"Boys, you know why you're being punished, and why you're being punished in this particular way. That little 'incident' with you joyriding in the speedboat will cost this entire family a great deal. I'm not talking about just the financial expense - which reminds me that I'll be withholding your allowances for several months to pay for the damage you caused. But news or your irresponsible stunt is probably all over town by now. I wouldn't be surprised if it turns up in tomorrow's paper!" Mr Hardy's anger, controlled up to this point, began to rise again. "That means that your whole family - your mother, your Aunt Gertrude, and I - have to suffer the embarrassment of your conduct." Frank and Joe were unable to look their angry parent in the eye, and he was practically yelling now. "That's why we're all here this evening. And you boys should be grateful that I'm confining your punishment to the members of this household.!"
Frank, regarding the smiling face of his overweight buddy, grew desperate enough to plead, "But, Dad, you're not going to let Chet watch..."
"I invited Chet, Frank. Any objections?"
Dead silence, except for the sound of Chet eating potato chips, followed.
"I didn't think so." Fenton Hardy, after a short survey of the assembled onlookers, judged that it was high time to begin. He looked at Frank and Joe, and with a sigh of resignation at having to perform this unpleasant fatherly duty, said, "All right, boys. You know what happens now." He paused. "Take off all your clothes."
Following that awful command, the Hardy boys exchanged a last despairing glance. Then, after seeming to consider the item of clothing whose removal would be the least revealing, they each reached down to untie their tennis shoes. Obviously, they wanted to prolong their disrobing in the hope, however impossible, of a last minute reprieve before the ultimate exposure.
The boys removed their shoes and socks without much discomfort, the full sensation of being on display not yet beginning to set in. They then slowly unbuttoned their striped shirts and tossed them onto the twin piles of their other discarded clothing. Each boy sported a handsome tan, large expanses of which were now revealed. A wave of alarm struck the brothers as they looked down and realized that now that had no choice but to take off their jeans. Each cast an expectant look toward their father, but they detected no leniency in his inflexibly grim expression. Overmastered, Frank and Joe began the slow process of unbuckling, unbuttoning, and unzipping. At last only the boys' hands held their pants in place about their upper thighs. Rather than attempt another futile plea to their father, the boys looked downward to avoid the unwavering scrutiny they were receiving, then Frank and Joe pulled their pants down to the floor and stepped out of them.
They stood there wearing only their white cotton briefs, and for some reason felt irresistibly compelled to look up at their family and friend who gazed at their all but naked bodies with something approaching triumph. In the first wave of real humiliation, the boys' faces turned a shade of pink, and a gentle tingling pricked their cheeks.
That sick at the stomach feeling that both boys had been feeling for some minutes now became overpowering as the brothers realized that only their white briefs stood between them and the exposure of their most private parts.
Frank ventured a meek, "Dad, please..."
Mr Hardy's response was quick and unyielding. "Son, when I told you boys to take off all your clothes, I meant all. Now, those underpants are coming off one way or another. If you force me to pull them down myself, you'll get extra licks." He once again slapped his left palm with the belt. "Is that clear?"
A despondent look from his sons was his only answer. At this climactic moment, Chet even stopped his eating. Under his breath, but still audible to the brothers and their dad, he exclaimed, "Wow, you guys still get it on the bare butt! I can't believe it!"
Mr Hardy , after a quick smile, continued, "Well then, boys, what are you waiting for? Take off your underpants."
The Hardy boys' faces were bright red as they grasped the waistband of their briefs. They bent over to pull the underpants to their ankles, stepped out of them and kicked them away, and straightened. Frank and Joe's young manly parts were now receiving the riveted attention of the spectators - their mom, their aunt, their dad and Chet Morton.
In the gym, Chet had often admired his buddies' especially fine sets of _c_o_c_k_ and balls. Attention-getters anywhere, they now loomed memorably in the eyes of the enraptured audience. The broad band of untanned skin around the boys' waists added an unnecessary, and unwelcome, accentuation, for Frank and Joe's blush now extended itself down to their necks.
The brothers' impulse was of course to move their hands to shield their midsections; but Mr Hardy, observing a tentative movement of Joe's arm, ordered, "Keep your hands at your sides, fellows. I want to be sure that everybody gets a good long look at you. I told you that I was going to see to it that you'd be embarrassed, didn't I? Well, I don't need to ask if you are, boys. If you could see yourselves now..."
Indeed, the boys' scarlet cheeks, their whimpering to keep from crying, and the quivering of their bodies indicated that they had a very good idea of their present appearance.
Mr Hardy kept his promise and subjected his boys to the long leisurely stares of the observers. Mrs Hardy tried from modesty to avert her gaze, but her eyes always wandered back to her fully naked sons. Ms Hardy muttered a disapproving sound like "Tsk tsk" at the sight of these humbled scamps. Chet resumed eating his potato chips.
At last Mr Hardy continued. "I think it's time to get started." He flicked his belt in the air a couple of times, then moved a few feet forward.
"Okay, boys. Turn around, bend over, and grab your ankles."
Frank an Joe complied with this command of their father's gratefully. However, the relief from full frontal exposure that they felt was quickly dispelled by the realization that in their present stance, their bare teenaged butts were not only displayed, but displayed in a particularly provacative fashion. In addition, looking between their legs, the boys once again saw the gazes of the onlookers directed unswervingly at them. Even Chet, who along with the Hardys' gym classmates, was familiar with the sight of those handsome, gleaming white butts, sat spellbound.
But now a much more alarming sight greeted Frank and Joe's eyes: their father was slowly approaching them. En route, he announced, "I may have to buy me a new belt tomorrow, because I think I'm going to wear this one out tonight!"
He stopped directly behind his dramatically postioned sons, ready to begin the whipping.