Number 27 of The Hardy boys adventure is the Mark on the Door. For all you fans of Mexico who couldn't get enough of The Aztec Warrior we have the boys go to Baja California and Sinaloa State in search of one Elmer Tremmer, who is mixed up in a stock fraud case.
The remake is more up to date with submarines and a bit of oil smuggling added to the mix, whereas the original text has none of that, just a lot of Mexican wilderness.
Like in Aztec, there is the old canard of eating cacti to stop dehydration, (it will not work for reasons explained below.) And one of their Indian captors gets put to sleep by eating a special cactus hidden in their lunch, (really no, a lot of puking and shitting is involved, especially as it's implied to be Peyote,) in order to escape.
Talking of Indians, they are explicitly described as Tarahumaras in the original and of unknown tribal origin in the remake. They do most of the work for Vincenzo Cardillo, the real bad guy of the piece, and guard the Hardys when captured. There is some dignity to them even in the original, even if they speak with an accent. This is changed to more Spanish in italics in the remake with a little bit of broken English thrown in.
There is also Yaqui an old Indian tracker, supplanted by a younger guy called Tico in the remake, In both stories they act as a guide although Yaqui seems to be much more taciturn than Tico is, who is much more matey with the Hardys in general.
Chet also puts in an appearance, upgraded to a full member of the team in the remake, where in the original he stays behind in Bayport.
You can grab either the original from here or the remake here. Judge for yourself which is the better story,
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