Chapter I: Willowa Lake

"I think it went really well, all in all," Tony Prito said, sitting in one of the passenger seats in the Hardy plane. "Maybe I've got a shot for that scholarship after all."

"You better," Joe Hardy teased him. "You can use some of the money you save to pay us back for flying you all the way to Seattle."

When Tony Prito had been offered to compete for a scholarship at a West Coast college that he hoped to attend, he had been ecstatic. The only problem was that he had to come for an interview within a week of hearing about his good fortune. He hadn't been able to book a flight with that short of notice. That's when Frank and Joe Hardy had stepped in.

Frank and Joe had been some of Tony's best friends since kindergarten. Their dad, Fenton Hardy, was a private detective and he had to leave home at a moment's notice so often that he had eventually decided to buy a small plane. Naturally, Frank and Joe had been eager to get their pilot's licenses and learn to fly it as soon as they were old enough. When Tony had asked them to fly him to Seattle, they had willingly agreed. With the interview completed, they were now on their way back home.

"Where are we flying over, anyway?" Tony asked, leaning over to look out the window. Beneath them, all he could see were mountains.

"We've still got a long way to go," Frank told him. "I think we're only over Idaho."

Just then, there was a loud thunk from one of the engines.

"Is that normal?" Tony asked, trying not to sound worried.

"It doesn't sound good," Joe replied. "You'd better take her down a little, Frank."

Frank nodded. "No good being this far up if the engine has problems."

"Um, what does that noise mean?" Tony asked.

Frank and Joe looked at each other, not wanting to raise any false alarms.

"It could mean a number of things," Frank told him. "Most of them aren't even anything to worry about. There's just no point in taking risks."

The thunk wasn't repeated, and so all three boys began to relax. Frank tried to take the plane higher again, but it didn't respond.

"What's wrong now?" he muttered, realizing that it was a very serious problem if the plane didn't respond to the controls.

"Hey, what's going on?" Joe asked, noticing that all the indicators – the altimeter, the artificial horizon, the GPS, even the compass – all began blinking and rapidly changing their readings in ways that couldn't possibly be correct.

"I don't know," Frank said. "I think we're losing altitude."

"What's wrong?" Tony asked.

"I don't know," Frank replied. "Joe, radio to find out if there's an airfield nearby. Did you see our position before everything went out?"

"Yeah," Joe said. He grabbed the radio and tried to send a mayday message. After several tries, he gave up. "It's no use. The radio's gone, too."

Frank decreased the speed of the plane, and it fortunately responded to that. By now, they were flying low over a wooded, mountainous area. Ahead of them, Frank could see what looked like a break in the trees. Desperately hoping that it would be a level, clear spot, he guided the plane toward it as well as he could, although it only sluggishly responded to the controls.

A few seconds later, they were over the clearing. Frank's heart sank when he saw that it was actually a large lake with a small town on its northern shore.

"Do you think you could land the plane in the water?" Joe asked. "Without all of us dying, of course."

"It's either there or in the trees," Frank replied. "Buckle up, everybody."

All three fastened their seatbelts and waited tensely as Frank turned the plane around to make a landing approach to the lake. It settled into the water with a jerk, and Frank cut the power.

"You did it!" Tony said. "We're still alive."

"For now," Frank told him, already unbuckling his own seatbelt. "This plane's not going to float for long and we don't want to be anywhere near it when it goes under."

"That's right," Joe agreed. "Even if we get off the plane before it sinks, if we're too close it could suck us under with it."

"Then let's go!" Tony said.

The boys opened the door to the plane and for a moment looked out over the lake. They weren't so very far from the shore with the town, and they could see a crowd of people looking at the downed plane.

"Hey! A little help!" Joe shouted as loudly as he could, waving his arms.

"It's no good," Frank told him. "Even if one of them has a boat handy, it would take too long to get all the way out here. We'd better start swimming."

They kicked their shoes off and started toward the shore, swimming at a fast crawlstroke. When they had covered about half the distance, the plane went under with a rush.

"Dad's not going to be happy about that," Joe commented, slowing down.

All three of them paused for a minute to get their breath after their furious race to escape the sinking plane. Now they noticed that someone in a canoe was paddling toward them.

"Thank goodness," Tony said, and all three of them began to swim to meet the canoe.

It was being paddled by a lone man of around forty, dressed all in black. When he reached the boys, he began helping them scramble into the canoe, which is never as easy a business as one might expect.

"Thanks," Frank said. "We didn't want to have to swim all the way to shore."

"I'm just glad I was nearby," the man replied. "I don't think you would have gotten any help from anyone else. I'm Father Mark Percy."

It was then that the boys noticed the clerical collar that he was wearing. They introduced themselves, and then offered to help paddle the rest of the way back to shore.

"Don't worry about it," Father Percy told them. "I only grabbed one paddle, anyway."

"Why do you say we probably wouldn't get help from anyone else?" Joe asked.

The priest sighed and shook his head. "It seems like everyone in town is too afraid to go out on the water. They're all convinced that the legend is true."

"What legend?" Frank asked.

"There's a legend that there's a monster that lives here in Willowa Lake," Father Percy told them. "A week ago, it was more of a joke than anything else. Now people are not only beginning to believe it, but to blame all the trouble we've been having on it."

Frank and Joe looked at each other. They were amateur detectives, and they never turned down the chance to solve a mystery. This was sounding like it just might be a fascinating one.

Tony laughed. "This might just be your lucky day, then. Frank and Joe's specialty is getting to the bottom of both trouble and spooky legends."

Father Percy gave a wry smile. "Personally, I don't think there's anything to it. If you boys want to look into it while you're here, you're welcome to. I have to warn you – you're going to be here for a few days at least."

"Why's that?" Joe asked.

"This area is surrounded on three sides by water, either the lake or one of the rivers nearby, and on the fourth side by complete wilderness," Father Percy explained. "There was a bad storm a few days ago and it washed out the only bridge leading here. The state's been working to fix it, but one thing after another keeps happening so that they can't. Someone around here got the bright idea that it's the lake monster and we're all cursed or something. The idea's really caught on."

"So you're entire town is stranded," Frank concluded.

"Can't you just use boats to cross the river?" Joe asked.

"We can," Father Percy admitted. "Trevor Beau tried to the first day, but the current was still so strong that his boat capsized. It seems like everyone is blaming it on the monster, though, and they're too scared to try again."

"But you're not," Joe pointed out. "Why don't you try to cross?"

The priest shrugged. "I don't really need to. If the state doesn't get anywhere in the next few days, I'll try it if no one else does. We're going to need supplies if this goes on too much longer."

Before the Hardys could ask any more questions, they reached the shore. Even if none of the people watching from there had been willing to come out on the lake itself, they all seemed friendly enough now. Several of them asked if the boys were all right and offered to help them in any way they needed.

"We're fine," Frank assured them. "Although we hear we're going to be stranded for a little while. We'll need a place to stay. Is there a hotel in town?"

"No, I'm afraid not," Father Percy told him. "You're welcome to stay with me, if you want."

"Thanks," Frank said. "If you're sure it's no trouble –"

"No trouble at all," the priest assured him.

Everyone in the crowd was looking at the boys with interest, but Joe noticed one man looking at them with particular intensity. When he saw Joe looking back at him, he gave a crooked smile.

"I guess all of us here in Willowa Lake aren't the only ones having bad luck," he commented. "What happened to you guys anyway?"

"It was weird," Joe replied. "All the controls in the plane went out. It was like those stories you hear about the Bermuda Triangle."

"Joe," Frank said. Frank realized that, if the people were already afraid of a supernatural threat, comparing the situation to the Bermuda Triangle was not going to help anything.

Joe realized his mistake a second later. "Of course," he hastened to say, "there's some logical explanation. The Bermuda Triangle is just a fairy tale."

"I would have agreed with you a few days ago," the man who had asked the question said. "There's been so much weird stuff happening, though, that maybe there's something to the Bermuda Triangle after all."

"What's been happening?" Tony asked.

"First the bridge got washed out and the same night all the phone lines went," the man explained. "That's a big problem here, since we don't have cell reception. I went out on my boat to try to get help, but it capsized." So this was Trevor Beau, Frank and Joe both realized.

"That's not all," a woman broke in. "The state has been trying to fix the bridge, but every bit of progress they make gets washed away during the night. Then two nights ago, we saw strange lights out on the water." She shuddered. "It's Nettie. There's no other explanation."

"Nettie?" Joe repeated.

"That's what we've called the lake monster for years," the woman explained. "No one has every believed in her, and now she's taking her revenge."

"Why'd she wait this long?" Joe asked with more pointedness than tact.

Before anyone could answer, a girl about the Hardys' age came running from farther down the bank. Her cheeks were flushed from running, but her eyes were wide with worry.

"Has anyone seen Danny?" she asked to the assembly in general. "He – he hasn't been home all day. I didn't think anything of it until – until –"

To the Hardys' and Tony's surprise, she started crying and couldn't finish the statement.

"Until what, Meg?" Father Percy asked.

Meg took a breath and held it, trying to control her tears. Finally, she stopped crying long enough to say, "Until I found weird tracks behind our house. And – and blood."