Encyclopedia Brown and the case of the midnight visitor (2 page)

"Forget the yo-yo," said Elmo. "The penny was dated 1864, and it's worth more than a hundred dollars. Bugs must have seen the look on my face right away. He took back the penny and kept the yo-yo."

Elmo put a quarter on the gas can beside Encyclopedia.

"I want to hire you," he said. "Get back the penny. I figure it belongs to me."

"So do I," said Encyclopedia. "If I know Bugs, he'll have hidden the yo-yo, but he won't let the penny out of his sight. C'mon."

The two boys hurried to the Tigers' clubhouse, an unused tool shed behind Mr. Sweeny's Auto Body shop. The clubhouse was empty.

"When Bugs celebrates a crooked deal,

he usually goes to Friedman's Delicatessen for a hot dog and root beer," Encyclopedia said. "The sauerkraut is free. He's probably there now."

Encyclopedia was correct. Bugs stood at the relish counter. He had piled sauerkraut two inches high on his hot dog and roll and was smearing mustard on top with a wooden spoon.

"Make like a rattlesnake and bite yourself to death," he growled as the boy detective came up.

Encyclopedia was used to Bugs's warm greeting. "You stole the penny you paid Elmo for his yo-yo this morning. Give it back."

''Elmo? Who's Elmo?" gasped Bugs, looking around.

"Me, you big bully!" said Elmo.

"Man, oh, man!" cried Bugs. "I never saw this child in my life. I was out in the woods all morning studying woodpeckers to find out why they don't get headaches."

He walked toward a table and sat down. Encyclopedia and Elmo followed.

Bugs leaned over and tightened the lace on his right shoe. He bit into his hot dog

and chewed, his mouth barely able to close. Then he took a drink of root beer.

*'Go on, scram," he said. 'I'm eating." He shifted under Encyclopedia's stare and tapped his right foot nervously. "Say, maybe you'd like to search me?"

'*Nope," said Encyclopedia.

Bugs shrugged and finished his drink. He tossed the paper cup into a trash can ten feet away.

**rm going for another soda," he announced. ''Be useful and watch my hot dog while I'm gone."

He walked toward the soda counter grinning.

"Why didn't you search him?" demanded Elmo.

"Because I know where he's hidden the penny," replied Encyclopedia.

WHERE?

(Turn to page 104 for the solution to The Case of the Hidden Penny.)

^

TheC^aseof tlie Red Srweater

Bugs Meany lived for the day when he could get even with Encyclopedia.

Bugs hated being outsmarted all the time. He longed to smack Encyclopedia so hard the boy detective would have to stand on his head to turn things over in his mind.

But Bugs never dared throw a punch.

Whenever he felt like it, he thought of Sally Kimball. Sally was Encyclopedia's partner and the prettiest girl in the fifth grade.

More to the point, she had done what no boy under twelve had believed possible. She had punched out Bugs Meany!

The skull had two holes in the top. ''Bullet holes/' said the girl. *7 jv^st know it."

Whenever they fought, Bugs ended on the ground mumbUng about a low bridge.

Because of Sally, Bugs never tried to bully Encyclopedia. But he never stopped planning his day of revenge.

"Bugs hates you as much as me," Encyclopedia said to Sally. "He'll never live down the lickings you gave him."

The two detectives were sitting in the Brown Detective Agency playing checkers. It was a chilly morning. Sally wore a gray sweat shirt and Encyclopedia his red sweater.

Suddenly a girl in a black leather jacket appeared at the door. She was holding a human skull.

The skull had two holes in the top.

*'Bullet holes," said the girl. **I just know it."

Encyclopedia studied the holes and shook his head.

**The science department at the high school got a new skeleton last year and threw away the old one," he said. "The skull had two holes in the top where it was hung by wire."

"Where did you find it?" asked Sally.

'*In the junkyard an hour ago," answered the girl. *'The rest of the skeleton is there."

Encyclopedia had been eager to own a skeleton for some time. He asked the girl to take them to the spot.

During the bike ride, he learned that her name was Carmine Oldfield and that she was new in the neighborhood.

"I heard you were detectives," she said. ''I thought rd better bring the skull straight to you."

When they arrived at the junkyard. Carmine went to the back gate. The lock was broken.

"See that oil drum by the yellow truck?" she asked. 'The rest of the skeleton is in there."

The detectives hurried to the oil drum. Inside was a thick sack. Encyclopedia reached down and pulled it out.

"Caught in the act!"

Bugs Meany leaped from behind a pile of wrecked cars. Officer Murphy was at his heels.

"Let me have the sack," said Officer Murphy sharply.

Encyclopedia handed it to the policeman, who opened it upon the ground.

Instead of bones, the sack held pens, wallets, toy cars, and other small articles.

"Man, oh, man!" sang Bugs. '1 broke Idaville's biggest shoplifting ring!"

"Bugs claims you've been shoplifting at the Five-and-Dime for months," explained Officer Murphy. "On the way back from town, you hide your loot here. He's been tailing you."

''When did we shoplift?" demanded Sally. "Tell me!"

Bugs named days. They were the days the detectives had hiked into town during the past month.

"Nice try. Bugs," said Encyclopedia. "But we have a witness. Carmine Oldfield. Carmine ... ?"

Carmine was nowhere in sight.

"You put her up to this, Bugs Meany!" cried Sally. "You're so crooked you have to screw on your socks."

Bugs sniffed. "Kindly tell them, Officer."

Officer Murphy spoke to Encyclopedia. "Bugs stopped me this morning as I was

driving past the junkyard on my rounds. He said he saw a boy in a red sweater— you—leaning over the oil drum/'

*'Bugs knows I have only one sweater, this red one," said Encyclopedia. 'This is a trick to get even."

*'Mr. Dillon, who owns the yard, saw a boy leaning into the barrel at about the same time," said Officer Murphy. ''However, he couldn't make out more than the red sweater because of the distance."

"The boy was Bugs in a red sweater pretending to be Encyclopedia," said Sally. "Then Bugs changed to the brown one he has on now before stopping you. Officer."

"This dame is off the wall," said Bugs. "If I changed sweaters, the red one would still be around here. I didn't have time to go home."

"So why are you wearing a girl's brown sweater?" said Sally. "The buttons are on the left side. A boy's sweater has the buttons on the right side."

Bugs looked like a boy who had swallowed a school of goldfish. Finally he stammered, "I—it's my-my girl friend's sweater. I borrowed it this morning."

**What girl friend?" jeered Sally. "On a date, you throw money around like a man in a straitjacket."

Bugs snarled. Sally snarled back. Officer Murphy had to step between them.

Encyclopedia glanced down at his own red sweater. It had stains where he had leaned against the oil drum. The stains on Bug's sweater were different.

Officer Murphy said, **Mr. Dillon didn't see a girl, but Bugs says he saw you, Sally. Bugs claims you two spoke about coming back in an hour to change the hiding place. So I agreed to wait with him and watch."

Bugs clapped his head. *The son of our beloved chief of police is a cheap shoplifter!" he cried. "Oh, the shame of it!"

Sally was shaking with anger. "Encyclopedia, you can't let Bugs get away with this!"

"Don't worry," said Encyclopedia. "He won't."

WHY NOT?

(Turn to page 105 for the solution to The Case of the Red Sweater.)

nie Case off <]ie Painting Gerbils

On the day the summer art show opened Mark Reardon trotted into the Brown Detective Agency. He was alone.

Immediately Encyclopedia smelled trouble. Mark seldom went anyplace without Herman and Sherman, his gerbils.

Mark's father ran a training school for pets and always said, **I never met a problem gerbil."

But Encyclopedia guessed that the gerbils had a problem. "Is Herman hurt?" he inquired. "Or Sherman?"

''Just their pride," replied Mark. "They've been insulted. Somebody told on them."

"Told what?" asked Sally.

"That they're gerbils," said Mark.

**Nobody would mistake them for kangaroos," remarked Encyclopedia. "I mean, don't they like being gerbils?"

"Yes, but they want to be artists, too," said Mark. "Read this."

He handed Encyclopedia a newspaper story.

It told about a Texas chimpanzee named Manfred Simpson. Manfred was allowed to throw fruit against a sheet of wood. After a month, the wood was caked with goo. His owner had called the mess "Earth Mother" and had entered it in an art show in Chicago.

"Earth Mother" won first prize. Before the world discovered it was done by an ape, the painting was bought for $15,000 by a museum in New York.

"I get it," said Encyclopedia. "What a chimp can do, two gerbils can do!"

"You better believe it," said Mark. "But somebody told the judges at the art show this morning that Herman Sherman is really two gerbils. The judges wouldn't accept their painting."

"Who told?" asked SaUy.

"I'm sure it was Farnsworth Grant or Jerry Tilson or Scott Wells," said Mark. "They were the only ones besides me and my folks who knew what Herman and Sherman can do."

Mark laid twenty-five cents on the gas can by Encyclopedia.

"I want to hire you to find out which one is the dirty snitch," he said. "All three are my pals—or were. Two days ago they played over at my house. One of them must have stolen a peek at Herman and Sherman's painting."

The detectives went with Mark to his house. Encyclopedia wanted to look at the gerbils' workshop.

Mark led them through the kitchen and into the garage. On the floor was a large piece of plywood covered with many colors. One corner was cut off.

"It's really pretty good for modern art," said Encyclopedia in surprise.

"My dad said most of it is too good," replied Mark. "He said that if the judges thought it was beautiful or looked like something, the gerbils wouldn't win a