The Case of the Sleeping Dog (7 page)

After the contest, Encyclopedia quietly measured the brothers’ rope. It was seventeen feet.

It should have been shorter.

A seventeen-foot rope of natural fiber will shrink up to a foot if left in water a few hours. The brothers had gone into the ocean “every morning” for a week.

To make sure their rope didn’t break with wear and put them out of the contest, the brothers had changed ropes many times. They were disqualified for cheating.

The lone winner was Alice Cohen. She won the bicycle.

Wilford had no way of getting charts of the unnamed stars. So he made up Professor Zingler and a fancy story.

He said the early morning sun hit Professor Zingler directly in the eyes as he stepped from the plane. Half blinded, the professor dropped his suitcase with the charts.

Impossible!

The morning sun is in the east. The plane was pointed north, having nosed up to the north end of the airport.

To face the morning sun, the passengers would have had to leave by the plane’s east side—that is, the right side.

Passengers normally leave an airplane by the left side, occasionally by the rear, but never by the right side.

The kids of Idaville got to keep their savings.

Ed and Roscoe had a plan.

Ed was to find out where Chester had hidden the tickets. Then he would pass the hiding place along to Roscoe during the food-sayings duel.

Ed slipped a clue into two food sayings. He pointed Roscoe to the clues by putting them in extra-long sayings.

The sayings were: “Is anything
in your room
ever in apple-pie order?” and “Duel with me, and you’ll end up in
the soup.
”

Roscoe caught on immediately. He sneaked into Chester’s room and lifted the tickets from the fake soup can.

Ed returned the tickets.

Jimbo was the thief.

When questioned about the missing money, he couldn’t help bragging.

“What do I need quarters for when I have a million dollars’ worth of talent?” he said.

That was his mistake!

He was told only that “Candice keeps money for making change in a sock in her shoeshine box.”

Yet he knew what only the thief could know.

The missing money was in quarters.

Jimbo returned the quarters to Candice.

Then he quit shining shoes on Main Street.