The Secret Of Skull Mountain, The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories #27 in the series. Author: Franklin W. Dixon. 212 printed pages pages. Hardcover book, no dust jacket. Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap, copyright 1948, printed circa 1957 in the U.S.A.

The 1957 printing has brown multi-scene endpapers, and a 4-page info ad for the Rick Brant Adventure Series at the end of the book.

Synopsis:  In the 1948 Hardy Boys book, "The Secret of Skull Mountain," Frank and Joe Hardy tackle a crisis in their hometown of Bayport: the city's new reservoir is inexplicably losing water every night, threatening a severe water shortage. The brothers team up with a group of engineers and their friend Chet Morton to investigate the mysterious disappearance.

Their investigation leads them to Skull Mountain, where they face violent attacks and a chilling warning from a strange hermit—a human skull rolling down the slope. The Hardy Boys soon discover that the vanishing water is connected to a powerful crime syndicate and a plumber named Kleng, who is draining the reservoir to keep engineers from flooding the gang's secret underground hideout.

The plot thickens when Frank and Joe learn their detective father, Fenton Hardy, is also on the case, searching for a missing scientist who was kidnapped by Kleng's gang to test the mountain for the presence of cesium. By exploring a subterranean river channel deep within Skull Mountain, the brothers solve both mysteries, capturing the criminal gang and finding the missing scientist in a thrilling climax.

Condition: The book is in very good overall condition.  There is a pen mark on the back cover (see 2nd photo) and a small 1/2" tear at the bottom of page 3 of the Rick Brant ad (see last photo).