Character guide

Frank Hardy

major

Also known as Frank, Frank Tony, Tony

Frank is the steady half of the brotherly detective team, the one who pieces together why a haunted farmhouse would make a perfect smuggler's hideout and who modestly downplays his own role in rescuing a drowning man. In the chaos of the raid, while gunfire and shouts erupt around him, he grapples alone in pitch darkness with a desperate, heavier antagonist, grimly resolved that the man will not escape. His blend of deduction and physical nerve drives the early investigation and makes him the anchor when the case turns genuinely dangerous.

Joe Hardy

major

Also known as Joe, Once Joe

Joe rides shotgun to Frank's cooler head, the one who refuses to let his father laugh off the strange events at the old Polucca place and who presses the point until the tool thefts stop looking like a schoolboy prank. It's Joe who suddenly recalls the rescued stranger's muttered words about Snackley, a name that transforms a baffling afternoon into a real investigation. His eagerness and instinct for the telling detail make him the spark that keeps the brothers pushing forward.

Fenton Hardy

supporting

Also known as Hardy, Mr. Hardy

Fenton Hardy is the seasoned professional the brothers are trying to impress, a man never too busy to set down his papers and hear them out, though he's quick to dismiss a haunted-house tale as a schoolboy joke. He recognizes the name Snackley instantly and treats the motorboat rescue as a genuine lead, but then vanishes without a word, leaving his sons uneasy. His absence turns a curious mystery into a personal rescue mission and gives the boys both motive and urgency.

Snackley

major

Also known as Ganny Snackley

Snackley is the shadow behind the haunted-house rumors, a man who murdered Felix Polucca rather than split the smuggling profits and who now runs his gang through the tunnels beneath the cliff. He is cold enough to raise a club over a handcuffed prisoner in a cellar, snarling that he should have done it long ago. His cruelty and his grip on the house on the cliff make him the force the Hardy boys must unravel before they can find their father.

Chet Morton

supporting

Also known as Chet

Chet is part of the gang that tags along to the old Polucca place and comes home badly shaken, which quietly confirms for Frank and Joe that something real is behind the shrieks and falling walls. He's the voice of comic dread in the group, the one who later sighs over his luck at being scared half to death and missing the payoff. His fear, and the fact that no prankster ever steps forward to claim credit, pushes the brothers toward the smuggling theory.

Tony Prito

supporting

Also known as Tony

Tony is the boy with grease on his overalls and an engine on his mind, trading his father's motorboat for a seat on the Hardy boys' expedition to the Polucca cliffs. He navigates the Napoli through rough water and shifting currents with easy skill, keeping the craft hidden from the house above while the brothers scan the rock face for a path. Without his boat and his nerve at the wheel, the crucial reconnaissance of the cliff would never happen.

Mr. Jones

supporting

Also known as the mysterious Jones, the mysterious Mr. Jones, poor Jones, This Jones

Jones exists in the story as a wounded unknown: found near the cliff, nearly killed, and hidden away at the Kane farmhouse while the Hardy boys try to piece together who he really is. Frank suspects he's a Secret Service man, but Joe wonders if he's simply a fellow smuggler marked for elimination, and that uncertainty keeps the case slippery. When the boys return to check on him and find the Kanes bound and gagged, Jones's disappearance becomes the spark that turns a curious investigation into something far more dangerous.

Felix Polucca

supporting

Also known as Polucca, old Polucca

Old Polucca never appears alive in the early chapters, but his legacy saturates the cliff: a tumbledown house, a sinister reputation, and rumors of smuggling that make Bayport residents avoid the place. When the boys return to find the farm repaired, smoke in the chimney, and hostile strangers living there, the contrast with Polucca's abandoned ruin is deeply unsettling. His name becomes the thread linking past crimes to present ones, and the strangers' defensiveness about the property suggests whatever Polucca knew is still worth guarding.

Jerry Gilroy

minor

Also known as Jerry

A friend of the Hardy boys who aids in their search.

Biff Hooper

minor

Also known as Biff Hooper, Biff

A friend of the Hardys, athletic and helpful.

Malloy

minor

A police officer involved in the investigation.

Redhead Blount

minor

Also known as Redhead

A smuggler with red hair, part of the criminal gang.

Li Chang

minor

A Chinese man who assists the Hardys with information.

Mr. Kane

minor

Also known as Mrs. Kane, Kane

A couple whose house is central to the mystery.

Detective Smuff

minor

Also known as Smuff

A bumbling detective who complicates the case.

Chief Collig

minor

Also known as Collig, Chief

The local police chief who works with the Hardys.

Phil Cohen

minor

Also known as Phil

A friend of the Hardy boys, occasionally helping.

Sam Bates

minor

Also known as Sam, Bates

A local man who provides information to the Hardys.

Mrs. Hardy

minor

The boys' mother, supportive but not directly involved.

Burke

minor

A smuggler working with Snackley's gang.

Perry Robinson

minor

Also known as Perry

A young boy who helps the Hardys with clues.

Yates

minor

A police officer assisting in the roundup.

Callie Shaw

minor

Also known as Callie

A friend of the Hardys, mentioned briefly.

Iola Morton

minor

Also known as Iola

Chet's sister and a friend of the Hardys.