“The boys stared at the house on the cliff…” (11).
In another action-packed mystery-adventure, the second Hardy Boys novel The House on the Cliff finds Frank and Joe Hardy helping their father, Fenton Hardy, trail an undercover coastal drug smuggling ring operating right inside Bayport. The sleuthing takes them to a spooky old house looming over a cliff on Barmet Bay –it is an old, creaky house that was previously owned by the late Felix Pollitt (inside, the boys grow fearful as they hear a bellowing, demoniacal laugh). In this novel, the danger facing the boys is ratcheted up from The Tower Treasure as we are confronted with tense scenes of guns, knives, kidnappings, and ransoms. And the level of danger only increases when, midway through the book, Fenton Hardy suddenly goes missing, leaving behind a mysteriously terse note for his family: “I won’t be home for several days. Don’t worry. Fenton” but this strange note doesn’t feature his secret symbol that he typically writes to his wife beneath his signature. Naturally, foul play is suspected (we later learn Fenton Hardy has been kidnapped by the smuggling gang).
“That house on the cliff would be a great hide-out. If the smugglers could make the house appear to be haunted, everyone would stay away” (51).
Flanked by their school chums –stout Chet Morton and lanky Biff Hooper—the boys hop on their motorcycles, scoop up their Dad’s telescope (both of which are later tampered with) and they investigate an increasingly menacing situation as they face sudden rock slides, ransacked homes, trap doors, grenade explosions, boat chases, nighttime espionage, and an eerie seacave landing beneath the old house where the smuggling gang appears to be hiding. Suffice it to say, The House on the Cliff offers a lively, sweeping thriller of a Hardy Boys novel –it pays homage to old swashbuckling pirate stories as well as ghostly haunted house tales and also spy hair-raisers.
In this novel, many of the Hardys’ school friends return: such as Chet’s sister Iola Morton, Callie Shaw (Frank’s crush), and Biff’s love interest Sally Sanderson, as well as Tony Prito whose boat the Napoli is used for the investigation. And some new characters are introduced like Fenton Hardy’s friend, a pretzel seller down on the waterfront nicknamed “Pretzel Pete” who wears a white cotton suit with a vivid red handkerchief that has anchors embroidered on it. There are also a few links to the previous novel in the series, particularly when the “Tower Mansion” is briefly mentioned.
At any rate, early on in the story the Hardys rescue a mysterious figure from drowning in Barmet Bay. But when they carry the man back to a nearby farmhouse owned by Mr. and Mrs. Kane, he suddenly starts acting suspicious, giving a fake name as Mr. “Jones” and asking them not to call the police. When the Hardys return, he has vanished and the house has been ransacked. The wild twists and turns in the novel lead the boys to a man named Felix Snattman who appears to be in cahoots with a smuggler named Ali Singh, a crewman aboard a boat called the Marco Polo.
After a wild string of events, the Hardy Boys sneak into the smugglers’ secret cove where they rescue their father (who has been tied down to a cot) while their friends rouse Chief Collig and the Coast Guard to assist in the gang’s capture. This leads to a dramatic conclusion in which Frank, Joe, and their father manage to escape from the clutches of the smugglers several times before they suddenly jump Felix Snattman. And as he is arrested, Snattman turns on a dime. He confesses to being the nephew of old Mr. Pollitt, the owner of the house on the cliff. He tells them about his troubled childhood and that when he inherited the house on the cliff, he saw an opportunity to use it for smuggling. But now, since he is bound for prison, Snattman intends to remake the house into a home for underprivileged boys “without proper home training” so they have a place to live. Also, the mysterious Mr. “Jones” is revealed to be a double-agent working for the Coast Guard. Thus ends this mile-a-minute outing for the Hardys.
In my view The House on the Cliff is a terrific escapade that takes us through the classic tropes of pulp adventure serials –from a dilapidated haunted house to an old pirate’s cave. And while I read the post-1959 revised edition of the book, one day I wouldn’t mind perusing the original 1927 novel since it apparently includes greater texture to the various episodes and characters in the story. Lastly, The House on the Cliff includes a few charming, simplistic moral nuggets for mid 20th century readers, such as:
“The trouble is, so often when a young man joins a group of hoodlums or racketeers, he’s blackmailed for the rest of his life, even though he tries to go straight… The best way to avoid such a situation is never to get into it!” (38).
Dixon, Franklin W. The House on the Cliff. New York, Grosset & Dunlap, 1959.