''The Tower Treasure'' is the first volume 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 counterpa ...

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 ...

. The book ranks 55th on ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

''s All-Time Bestselling Children's Book List for the United States, with 2,209,774 copies sold as of 2001. This book is one of the "Original 10", generally considered by historians and critics of children's literature to be the best examples of all the Hardy Boys, and

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 ...

, writing. This book was written for the

Leslie McFarlane Charles Leslie McFarlane (October 25, 1902 – September 6, 1977) was a Canadian journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and filmmaker, who is most famous for ghostwriting many of the early books in the very successful ''Hardy Boys'' series, using the ...

in 1927. Between 1959 and 1973 the first 38 volumes were systematically revised as part of a project directed by Harriet S. Adams, Edward Stratemeyer's daughter. While some volumes only had minor changes, the original version of this book had the plot significantly rewritten in 1959 by Adams.

Plot summary (revision)

The story begins with Frank and Joe Hardy barely avoiding being hit by a speeding driver, who they notice has bright red hair. Later, this same red-haired driver attempts a

ferry boat A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water tax ...

ticket office robbery and successfully steals a yellow

jalopy A decrepit car is a car that is often old and damaged and is in a barely functional state. There are many slang terms used to describe such cars, the more popular including junk car, beater, clunker, hooptie, jalopy, shitbox, junker, and banger ...

called ''Queen'' from the Hardys' 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 ...

. Due to one witness reporting that the villain had dark hair, the Hardys assume he is using a red

wig A wig is a head or hair accessory made from human hair, animal hair, or synthetic fiber. The word wig is short for periwig, which makes its earliest known appearance in the English language in William Shakespeare's ''The Two Gentlemen of Verona' ...

. It is learned that the thief returned to Chet's home to steal a tire, helping Frank and Joe to find ''Queen'' abandoned in a public wooded area. The excitement of finding ''Queen'' is quickly gone when it is reported that there has been a robbery of forty thousand

dollars Dollar is the name of more than 20 currencies. They include the Australian dollar, Brunei dollar, Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Jamaican dollar, Liberian dollar, Namibian dollar, New Taiwan dollar, New Zealand dollar, Singapore dollar, U ...

in securities and jewels from the Tower Mansion owned by

sibling A sibling is a relative that shares at least one parent with the subject. A male sibling is a brother and a female sibling is a sister. A person with no siblings is an only child. While some circumstances can cause siblings to be raised separat ...

s Hurd and Adelia Applegate. Hurd Applegate is convinced that the Tower's caretaker, Henry Robinson, is the guilty party. The Hardys are especially concerned by this accusation, because Henry's son, Perry, is a friend of theirs who will have to quit school to work since his father can no longer get a job as a result of Applegate's accusation. The only "proof" of Henry Robinson's guilt is that he was suddenly able to pay off a debt and refused to reveal where he got the money to do so. The Hardys suspect that the red-haired man may be involved with the Tower robbery and search the place where ''The Queen'' was found, finding the red wig. The Hardys' dad, 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 ...

, learns that the wig was manufactured in New York City. Fenton Hardy goes to New York and learns of a criminal named John "Red" Jackley who is fond of using disguises. Soon, Jackley is injured in a railroad handcar accident, causing him to be hospitalized. About to die, Jackley confesses that he committed the Tower Mansion robbery and put the loot "in the old tower..." Jackley dies before he is able to explain further. Jackley is a tall man with dark hair. Frank and Joe decide to go to the railroad where Jackley used to work to find more information. While investigating, they see two water towers nearby, one is new while the other is old and no longer used. Remembering Jackley once worked for the railroad the boys decide to search the old tower. Inside the old water tower they find the stolen items, but are locked in the tower by a man calling himself Hobo Johnny. Johnny believes that anything in the tower belongs to him. Frank and Joe break out of the water tower and return the missing securities and jewelry, whereupon they receive the $1,000 reward. Following the revelations and with the stolen loot returned, Hurd re-hires Henry with an increase in salary and Hurd builds the greenhouse that Henry has been wanting.

Appearances (in revised edition)

Characters In The Book (The Tower Treasure)

*Adelia Applegate *Hurd Applegate *Chief Collig *Fenton Hardy *Frank Hardy *Joe Hardy *Laura Hardy *John "Red" Jackley *Hobo Johnny *Chet Morton *Iola Morton *Mr. Morton *Mrs. Morton *Henry Robinson *Mrs. Robinson *Paula Robinson *Perry Robinson *Tessie Robinson *Callie Shaw *Oscar Smuff

Business and organizations

*Bayport & Coast Line Railroad *Bayport Police Department *Hamlins Company *Beer Factory

Adaptations

TV adaptation

''The Tower Treasure'' became the basis of a serial shown on the ''Mickey Mouse Club'' in 1956–1957 as "The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure", named for the descendant of the pirate who was searching for the priceless treasure.

Computer game

On September 30, 2008,

JoWooD Productions JoWooD Entertainment AG (formerly JoWooD Productions Software AG, commonly referred to as JoWooD) was an Austrian video game publisher that was founded in 1995. JoWooD went into administration in 2011 and all assets were purchased by Nordic Games ...

and

The Adventure Company The Adventure Company was a Canadian video game developer and a former publishing division of DreamCatcher Interactive. It was sold to THQ Nordic GmbH in 2011 following DreamCatcher's parent (JoWooD Entertainment) assets being sold after entering A ...

released a PC

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

based on ''The Tower Treasure''.http://www.jowood.com/?lang=en&site=2&gameid=hardyboys&pfid= It is titled '' The Hardy Boys: The Hidden Theft''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tower Treasure, The The Hardy Boys books 1927 American novels 1927 children's books 1959 American novels 1959 children's books Grosset & Dunlap books American novels adapted into television shows