A FEROCIOUS, wolf-like creature appears during the night of the full moon in a small Adirondack town, attacking livestock and scaring many of the residents. John Tabor, a young man with a history of werewolves in his family line, is suspect. Frank and Joe Hardy are hired to clear the young man's name.

At the same time, Fenton Hardy requests his sons' help on a case of industrial sabotage. The Hardy Boys, with the assistance of Chet Morton, tackle their assignments with gusto and find themselves face to face with danger wherever they go. Joe barely escapes a horrible death as the young detectives battle their unscrupulous enemies before finally solving this exciting and hair-raising mystery.

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in 2005 by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group,
345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. THE HARDY BOYS' is a
registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a
trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. S.A.

eISBN : 978-1-101-07668-2

http://us.penguingroup.com

The Glowing Beast

“Oh, oh! Look who's here,” said Frank Hardy. “Mountain Man himself.”

“Man Mountain, you mean,” quipped his brother, Joe.

It was Saturday evening, and the Hardys were munching pizzas in the Bayport Diner with their dates, Callie Shaw and Iola Morton. Iola's tubby brother Chet and lanky Biff Hooper had just walked in and came to their table.

“Boy, you've got to see that scene where Lobo Jack fights a bear on the edge of a cliff!” Chet exclaimed, his moonface alight with excitement.

“Don't tell me you saw that movie about the Rocky Mountain trappers again!” Joe groaned and the girls giggled. “What is this, the tenth time?”

Before Chet could bore them with more breathless scenes, the Hardys paid their bill and the group left. They were halfway across the parking lot when Iola gasped in fear.

“Good grief! What's that?”

The Bayport Diner lay on the edge of town and was bordered by a patch of woods. lola pointed to a weird-looking creature bounding out from among the trees.
It was a snarling, wolflike beast whose fur glowed in the dark!

“Watch out!” Frank cried. “That critter means business!”

Callie screamed in alarm as she saw the animal charging straight toward them, its fangs bared ferociously. The beast would be upon them before they could either reach the safety of the Hardys' car or retreat into the diner!

“Get behind us!” Joe shouted to the girls; then he and Frank thrust out their arms to fend off the expected attack.

Luckily Callie's scream had been heard and their plight seen from inside the diner. Chet, Biff, and several others dashed out to help.

“Beat it, you!” Biff bellowed, and the others joined in the outcry, yelling and waving their arms.

The glowing wolf-creature stopped short with a deep-throated growl, evidently startled by the noisy outburst from the young people. Then it turned and ran back into the woods.

“Wow! My legs were ready to give way,” Iola confessed, clinging to Joe's arm. She and Callie were both pale with fright.

“What
was
that thing?” Chet asked as he hurried up to them.

“I've no idea,” said Frank, “but I sure intend to find out.”

He and Joe picked up flashlights from their car and were about to head into the woods when Callie called out anxiously, “Wait! Where are you going?”

“That brute could be dangerous!” a man from the diner added.

“Don't worry, we'll keep our distance,” Joe replied. “We just want to see where it came from.”

Blond, seventeen-year-old Joe Hardy and his dark-haired older brother, Frank, were the sons of famed private detective Fenton Hardy, who had once been a crack investigator on the New York City police force.

The two young sleuths never could resist a mystery, and the weird creature who had come streaking out of the darkness at them posed too great a challenge to pass up. Their father had taught them never to take foolish chances, but they felt the glare of their flashlight beams away from the diner would dazzle their quarry enough to keep it from attacking.

The phantom beast had disappeared among the trees and underbrush. Cautiously, the Hardys pressed forward, moving their flashlights to and fro and keeping their eyes peeled for a glimpse of its glowing fur.

“Maybe it veered off in a different direction,” Joe conjectured.

“No, it went this way,” Frank said. “Look at this freshly broken shrubbery. The stalks are still moist.”

“But how could it vanish so fast? That fur alone would give it away at quite a distance.”

“I know. I can't figure it out, either. If we found any of its hairs that brushed off on trees around here, we could take them back to the lab and examine them under a microscope.”

“That's an ideal It might give us a clue toâ,” Joe broke off as his brother raised a hand for silence.

“Sounds like Chet calling us,” said the older Hardy boy. The two listened.

Sure enough, their friend's yell from the parking lot was repeated. “Come back here, Frank and Joe!”

The Hardys retreated through the woods in the direction of the diner. Chet was leaning against their car with Biff and the girls standing next to him.

“What's up?” Frank asked.

“You got a radio call.” Chet pointed to a red light blinking on the dashboard.

Frank opened the door and slipped behind the wheel. He flicked a switch on the specially licensed radio transceiver mounted under their instrument panel.

“H-1 here,” he spoke into the hand mike. “Come in, please. ”

“G calling,” crackled a voice from the speaker. “Do you read me?”

“Loud and clear, Aunt Gertrude. Anything wrong?”

“Yes. Customer's here and no one's minding the store.”

“Customer? You mean a client?”

“Do I have to spell it out?” his aunt replied tartly.

“Must be a new case for Dad,” murmured Joe, who was standing at the car door, listening in.

“Who is it, Aunt Gertrude?” Frank inquired into the mike. “Any idea what the problem is?”

“Come home and find out,” was the withering response. “I know better than to discuss cases over the air, and so should you!”

“Right you are, Aunty.” Frank chuckled wryly.

“As always,” Joe muttered with a grin.

“We'll start back as soon as we take the girls home,” Frank added and signed off.

“We can drop Callie off if it's something urgent,” Chet offered.

“Of course they can, and don't worry about it,” Iola said with an understanding smile as Joe started to apologize for ending the evening so abruptly.

Both the cute, pixie-faced girl and blonde, brown-eyed Callie Shaw, who was Frank's date, said good-by to the Hardys and walked off with Biff and Chet.

“Something should be done about that wolf-dog, or whatever it was,” Frank said with a worried frown before starting the car.

Nick Pappadopolos, the shirt-sleeved proprietor of the diner, who had been talking to several people in the parking lot, walked up to the group and overheard the remark.

“I'll take care of it,” he promised. “I'll call the pound and tell âem there's a dangerous animal loose. Who knows, it may even be rabid!”

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