Have you ever checked out The Secret of the Old Mill by Franklin W. Dixon from your local library? If so, then that likely isn’t the one I’m writing about here. You see, the third book in the Hardy Boys series so prevalent at bookstores today bears very little resemblance to the original edition of it, in print for over three decades beginning in 1927. How come? Well, to understand, there’s a couple things you have to realize.
First, the Hardy Boys books were not really written by Franklin W. Dixon. In fact, there never was a Franklin W. Dixon. The Stratemeyer Syndicate, founded by Edward Stratemeyer, had a brilliant idea of how to keep a book series going as long as they wanted. Invent a false name for the writer and have several different authors add titles to the series! That way, if the main author died or lost interest in the series, someone else could step in to fill his place. Also, if the regular author got writer’s cramp or was taking too long, someone else could step in and contribute a book. To keep the titles somewhat similar, the syndicate would produce an outline of the story, then send it to the author.
Thus, the series, invented in 1927, was still going strong thirty years later, when, for various reasons, the editors at Grosset & Dunlap decided to revise the Hardy Boys books. Revise is too slight a word, however, and too narrow a categorization of what the revision process entailed. The original books had all been slightly over 200 pages; after revision, they went down to 180 pages, so part of the revision involved shortening the story slightly. In many of the stories, the plots were mostly unchanged—but in others, the “revision” was actually a completely new story—still sold under Franklin W. Dixon’s name, but having hardly anything to do with its predecessor—other than the title managed to fit it. The Secret of the Old Mill is one of the ones that was essentially entirely rewritten, and if you’re expecting Aunt Gertrude’s arrival, Fenton Hardy’s disappearance, or an electric eye that warns the criminals when their secret lair is approached, then you’re clearly not familiar with this story.
No, this Secret of the Old Mill starts in rather sad fashion for the Hardy Boys. Waiting for their father at the train station, they graciously make change for a traveller’s five-dollar bill. Shortly thereafter, they try to buy something with the bill and discover its counterfeit. It turns out there’s been a lot of counterfeit money circulating around Bayport, and this won’t be the last time the Hardy family finds themselves victims of funny money.
Meanwhile, it’s the weekend, and the boys and their friends plan an outing in the countryside on Saturday, since they have the day off from studying for their finals at the end of the year. While out picnicking, they stumble across an old mill out in the woods. Long ago abandoned, the mill is now running again, and three men, as well as a boy of about fifteen (slightly younger than the Hardys) are running it. When the boy falls in the water and gets carried towards deadly rapids downstream, Frank and Joe just barely manage to save him at much peril to themselves. The boy’s uncle thanks them, but the men at the mill seem mostly annoyed at the visitors—not inviting them in to rest even though Joe is soaking wet from diving in after the boy. Their friend Chet Morton inquires about the mill’s prices for milling and is astonished when the prices listed prove to be way higher than any of the nearby mills. This causes the Hardys and their friends to wonder, just what is the secret of the old mill?
I could say more about the plot, but I’ll reserve this last paragraph to mention one of the things that makes this book such a delightful read. One consequence of the shorter length of the revised titles is that the stories had to be more focused on the plot, since there was less space to get the necessary details in. With 212 pages to work with, Leslie McFarlane, the man behind the first 19 books in the Hardy Boys series, had more room to play around with. He had a habit of going beyond the outline and adding in humorous moments not necessarily related to the plot but fun to read about just the same—little episodes that greatly add to the enjoyment of his stories. This book has a few of those, mostly relating to the capers of Chet Morton, the most mischievous of the Hardy Boys’ pals. Particularly hilarious is Chapter XIV, when Chet asks police officer Con Riley to guard a package for him—and here, McFarlane’s skill as a writer is evident, as statements you just gloss over when you first read them come back with a hilarious double meaning later.
Well now, if you’re only familiar with the newer title, or if you’ve never read either of them, you may be wondering, which one’s better? Good question, but I don’t feel like I can answer it. Since the stories are so different, they can’t rightly be considered the same book, and I think they’re both good. If you’ve read one of them, you won’t feel like it’s given away what’s coming next when you read the other one. The 1927 edition is funnier than the current edition, but the current edition had some thrills and suspense that this story didn’t have. Well, if you have time, hopefully you can get around to both of them! Your lesson, though, is this: if you see The Secret of the Old Mill for sale at a used bookstore, and it has 212 pages, then it IS NOT the newer version you’ve read. Snap it up if you come across it!
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