"That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. I’m going to sing," the plump youth proudly announced.

Moments later, the band began to play the old fashioned ballad which he had picked out earlier. Suddenly noticing how intensely the audience was staring at him, Chet began to feel nervous. The longer they stared, the more nervous he became. When the time came for him to actually sing, he didn’t know if he could even open his mouth, but by some means he did. Somehow he managed to find enough breath to mumble these words, "I love you truly, truly dear. Life with it’s…"

The more nervous Chet became, the worse he sang. In turn, the worse he sang, the more nervous he became.

"Boo! Boo!" The once receptive audience was fast becoming, as Joe Hardy was to put it later, an "angry mob".

"Get off the stage!" one person yelled. "You can’t carry a tune in a bucket!"

"Chet’s loosing it up there!" Joe remarked to the other boys, who were also watching the freighting spectacle.

"We’ve got to do something!" stated Jerry Gilroy, sympathetically.

"I know!" exclaimed Frank Hardy. "You guys remember the routine that we did for the talent show last year?"

"Do you think it will work?" asked Biff Hooper.

"All we can do is give it a try!" returned Joe.

Immediately, Biff and Jerry rushed over to the bandstand, while Frank and Joe raced over to the stage.

"Thank you, ladies and gentlemen," Frank spoke into the microphone, after he had taken it from his fat friend’s grasp. "I hope that you enjoyed Chet’s comical version of the classic I Love You Truly. Now we have a real treat for you!" Turning to the band he said, "Maestro, if you please!"

As the fast, upbeat music began to play, Biff and Jerry joined the others on the stage. "We’re doing routine fourteen a!" Joe quickly informed Chet, as they all lined up.

The number the band was playing was a lively tune that you could dance to. In fact, the boys had a whole dance routine that they performed to it, and they all had some part to sing. Chet Morton might not have been very good singing by himself, but he could harmonize with the best of them.

As soon as the number was over, they were met with a thunderous round of applause. In fact, they were forced into performing three more numbers before the night was through.

"Boys!" the owner of the inn shouted, after the night was over.

"Oh no!" gulped Jerry. "He must be angry about the show that we did while we were suppose to be working."

"Boys!" the man shouted again. "That was great! I loved it and the audience loved it! I want you to do that every night." He glanced at Chet. "I still want you to do your stand-up routine, but I believe you can leave the ballad out. Even if it was supposed to be comical, I didn’t care for it."

As the man started to walk off, he added. "And you can forget about your other chores. I can get other people to do that. Until then, the maids will have to clean the guests’ rooms. That’s really what they’re paid for anyway."

The boys were so excited over the change, they all gave the owner a round of thunderous applause that rivaled the one they had received earlier.

Back in the bunkhouse, Chet thanked his chums for their help. "I was really laying an egg up there!"

"We felt that it was our duty," Joe replied, in a serious tone. "You see, whenever we see a poor soul in dire need of rescue, we feel it’s only right to lend a hand. We just couldn’t bear to see that audience suffering the way they were!"

Later that night, the boys began working on a plan to search The Thirty Year Porch for any clues leading them to the notorious outlaw, Black Jack Pepper.

"I think we should search the stables first," suggested the oldest Hardy boy.

"What about the meeting in the apple orchard?" asked Biff. "Do you still think it’s a trap?"

"I’m sure of it!" replied Frank. "I just don’t know what we…" He paused for a moment as he glanced over at Chet Morton, who was reading his scientific book. "I’ve got an idea!"

The dark haired youth suddenly walked over to his bunk and started rummaging through his pack.

"What is it?" Joe asked, after a few moments of deafening silence. "What is your idea?"

Frank ignored his brother’s question and turned towards Chet. "How long do you think it will take to build a reflectoscope?"

"A reflectoscope?" Chet repeated, slightly confused. "I don’t know… not long… why?"

"Because we’ll need one for tonight," replied Frank, simply. "We suspect this is a trap, right?" He paused while the others nodded their heads.

"You see," he continued. "We’ll project a picture of Joe and myself in the apple orchard, and if there’s trap set, we’ll soon find out without putting ourselves in actual danger."

"That’s great!" exclaimed Joe. "But what will we project the picture on?"

"We can hang a white sheet over a rope tied between two trees," suggested Biff, enthusiastically.

"That’s a good idea!" replied Frank. "But they might spot it just hanging there. We need something that they won’t easily see."

"We could attach a pulley and just pull the sheet out when we needed it," Jerry spoke up.

"That’s what we’ll do," replied Frank. Turning to Chet, he said, "What will you need?"

"For the reflectoscope?" Chet blinked his eyes for a moment. "We’ll need a small wooden box, a couple of light bulbs, some aluminum foil, a tin can and a magnifying lens."

The boys immediately went to work, and shortly before midnight, they had completed the task of building a homemade reflectoscope.

"Let’s hurry over to the apple orchard now," said Frank, as he led the others out the door. "If we’re lucky, we can get everything set up before the rendezvous time."

After the magic candle had been positioned to project the image of Frank and Joe Hardy in the appointed place, the boys decided to dash over to the stables and see about searching for clues. Peeking through the window, they noticed that the same short, pudgy man was on guard.

"Biff, you and Jerry distract him," Frank called out, as he and Joe started sneaking around back. "Chet, you’ll be our look out!"

The pudgy man was whistling the same tune from the night before when Biff and Jerry walked in. "Howdy, young fellers!" he called out. "Watcha doing?"

"We’re just out for a stroll," replied Biff, nonchalantly.

"We couldn’t sleep," added Jerry.

"That’s funny," the old man squinted his eyes at the two snooping youths. "This is the second night in a row that I’ve had insomniacs for visitors. This place is becoming very popular." He laughed as he slapped his knee. "I might have to start charging admission!"

Suddenly, Biff glanced up and spotted Frank and Joe climbing in through a back window. "Excuse me, Sir. Do you know how to tie a lasso?"

"I sure do," the man replied, proudly. "I’ve been knowing how ever since I was knee high to a jackrabbit!"

"Then, you wouldn’t mind," Biff glanced at the rope hanging on the wall beside the man’s head. "Showing us how."

"I suppose not, I…" before the night guard could say too much, Biff had grabbed up the rope, and along with Jerry, was ushering him out the door.

"There’s better light out here!" explained the Hooper boy.

"But… it’s night time!" the man protested.

"The moonlight is very good for the eyes!" Jerry spoke up, as they prodded the man further away from the stable.

"Good. They’re gone," Frank whispered to Joe. "Let’s get started!"

The boys proceeded to search the oversized barn from top to bottom, hoping to find a secret panel or a passageway of some kind, which might lead them to the secret hideout of the Black Pepper gang.

The last place that the boys looked at was a small room on the left side of the stable. It had apparently been Garth Buckle’s quarters. The room consisted of very few furnishings. There was a cot, a dresser and a desk. Inside the desk, the boys found a recent letter, addressed to the overbearing thug himself. It said, "I know that you don’t have room for any more right now, but I think that you can make an exception for me. After all, adding Pepper to your group can only spice things up!"

"What could it mean?" Joe glanced at the note, confused.

"I don’t know," replied Frank, as he glanced out the door. "We’ll have to discus it later though. The old man is coming back!"

They didn’t even have time to make it halfway out the window that they had come through, before the night guard returned. Fortunately though, he came in, sat down with his back to them, and never even looked their direction.

Back in the bunkhouse, Frank and Joe showed the others the paper.

"What do you think it means?" asked Jerry Gilroy, as he glanced over the letter.

"We figure," replied Joe. "That Garth Buckle is running some sort of flop house for fugitives. It says that he didn’t have room. So that tells us that he must have a good many convicts held up here."

"Where?" Chet joined the conversation. "Where could he possibly hide that many men?"

"We’re not sure," replied Frank, as he glanced at his watch. "It must be somewhere on this property."

"How does he feed them?" asked Biff.

"That’s a very good question," Frank shrugged his shoulders. "It’s also one that I hadn’t thought of."

"Maybe they send out for pizza!" Chet grinned.

The young sleuths discussed the many possibilities for only a few more seconds, because the time had already come for the rendezvous and they were late!

"I’m glad that we placed everything where we did," Joe remarked, as he and the others hunched down behind a large bush. "All we have to do is pull on this rope and the sheet comes into view. Then we just turn on the reflectoscope and wait."

Now that the boys were in position, all they had to do was wait. They waited and waited for over an hour, with no sign of the bad guys. Just when the boys were ready to give up, they heard a shrill voice shouting, "Pepper! Who wants Pepper?"

Frank and Joe, both being trained in ventriloquism, threw their voices to make it sound as though they were further away than they really were. "We’re here! We want Pepper!" they shouted.

"I can’t see you!" the voice replied. "Show yourself!"

Biff started pulling on the rope, and as soon as the sheet was in position, Chet plugged in the reflectoscope. Immediately, there was a glowing image of the Hardy boys projected between the two apple trees.

"I see you! Stay right where you are!" the voice ordered.

"I wonder what’s going on," Jerry peeked around the bush. "What’s that creaking sound?"

Suddenly a large apple tree came crashing down on top of the white sheet, snapping the rope and flattening it to the ground.

"That could have been us!" Joe spluttered, as he and the others stood up and turned to run off.

"Let’s get out of here!" shouted Chet Morton.

Just as the boys started to run, a large man jumped out in front of them, blocking their path.