Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Treasure Hunt (3 page)

BOOK: Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Treasure Hunt
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Encyclopedia accepted the correction with a smile. To Mr. McPherson he said, “You only have to switch two letters in the clue that leads to the Johnson Dairy Company and the ‘You Won’ card.”

Encyclopedia whispered the two letters into Mr. McPherson’s ear and told him where to hide the “You Won” card.

“By George, young man,” Mr. McPherson exclaimed. “That is brilliant!”

Mr. McPherson shook hands with the detectives and went off to set the trap. He had to rewrite the last clue and put a new “You Won” card where Encyclopedia had advised him.

“Will you please tell me what’s going on?”
Sally protested. “I want to know how you are going to catch the cheater without anyone finding out.”

Encyclopedia explained his plan as they biked to the Johnson Dairy garage.

Sally looked at him with a mixture of awe and anger. “Why didn’t I think of that?” she grumbled.

They rode in silence the rest of the way to the garage.

“There it is,” Encyclopedia said.

The red “You Won” card was under the windshield wiper of a pickup truck where Mr. McPherson had tucked it. Encyclopedia tore up the card.

“Now we wait,” he said.

After what seemed forever, Sally nudged Encyclopedia, and they ducked behind the pickup truck.

Regina Castleberry was coming down the ramp from the alley.

“That figures,” Sally said under her breath. “I know Regina. The only time she’s in bad company is when she’s alone.”

“Sssh,” Encyclopedia warned. “We don’t know anything yet.”

Regina walked to the pickup truck. She
stared at the empty windshield wipers, puzzled.

Encyclopedia stood up. “Looking for something?”

Regina was startled, but she recovered herself. “Yeah, the winning card in the treasure hunt.”

“What made you think it was here?” Sally demanded.

“The last clue said it was,” Regina replied. “Say, why are you two hanging around? You ought to be out playing with squirrels.”

“We’ve been waiting for the cheater who followed Mr. McPherson as he laid out the treasure hunt,” Encyclopedia said. “And you’re the one.”

WHAT MADE ENCYCLOPEDIA SO SURE?

(Turn to
this page
for the solution to
The Case of the Treasure Hunt.)

The Case of the Stolen Jewels

O
n Saturday Encyclopedia and Sally closed the Brown Detective Agency early and biked to the ocean.

They planned to swim, read, and relax in the sun. They didn’t expect to solve a mystery. Neither did they expect to meet Dustin Durant.

Dustin was eleven and a photography whiz. When Encyclopedia and Sally spotted him, he was taking a picture on the path that overlooked the beach. His subjects were a man, a woman, and the President of the United
States. The woman was shaking hands with the President—kind of.

Dustin pulled the picture from his camera. The man showed the picture to the woman, and they walked away chuckling. The President remained motionless.

Encyclopedia and Sally parked their bikes and hurried over for a closer look.

The “President” was a life-size, black-and-white photograph mounted on plywood.

Encyclopedia admired the propped-up President, who was standing straight as a board and smiling stiffly. His right arm was outstretched, ready for the next cash customer.

“Gosh, Dustin, what a great idea!” Sally exclaimed. “How much do you charge?”

“Five dollars for a black-and-white picture, and three dollars if the customer wants to use his own camera and film,” Dustin answered. “But for the two of you, it’s on the house.”

The detectives posed gleefully. They took the picture proudly to the beach, where for ten minutes they had peace and quiet. Then Dustin came flying across the sand.

“Some man just stole my camera!” he cried. “Dad will have a fit!”

He explained. His father, a professional photographer, had made the cutout of the President. Dustin took the picture and collected the money.

“You’ve got to recover Dad’s camera!” Dustin wailed.

“Calm down and tell us what happened,” Sally said.

“After I took your picture, two men sat down right over there,” Dustin replied, pointing to a bench near the cutout President. “They were saying some pretty strange things.”

“What do you mean?” Encyclopedia asked.

“I couldn’t hear everything,” Dustin said. “But the tall man said something about ‘delivering the goods’ this afternoon to the house on Highland Avenue. The short man nodded and said he’d better write down the exact address before he forgot it. Then the tall man said, ‘Don’t write anything down. Keep it in your head. Just remember—it’s the last upside-down year. The next one won’t come for more than four thousand years.’ ”

Sally frowned, puzzled. “What happened then?”

“They got up from the bench and separated,” Dustin said. “The short man decided he wanted a snapshot with the President. I’d just clicked his picture when the tall man rushed back and grabbed the camera. ‘You crazy fool, having your picture taken!’ he yelled at the short man. Then they both took off fast with the camera and the picture.”

“Can you describe the two men better?” Encyclopedia asked.

“The short man had red hair and his left arm was in a sling,” Dustin said. “The tall man was bald and had a dark mustache.”

Encyclopedia whistled. “Those descriptions fit the two men who held up Polk’s Jewelry Store yesterday, except they were wearing women’s sheer stockings over their heads.”

“I’ll bet the short man was told to leave the stolen jewels at a house on Highland Avenue,” Sally said. “Let’s go there and watch for them.”

Encyclopedia agreed. After Dustin stored the “President” in the first-aid station, the three children rode the number three bus to Highland Avenue.

As they alighted, Sally’s face was a study in
gloom. “I forgot that Highland Avenue is twenty blocks long. We can’t watch every house.”

Encyclopedia said nothing. He continued walking. After five blocks he remarked quietly, “This is the house—the gray one on the right.”

“How do you
know
this is the house?” Sally whispered.

Before Encyclopedia could answer, a blue car drove up and stopped in the driveway. A short man with his left arm in a sling got out. He was carrying a briefcase.

“He’s one of them!” Dustin gasped.

“The stolen jewels may be in the briefcase,” Encyclopedia murmured. “Time to call the police.”

He made the call at the public telephone on Quincy Road. When he returned to the hedge, he saw that the short man had come out of the house.

The man no longer had the briefcase. He stopped and stared at the hedge.

“He’s spotted us!” Dustin yelped. “
Run for your life!”

There was no need to run. A patrol car had pulled in front of the gray house. The short man bolted, but he was quickly captured.
Within two hours, the police work was done.

The gray house belonged to Baldwin Van Carson III, a banker with a sideline in stolen goods. The jewels from the holdup were found in the briefcase in his bedroom closet. The short man, frightened, turned informer; his partner, the tall man, was arrested in a motel on Ocean Drive. Dustin got his father’s camera back.

At police headquarters, Chief Brown congratulated Encyclopedia. “How did you figure out which house to watch?” he asked.

“I’d like to know, too, Encyclopedia,” Sally said. “In all the excitement, you never told me!”

HOW DID ENCYCLOPEDIA KNOW
WHICH HOUSE TO WATCH?

(Turn to
this page
for the solution to
The Case of the Stolen Jewels.)

The Case of the Painting Contest

P
ablo Pizzaro was Idaville’s greatest child artist.

The fifth-grader had won first prize at the Talent Day in April. His winning statue, titled
Bumps on a Log
, was carved out of three potatoes.

“It invites the viewer to eat his art out,” Pablo had explained to his friends.

Frankly, Encyclopedia thought
Bumps on a Log
was small potatoes. He dared not say so, however, in front of Sally. She became fluttery whenever she was near Pablo.

“If Pablo wins a prize at the Modern Art Festival today, fame will be within his grasp,” Sally said dreamily.

Encyclopedia kept a straight face. “True,” he agreed. “Art lovers yet unborn will praise his name.”

The Modern Art Festival was held in the high-school gym. The detectives saw Pablo as they entered.

The young artist was dressed for the part. He wore a beret, a tan smock, and a huge, floppy bow tie.

“He looks gift-wrapped,” Encyclopedia thought.

“What have you in the show, Pablo?” Sally asked.

“Nothing,” replied Pablo. “No other kid would enter a painting or a sculpture against me. So the children’s division was dropped this year.”

“Oh, that’s unfair,” Sally said.

“I’ve entered the speed-painting contest,” Pablo said. “It’s open to any amateur artist in the state. How fast you paint counts more than how well you paint.”

He led the detectives to a corner of the gym.
A group of modern art lovers gazed at a white canvas set upon an easel. “What soul—superb!” a woman gushed. “A major breakthrough!”

“The canvas is white because it hasn’t been painted on yet,” Pablo whispered disgustedly.

A man with a judge’s badge moved the onlookers back. “Our first speed-painter,” he announced, “is John Helmsly, a sea captain.”

“Here and ready!” responded a bearded man. He strode to the canvas. In one hand, he carried a board with blobs of paint. In the other hand, he held a square-tipped knife.

The judge gazed at his stopwatch. “On your mark, get set, go!”

John Helmsly began whacking paint wildly against the canvas with the knife.

“I don’t use brushes,” he said, panting. “They take too long to clean.”

The knife flew … 
whack, whack, whack
. Soon a boat, water, and sky were visible to onlookers with a helpful imagination.

“The boat is moving at about only four knots an hour,” John Helmsly said. “So we need just a touch of foam where the front cuts the water, and a little behind. And here’s the
skipper at the back looking at a map of where he’s going. There—done! I shall call it
Sailboat in Motion.”

“Two minutes and fifty-eight seconds,” the judge announced.

“H-he broke three minutes!” Pablo said, shocked. “My best time in practice for the same size painting is four minutes and eight seconds.”

Encyclopedia was shocked, too.
Sailboat in Motion
might be instant art, but it was the worst picture he had ever seen.

“That’s one new painting that won’t become an old masterpiece,” he said.

“Maybe he just slopped paint on the canvas and named it whatever it looked like,” Sally suggested.

“No,” Pablo replied. “A contestant must describe what he’s painting as he goes along. And he can’t be a professional artist. Those are the rules.”

“John Helmsly sure didn’t lie about himself,” Sally declared. “He never said he was an artist.”

Encyclopedia had seen enough.

“When is your turn, Pablo?” he asked.

“There are twelve artists entered in the
speed-painting contest,” Pablo answered. “I’m the only kid, and so I paint last.”

“I’ll come back in an hour,” Encyclopedia said bravely. His eyes hurt from watching
Sailboat in Motion
take shape. He staggered off in search of relief.

There was no relief for sore eyes anywhere in the gym. It was filled with works of modern art. The pictures appeared to have been made by throwing cans of paint into a jet engine’s exhaust. The sculptures looked like pickings from a train wreck.

Encyclopedia’s eyes were crossing by the time Sally rescued him.

“Come quickly,” she urged. “Pablo paints next.”

The boy artist was making his first brushstroke when the detectives reached the speed-painting corner.

As he worked, Pablo explained what he was painting. His landscape,
Grass in October
, took four minutes and ten seconds to complete.

Grass in October
was judged good. But it was not good enough to overcome Pablo’s poor time. He finished second. John Helmsly won.

BOOK: Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Treasure Hunt
5.47Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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