Encyclopedia Brown Keeps the Peace (7 page)

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Authors: Donald J. Sobol

BOOK: Encyclopedia Brown Keeps the Peace
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Solution to The Case of the
Dwarf’s
Beard
Bugs claimed he had burned the candle in the clubhouse with the door open.
Further, he said he had not touched the candle after placing it on the orange crate.
But the dwarf faced the door, from where the breeze came. And “all the drippings” of the melted wax were on the
front
of the dwarf.
Bugs had never noticed that candles drip on the side away from a breeze.
If Bugs had been telling the truth, the drippings would have spilled down the dwarf’s
back!
Caught lying, he returned the candles to Gary.
Solution to The Case of Bugs Meany’s Revenge
Bugs said he had been tanning himself “for three hours” when the two big men “took the watch right off my wrist.”
Yet “there wasn’t a spot” on Bugs “that was too light or too dark on his arms, legs, or body.” Further, his hands and wrists were “smoothly tanned.”
Had Bugs really been robbed as he claimed, there would have been a white, untanned mark around his wrist where the watch had been worn for three hours in the sun!
Bugs confessed. He had sent Encyclopedia on a wild-goose chase with the telephone call. Then Duke Kelly, one of his Tigers, had slipped into the Brown garage and hidden the watch in the box for Bugs to find.
Solution to The Case of the Cave Drawings
Encyclopedia knew that Wilford Wiggins had drawn the cave pictures himself and then photographed them.
One of the photographs which Wilford passed around showed a drawing of “cavemen attacking a dinosaur.” That was Wilford’s mistake!
Human beings did not live on earth at the same time that the dinosaurs did.
The first man did not appear until millions of years after the last dinosaur had died.
Since the cavemen artists did not even know that dinosaurs ever lived, they could not have known what a dinosaur looked like!
Because of Encyclopedia’s. sharp eye, Wilford went out of the cave business.
Solution to The Case of the Wanted Man
Encyclopedia saw what was wrong—the word “Palestine.”
Palestine is the old name for Israel. If William Matson were going there, he would have written Israel.
So Encyclopedia knew the list was not what it seemed at first glance—names of foreign places.
He told his father that Matson had flown to Texas.
And that is where the police arrested him—in a motel in Palestine, Texas.
Encyclopedia remembered that Moscow, Odessa, London, Paris, Athens, and Palestine are names of towns in Texas!
Solution to The Case of the Angry Cook
The big sailor gave himself away with one word.
After Encyclopedia and Sally arrived at The Beefy Burger Palace, what did the big sailor say to Officer Webb?
He said, “I’ve never been in here before in my life.”
Later, what did he say?
He said, “Look, officer. When you brought me back here, did I fight?”
The word “back” was his slip.
If he really had never been in The Beefy Burger Palace before, he could not have been brought back to it!
Solution to The Case of the Missing Ring
Encyclopedia knew that Mr. Bevan had typed the word “cat” in his note by mistake.
Only the wood barrel, also called a vat, in the basement had been “split open.” This was the clue.
The boy detective did not believe that Mr. Bevan, after being hit on the head, and beaten up, could have typed the note without making a mistake.
Mr. Bevan’s mistake, Encyclopedia saw, was that he had struck the letter “v” whenever he had meant to strike the letter “c.” These letters are next to each other on a typewriter keyboard.
So Mr. Bevan had typed “cat” instead of “vat,” “raving” instead of “racing.” And when he wrote where he had hidden the ring, he had typed “vane” instead of “cane.”
Thanks to Encyclopedia, the ring was found in Mr. Bevan’s cane!
Solution to The Case of the Money-Changer
Red knew Mr. Link would not search him by force. So Red didn’t have to tell how much change he had asked for and received.
But Red made one mistake. He
admitted
he had got change.
Encyclopedia, however, had made sure Hector couldn’t give Red any change at all! Hector had seven dollars and nineteen cents made up of one five-dollar bill, a one-dollar bill, one half dollar, one quarter, four dimes, and four pennies.
With that in his pocket, Hector couldn’t have made change for any coin or bill!
Outsmarted by Encyclopedia, Red returned the seven dollars and nineteen cents. And he quit stealing from children rather than go to court.
Solution to The
Case
of the Falling Woman
As the winds of “40 miles an hour” would have blown out the match and candle, “the large window” behind Winthrop’s sister must have been closed.
Further, the room was lighted by “two table lamps” and the flashgun of the camera, while outside it was night.
Thus the window should have acted as a mirror. It should have mirrored what was in the room.
Yet the falling woman could be seen through the window. Impossible!
Winthrop admitted the picture was faked. He had put it together in his darkroom.
So first prize—the blue ribbon and bicycle—was given to Scott.
Solution to
The Case of the Red Boat
Roger Ascot said he and Ben Page had been without drinking water for four days.
Yet when he came aboard the Coast Guard cutter, he made a mistake—and Encyclopedia caught it right away. Roger Ascot wiped the sweat off his head and face.
After four days without a drink, Roger Ascot’s body would have been dried out. He couldn’t have sweated one drop!
Trapped by his lie, Roger Ascot confessed.
When he and Ben Page saw the Coast Guard cutter, they threw everything overboard—the stolen jewels and furs and their guns. To help their story of being two fishermen caught in a sudden storm, they threw their food and water overboard, too.
Then they made believe they were weak from hunger and thirst.

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