“The inhuman fiends!” cried Bugs. “Torturing him in the hot, cruel sun! How he must have suffered!”
Edsel moaned. “They ganged up on me. Everyone knows what a dirty fighter the girl is. . . . Oooh.
. . . Aaah.”
“This is a frame-up!” Sally protested to Officer Carlson. “Bugs is trying to get us in trouble. He wants to get even. Edsel is helping him.”
“If he dies, I’ll never forgive myself,” blurted Bugs. “I shouldn’t have waited for the police. I should have taken the law into my own hands.”
“If you take anything, like one step closer, I’ll knock you from under your dandruff,*’ snapped Sally.
“You talk big,” sneered Bugs. “But you’re not fooling anyone. The heat is finally on you. ”
“Wrong, Bugs,” said Encyclopedia. “I can prove the heat isn’t where it should be.”
WHAT DID ENCYCLOPEDIA MEAN?
(Turn to page 63 for the solution to “The Case of the Grape Catcher.”)
The Case of the Left-Handers Club
Daisy Pender walked into the Brown Detective Agency. Across her T-shirt was printed “Left is Right.”
“I’m on my way to the meeting of the Idaville Left-Handers Club,” she said. “We’re going to name our Left-Hander of the Year and draw up our Bill of Rights . . . er, Lefts.”
“I heard you had trouble at the last meeting,” said Encyclopedia.
“And how,” replied Daisy. “Somebody slipped castor oil into the fruit punch. That’s why I’m here. I’m worried.”
She pitched a quarter onto the gas can beside Encyclopedia.
“Today’s meeting is at the high school cafeteria in half an hour,” she said. “I want to hire you to watch things. I’ll help, of course. I’m practicing to be a detective myself.”
She pointed to Encyclopedia’s feet.
“You’ve been on a murder case,” she declared. “Your sneakers are covered with blood stains.”
The “blood stains” were ketchup drops.
“You’re some detective, Daisy,” said Encyclopedia with a straight face.
Out by the bikes, Sally whispered, “If she opens her own detective agency, I have the perfect name — Daisy’s Disaster.”
“She means well,” whispered back Encyclopedia.
On the ride to the meeting, Daisy told the detectives about the Left-Handers Club. It had been founded by a group of concerned young men and women.
Members fought for equal opportunity in jobs and in dealing with a right-handed world of pencil sharpeners, auto gear shifts, TV controls, and telephone booths.
“One out of every ten Americans is left-handed,” said Daisy. “We won’t be left out, left behind, or left over.”
“Sounds reasonable,” admitted Encyclopedia.
“But someone is trying to break up the club,” said Daisy. “I guess we made a lot of enemies because we want to be allowed to shake with our left hands.”
Encyclopedia was still thinking that one over when they reached the high school. About sixty men and women were in the cafeteria.
The boy detective posted Sally and Daisy by the side doors.
“What am I looking for?” asked Daisy.
“Anything suspicious,” answered Encyclopedia. It was the best he could do on an empty stomach.
Happily, the meeting was called to order. Encyclopedia took up a position by the main entrance.
The club members talked over their Bill of Lefts. During the discussion, three young men departed from the room. They went separately, using Daisy’s door, and returned separately. None was gone more than a few minutes.
Suddenly Encyclopedia heard police sirens. Officer Feldman entered the cafeteria. He carried a rifle.
'Remain where you are, everyone,” he said calmly but Firmly. “We got a telephone call that a lion has escaped from the zoo. The caller said he saw the animal enter this building.”
Several girls screamed. Encyclopedia hoped the screams would drown out his knees, which were beating out “Jingle Bells.”
Officer Feldman said, “The caller wouldn't give his name. So this whole thing might be a false alarm. We’re checking the zoo. In the meantime, please stay here and keep cool.”
“A lion on the loose, my foot!” said Daisy. “It’s just a trick to break up the meeting!”
“Whoever called had to be here in the school.” said Sally. “His timing was too perfect. He waited until the meeting started.”
“You might be right.” said Encyclopedia. “Three men were out of the room at one time or another. What are their names, Daisy?”
“Joe Evans, who left first. Then Mike Dent, and then Bill Stevens,” replied Daisy.
Encyclopedia said, “The door they used leads to the hall with the washrooms — ”
“And the public telephone!” exclaimed Sally. “Each of the three men was alone long enough to make the call,” said Encyclopedia.
“Joe Evans is the one,” said Daisy. “He’s strange. One of his hands is lighter in color than the other.” “Joe plays golf with my father,” said Sally. “He wears a glove on his right hand. That’s why it’s lighter. It’s not as sunburned as his left hand.”
“Then the one who called must be Mike Dent,” said Daisy. “He’s real strange, too. One of his ears is lower than the other.”
“What?” muttered Sally. She walked past Mike, studying his ears out of the corner of her eye.
“It isn’t his ears,” she reported. “It’s the hair growing down his temples —his sideburns. They’re uneven. The left sideburn is longer than the right.” Daisy wasn’t discouraged. “Then the caller must be Bill Stevens,” she insisted. “He was the last to leave the room. And talk about strange! His legs are too long.”
Sally circled Bill Stevens, who was talking to Officer Feldman. She returned and said, “His legs aren’t too long. His pants are too short. You’re some help, Daisy!”
Daisy stiffened. “If that’s the way you feel, you can solve this case by yourselves. I quit!”
“Phew,” said Sally, as Daisy marched off. “Now we can get to work. Only I don’t know where to begin.”
“Begin with the best suspect,” suggested Encyclopedia.
“But which one?” asked Sally. “Do you know?”
“I think so,” replied the boy detective.
WHOM DID ENCYCLOPEDIA SUSPECT?
(Turn to page 65 for the solution to “The Case of the Left-Handers Club.”)
The Case of the Diving Partner
Otis Dibbs biked up to the Brown Detective Agency. He wore sneakers and a bathing suit, and he was dry all over.
Otis was usually soaking wet. During the summer he dived for golf balls that had been hit into the water hazards on Idaville’s two golf courses. He sold the balls to golfers who liked to use old balls near the water.
The work had its dangers. Golfers sometimes mistook him for an alligator. They waited to bop him on the head with a club when he came up for air.
“Golly, Otis,” said Encyclopedia. “What are you doing here? You’re way off course.”
“I want to hire you,” said Otis. He placed twenty- five cents on the gasoline can beside the boy detective. “Helga the Horrible —I mean, Helga Smith —is taking over my business.”
“That lazy windbag?” exclaimed Sally. “Every night she must dream she found a job. She looks tired even in the morning.”
“The only time Helga lifts a finger is when Miss Casey tells her to,” said Encyclopedia.
Miss Casey was the manicurist at the Ace Beauty Parlor. She did Helga’s nails every week.
“Helga muscled in on my business,” said Otis. “I do all the work, but she takes half the money.”
“We’ll look into it,” said Sally. “Where is she?”
“I left her at the sixth hole of the country club half an hour ago,” said Otis.
The three children got their bikes. Otis talked about the case as they pedaled to the country club.
Diving for golf balls was hard work, but worth the effort. Golfers always needed cheap balls to use on water holes.
Also, Otis found a lot of clubs, which angry golfers threw into the water. Putters were the most common. But once in a while he found a complete, matched set.
The business of selling the old balls and clubs had been good until last week. Then Helga came by and gave him some advice.
“She slapped me on the back and told me how much better I’d do with her as a partner.”
“The slap on the back was to help you swallow what she said,” grumbled Sally.
“You know it,” agreed Otis. “You’ve got to get rid of that big do-nothing.”
“We’ll find a way,” promised Encyclopedia. 'Don’t worry.”
But Encyclopedia worried. Helga was seventeen and could have gone to a reform school on a scholarship. She had a grin like a saber-toothed tiger.
At the country club, Otis showed them where to park their bikes. Then they walked quickly to the sixth hole.
Helga was just climbing out of the pond to the right of the fairway. She wore an orange bathing suit and goggles. She waved to Otis and pointed to a sign near the water.
CAUTION: DIVERS AT WORK
“How do you like it?” she called. “It was delivered a few minutes ago. What a work of art! Cost us only twenty dollars, little partner.”
Otis gagged. “T-twenty d-dollars?”
Encyclopedia stared at the sign. It looked as if it had been painted on the back of a motorcycle.
"Otis doesn't need a sign.” snapped Sally. “And he doesn’t need a partner.”
“Wrong, my dear,” replied Helga. “With both of us diving, we can double our business.”
“You haven’t dived once!" protested Otis. “All you do is lie in the shade and count the balls I bring up. But when I sell them, you grab half the money.”
“Temper, temper,” Helga warned. She tapped the thick, smooth tips of her fingers together. Then she made a show of examining her manicured nails.
Encyclopedia looked from Helga to the only shaded place near the pond — a clump of six oak trees.
“Helga could have been resting there, waiting for Otis to return,” thought the boy detective. “She could have seen us before we saw her. All she would have had to do was slip into the water and pretend she’d been busy diving.”
“A business,” Helga said, “has to be run with brains. Now, take the sign. Golfers won’t mistake us for alligators anymore. That’s thinking the Helga Smith way.”
“Fore!” a man shouted from the fifth tee. “Fore!”
“Duck!” cried Otis. A ball whizzed past Encyclopedia and splashed into the pond.
“Go get it, partner,” commanded Helga.
“Why don’t you?” said Sally.
“I’m tired out,” Helga answered. “I’ve been diving for a solid hour.” She nodded at a green pail beside Otis’s clothes. “Found nine balls and a putter while you were gone.”
“I found the putter and those balls this morning!” screamed Otis.
“Are you calling me a liar?” Helga rose slowly to her feet, breathing heavily on her right fist.
Otis retreated five steps, just breathing heavily.
“Nobody calls me a liar,” said Helga. “You prove I didn’t find those balls, and I’ll bow out. You can have the business all to yourself.”
“And if he can’t prove you lied?” demanded Sally. Encyclopedia wished Sally hadn’t asked the question.
“If he can’t,” repeated Helga, grinning her saber- toothed-tiger grin. “If he can’t, I’ll find myself another partner. And I’ll flatten this one’s nose till it looks like an all-day pizza.”
Otis uttered a low moan.
“Encyclopedia,” said Sally, “help Otis!”
“You mean prove that Helga didn’t dive for those balls?” inquired the boy detective. “That’s easy.”
WHAT WAS THE PROOF?
(Turn to page 66 for the solution to “The Case of the Diving Partner.”)
The Case of the Upside-Down Witness
Elton Fisk hurried into the Brown Detective Agency. He had his feet on the ground.
About this time every summer, Elton usually had his feet stuck in the air. He raised money for the General Hospital by standing on his head all over town. People tossed coins into his cap.
“You know the three men who held up the bank yesterday?” he said. “I saw them. But I forget where.”
“You forget?” cried Sally. “Elton, you’ve spent too much time standing on your brains.”
“My brains are fine,” insisted Elton. “It’s just that I didn’t know about the holdup until I read the newspaper this morning. What I saw yesterday didn’t seem important at the time.”
“What did you see?” asked Encyclopedia.
“Three men in yellow coveralls ran into a store,” said Elton. “They didn’t have masks. But they were carrying paper bags.”
Encyclopedia jumped to his feet. “Three men in masks and yellow coveralls held up the First National Bank yesterday afternoon,” he said. “They stuffed the money into paper bags.”
“They probably hid the masks as soon as they were away from the bank,” said Sally.
“Don’t you remember anything about the store they went into?” asked Encyclopedia.
“It was downtown,” replied Elton. “And it had a big sign in the window —a white sign with black letters.”
“What was written on the sign?” asked Sally.
“A lot of words. But I could read two of them,” Elton said proudly.
“What’s so great about reading two words?” demanded Sally.
“Look,” said Elton, “I was standing on my head. I had to read the sign upside down. And come to think of it, backward, too!”
He explained. He had been looking into a large mirror when he saw the robbers enter a store across the street.
“Last week Bugs Meany and his Tigers gave me a hotfoot while I was doing a headstand,” he said. “So I set up a large mirror to keep them from sneaking up behind me.”
“The store with the sign must be a hideout,” put in Encyclopedia thoughtfully.
“Finding the store should be a cinch." said Sally. “All we have to do is spot a sign with the two words Elton read."
“I forget what they are." Elton said lamely.
Gloom fell upon the Brown Detective Agency.
Finally Sally said. “Never mind. Some store window has a sign that's wrong. Two words are written upside down and backward."
“That's the answer!" whooped Elton. “Words appearing upside down and backward to someone walking past would look just right if you stood on your head and read them in a mirror."
"The two words were probably stuck in as a stunt to catch the eye." said Sally.
“We re wasting breath talking." said Elton. "We should be looking. "
Since Elton could not remember all the streets he'd been on. Encyclopedia decided to comb every one in the dow*ntow*n area.
The first black-and-white sign they came to was in the window* of Slattery's Fish Market on Monroe Street.
For the Price of 2
Of Any 3 Fish
CHOICE
COD
BLUE
KING
DOLPHIN
FLOUNDER
"Every word is plain as day." said Sally.
They moved on, looking for a sign with two words upside down and backward. They reached Dwight’s Men’s Store. A black-and-white sign in the window read:
BARGAINS! BARGAINS!
Everything Must Go Shirts, Slacks, Suits Our Loss Is Your Gain
“No luck,” said Elton. 'I wish I hadn’t moved around so much yesterday. I did handstands in dozens of places.”
“Don’t be discouraged.*’ said Sally cheerfully. “We’ve lots of streets to check.*’
For the next two hours they peered at shop windows. First they walked the east-west streets. Then they walked the north-south stree
ts.
They saw no other black-and-white window signs until they arrived at Flighland Avenue, the last street.
In the window of Meleger’s Furniture Store was the sign:
SUMMER SALE! Three-Piece Bedroom Set Only $399
Four doors away, the window of McDuffy’s Shoe Store bore the sign:
PRICES SLASHED!
Up to 50% Off SAVE SAVE SAVE
“We’re out of store windows,” said Elton glumly. “We’ll never find the store the robbers entered.” “They might have taken the sign down,” said Sally. “Encyclopedia, can’t you think of something?” “I’ve already thought of something,” replied the boy detective. “We’ve been looking at this case in the wrong way. The robbers went into — ”
WHICH STORE?
(Turn to page 67 for the solution to “The Case of the Upside-Down Witness.”)
The Case of the Marvelous Egg
Chester Jenkins swept past the Brown Detective Agency. He was carrying an egg.
Encyclopedia and Sally glanced questioningly at each other. Chester hurried nowhere except to the refrigerator.
Furthermore, Chester carried food to one place only —his mouth. He was well known as a fork on foot.
“Hey, Chester,” Encyclopedia called. “What’s the big hurry?”
Chester stopped. “Egg power,” he said. “Egg power is going to make us kids independently wealthy. Wilford Wiggins says so.”
Wilford Wiggins was a high school dropout and too lazy to scratch. His only exercise was watching monster movies on television and letting his flesh crawl.
He spent most of his waking hours dreaming up get-rich-quick schemes. Encyclopedia had stopped him many times from cheating the children of the neighborhood.
“Wilford has called a secret meeting at the city dump for two o’clock today,” said Chester. “He told us kids to bring an egg and all our money. He promised to explain everything.”
ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN CARRIES ON Page 2
