Hardy Boys #26 Phantom Freighter and #27 Skull Mountain

In the original text of Hardy Boys #26, The Phantom Freighter, Thaddeus McClintock wants to go on a trip.  He hires the Hardy boys to come up with a good idea for a trip and to make all the plans.  Frank and Joe decide upon a trip on a freighter, but they cannot get passage on one.  Meanwhile, Aunt Gertrude receives a carton of documents that is not hers.  Her carton was switched with someone else's, and the boys must find Aunt Gertrude's carton.

I found it odd that the boys never look at the contents of the carton that Aunt Gertrude receives by mistake.  Later on page 49, Fenton says that the carton may have contained something valuable.  Right.  The boys missed an opportunity when they gave up the carton without searching it.  They should know by now that in Bayport there are no unimportant coincidences.  Everything strange is part of an important mystery. 

While I overall enjoyed the book, I feel like the plot goes in circles.  The boys keep trying to get passage on a freighter. They keep going back to the same place, where they know they will be turned down, and keep asking to no avail.

In the original text of Hardy Boys #27, The Secret of Skull Mountain, water disappears from the Tarnack reservoir each night.  As a result, Bayport's water supply may soon get low.  The Hardy boys investigate.

I found the writing to be off.  Chet is always the butt of jokes due to his obsession with food, but I felt his behavior to be appalling.  Early in the story, Chet arrives during the Hardys' dinner and expects to get a full meal.  He assumes that he is to be given part of their meal and is disappointed that none is left for him.

The Hardys take home an Indian skull and use it to scare Aunt Gertrude.  This is disrespectful of the the dead.  I was reminded of how Nancy Drew and her friends play a prank using an Indian skeleton in The Secret of the Forgotten City.

I did not find this book interesting.  I did not like the beginning of the story, and I was not interested in the plot.  I ended up skimming a large portion of the later part of the story.