Trouble in the Pipeline Read Free Page A

the flimsy door.
    They took turns standing guard, but the trip and jet lag caught up with Joe on his turn. He had just dozed off when he heard a crash. Four men smashed through the thin plasterboard of the room's back wall to fling both Hardys to the floor.
    Joe was grabbed and shoved into a huge canvas bag — a mail sack, he guessed as he fought to get free. He might as well have been paralyzed. There was no way out of the heavy canvas.
    Then came a blow to the back of his head—and the darkness in the bag gave way to deeper blackness.

Chapter 3
    JOE CAME TO FIRST.
    He was folded in half, lying on his side, and only when he tried to straighten up did he remember where he was — inside a bag. It might as well have been his coffin. Then he felt the pain, the throbbing at the back of his head that was making his skull ring. He couldn't even reach up to feel the spot — the bag was too tight. He lay still then and tried to gather his thoughts in spite of the hammering in his brain.
    "Find Frank," he told himself. "That's the first thing." He listened for any signs of life around him. Then he whispered into the smothering dark, "Frank, are you there?"
    He strained his ears—and heard the distant hum of an engine. A plane! He was on a plane! Then, nearer, he heard a rustling and scraping, which he assumed was Frank moving inside his bag.
    "Frank, is that you?"
    "Yeah." His brother's voice was laced with pain and confusion. "Where are you?"
    "Inside a bag," Joe whispered. "And I think we're aboard a plane."
    "Great," Frank responded sarcastically. "They airmailed us somewhere. Any ideas on how to get out of these things?"
    Joe could hear struggling. "Keep it down," he warned. "We may have company."
    Both of them listened, but all they caught was the deep thrum of propellers. Propellers! It must be a small plane. "If you can move at all, you should be able to get out of yours," Joe whispered. "You're more flexible than I am. I do have a knife, but I can't get to it."
    Frank's head was at the bottom of the bag, and the drawstring was down near his feet. He pulled himself into a tuck and held the bag tight against the floor so it couldn't turn with him.
    Moving a few inches with each turn, he was finally able to grope the top of the bag. Frank tried to force his fingers through the tiny hole to reach the knotted rope.
    But he couldn't squeeze them through. He dug into his pocket and found a key, which he brought up, and began the slow process of loosening the knot.
    "How's it going?" Joe asked after listening to Frank's deliberate breathing for a few minutes.
    "I'll be done in a minute," Frank whispered. His fingers ached, but he'd managed to pry open the knot. Then he pushed open the mouth of the bag and peeked out.
    They were in the cargo section of a small plane. Leading into the cockpit was an open door that let in the dull glare of an overcast day. Wisps of cloud whipped by the front window. Bundles, packages, and crates had been dumped everywhere, and they bounced and shifted as the plane cut through the cloud cover.
    After crawling out of the sack, Frank untied the knot on Joe's. Silently, they moved on all fours toward the cockpit door, pausing to take cover behind crates. A large bearded man was asleep just outside the door, a parachute strapped to his back, a revolver in his lap.
    Hunkering behind an open shipping case, Joe asked, "What do you think?"
    "Give me a minute," Frank said, rubbing his sore head.
    "I see only one chance," Joe said. "We grab the gun and hijack the plane."
    Frank nodded and tried to ignore his pounding head. He straightened to take another look at their sleeping guard and glanced down into the crate in front of him. Inside was a kind of giant sea buoy with a beacon and what looked like radio equipment attached to it. Strange, he thought to himself. I've never seen anything like that.
    But he didn't have time to think more about it. The man with the gun began to stir. As he moved Frank saw that