliver as he gave the sheet a yank. It fluttered to the ground to a chorus of oohs and aahs!

  “Fabulous!” Dusty swooned as she scribbled on her reporter’s pad.

  “It’s the embodiment of antiquity,” a boy declared, “in the modern age!”

  Chet turned to Frank and Joe. “It’s a nose!” he said. “A giant muddy nose!”

  Frank, Joe, and Chet stared at the mud sculpture, a few inches taller than Oliver. It was a sculpture of a nose with giant flaring nostrils.

  “That’s awesome, Oliver!” Frank shouted.

  “Seriously,” Joe said. “That’s one impressive mud pie.”

  The boys made their way through the yard to get a better look but stopped in their tracks when they heard a weird, familiar noise.

  “Chet? Did you just croak like a frog to be funny?” Frank asked.

  “No,” Chet said. “Why?”

  Frank shook his head and said, “It’s just that I thought I heard—”

  “Frogs!” Joe cut in. “I hear them too—listen!”

  The boys stopped to hear a croak. Then a blurp. Then a whole chorus of croaks and blurps coming faster and louder!

  “It sounds like frogs!” Joe exclaimed.

  “Where are they?” asked Frank, looking around.

  “There!” Chet shouted.

  Frank and Joe looked to see where Chet was pointing. Popping out of Oliver’s nose sculpture one by one were . . . frogs!

  Guests screamed and shrieked as the frogs from the nose landed on the ground, hopping over feet and between legs. The only ones smiling were Blurpy Bob and Dusty De Sancho. . . .

  “What a scoop!” Dusty cheered as she wrote in her reporter’s pad. “This story is better than the skunk in the school cafeteria!”

  “Oliver!” Mrs. Splathall cried as she brushed a frog off her sneaker with her camera. “Is this some kind of joke?”

  “I didn’t put frogs in my sculpture, Mom!” Oliver insisted. “I don’t have a clue how they got there!”

  Joe couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Where had all the frogs come from?

  “Oliver’s not the only who doesn’t have a clue,” he told Frank. “Neither do I!”

  THE HARDY BOYS—and

  YOU!

  READY TO JOIN FRANK AND JOE IN CRACKING THE CASE of the croaker confusion? Grab a piece of paper and write your answers down. Or turn the page to find out!

  1. Frank and Joe ruled out the Zamora kids, Mr. Frederick, and Oliver Splathall as suspects. Who else might have put all the frogs in the mud?

  2. Can you think of other ways frogs might have gotten into the mud pit and Oliver’s sculpture?

  3. When starting a mystery, Frank and Joe ask themselves who, what, where, when, and why. Can you come up with more words a detective might ask himself or herself?

  4. Which clues helped you to solve this mystery?

  SPRING BREAK RETAKE

  The frogs hopped out of control, all over the Splathalls’ yard. The only one who didn’t seem to mind was Chet.

  “As long as they don’t jump in the punch bowl,” Chet said. “I’m going for seconds.”

  He gave a little wave, then headed for the snack table. But the only thing Frank and Joe were hungry for were answers!

  “How did frogs get into Oliver’s sculpture?” Joe wondered.

  The brothers’ thoughts were interrupted by Mr. Splathall shouting, “Look!”

  Frank and Joe looked to see where Mr. Splathall was pointing. Popping out of the mud pit in the Splathalls’ yard were frogs. Dozens of them!

  “That’s where Oliver got the mud for his sculpture!” said Frank.

  “First the Mud Bud Run, then Oliver’s sculpture, and now that mud pit too?” Joe cried. “Nobody would have that many frogs to go around!”

  Nobody?

  Frank repeated the word under his breath. Then his eyes lit up with an idea. “What if nobody put the frogs in those places?” he asked.

  “What do you mean?” said Joe.

  “What if the frogs are supposed to be in the mud,” Frank explained, “because they’re frogs?”

  He noticed Joe’s puzzled face. “Come
on, Joe,” he said, “let’s ask an expert.”

  The brothers walked over to Blurpy Bob. After they introduced themselves, Frank said, “What do you know about those frogs, Bob?”

  “I know they’re coming out of hibernation,” Bob said with a grin, “after a long, cold winter.”

  “Hibernation?” Frank repeated. “You mean frogs sleep in the mud?”

  “Not exactly sleep,” Bob explained. “Some frogs burrow in the mud, then gently freeze until the first warm days of spring. That’s when they thaw almost all at once!”

  “Frogs in the park mud pit never happened before,” Frank said. “Why this spring?”

  Bob shrugged. “Frogs pick different places to hibernate,” he said. “I guess critters like to mix it up too.”

  “Wow!” Joe exclaimed. He turned to Frank and smiled. So that explained the frogs in the mud. But it still didn’t explain something else. . . .

  “What are you doing at Oliver’s mud sculpture show, Bob?” Joe asked. “Did you know the frogs would be getting their spring wake-up call?”

  Bob laughed as he shook his head. “I sold Oliver his tadpole tank, so his mom invited me to his next sculpture show.”

  “You mean his last,” Joe sighed.

  He pointed to Oliver jumping up and down, shouting, “I’m done with mud sculptures! From now on I’m sticking with bubblegum! And Popsicle sticks! And toe jam!”

  “Toe jam?” Frank whispered.

  “He can’t be serious,” answered Joe.

  Blurpy Bob turned to Frank and Joe and said, “Nice meeting you, guys. Now I’d better catch a few frogs!”

  Bob got to work and so did Joe. He pulled out his clue book. Then he wrote:

  Who did it: Nature!

  Why: Because frozen frogsicles survive the winter!

  “Too bad the frogs’ timing was bad,” Frank said. “For Oliver’s mud sculpture show and the Mud Bud Run yesterday.”

  The brothers glanced up as the first drops of rain trickled down. Seconds later the clouds seemed to burst as rain gushed from the sky.

  “The frogs might have had bad timing, Frank,” Joe shouted as they raced into Oliver’s house, “but I think this rain is right on time!”

  • • •

  The spring rain sprang a huge surprise. It rained for two whole days, leaving plenty of thick, fresh mud for a new Mud Bud Run later that week. This one would be right behind Bayport Elementary School!

  All the kids from the last mud run were there, T-shirts still clean and new. Frank and Joe were right at the front.

  “Thanks to all that rain,” Frank told Joe, “the Mud Bud Run is getting a second chance.”

  “Yeah,” Joe agreed. “I just hope this one is frog free.”

  Frank turned to Joe. “You remember what Blurpy Bob told us?” he asked. “Frogs hibernate in the winter, not the spring.”

  “Yeah, and I think I know why!” Joe said.

  “Why?” asked Frank.

  “Because spring is too much fun!” Joe replied to the sound of Coach Lambert’s whistle. “Come on, Frank—let’s get muddy!”

  About the Author

  Franklin W. Dixon is the author of the ever-popular Hardy Boys series of books.

  Santy Gutiérrez resides in the seaside city of La Coruña, Spain. He has won awards such as the Best Spanish Young Editorial Cartoonist and Best Galician Caricaturist, among others.

  DON’T MISS THE NEXT HARDY BOYS CLUE BOOK:

  The Great Pumpkin Smash

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  Don’t miss any of the cases in the Hardy Boys Clue Book series!

  #1: The Video Game Bandit

  #2: The Missing Playbook

  #3: Water-Ski Wipeout

  #4: Talent Show Tricks

  #5: Scavenger Hunt Heist

  #6: A Skateboard Cat-astrophe

  #7: The Pirate Ghost

  #8: The Time Warp Wonder

  Coming Soon

  #10: The Great Pumpkin Smash

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ALADDIN

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  First Aladdin paperback edition April 2019

  Text copyright © 2019 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Illustrations copyright © 2019 by Santy Gutiérrez

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  ALADDIN and related logo are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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  Series designed by Karina Granda

  Cover designed by Nina Simoneaux

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Dixon, Franklin W., author. | Gutiérrez, Santy, 1971- illustrator. | Title: Who let the frogs out? / by Franklin W. Dixon ; illustrated by Santy Gutierrez. | Description: First Aladdin hardcover/paperback edition. | New York : Aladdin, [2019] | Series: Hardy Boys clue book ; #9 | Summary: Detective brothers Frank and Joe work to solve a muddy mystery when the spring break Mud Bud Run is canceled due to a frog infestation.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2018011582 (print) | LCCN 2018018256 (eBook) |

  ISBN 9781534414877 (eBook) | ISBN 9781534414853 (pbk) | ISBN 9781534414860 (hc)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Frogs—Fiction. | Mud—Fiction. | Racing—Fiction. | Brothers—Fiction. | Mystery and detective stories.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.D644 (eBook) | LCC PZ7.D644 Who 2019 (print) | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018011582