Encyclopedia Brown Saves the Day (7 page)

Bugs had tried to get Encyclopedia in trouble, but two facts ruined his story.

First, the Dade River ran due east to the ocean. Second, Bugs said he walked toward the ocean at sunrise, watching the birds along the river.

A real bird watcher, however, never walks east early in the morning!

Walking into the rising sun, the bird watcher would see the birds merely as dark shapes against the bright sky. At sunrise the real bird watcher walks west so that the sun’s full light comes from behind him and falls on the birds.

Tripped up by his own story, Bugs confessed.

He had sent Encyclopedia the letter signed “Bill.” After the detective had tired of waiting for “Bill” and had left Mr. Dunning’s station, Bugs had let the air out of the tires himself.

The kidnapper was Carl, who owned Alfred.

Alfred had finished second to Lucy’s pig Gwendoline at last year’s pet show. Carl wanted Alfred to win this year.

So he “kidnapped” both pigs. Just before the pet show, he was going to say that Alfred escaped and found his way home.

Carl tried to put the blame on the Hurricanes. He stole Harry’s cap. Then he made up the story about the kidnapper needing another dime for the telephone. That would show the caller was a child, not a grown-up, he thought.

But Carl could not have dialed the kidnapper back. There is no such number as ZA 6-7575 because there is no Z on the telephone dial!

Caught in his own lie, Carl returned Gwendoline to Lucy.

And the next day Gwendoline again won the obedience contest at the pet show.

The clue was the coffee pot.

From the time Mr. Evans claimed he had put the pot of coffee over the fire until he returned with Encyclopedia, more than forty minutes passed.

After forty minutes on the fire, so much water in the pot would have boiled away that none could have boiled over the top. Yet boil over it did-before Encyclopedia’s eyes!

That meant the coffee pot was put on the fire long after Mr. Evans said it was.

Having given himself away, Mr. Evans confessed. He was really part of the kidnap gang.

He had wanted a simple story. So he said he didn’t see the kidnappers because he was busy with the coffee pot.

Actually, he had put the coffee over the fire just before his partners gagged him and tied his hands to make him look like an innocent victim, and sent him off to find “help.”

As soon as Encyclopedia touched the old chair, he knew that Pablo had stolen Four Wheels’ bike wheel.

The boy detective found the drops of white paint were dry and—what else?

He found the seat was
cool.

If Pablo had been sitting in the chair all morning, as he claimed, the seat would have been
warm
from his body heat!

Shown his mistake, Pablo confessed to stealing the bike wheel and to taking junk from other garages.

He returned the bike wheel. He tried to return the junk, but no one wanted it returned.

Indeed, once the people of the neighborhood learned that Pablo needed junk to make his sculpture, they let him hunt in their garages whenever he liked.

“I never thought to ask,” said Pablo.

Encyclopedia knew that Pete had ruined Winslow’s map after first making a copy to use himself.

The boy detective saw through Pete’s story about the porthole immediately.

Pete claimed that the tide was rising “about five inches an hour.” That part was true.

But Pete also said that he was afraid the water would rise above the open porthole, which was “eighteen inches above the water line” when he had dropped anchor at low tide.

However, the rising tide would never have reached the open porthole even if it rose twice as fast.

For the boat, floating on the tide, would have risen too!

Winslow let Pete dig up the island for another hour before telling him the “treasure” map was nothing but a souvenir of the World’s Fair.

Encyclopedia saw that the strange collection of things on the counter pointed to Mrs. O‘Quinn. She took in sewing, remember?

She used the
can of oil
to oil her sewing machine.

She stitched through the
blotter
several times after each oiling. This removed the danger of getting oil spots on her material.

She stitched through the
sandpaper
a few times to sharpen her needles.

She used the
magnet
to pick up dropped pins.

She kept a
rubber band
around her spools of thread to keep them from getting tangled.

The real thief was Mrs. O‘Quinn’s daughter Mary, fourteen. Mary had been sent downstairs to the store. When she got back, she told her mother the store was closed.

Mrs. O’Quinn made Mary return the money at once.

Wilford Wiggins had a problem.

He had to show why he needed money even though his partner, Digger Dan, had supposedly discovered a gold mine.

So Wilford made up a story.

The story was aimed at showing that no gold had been carried from the mine. The gold had to be moved on the back of an animal, and Digger Dan had lost his mule, Queenie.

But Wilford made a mistake.

He told a story in which Queenie the mule had a baby, Strike-It-Rich.

Immediately, Encyclopedia knew the story was untrue.

Wilford didn’t know that neither Queenie nor any other mule can have a baby mule.

A mule is the offspring of a female horse and a male ass. Mules simply cannot have young of their own!

Buck said he had taken off by jumping through the attic window.

“Once I was through the window, I flew straight for the woods,” he said.

That meant he had not come back to the window.

But when he showed the window to Encyclopedia, it was closed, and the shade was drawn!

He could not have jumped through a shade and a closed window!

Nobody could have come up to the attic and closed the window after he flew away. He was living alone for the day, and the house was locked.

Buck didn’t like being found out by Encyclopedia. But he returned the six dollars to Casper.

And he retired from the business of selling flying lessons.