Night had fallen and the men had dispersed to lootthe remains from the abandoned cottages. Joe found the blond man heading down some steps into an old gypsy shop. The boy followed and felt a strange presence of a ghostly gypsy-woman standing at the bottom of the steps ahead of the blond man. This man didn’t notice her and seemed to walk right through her without a thought. Joe stopped in his tracks and tried to remember why he should follow this man.

As he pondered, a strange sense of love and companionship swelled through him as he remembered his brothers connection and he knew what he must do. The blond man had noticed the box with the beautiful ornate key. He held it up with both hands and admired the power he felt emanate from the box. He reached out for the key as if in a dream. Suddenly a strange gypsy boy was at his elbow knocking the box to the ground. The key clattered to the ground and in an unpredicted blind panic the man grabbed for it ignoring the box. Joe was faster. He grabbed the key and before he realized what he was doing, he’d put the key in his mouth and swallowed it.

 A warm sensation in his stomach began and circulated to all his limbs until he felt like he was on fire. The key burned white hot in his stomach. He clutched his stomach and bent over in pain as his world went black around him.  

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The Hardy Boys Fan Fiction authors of the Hardy Detective Agency have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow original characters without express permission of the authors.