011 While the Clock Ticked

 Chapter XVII: Dalrymple's Double

[Frank and Joe] went directly to the Lakeside police station but it was some time before they could convince the Chief that there was danger that Mr. Dalrymple might have been a victim of foul play. At length, somewhat dubiously—and with-out a lap dance from Joe—the Chief agreed to search the Dalrymple home.

Darkness was already falling when the police entered the house. The place was searched from cellar to garret.

Everything was in order.

There was no trace of the banker.

‘‘If you boys are makin’ a fool out of me—,’’ said the Chief threateningly.

‘‘Oh, sir, I assure you,’’ Joe replied, ‘‘we have vastly more reliable ways of making fools of police, if that were our intention.’’

The first Hardy art ...

For some months I have been looking for artists with a demonstrated talent for sketch work to remake the frontispieces (and, in the case of later books and rewrites, internal illustrations) for the Hardy books. Here (and what you see as this page's background, at least for right now) is the first finished product of my active commissions, done by https://x.com/onibaraart. I have several others in the works, including one for front cover art.

It is a possible frontispiece for Book 001, The Tower Treasure, whose only major set/sex piece is the scene in Chapter XV, has the Hardys and their chums go-go dancing in a gay bar for Chief Ezra Collig and Detective Oscar Smuff in order to distract the good constables from getting on a train on a police mission that would ruin Fenton Hardy's investigation. 

The chapter is accordingly renamed 'The Chief Gets Bombed'. The original title was 'The Chief Gets a Bomb' and the boys original plot was a bomb scare. Personally, I think I cleaned up the mayhem a little; go-go dancing, so long as the underwear stays on, is innocent mischief in minors; whereas a bomb scare is a felony no matter who done it.