When expensive cars start vanishing from Shore Road, the Hardy boys expect another case. They don't expect their friends to take the fall. Jack Dodd and his father, desperate men already hunting for a long-lost Pilgrim-era family fortune, are suddenly accused of theft they didn't commit, and the evidence looks damning. Frank and Joe Hardy must pedal fast on their motorcycles, following clues through Bayport's back roads, interviewing eccentric farmers and keeping watch for suspicious tramps who seem always one step ahead. The case grows more tangled with each lead: stolen Cadillacs, a buried treasure from 1620, and a ring of thieves who treat Shore Road like their personal highway. The boys face motorcycle accidents, dead ends, and the creeping realization that someone close to home might be involved. This 1928 original, written by series architect Leslie McFarlane, captures the Hardy Boys at their scrappiest, before the series became formula. It's wholesome 1920s adventure fiction with genuine momentum, and the wrongful accusation angle gives the mystery real emotional stakes.
