The following morning, Ned and the Hardy’s were getting fitted for their tuxedos. Once fitted, Ned asked the tailor to hang onto the tuxedo after the ball. “I’ll need it for my wedding.”

“All right, sir. And congratulations.”

“You should probably hang onto these two tuxedos as well,” Ned added.

“What?” Frank and Joe asked simultaneously. Frank continued, “Why should he hang onto ours?”

“Well,” Ned said sitting down and looking at Frank. “I’ve been giving it a lot of thought. Both of you are such good friends to Nancy and me, and I was hoping you would be the best man for the wedding.”

“I don’t understand,” Frank admitted. “I thought you would choose one of your fraternity brothers.”

“You and Nancy are really good friends. You’ve also become a good friend to me. You are one of the best guys I’ve ever known. I want you to be my best man. I want you to stand up with me when Nancy and I say our wedding vows.”

Frank looked at Ned. He couldn’t believe what Ned was asking. There had been times in the past when Ned had assumed he and Nancy had some kind of romantic relationship. Despite trying to set Ned straight, he knew Ned always had some concerns about them.

Ned broke into Frank’s thoughts. “It would really mean a lot to both of us.”

“If you’re sure,” Frank said. “I would be honored to be your best man.”

“Good.”

“What about me?” Joe asked, trying to sound hurt.

“I’d like you to be an usher,” Ned said. “I wasn’t going to forget you. Somehow I don’t see the wedding party being any fun without you.”

“I can handle that,” Joe said with a smile.

Ned looked at his watch. “We better get going. We’re supposed to meet the girls for lunch.

“Let’s go.”

* * * * *

When they arrived at the restaurant, they saw Nancy, Callie and Vanessa were sitting with Bess Marvin and George Fayne, Nancy’s best friends. They moved over to the table and heard the girls talking about their dresses.

Joe smiled at Frank and Ned, then said, “If you gals are busy, we can come back when you start talking about something more interesting.”

“There you are!” Nancy exclaimed.

Ned leaned down and gave her a kiss. “Sorry we’re late.”

“It’s all right. We’ve only been here a few minutes,” Nancy said as Ned pulled out the chair beside her.

“Well,” Joe said sitting down between Vanessa and Bess. “It looks like I get to sit between the two most beautiful women in the restaurant.”

As Joe glanced at Vanessa, then at Bess, the two of them got to their feet and stepped away from the table. Joe asked, “What are you two doing?”

“We’re just getting out of the way in case your ego explodes,” Bess said.

“Ha, ha. Very funny,” Joe said and the girls sat back down.

“So,” Frank said pulling his chair closer to Callie. “What’s on the schedule for today?”

“Why don’t we go ice-skating?” Nancy suggested. “The lake has been frozen for about a week and ready for skating. Then we can go back to my house for dinner.”

“It does sound like fun,” Callie said.

“Let’s do it then,” Joe said.

“We better order then,” Ned said. “We’ll only have a couple hours of daylight left by the time we get there.”

* * * * *

An hour later, they arrived at the lake. They rented ice skates and quickly put them on. Within minutes, they were all on the ice. They had been skating for more than an hour when someone yelled, “Thief! Stop!”

Frank turned his head and saw a person in a navy ski mask stumbling across the lake with a red purse in hand. He also noticed people were moving away from the man. Frank pushed off and picked up speed as he moved toward the person. The individual was heading for a section of the lake that was roped off because of thin ice.

Out of the corner of his eye, Frank could see Nancy and Joe making their way from his side, but he knew they were too far away. He pushed himself to skate faster. He moved right up behind and grabbed hold of the person.

As they fell to the ice, it started to crack. A moment later, Frank fell into the frigid water with the purse snatcher.

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.