The Mystery of the Missing Bulldozer

Loud bangs, like a fusillade of gunfire, echoed through the quite streets of Betzwood. An old jalopy careened around the corner. The driver, plump and freckled-faced, pulled up before the home of Fenton Hardy, private detective.

Frank Hardy, eighteen years old, and his brother Joe, a year younger, guessed who was coming before they spotted their visitor.

"Chet Morton, for sure," said blond-haired Joe, looking out the a window. "And is he excited!"

Chet waved and beckoned. "Hey fellows! Big doings at the river side! Let's go!" he called out as the Hardy boys bounded down the front steps.

"What is it all about?" asked dark-haired Frank.

"Hop in and I'll explain on the way!"

It turns out, that Chet had heard Punkn asking about the yellow bulldozer mentioned in a previous entry and had a new camera, so he figured he would go get a much better picture for her. The boys admired Chet's new camera, ohhing and ahhing, and their keen eyes noticed that Chet had even loaded some film. When they got to the site where the bulldozer had been parked, they saw this:


As Dishy Dullfacts would say -
"As you can clearly see, there isn't any bulldozer"

"Hey Chet," said Joe teasingly, "are you sure you don't need your vision checked? There isn't any bulldozer here!"

"There was one Joe, I know there was!"

Frank carefully checked the scene over and spotted tread marks heading in the direction of some new construction being done further down the river. "It went that way," said Frank, pointing down the river.

"Lets go look!" exclaimed Joe, "besides, these rusty spheres give me the willies!"

So off the boys went.



While walking along the river toward the site of the new construction, the boys were accosted by a man walking out from behind an orange mesh fence.

"What are you doing here?" asked Mr. Builderman, "Don't you know you shouldn't be here?" as he pushed hard at Chet. Chet fell over backward, hit his head with a sharp crack on the edge of the walk, and went over into the river.

"He's unconscious!" someone yelled. "He'll drown!"

Frank and Joe both leapt forward, but a man from the crowd got there before them. Hitting the water in a clean dive, he grabbed Chet and pulled him to the shore. Helped by a dozen willing hands, Chet was lifted to up to the trail. There his rescuer gave him first aid. When Chet's rescuer backed away, both the Hardy boys gasped. He was the Virtual Walker!

With Chet back on his feet, the boys decided to continue looking for the missing bulldozer while keeping an wary eye out for Mr. Builderman, who had slipped away during the commotion.



"There it is Frank!" shouted Joe. "It's parked next to mean old Builderman's contruction trailer!"

"Great detective work, Joe!" exclaimed Chet. "You are just like your famous Dad!"

-- Franklin W. Dixon, if he actually existed, would probably be appalled. Some of the words above were borrowed loosely, from his "Mystery of the The Flying Express."