The Case of the Exploding Plumbing (7 page)

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Authors: Donald J. Sobol

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Solution to
The Case of the Worn-Out Sayings
Both Max and Bugs claimed to have written “
Alaska Times,
p. 31” on the story about the contest.
Since the writing was in block letters, Encyclopedia could not tell who was speaking the truth.
But Bugs said he had first noticed the story about the contest on the last page of the newspaper. That was his mistake!
The last page of a newspaper is never an odd number like 31. The last page is always an even number, like 30, or 18, or 42.
Foiled again, Bugs gave back the clipping.
Max entered the contest, tied for forty-third prize, and won a ballpoint pen.
Solution to
The Case of the Skunk Ape
Bugs got Officer Carlson to wait in Wilma’s house during the time Gus always practiced the cello.
Meanwhile, Wilma dressed as the Skunk Ape and stole the cello case. Then she rubbed the costume with rotten eggs, stuffed it into the case, and left the case where it could be easily found.
Bugs knew Gus would run to Encyclopedia for help. When the children found the cello case, Wilma was watching from her parked car. She drove up the driveway and then hurried toward the house in her tight skirt.
Encyclopedia realized that she could not have just come home from playing the cello, as she claimed.
A cello is held between the legs. A woman wears pants or a loose skirt—never a
tight
skirt—to play it!
Solution to
The Case of the Counterfeit Bill
Encyclopedia telephoned his father and told him about the counterfeit bill and the policeman.
Chief Brown called the Glenn City chief of police. It was quickly discovered that one uniform and badge number 14 had been stolen from the police storeroom.
The house was raided. A million dollars in counterfeit bills was found. And four of the gang were captured, including the fake policeman.
What had made Encyclopedia suspicious?
A policeman
always
wears his badge over his heart—on his left breast.
The fake policeman had forgotten. He had pinned his badge on his right breast.
Solution to
The Case of the Window Dressers
Sally realized who the gunman was: the man who didn’t belong in the parade of window dressers.
The window was being dressed to display toreador pants. As every girl knows, petticoats are worn under skirts, not under pants.
So the man carrying the petticoats was not really a window dresser. He had scooped up some petticoats from a store counter and used them to hide the gun.
While everyone fled for their lives, the gunman’s two partners robbed the jewelry department.
Because Sally had written down the license number of their getaway car, the three robbers were captured and the jewelry was recovered.
Solution to
The Case of the Silver Dollar
Lindylou Duckworth said that she had asked Chauncy to leave the field because he was making so much noise rattling his silver dollar.
She also said that nobody had touched his clothes but she herself. That made her the thief!
When Chauncy emptied his pockets, he found the silver dollar, but no change. He could not have rattled the silver dollar against the soft objects in his pocket.
Trapped by her own words, Lindylou admitted she had been lying.
She had stolen the eighty cents, plus the five dollars from his billfold, after moving his clothes from the woods.
She returned the money. And Chauncy never insulted girl football players again.
Solution to
The Case of the Litterbugs
“The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs” was Encyclopedia’s clue.
The sentence uses every letter in the alphabet.
The person who wrote it, Encyclopedia realized, was testing his typewriter. So he either had just bought it, or he had had an old one repaired.
Encyclopedia told his father. Chief Brown checked with the stores that sold or repaired typewriters. He got the names of everyone who had recently bought a typewriter or who had had an old one repaired.
The police were able to match the typing on the letter with the typewriter belonging to Duke Kelly, one of Bugs Meany’s Tigers.
Solution to
The Case of the Frightened Witness
When Sally dropped off the typewritten story, Luther gave her three clues: the words “legible,” “tormentor,” and “headache.”
Sally repeated to Encyclopedia what Luther had said, as Luther hoped she would. Encyclopedia caught the clues, but went to see Luther in order to be sure.
He was sure when Luther’s face lit up at the word “edited,” and when Luther smiled at the word “onion.”
“Legible,” “tormentor,” “headache,” “edited,” and “onion” all have one thing in common. The last letters of each word are the same as the beginning letters.
So Encyclopedia went back to the school. He found the money hidden on a blackboard shelf, under an
eraser.
Solution to
The Case of the Exploding Toilet
Gladys smashed all Winslow’s antiques in order to hide the fact that she was interested only in the lion.
With Winslow’s lion smashed, her lion would be more valuable. As the only one in existence, it would be worth more money.
But Gladys was too greedy. She loaded too many of her own antiques into her station wagon to sell at the Cedartown market. There wasn’t room for Winslow’s!
She could not have known Winslow would not be taking his antiques unless she was the one who had smashed them!
Since Winslow’s apartment faced the parking lot in the rear, she had parked in front. She didn’t want him to see her overloaded wagon.
She hadn’t expected to find him in front with Encyclopedia. Winslow didn’t notice anything wrong. But Encyclopedia did!

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