The Sign Of The Crooked Arrow, The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories #28 in the series. Author: Franklin W. Dixon. 214 printed pages pages. Hardcover book, no dust jacket. Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap, copyright 1949, printed in 1950 in the U.S.A. The book has a tan cover and orange and white "Gretta" end papers.

Synopsis:  In the original 1949 version of The Sign of the Crooked Arrow, teenage sleuths Frank and Joe Hardy are initially tasked with tracking down a cunning gang responsible for a wave of jewelry-store holdups, using a slender clue involving an arrow-shaped tie clasp. Their investigation is quickly upended when their father, detective Fenton Hardy, is injured, and a desperate plea for help arrives from their widowed aunt, who is running a cattle ranch in New Mexico.   

Accompanied by their chum Chet Morton, the brothers fly out to the Southwest to help save the struggling ranch, where local cowboys have been mysteriously disappearing. Blending western adventure with traditional mystery, the boys uncover a bizarre conspiracy involving a local gas venting from the ground that knocks people out, ultimately outsmarting the criminal syndicate, resolving the mystery of the ranch hands, and tying the whole ordeal back to their original jewelry-thief case. 

Condition: The book is in very good condition.  The front cover has some light wear on the right corner tip edges, and the back cover has some wear on the bottom left corner .  The inside pages are in very good with no writing or creased pages, and the binding and spine are also in very good condition (see photos).