In the pre-Christmas dawn, a group of men swarmed around the now empty cabin. As uniformed officers placed the subdued kidnappers into patrol cars, Fenton Hardy stood beside Chief Collig and Officer Radcliffe. Radcliffe was a member of the canine unit and had his partner, Smokey, a full-grown German shepherd at his side. Behind them another unit of officers was gearing up to assist in the search.

“We’ll find them, sir,” Radcliffe assured the elder Hardy. “Smokey will lead us right to them.”

“I just hope it’s in time. There’s no telling how long they’ve been out in this cold,” the anxious father exclaimed.

“Alright,” Collig ordered the group. “Let’s go.”

The trek through the forest seemed to take forever to Fenton Hardy, although in reality it was little more than an hour. As the searchers emerged from the trees to stand in the tiny clearing, Smokey went wild, barking and straining on his leash in excitement.

Radcliffe knelt down and unclipped the dog from the leash. Within seconds, Smokey had bounded to the rock formation at the other side.

The men followed, but stopped in bewilderment upon reaching the rocks. The dog had seemingly disappeared.

Radcliffe whistled. A small murmur of surprise broke out when the dog obediently emerged from the almost invisible crevice in the rocks, trotted over to his master, and sat down.

The officer reached down and patted the dog on its head. “Good boy,” He stated softly.

Two of the officers, the smallest, slipped through the crevice. Within a matter of minutes, the brothers had been found and gently carried out of the rock. Sinking down between the two silent forms, Fenton reached out a hand to touch them. Both boys were almost blue from the cold, their skin icy to touch.

Soon, the brothers, carefully wrapped up in thermal blankets, were being gently borne back to the cabin and the waiting ambulance. As the cabin wasn’t equipped with any heating units the boys would have to be taken to the nearest hospital.

***

Laura Hardy sat in the chair beside her youngest son’s hospital bed, her eyes bright with relief. Fenton sat against the far wall, beside Frank. Both boys were severely hypothermic, but they had been found in time and were expected to make a full recovery.

They had been a little surprised when one of the nurses had come out of the examining room with the volume of Joe’s pictures. And even more so when she explained how tightly their eldest son seemed to have been clutching it. A quick perusal of its contents revealed very little, except that the artwork was of exceptional quality and contained pictures of the brothers. Now the slim book lay on the table between the two beds.

The boys had been asleep for hours and now the bright Christmas sunlight filtered through the cracks in the blinds.

Suddenly Frank gave a soft moan as his eyelids fluttered open.

Laura was already on her feet and half-way to his bed by the time Fenton leaned over and caressed his son’s much warmer cheek. “Son,” he said softly, his eyes expressing his gratitude, relief and joy at seeing the boy awake.

“Oh, baby!” Laura cried, bending down to kiss his cheek. “We were so worried.”

“Mom, Dad.” Frank smiled up into his parents’ relieved faces. “Didn’t know if anyone would find us,” he mumbled softly.

Fenton smiled as he ruffled the dark hair so like his own. Looking across at the other sleeper, he was a little disappointed to see that Joe had not yet awakened.

As he started to turn back to Frank, his eye caught on the small leather-bound volume on the bedside table.

Frank had noticed his father’s anxious glance at his younger brother before the older man’s eyes lighted on Joe’s gift.

“That’s Joe’s Christmas gift to me,” the dark-haired teen said softly. “When we were out there, alone and cold, he wished me Merry Christmas.”

Fenton picked up the book, holding it carefully in his hand.

“I told him that there was nothing merry about this Christmas,” Frank continued. “He disagreed, told me I was wrong. That,” here he nodded to the slim volume in his father’s hand, “was part of his argument.” Frank looked over at his brother, still peacefully asleep.

“I had this mistaken impression that Christmas couldn’t be enjoyable without a certain holiday magic: bright lights, warm fires, Christmas trees. But Joe proved to me that even in the bleakest of settings, Christmas could still be merry.”

“Finding the two of you, having you both safe and warm in the hospital counts as a merry Christmas to me,” Laura said quietly, her eyes bright with relief. “It’s much, much merrier than what I had feared it might be last night.”

“Told ya, big brother,” came a scratchy voice from the other bed. Joe looked over at his family and smiled. His parents were instantly at his side, fussing gently over him.

Frank smiled fondly over at his brother. Yep, the dark-haired teen decided, it was a merry Christmas indeed.

The End- Merry Christmas!

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.