Immediately, the noise of the strange man falling to the ground woke the others up.

"What’s going on?" asked Biff, as he stumbled out of his sleeping bag, almost tripping over Frank.

"Who sounded the alarm?" Joe jumped to his feet.

"Who is that?" shouted Jerry Gilroy, as he spotted the stranger who was still lying on the ground.

"Somebody has knocked him out cold!" observed Frank, as he leaned in for a closer examination.

Everyone quickly looked in Chet’s direction. "It wasn’t me!" he replied with his eyes bulged out.

Just then, a tall, silhouetted figure approached the campfire. The new comer brandished a large piece of wood. "I did it!" the stranger shouted in a gruff manner. "And I would do it again. The scoundrel had a lot of nerve sneaking up on my nephews!"

"Aunt Gertrude!" Frank and Joe shouted in unison, as the darkened figure walked closer. As the boys sat in a moment of stunned silence, their mother, Laura Hardy, came walking up from behind their aunt.

"Mom!" Frank blurted out in total disbelief. "But… How?" He glanced at the unconscious stranger.

"That scoundrel!" Aunt Gertrude raved. "We saw him lurking around in the bushes. He was sneaking up on you boys." The old woman smiled as she glanced down at the small tree branch that she still held in her grasp. "I just gave him what he deserved!"

Immediately, the boys all congratulated Miss Hardy on her brave deed. "It was nothing," she replied, "But next time he’ll think twice before trying to mess with any of my family!"

"I wonder who he is," mused Chet, after they had securely bound the stranger with a strong rope that they had lying near by. "I wonder if he’s one of the men who…" Chet started to ask if the stranger was one of the men who had ambushed them, but the eldest Hardy Boy gave him a sharp look that could mean nothing else but to be quiet. Frank didn’t want to alarm his mother with the news of what had happened.

"Maybe this will help," Mrs. Hardy remarked, as she handed Frank the sheet of paper that she had received from Pretzel Pete.

"Black Jack Pepper!" Frank blurted out, as he handed the message to Joe.

"He must have set off that dynamite!" Joe thought to himself. "This must be a member of his new gang," he said aloud.

"I thought he was behind bars for good!" Biff spoke up. "How did he get out?"

"He escaped," Frank responded.

"And he’s in this area?" Chet gulped.

"Don’t worry," Jerry slapped the plump lad on the back. "We’ve handled his kind before. Why, we can take his whole gang with one arm tied behind our backs!"

Joe grinned as he added, "And if we can’t, Aunt Gertrude surely can!"

The boys and Laura laughed heartily, but Gertrude was not as amused.

After the laughing had died down, Frank began to devise a plan of action. "We’ll all stay here tonight. Mother and Aunt Gertrude can sleep in the tent and the rest of us will sleep out here under the stars. Tomorrow morning, Joe and I will accompany Mother and Aunt Gertrude into town. While we’re gone for the police, the rest of you will guard the prisoner."

It was agreed. The boys each grabbed a sleeping bags and bedded down outside. As decided earlier, they each took a turn standing guard throughout the night. Frank started the night watch off by taking Chet’s place.

"Wait a minute!" Joe shouted as he suddenly realized that his mother and aunt had both walked into camp instead of ridding horses. "Mom, how did you and Aunt Gertrude get here?"

"It wasn’t easy!" Gertrude blurted out in a tone of absolute disgust. "We had to walk the last four miles."

"How come?" asked Joe, curiously.

"Our horses ran away!" Mrs. Hardy explained that while they had stopped to rest and refill their canteens from the stream, some strange noise had startled their steeds and they had both ran off.

"Didn’t you have them tied up?" asked Frank.

"We did," Laura replied with a slight smile. "Or rather, your aunt did. Unfortunately, the bush that she had tied them to was not very strong. They ripped it completely out of the ground when they started running."

Frank and Joe both tried their best to fight back their laughter, but it was no use, and soon the whole camp was howling with laughter.

"You wouldn’t think it was so funny if it had of been you out there!" Aunt Gertrude huffed as she stormed into the tent.

The next morning, the pleasant aroma of bacon frying awakened everyone. Gertrude Hardy, who had gotten up before anyone else, had already prepared breakfast. She served everyone, including the prisoner, who had only woken up a few hours prior, a hearty meal of toast with jam and heaping helpings of bacon and eggs.

"He won’t talk," Frank remarked, as he sprinkled a little salt on his eggs. "But his eyes sure did get big when I mentioned the name Black Jack Pepper."

"If you ask me, we should just leave him here." Gertrude glanced over the rim of her glasses. "And then all of us should head back into town. That is, if you’ll just take my advice for once in your life," she paused to shake her head in disgust, "But why should you start now? No one ever listens to me or even bothers to take my advice. I mean, why should they? I just try to keep everyone out of danger and keep them from getting killed, but no one appreciates it. I should just keep my opinions to myself. I mean, if no one is listening to me anyway, what’s the point?"

Miss Hardy continued her ranting even as she turned and walked off towards the stream to wash the dishes.

"When are the four of you starting for town?" asked Biff, as he finished of the last of his home cooked meal.

"As soon as we can," replied Frank. "But we’ll have to take a couple of your horses for Mother and Aunt Gertrude to ride on."

Biff and Jerry both volunteered the use of their steeds, and an hour later Frank and Joe headed off towards town, with their mother and aunt right behind.

After the others had gone, Chet glanced at the prisoner. "What now?"

"Not much," replied Biff. "We can’t go anywhere or do anything, because we can’t let this man out of our sight."

"Well, maybe we can get him to talk," Jerry suggested, as he walked closer to the prisoner. "What’s your name? Why did you set off that dynamite? What’s Pepper doing in this area?" He asked question after question, but the prisoner refused to answer any of them. Unknown to the boys, as the young sleuth continued pumping the prisoner for answers, three men were standing on a nearby hill watching them through binoculars.

"There’s only three of them now," observed one fiendish looking man. "The others are gone."

"You don’t think he talked," one of the other men spoke up. "Do you, Boss?"

"He better not have," replied Black Jack Pepper. "If he knows what’s good for him, he’ll keep his mouth shut!"

"Do you think that they’ve gone after the cops?" asked the first man.

"I’m sure of it," replied Pepper. "But I’ve got a plan."

As the thugs all gathered in to hear the plan, the group of riders that were headed back to town had just ridden into a small ravine. They were suddenly taken by surprise by a loud thrashing noise coming from behind a large boulder.

"Oh my!" Mrs. Hardy gasped. "What’s that?"

"I don’t know!" replied Frank, as he quickly leaped from his horse’s back. He then handed the reigns to Joe. "Wait here," he instructed the other boy.

"Frank, be careful." Mrs. Hardy cautioned her son in a loving manner.

"There he goes again!" Gertrude huffed in more than a whispered voice. "He has no idea what’s out there. He’ll probably end up getting hurt, killed or worse, but if he does I won’t say a word!"

As Frank cautiously made his way closer, he could make out a distinct shadow on the ground. It was obviously a large creature, so when Frank had gotten close enough, he took as much caution as possible in peeking around the corner to see what it was. Immediately, Frank turned back to the others and started laughing.

"What is it?" Joe called out.

"It’s the horses," he laughed.

"Both of them?" asked Joe, skeptically.

"That’s right!" replied Frank. "Aunt Gertrude must have tied their reigns together. They’ve been linked together all night. "

"Well then it’s a good thing I did or else we would have never found them!" Gertrude began to beam with pride and joy.

"It was probably the best thing you could have done," replied Frank. "It did keep them from getting too far away."

Joe climbed down from his horse and grinned as he said, "Well let’s round them up!"

This was easier said than done. The horses were a little skittish after being tied together all night. They bucked and kicked every time one of the boys got near them. One of the horses reared up and almost knocked Joe down, but Frank pulled him back just in time. Finally they managed to take hold of both steeds, and once they were untied the horses slowly began to calm down.

"They must have had a rough time of it last night," remarked Mrs. Hardy after all of the excitement was over with. "What are we going to do with them?"

"Well, we’re really not that far from camp," replied Frank. "We can lead them back and let them rest while we ride on to town." Mrs. Hardy and Joe immediately agreed to the idea.

"You expect us to go all the way back!" Gertrude raved. "That will take too long!"

"The boys are right," Mrs. Hardy spoke up. "It’s much further to town, and these horses would only slow us down."

"Why don’t we just leave them here?" Gertrude retorted.

"It’s too dangerous," replied Frank. "We would have to tie them up to keep them from running away, and if a wild animal were to come up they wouldn’t stand a chance."

Gertrude reluctantly agreed and they started back to camp.

"Hey, fellows!" Joe called out, as the campsite began to come into view. "We’re back!" he announced, but there was no response.

As they came closer, they noticed that not only was Chet’s horse and the pack mules gone, but Chet, Biff, Jerry and the prisoner were nowhere in sight. Also, the tent had been knocked over and their food supply was strewn all over the ground!