Fenton Hardy eyed the two butts stuck up toward him: four cheeks, each offering itself as a possible target.
Mr Hardy asked, "Now let's see boys, what was the name of your 13th case? The Mark on the Door? Well, I'm going to leave my mark, but not on any door!"
Chet laughed, but immediately almost swallowed a mouthful of potato chips whole. A resounding crack, followed instantly by a cry of "Yeow!" had exploded in the Hardy living room. Frank had yelped in response to the bright rosy stripe that now glowed across his upturned white butt. The two sounds were suddenly reproduced as Mr Hardy also brought his belt down on his younger son's rear end.
He eyed the matching red rectangles and said, "I want to keep you boys even. No one is going to accuse me of partiality!" Then crack! crack! Each boy's butt now had a pair of fiery streaks. Mr Hardy then altered his approach, and gave both Frank and Joe a lick that cut diagonally from left to right, immediately succeeded by one in the opposite direction.
Referring to the boys' 32nd mystery, The Criss Cross Shadow, he joked, "I see a criss cross, but it's not caused by any shadow!"
Frank and Joe were both howling. They didn't dare move out of position, so all they could do to express their acute pain was bounce on their heels. This of course made their butts bob up and down, providing their dad with moving targets. He more than lived up to this challenge to his skill.
Mr Hardy blistered away. To vary the pattern, he devoted his full attention to Frank's right butt cheek, presenting it with a series of rapid-fire licks. Frank wailed under his father's procedure, as a pink oval formed and turned red. Mr Hardy then gave Joe's left cheek similar treatment. During a brief pause, the Hardy boys heard Chet burst out, "Boy, wait till Iola and Callie hear about this!" Chet's sister and her girlfriend were the brothers' favorite dates. Even amid their tears, they were aghast at the idea of this added humiliation.
Mr Hardy really made his sons' buns glow when he went back to work. He balanced things out by applying his belt to the butt cheeks he had neglected before. That strip of leather literally sizzled across Frank and Joe's rear ends, and they squalled to prove it.
"I hear something wailing all right, but it's not a siren!" Mr Hardy teased, alluding to the brothers' 30th adventure, The Wailing Siren Mystery.
Ms Hardy, watching her brother's continued swinging of his belt and her nephews' blushing bottoms, exclaimed, "My, my, why can't those boys learn!"
Fenton Hardy had thoroughly blistered Frank and Joe's butts, and they burned fiery red. However, he still felt that the lesson had not sunk in, so he whipped the belt across the tender part of Joe's upper thighs.
That lick did it for Joe. He shot up, and whirled around, rubbing his tenderized tail furiously. Once again the spectators were treated to an exhibition of the young man's private parts. But no longer did Joe's six-incher dangle quietly. It bobbed wildly in front of his bouncing balls. At the moment, Joe's mind was almost entirely on his blazing butt, but later he remembered this devastingly humbling display with complete mortification.
"You'll get extra for that, young man!" Mr Hardy bellowed, and pushed his son back into his bent-over position.
After about ten minutes of vigorous strapping, Mr Hardy, listening to his sons' uncontrolled sobbing, realized they couldn't take much more. As often happened at this point in a whipping, he began to regret the severity he had employed. He gave each boy a few more half-hearted strokes.
"That does if for you, Frank. But Joe here isn't quite finished..."
He was about to administer his younger son's additional licks, but going soft at the sight of the well-whipped butt thrust up at him, he merely gave the right cheek a gentle slap. He walked between the boys, then turned to address them.
"Well, fellas, I don't think I'm going to hear anymore about your amateur sleuthing?"
Sob! Sob!
"Because you know what will happen if I do?"
Whimper!
"I'll blister your boy detective butts twice as much as I did today, do you understand?"
"Yessir! Waaah!"
"All right, then. You can stand up now. And turn back around."
As he made his way to the rest of the family, Chet flattered him with, "Gee, Mr Hardy, you sure know how to lay on the leather!"
The head of the Hardy family patted the chubby boy on the shoulder. "Thank you, Chet."
His sister was less complimentary. "Well, Fenton, you see what comes of being too permissive?"
"I know, it's my fault. But believe me, it won't happen again."
Reaching the mantlepiece, he turned to face his sons. "And how do you feel now, boys?"
"We're sorry!" Frank and Joe whined in unison.
"Yeah, I kind of thought you might be."
The Hardy boys stood, rubbing their disciplined backsides unashamedly, completely abashed. Joe suddenly remembered that all these onlookers had witnessed the lively show his young manhood had put on earlier, and experienced an even sharper sting of humiliation.
Mr Hardy commanded, "Why don't you boys go stand in the corner for a while?"
As the brothers walked past Mrs Hardy, she asked, "Would you boys like a coke?"
"No thanks, Mom."
At that moment the phone in the hall rang, and Mr Hardy went to answer it. The boys stood in the corner, faces to the wall, almost cowering, cheek to blazing cheek.
Mr Hardy returned. "That was your dad on the phone, Chet."
"Oh?"
"He was trying to find you. It seems he just found out from your sister about Frank and Joe's mishap."
"Oh."
"Imagine his surprise when he learned that you were involved as well."
Chet began to grow uneasy.
"I told him exactly how I had handled Frank and Joe, and you know what he said, Chet?"
The plump boy shook his head nervously.
"He told me that I have his full permission to punish you as I see fit."
The empty potato chip bag dropped from Chet's hands. "You mean..."
"I mean I'm going to let you really appreciate how well I lay on the leather."
"Ohhh..."
"That's right, son. Now take off all your clothes." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For several weeks after this eventful evening, friends of the Hardy brothers and Chet Morton noticed that each boy had to execute a strange ritual in order to sit down. He would screw up an eye and a corner of his mouth in a grimace of expected pain before parking his jean-clad butt ever so delicately on even the softest seat. Once contact was made, he gave low whistles of agony as he squirmed in an attempt to find the least uncomfortable position. Observers didn't need to hire a detective with Mr Hardy's abilities to deduce that Frank and Joe's dad possessed some rather impressive fatherly skills as well.