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Authors: Donald J. Sobol

Encyclopedia Brown and Dead Eagles (6 page)

BOOK: Encyclopedia Brown and Dead Eagles
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“We’ll have to hurry to find out,” said Sally. “It’s nearly two o’clock.”
When the detectives and Twinkletoes reached the city dump, the secret meeting was about to start. A crowd of children pressed around Wilford.
“Move in closer,” he called. “I don’t want anyone but my friends to hear this. I’m going to make you so rich that when you catch cold, you can go to two nose doctors—one for each nostril!”
“Aw, can the balloon juice,” hollered Bugs Meany, “before your tongue gets sunburned. Let’s have it straight. What’s the big deal?”
“Can’t wait, eh, kid?” said Wilford. He fished in his pocket. “Okay, here it is!”
He held up a red pill.
“What is it, you ask?” he cried. “It’s a gas saver! One pill in a tank of gas will give up to a thousand miles of driving!“
The secret meeting was about to start. A crowd of children
pressed around Wilford.
“That’s the greatest invention since sliced bread,” Twinkletoes whispered to Encyclopedia.
“This little wonder is the brain child of Dr. Pablo Mann of Brazil,” Wilford announced. “It’s not quite ready to market. Dr. Mann needs two more years to perfect it.”
“So what are you selling?” someone shouted.
“Opportunity,” answered Wilford. “The opportunity for each of you to get in on the ground floor—cheap. One share of the business for ten dollars. Buy as many shares as you wish.”
“If the pill really will work, why don’t you buy all the shares yourself?” asked Twinkletoes.
“Because I’m flying down to Brazil right after this meeting,” replied Wilford. “On the way to the airport, I’ll have to stop at the bank and draw out all my savings just to pay for the plane ticket.”
“Let’s see your wallet,” said Encyclopedia. “I bet you have lots of money.”
Wilford tossed Encyclopedia his wallet. “Satisfy yourself, Mr. Smarty Detective, even though you weren’t invited here.”
Inside the wallet Encyclopedia found a driver’s license, a claim ticket from the shoemaker, an old theater stub, and three postage stamps. But only seven dollars.
While Encyclopedia was examining the wallet, Wilford continued his sales pitch.
“I’ll be gone a year, maybe two, helping Dr. Mann in his hidden laboratory in the jungle,” he said. “Before I leave, I want all my young friends to have this chance of a lifetime—”
“To lose every cent they give you,” snapped Encyclopedia.
WHAT MADE ENCYCLOPEDIA
SO SURE?
 
 
 
 
 
(Turn to page 95 for the solution to The Case of the Gasoline Pill.)
The Case of the Pantry Door
Hilda Deaderick, also known as Deadeye Deaderick, was Idaville’s only girl fly hunter.
“Fly hunting may seem a little weird to non-hunters,” she said, sitting in the Brown Detective Agency. “But it’s a hobby that grows on you.”
Hilda sneered at sprays and flyswatters. Sprays were smelly. Flyswatters were messy. Neither was sporting.
She used rubber bands only. Like any good hunter, she moved carefully till—zap! From two feet away she was deadly.
“I stopped by to invite you to a birthday party for Archie,” she said to the detectives. “I’m serving him flies and bits of bacon in an hour.”
“How marvelous!” exclaimed Sally. “We’d love to come.”
“You’re the guests of honor,” said Hilda.
The titles had been earned. A year ago, Encyclopedia had discovered the frog in the birdhouse in Hilda’s backyard. Sally had named him Archie.
No one had yet figured out why a frog had chosen to live in a birdhouse atop a pole.
“Maybe he decided to wait for the rent on lily pads to go down,” suggested Encyclopedia as he closed the detective agency.
“Archie probably got into the birdhouse as a tadpole,” said Sally. “Now he’s grown too big to get out.”
“No one knows just how big he is,” said Hilda. “He never sticks out more than his head and front feet. But I guess he’s the size of a jelly doughnut.”
Hilda laid the fly on the tiny porch of the birdhouse.
They reached Hilda’s street. Encyclopedia noticed two Tigers, Rocky Graham and Duke Kelly, throwing a football down the block.
Hilda paused on the way to her backyard to shoot a fly in midair. She laid it on the tiny porch of the birdhouse.
Out of the round opening snaked a long tongue. The fly disappeared.
“Archie has given meaning to my hobby,” said Hilda. “Before he came to live here, I was getting bored.”
“What do you mean?” asked Sally.
“I never missed,” said Hilda. “Oh, in the beginning I had to use thick rubber bands—at least an eighth of an inch wide. The skinny ones were less accurate. But soon I went to the skinnies to give a fly an even chance.”
“That’s style,” murmured Sally.
“Next I broke rubber bands and snapped flies with one end,” said Hilda. “I had to be six inches or less from the victim. I still got my flies. It was boring.”
“Until Archie turned everything around,” said Sally.
“Yes,” said Hilda. “He made me feel needed.”
She led the detectives into the house. A girl of about fourteen sat at the kitchen table eating grapes.
“This is my cousin Lois,” said Hilda. “She’s staying with us for a week.”
Lois continued to stuff in grapes with both hands. She mumbled, “Hello,” without missing a stuff.
“We’re getting up a birthday feast for Archie,” Hilda told her. “Bacon bits and flies.”
“Yuuuuck!” said Lois.
Hilda ignored the remark. She got four saucers from a cabinet above the sink and asked the detectives to fill them with sugar.
“I’m going hunting in the attic,” she said. “By the time I’ve worked my way downstairs, the flies should have found the sugar. Then, bang, bang, bang!”
She pointed to a door. “The sugar is in the pantry,” she added. “The door may give you a hard time.”
After she left, Encyclopedia tried to open the door. It was stuck. He pushed on it and pounded.
“What a racket! You’re giving me a headache!” whined Lois. She swept from the kitchen with the bowl of grapes.
Another minute of pounding and the door came unstuck. The pantry was a deep, narrow room lined with shelves of food. The detectives stepped into it, looking for the sugar.
Suddenly the door closed behind them. The bolt screeched shut, locking them in darkness.
“What the—?” gasped Sally.
Footsteps sounded, running toward the front of the house. A door slammed.
“That sounded like the front door.” said Encyclopedia. He began to pound on the locked pantry door.
“All right, I hear you!” screamed Lois from the floor above. “Hold your horses. I’m coming!”
She had the detectives freed by the time Hilda dashed into the kitchen. “What’s going on?” Hilda asked.
“Someone locked us in the pantry,” said Encyclopedia.
Hilda looked astonished—until she noticed the cabinet door above the sink was open.
“The money is gone!” she cried. “My mother keeps household cash in this glass jar. It was filled when I got out the four saucers. Now it’s empty!”
“Just after I went up to my room, I heard the front door slam,” said Lois. “I looked out the window and saw a boy running toward the street.”
“Rocky Graham and Duke Kelly were throwing a football when we got here,” said Sally. “Either could be the thief.”
“It might have been anybody—anybody who knew where the money was kept,” said Hilda.
“No, not anybody,” said Encyclopedia. “The thief is—”
WHO?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(Turn to page 96 for the solution to The Case of the Pantry Door.)
Solution to The Case of the Dead Eagles
Mike said that the year before he had not been looking at the eagles or their nest. He had simply been admiring the full moon, which was “right above the cliff.”
Standing on the same path, Encyclopedia and Charlie had seen the setting sun atop the cliff.
So they all had been facing west.
Unfortunately for Mike’s alibi, the full moon is never seen in the western sky at night!
Trapped by his own words, Mike admitted killing the three eagles. He promised to spare the mother eagle and her eggs if the boys did not tell on him.
The boys kept their word. Mike kept his.
Solution to The Case of the Hypnotism Lesson
Bugs didn’t know any more about hynotizing a lobster than he knew about steering a spacecraft to Mars.
The color photograph was the proof.
It showed Bugs holding up “a large red lobster by the tail.”
Living lobsters, however, are not red.
They turn red only after they have been cooked!
So the lobster that Dave paid to see hypnotized was already boiled and dead when Bugs took his money.
“No wonder I couldn’t make it stand on its head!” exclaimed Bugs. “I’ll give you the hypnotizing course for fifty cents a lesson to make up for my mistake.”
“No, thanks,” said Dave. He got back his dollar.
BOOK: Encyclopedia Brown and Dead Eagles
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