he Blue Herring Mystery (1954)

It's spring vacation time and Djuna has invited Bobby Herrick up from Florida. The boys are looking forward with excitement to the annual run of herring in a local river - when everybody in the community take time out to join the fun.

But mysteries have a way of finding Djuna, and this time a missing page from an old ship's log and the dead captain's haunted house start the ball rolling. Djuna has learned that Capt. Beekman brought a treasure from his whaling trips. Who can have an interest to let the boy get lost? Was he close to the answer of the mystery? Before Djuna and Tommy know what's happened, the herring run turn into another, much more dangerous race! 

Never in his life had Djuna been so frightened. He had reached the barn, running as he had never run before, but his pursuer was not far behind and would corner him there, within the next few seconds. Where could he hide? Where could he hide?

There was no time to think. A dozen feet above his head, on each side of the wide door, were the haymows from which the diary cows had been fed through the winter. Each one could be reached by the ladders nailed to the heavy hand hewn upright beams supporting the timbers of the barn roof. Djuna jumped for the ladder nearest him and scuttled up with the speed of a monkey. He reached the crossbar just above the level of the hay, and, twisting as he jumped, dove into the hay...