The Phantom Freighter by Franklin W. Dixon

whales!”
    Chet groaned. “Listen, you two. You’ve got to help me!”
    â€œWell, if you insist,” Joe said, grinning.
    The next morning found the Hardys at a wharf talking to a grizzled veteran of the coast named Captain Andy Harkness. He owned several fishing boats.
    â€œA trip? Sure,” he said when they told of Mr. McClintock’s request. “I’ll take you and your man anywhere you like, so long as you don’t ask me to cruise off the Barmet Shoals.”
    â€œWhat’s wrong with the shoals, Captain?” Frank inquired. “You’re not afraid of them, are you?”
    â€œNot me. But I got a terrible fright there last evening and I don’t want to go near the place again.”
    The boys were curious. Captain Harkness was not the sort of man who scared easily. They asked him what had happened.
    â€œDon’t know if I ought to tell you,” the fisherman grumbled. “Most likely you won’t believe a word of it, but it’s true just the same.”
    â€œTry us,” Frank said.
    â€œSome time after sundown,” the captain began, “with a high sea running, I got off my course a bit. Suddenly I spotted a freighter to my starboard side. I could see we were on collision course, so I threw the helm over hard, but I couldn’t hold my boat against the rough water. I knew I was going to hit the freighter but there wasn’t a thing I could do.”
    â€œSo she rammed you?” asked Joe.
    Captain Harkness wagged his head. “She did and she didn’t. I’d say I ran right through her! That’s the part you won’t believe, but it’s as true as my name is Andy Harkness. By rights I shouldn’t be alive now to tell the tale.”
    â€œYou ran through the freighter?” Frank gasped.
    â€œThat’s the way it seemed. One minute she’s looming up ahead of me big as a mountain, all her lights on, the next minute she’s not there at all and my boat is swinging northward off the shoals.”
    â€œAnd where was the freighter?” Joe queried.
    â€œI tell you, she wasn’t in sight!”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Frank said. “Where could she have gone?”
    The captain gave a convulsive shrug, as if the recollection frightened him. “She was a phantom freighter!” he vowed.
    Frank and Joe asked him several other questions, but he stuck to his story.
    â€œDid you see any name on the ship?” asked Frank.
    â€œYep! Caught a glimpse of her name up on her bow. The Falcon, she was called. Never heard of her before. But she’s a phantom freighter, that’s what she is, boys, a phantom freighter!”

CHAPTER VIII
    Missing Letters
    â€œGOOD thing Captain Harkness noticed the name of the phantom freighter,” said Fenton Hardy after his sons had related the strange story. “It gives us a clue to work on, at any rate.”
    He went to a bookshelf. Taking down a thick volume, he thumbed through the pages.
    â€œRegistry of Shipping,” he said, scanning a column. “If there is such a ship as the Falcon it should be listed here—and it’s not.”
    â€œIsn’t there a chance this phantom ship is registered under another name?” asked Frank.
    â€œPossibly. But I wonder if the whole thing wasn’t a hallucination of Captain Harkness.”
    As the boys left their father’s study they encountered Aunt Gertrude in the hall. She began to fuss again because the carton containing her valuable papers had not been recovered.
    â€œWith three detectives in the family, a little thing like this shouldn’t be much of a problem!” she said.
    â€œWe’ve been working on it, Aunty,” Joe said, though he had to admit their leads had come to little.
    â€œThe carton was probably in that barn all the time,” Miss Hardy went on. “Did you look through the debris after the fire?”
    â€œThere didn’t seem to be much