Jack Armstrong #9

Jack Armstrong enters a mysterious series of crashes plaguing the midget auto races and decides to test his new red racer on the dangerous speedway. When a sinister warning and a sabotaged steering mechanism nearly cost him his life, Jack and his associate Vic Hardy uncover a scheme that goes deeper than rough driving. With the help of the police and some clever detective work, they expose the truth behind the "accidents" and bring the real culprit to justice.

When a holdup victim is kidnapped and later released blindfolded, Vic Hardy uses the man's fragmented memories—church bells, billiard balls, squeaking chairs, and a glimpse of a movie marquee—to construct a pinpoint map that triangulates the criminals' hideout. By methodically plotting each clue onto the map with colored pins, Hardy narrows down the search area and closes in on the gang's location. It's a masterclass in how keen observation and scientific deduction can turn scattered details into solid evidence and justice.

When fifteen-year-old Donald Hesch of Arlington Heights, Illinois finds his neighbor bleeding heavily from a severed artery, his quick thinking and knowledge of emergency first aid spring into action. Using nothing but a belt and a stick as a tourniquet, Donald manages to stop the bleeding and get help on the scene—a heroic act that earns him recognition from both the American Red Cross and the Boy Scouts, and the ninth Jack Armstrong Magazine All-American Award.

Jack Armstrong and his friends arrive at a remote Pacific island to investigate a volcanic crater for radioactive materials, but the local commissioner forbids entry—claiming the volcano has become dangerously active. Suspicious of the official's sudden plan to bomb the crater, Jack and Betty slip into the volcano under cover of darkness to collect their specimens before it's destroyed, only to discover a carefully hidden secret that puts them in deadly peril. With bombers closing in and time running out, Jack must use his quick thinking and resourcefulness to survive the unfolding trap.

In this educational tale, young Tommy visits a museum where Dr. Blake explains the awesome power of the brontosaurus—a massive prehistoric lizard that once roamed the Badlands of Utah during the age of dinosaurs. Through Dr. Blake's vivid account, we learn how this eighty-foot giant lived among other fearsome creatures before being overcome by the forces of nature, only to be rediscovered millions of years later as a remarkable fossil that now takes its place in the museum.

Camera girl Pamela Foxe heads into the great north woods with Betty Fairfield to photograph a logging operation for a magazine assignment, but their jeep adventure takes a dangerous turn when they spot a forest fire raging nearby. Racing against the flames, the two must find a way through the inferno to alert the forest rangers and help stop the disaster.

Billy Fairfield's sailboat becomes an unexpected pawn when bank bandits fleeing authorities happen to sail under a draw bridge just as Billy and Daisy pass through—leading to an accidental assist that earns him a reward he didn't know he'd earned. Now flush with cash and ready to prove his worth at the water carnival, Billy enters a birling contest, hoping to settle things once and for all with the smug Hoagy.