The Bombay Boomerang Read Free Page A

gallery.”
    Tony bobbed his head up and down. “Certainly not the Waldorf-Astoria,” he said.
    â€œI know,” Frank agreed. “That’s why we asked you to come along. There’s a slight chance that these fellows are on the up-and-up about the car. But we think there’s something phony about them. And we want to know what it is.”
    â€œNo matter how you slice this salami, we’ve got to go in there,” Joe added.
    â€œSince Joe and I can identify the guys we want to check, we’ll go up to their room,” Frank continued. “If all we have to do is arrange a deal about a car, we should be back here in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.”
    â€œIf you don’t see us pretty quickly, you’ll know something’s gone wrong,” Joe added. “That’ll be your clue to come busting in. Let’s put a time limit of ten minutes on the operation.”
    â€œRoger,” said Biff, and the four synchronized their watches. Then the Hardys entered the hotel.
    The desk clerk raised his eyes from his paper and gave them a suspicious stare. When they told him the number of the room they wanted, he jerked a thumb toward the stairs and mumbled, “Second floor, third left.”
    â€œPleasant receptionist,” Joe observed sarcastically as they climbed the stairs.
    They found the room and rapped on the door. It was opened by the man in the beret.
    â€œWell, look who’s here!” he said, sounding so threatening that Joe was reminded of the story about the spider and the fly. “Won’t you come into my parlor—” he recited under his breath.
    Frank and Joe went in. They immediately recognized Snap Brim standing at the window. He came toward them with a menacing scowl. Shaking his fist at them, he spoke with suppressed fury. “So you think we want a car, do you? I’ll tell you what we want. Mercury!”
    â€œYour old man is poking his fingers into a hot racket, and we don’t like it!” Beret added.
    Joe spun on his toes and headed for the door. He was quick, but not quick enough. Beret stepped in front of him. Tall and beefy, he flexed his powerful shoulders, raising his long arms in a wrestler’s stance.
    â€œCome on,” he barked. “I’m itching to take care of you. Next time you bob up, it’ll be in the bay, and you’ll be as dead as an iced mackerel!”

CHAPTER III
    The Hotel Caper
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    SUDDENLY the door splintered inward with a terrific crash, dislodging the lock. Biff and Tony hurtled into the room.
    â€œSorry we haven’t been introduced,” Tony said to the beefy character, “but I imagine we’ll get to know one another real fast!”
    â€œIt’s all a question of timing,” Biff quipped. “To wit, ten minutes!”
    Joe covered his relief with a whimsical remark. “We were about to have a ball, just the four of us.”
    â€œA brawl!” Frank corrected him.
    â€œA real go-round,” Biff added, “only our invitations never arrived. Anyway, the party’s over.”
    The two men were caught off balance. Snap Brim, who had lowered his fist, recovered first. “Okay,” he snarled at the Hardys. “So you’ve got a bodyguard. But next time may be different! And there’s sure gonna be a next time! We’re not through with you by a long shot, or with your old man, either! You can tell him that!”
    Frank, Joe, Biff, and Tony stepped past the door which was crazily swinging on its hinges. The desk clerk, who had heard the noise and came upstairs, looked at them uncomprehendingly as they walked past him and out of the hotel.
    â€œThat caper had a happy ending,” Tony remarked.
    â€œI wouldn’t be too sure it’s ended,” Frank warned. “The curtain hasn’t gone up on act two yet.”
    A series of rapid-fire explosions dented their eardrums. Down the street chugged an