Scavenger Hunt Heist

by Franklin W. Dixon

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1 FOFT

  CHAPTER 2 BEE CAREFUL!

  CHAPTER 3 BEARY SCARY

  CHAPTER 4 A CRIME AGAINST CANDY

  CHAPTER 5 SWORD FIGHT!

  CHAPTER 6 OOEY CLUEY

  CHAPTER 7 TREE HUGGER

  CHAPTER 8 STAY BACK!

  CHAPTER 9 DON’T FEED THE ANIMALS

  CHAPTER 10 THE BEAR TRUTH

  ABOUT FRANKLIN W. DIXON AND MATT DAVID

  Chapter 1

  FOFT

  “Rawwwr!”

  Frank Hardy jumped nearly a foot in the air, splashing the milk from his cereal bowl all over his brand-new navy-blue T-shirt. “Joe! That’s not funny!”

  “It’s not?” Eight-year-old Joe Hardy disagreed. In fact, he was laughing so hard, he thought orange juice would come out his nose. “Don’t worry, Frank. I know I do a killer bear impression, but it’s just me.” He laughed some more while his brother grumbled under his breath.

  “Joe Hardy!”

  Joe’s laughter died in his throat as soon as he heard his father, Fenton Hardy, shout his name.

  “Stop teasing your brother,” Mr. Hardy said, peering at Joe over his newspaper. But Joe thought he saw a smile in his father’s eyes.

  Frank refilled his bowl of Healthy Nut Crunch with fresh milk and took a seat back at the breakfast table with Joe and Mr. Hardy.

  “I’m not teasing Frank,” explained Joe, slurping the sweet milk from his bowl of Sugar-O’s. “I’m helping him face his fears.”

  “I’m not afraid!” said Frank. But when he looked at his watch and saw that he would be at Bayport Bear Park, along with the other third and fourth graders, in less than an hour, he shivered.

  In his nine years, Frank had faced a lot of fears solving mysteries with his younger brother, Joe, and their friends—their dad had even built them a tree house, which served as their official mystery-solving headquarters. But so far, Frank had never faced an actual bear—and he’d hoped he never would. He’d seen a show about bears on TV last year. They were huge, and could smell people, animals, and food from miles away! Not to mention that when they defended themselves, they stood on their back legs and their fur puffed out so they could look extra big!

  Suddenly Frank felt a little queasy. “Dad,” he moaned, cradling his stomach with one hand. “I don’t feel so good.”

  “No?” Mr. Hardy said. “What’s wrong, Frank?”

  “He’s got FOFT,” said Joe, rolling his eyes.

  “FOFT?” asked Mr. Hardy.

  “Fear of Field Trip,” Joe said, cracking a smile in his brother’s direction.

  “Not that Frank is afraid,” said Mrs. Hardy, entering the kitchen. “But you two know that you won’t have to see any real bears at Bear Park, right? It’s just a silly name.” She kissed Frank on the top of his head and handed him a fresh T-shirt, which he swapped for his soggy one right at the table.

  “Or is it?” Joe waggled his eyebrows up and down dramatically.

  Even Frank had to laugh at his brother’s ridiculous face this time.

  “Dad,” Frank said, deciding that it was time for a change of subject. “Do you have any cases for work that you need our help with?”

  Fenton Hardy was a private detective, and sometimes he worked with the local Bayport Police Department to help solve crimes. When he needed their help, Mr. Hardy was known to tell Frank and Joe about the cases he worked on; he knew the boys had their own detective club and had solved lots of mysteries of their own.

  Mr. Hardy showed his sons the front page of the newspaper he was reading. The headline on the front, in big black letters, read: NY POLICE HUNT FOR JEWEL HEIST ROBBERS!

  “A jewel heist!” Joe exclaimed, through a mouthful of Sugar-O’s. “Cool!”

  “Do you have any leads?” Frank asked seriously.

  “A couple,” said Mr. Hardy. “While you’re on your field trip, I’m going to be at the police station, helping the officers question a suspect.”

  “Why don’t you just arrest him?” asked Joe.

  “Because first we have to make sure he committed the crime,” said Mr. Hardy. “Remember last year when Joe thought Mrs. Beasley next door stole his bike?”

  Frank laughed, his eyes sparkling. “And we found it the next day, in the backyard. Joe forgot he left it there.”

  “Honest mistake,” Joe defended himself. “She was acting suspicious.”

  “Exactly,” said Mr. Hardy. “But if you’d accused Mrs. Beasley without proof, you’d have looked awfully silly. Same with the jewel heist. Before we arrest someone, we need to have proof he did it, otherwise the real bad guy could get away with robbing that jewelry store.”

  Frank thought about this for a minute, then took out a pocket notebook that Aunt Trudy had gotten him. Frank and Joe liked to take notes when they were solving a mystery, and this seemed like a very good first note to make in his notebook. Proof! he wrote.

  “You boys better get a move on,” Mrs. Hardy said, pointing at their kitchen clock. “The school bus will be here in ten minutes, and you don’t want to miss your field trip.”

  Frank closed his notebook and placed it in his back pocket. He couldn’t help but wonder if missing the field trip was really such a bad thing.

  “Watch it, Hardys!” Adam Ackerman, the biggest bully at Bayport Elementary School, pushed past Frank and Joe on his way out of the school bus, stepping on Joe’s toes as he went.

  They had just arrived at Bayport Bear Park, and Adam was cutting past everyone to make sure he was the first one off the bus.

  “Even I waited my turn,” Cissy Zermeño told Frank and Joe as they climbed down off the school bus. “And I like to be first and best at everything.”

  Frank and Joe exchanged a look. No one knew how Cissy liked to be number one better than the Hardys. She always won at everything.

  “Okay, everyone,” Ms. Potter, one of the chaperones (and a teacher at Bayport Elementary), called out. “Please follow me into the visitors’ cabin, single file.”

  Frank had to admit the park was pretty neat. It was springtime, so everything was green and bright and the birds were singing their chipper songs. After a long winter, it was nice to see leaves on the trees again, and clover-green grass covered the ground. A few picnic tables and grills for cookouts dotted the park. On the outskirts of the property was a thick, sprawling forest with all different kinds of trees.

  That must be where the bears live, thought Frank, his heart pounding.

  Straight ahead, Ms. Potter led the line of students into a dark-brown log-cabin-type building. In front of it was a wooden sign that said BAYPORT BEAR PARK VISITORS’ CABIN.

  Inside the cabin, Joe’s classmates were crowded around something that he couldn’t see.

  “Whoa,” said Phil Cohen, one of the Hardys’ best friends. “Look at that!”

  “What is it?” asked Joe, inching toward the center of the crowd.

  That was when Frank and Joe saw it—a big yellow ball about the size and shape of a watermelon, covered in bumblebees!

  Chapter 2

  BEE CAREFUL!

  “Get back!” Frank said, holding his hand out in front of his brother for protection. “It’s a beehive!”

  “You scaredy-cat!” Adam Ackerman taunted, laughing loudly. “It’s not a real beehive!”

  “Then what is it?” Joe asked, crossing his arms over his chest. Now that he was closer, he could see that the beehive and the bees attached to it were fake—they looked like they were made out of colored paper of some sort. Still, he didn’t know what it was or why it was sitting on a table in the middle of the Bayport Bear Park visitors’ cabin—and he was pretty sure that Adam didn’t, either.

  Adam’s cheeks reddened
. “Why should I tell you what it is?”

  Phil Cohen pulled his phone out of his pocket and took a picture, then punched a few buttons. Phil was a tech whiz—he always had the latest electronic gadgets.

  “According to my image recognition search,” said Phil, “it’s a piñata.” He pronounced it pin-ah-ta.

  “Pin-yah-ta,” corrected Cissy. “My parents get me one every year for my birthday!”

  “What’s it do?” asked Joe.

  “It’s filled with toys and candy and stuff! You’re supposed to take turns trying to break it open with a baseball bat, and when it all falls out, you get to keep the prizes.”

  “Did someone say candy?” A girl with honey-colored hair and a bubble-gum-pink hoodie spoke up, making a beeline for the piñata.

  “I got here first!” Adam shouted, reaching his hand out to grab the piñata.

  Fweeeeeeeeeeeet!

  The whole class turned toward the sound of someone blowing a whistle.

  “Step away from the piñata!” There, standing next to Ms. Potter, was a teenage girl with glossy chestnut hair and a whistle around her neck. She had on a chocolate-brown uniform stitched with green letters that read HEATHER.

  “She’s a ranger?” Frank asked. “She sure doesn’t look like one to me.”

  Joe shook his head. Heather wore a ranger uniform, but she was also wearing a glittery purple headband, pale-pink nail polish, and hot-pink lip gloss, and she held a cell phone in one hand.

  “I’m a junior ranger here at Bear Park,” Heather said. “I’ll be leading your field trip today.”

  “But you’re a girl,” said Adam Ackerman, screwing up his face into a frown.

  “I’m a girl who probably knows more about this park and the surrounding woods than a hundred boys put together.” Heather stared Adam down. “And you should keep your hands off that piñata.”

  “What’s the piñata for?” the girl with the honey-blond hair asked, wide-eyed. “Is it really filled with candy?”

  “Who is that?” Joe asked his brother.

  “Lolly Sugarman,” said Frank. “She’s in my class. She’s obsessed with candy—I’ve never seen her without either a lollipop, a chocolate bar, or bubble gum.”

  “Yes, it’s filled with toys and candy. And that’s a good question,” Heather told Lolly. “Today we’re going to divide you all into teams of four. Then you’re going to compete . . . in a scavenger hunt!”

  There was a murmur among the students, and they immediately began grouping themselves into teams. Frank and Joe called out to their friend Chet Morton, but Heather blew her super-loud whistle and everyone went silent.

  “I’ll be choosing the teams,” Heather said.

  “Heather?” said Cissy, her arm raised high in the air. “What’s a scavenger hunt?”

  “It’s a competition,” said Heather. “I’m going to be handing out a list of five clues, and each team will have to solve the clues together.”

  Frank and Joe exchanged excited looks. They were the best at solving clues!

  “Then,” Heather continued, “you’ll have to find and collect the answer to each clue in the park somewhere. For example, a clue might be: What is green with four parts and brings you luck—”

  “A four-leaf clover!” shouted Cissy.

  “Right.” Heather nodded. “So you would have to find a four-leaf clover somewhere in the park. We’ll be handing out plastic bags with the clues so you can store your scavenger hunt items as you go.”

  “How do we know who wins?” asked Cissy.

  Heather twirled a lock of hair around her finger. “The winning team is the one that collects all the scavenger hunt items first. Winners get to break open the piñata and divide up the candy and prizes among themselves.”

  The students began chattering eagerly. Frank was excited about the toy prizes inside, whereas Joe was more excited about the candy. If they won, they’d know just how to divide up their piñata winnings!

  Heather divided everyone up into teams of four. Frank and Joe wound up on the same team, along with Phil Cohen and Lolly Sugarman.

  “Okay,” Frank said, addressing his teammates. “It looks like our biggest competition will be Cissy Zermeño. Who else is on her team?”

  “Oh no,” said Joe, glancing at Cissy. “Adam Ackerman is on her team.”

  “Poor Cissy,” said Phil. “Tony Riccio and Seth Darnell are on her team too.”

  Tony and Seth were both friends of Adam’s. They weren’t as mean as Adam could be, but they weren’t nice like Cissy, either. Joe felt bad for her.

  Heather handed each group a set of clues in a sealed envelope, a map of the park, and a bunch of plastic bags and told them not to peek at the clues until she said so. Frank was in charge of holding the envelope for his group.

  “We have to win,” Lolly told her teammates. “Candy is my number one favorite thing in the whole world!”

  Phil looked at her. “You like candy even better than computers?”

  “More than anything,” Cissy said.

  “Don’t worry,” Joe said, grinning. “The Hardy boys are on the case!”

  “Okay!” Heather shouted. “It’s time to open your—”

  Just then the cabin door burst open. And there, standing in the doorway, was the biggest, tallest, scariest bear Frank Hardy had ever seen!

  Chapter 3

  BEARY SCARY

  “Graaaawwwwwr!” a rough voice rumbled.

  The class screamed.

  “It’s a fake!” Joe Hardy shouted, stepping forward and pointing at the figure in the doorway.

  The class gasped. Frank thought he could feel his heart skip a beat.

  The man in the bear suit seemed to be talking now. But all anyone could hear was mumble, mumble, mumble. He was still wearing his bear mask.

  Heather stared at the man in the bear suit. “Your mask,” she prodded, rolling her eyes.

  The man laughed and removed the bear mask from his head. “Sorry about that, kids! The young man in the red shirt,” he said, indicating Joe, “is right! I’m not a real bear.”

  “Who are you, then?” Elisa Locke asked, narrowing her eyes.

  “My name is Bo Bobbleton,” he said, stepping out of the bear costume. Underneath it, he wore a chocolate-brown ranger uniform, just like Heather’s. He was tall and muscular, with black hair that was streaked with silver and a stubbly silver beard. Even without the costume, he looked a little bearlike. “But you can call me Ranger Bo!”

  “I told you that suit would scare them!” Heather said, slipping her phone into the back pocket of her uniform.

  “I wasn’t scared!” Joe said. “My mom told me that we wouldn’t see any real bears at Bear Park.”

  Bo nodded. “And we’d like to keep it that way, so before you begin your scavenger hunt, I’m going to go over some of our Bear Park rules and regulations. It’s for your own safety.”

  Joe wrinkled his nose. He hated rules!

  Frank didn’t mind, though. Rules helped everyone stay safe.

  “First,” said Bo, holding up a finger like he was pointing to the sky, “you must solve the clues with your whole team, or else it doesn’t count.”

  Joe shrugged. That one wasn’t so bad.

  “Second, no food or drink outside this cabin.”

  “Why not?” Cissy asked.

  Bo and Heather exchanged a look, which made Frank curious. They sure seemed uneasy about something!

  “We don’t want food being left out and attracting any animals,” Ranger Bo explained.

  “Like . . . bears?” Frank gulped.

  “There’s no reason to be afraid of the wildlife, but keeping food and drink in the cabin and making sure you observe rule number three will ensure that there are no problems.”

  Problems? Frank thought. He couldn’t help but notice that Ranger Bo hadn’t exactly answered no. “And please don’t feed the wildlife, even if they look cute,” Heather added.

  “What’s rule number three?” Joe asked
.

  “No wandering off the path into the woods,” said Ranger Bo.

  Once the students agreed to obey the park rules, Ranger Bo counted down from three, and everyone ran outside at once, excited to look at the first clue.

  Once their team was outside, Frank opened the envelope and selected a note card with Clue #1 at the top. He showed Lolly, Joe, and Phil what it said:

  Light as a ____

  in all kinds of weather.

  Birds use me to fly

  all through the sky.

  “That one’s easy!” said Frank, smiling. “The answer is ‘feather.’ ”

  “Great job!” said Joe.

  “But where do we find one of those?” asked Phil.

  “Well,” said Lolly, after blowing a huge bubble with her neon-purple bubble gum. “Birds make nests in trees. Maybe we’ll find a feather near the woods?”

  The team headed for the forest beyond the clearing where the visitors’ cabin and picnic tables were.

  “Look at this one!” said Joe, running over to a huge oak tree. It had a hole in the center of its trunk shaped like a long oval—almost like a mouth open in a yawn. Next to it was a pretty maple tree with polished-looking reddish-purple leaves.

  The group searched beneath the trees. Before long, Joe found a shiny black feather lying on top of the grass under the big oak.

  “Congratulations!” boomed a voice just behind them. “You found the first scavenger hunt item!”

  Frank and Joe turned to find Ranger Bo beaming at their team.

  “You’re the first team to find the first item,” added Bo.

  “One step closer to all that candy,” said Lolly, her eyes twinkling.

  “That’s right, young lady,” said Ranger Bo. He walked off toward another team that was farther along the path.

  Joe grinned. “We have two amateur detectives on our team,” he said. “We’re sure to win this thing!”

  “Read the next clue, quick!” said Lolly. “I think I just saw Adam Ackerman with a white feather!”

  Frank opened a plastic bag, and Joe dropped the feather in. Then Phil produced Clue #2 from the envelope and read it aloud to his team: