''The Secret of Skull Mountain'' is Volume 27 in the original

The Hardy Boys The Hardy Boys, brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, are fictional characters who appear in several mystery series for children and teens. The series revolves around teenagers who are amateur sleuths, solving cases that stumped their adult counterp ...

Mystery Stories published by

Grosset & Dunlap Grosset & Dunlap is a New York City-based publishing house founded in 1898. The company was purchased by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1982 and today is part of Penguin Random House through its subsidiary Penguin Group. Today, through the Penguin Gro ...

. This book was written for the

Stratemeyer Syndicate The Stratemeyer Syndicate was a publishing company that produced a number of mystery book series for children, including Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, the various Tom Swift series, the Bobbsey Twins, the Rover Boys, and others. They published and ...

by George Waller Jr. in 1948. Between 1959 and 1973 the first 38 volumes of this series were systematically revised as part of a project directed by Harriet Adams, Edward Stratemeyer's daughter. The original version of this book was shortened to 177 pages in 1966 by David Grambs resulting in two similar stories sharing the same title.

Plot summary

Every night

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...

strangely disappears from the new Tarnack

Reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

near Skull

Mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited Summit (topography), summit area, and ...

. Frank and Joe join forces with a team of skilled engineers to solve the baffling mystery. The book takes place on Skull Mountain, a mountain where many skulls have been seen, near Bayport, U.S.A. This city around Skull Mountain loses water each night because of the new reservoir. There is always something mysterious happening on the mountain, which has an underground

channel Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...

. The story begins when Joe wants to go

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

; however, Frank points out that there is not enough water because of a low reservoir. When they discover that the water at the Skull Mountain facility disappears each night, they team up with Chet Morton and engineers Dick Ames and Bob Carpenter to solve the mystery. While exploring Skull Mountain, the boys are attacked several times. They finally find Timothy Kimball Jr. (Sweeper) breaking into Kleng’s plumbling store in order to steal the money Kleng owes him ($5000). Kimball is arrested and questioned about the reservoir. This leads the Hardy Boys to catch the villain, Kleng, and solve a crime which involves the Chicago syndicate, being investigated by their father, Fenton Hardy.

Characters

The main characters are the Hardy Boys: Joe Hardy, a 17-year-old and the son of world-renowned detective

Fenton Hardy Many characters have appeared in the fictional series of books about The Hardy Boys. Character history Original series At the beginning of the original Hardy Boys series, Frank is only 16 years old (as opposed to 18 after the revisions betwee ...

, and his 18-year-old brother, Frank. Secondary characters include Fenton Hardy, the boys' father, a local engineer named Bob Carpenter, his assistant Dick Ames, and the Hardy Boys' friend,

Chet Morton Many characters have appeared in the fictional series of books about The Hardy Boys. Character history Original series At the beginning of the original Hardy Boys series, Frank is only 16 years old (as opposed to 18 after the revisions betwee ...

. A local plumber, Kleng, organizes the crime with the support of the Chicago syndicate to drain the water from the reservoir, in order to keep local engineers from flooding their hideout. Timothy Kimball Jr. (Sweeper) is being paid to help carry out the plan. Dr. Foster, who was treated very badly, is another character who was kidnapped by Kleng's gang to test the tunnel in the mountain to see if enough cesium is present to justify mining it. Minor characters include Mrs. Kleng, who is aware of her husband's crimes, Callie Shaw (Frank's girlfriend, who does some undercover work for him), and three individuals living on the mountain (all involved with the gang to some extent).

References

The Hardy Boys books 1948 American novels 1948 children's books 1966 American novels 1966 children's books Grosset & Dunlap books {{1960s-child-novel-stub