Read Bicycle Mystery for Free Online Page A

around putting ribbons on the cages. The crowd followed them to see which dogs were winners. Then what a surprise! Nobody could believe it. Smoky, the Bicycle Dog, had the second prize, a red ribbon, and the blue ribbon went to Cinderella!
    Carl said, “Well, never mind. I like red better than blue anyway.”
    “I don’t,” said Uncle Eric. “But I’m not surprised.”
    “Aren’t you surprised?” Jessie asked Mrs. Randall.
    “No. I’ll explain. Smoky’s trip didn’t do him any good. He wasn’t dried when he got wet in the rain. He wasn’t washed. A dog must be in perfect condition to win the blue ribbon in this show.”
    “But wait till next year!” said Uncle Eric.
    Suddenly Ben said, “Look—twins! Exactly alike.”

    “One in pink and one in blue,” said Violet in a low voice.
    Jessie said, “They are coming this way. I think they are looking for Smoky.”
    A smiling woman and the two little girls came through the crowd.
    “We want to see our dog,” said the twin in pink. “My name is Laurie.”
    “Your dog?” asked Benny. “You mean the Bicycle Dog?”
    “Well, he isn’t really ours. But we saw him twice, and we wanted him very much. My name is Joy.”
    The lady said, “We are the Fullers. My girls just love that dog. They saw him in a parking lot in Essex.”
    “Oh, yes,” said Laurie. “He was running around the parking lot.”
    “Where were you?” asked Uncle Eric.
    “We were in the back of the station wagon,” replied Joy. “We can see everything. We called him and called him, but he ran off. Then we saw the same dog at a vegetable stand way out in the country.”
    “Well,” said Benny, “that settles that. Nobody stole him.”
    “But they tried to, Ben,” Henry said. “Don’t forget that.”
    “I’ll never forget that,” said Benny.
    Then Uncle Eric said, “Did you girls see what happened to Smoky that day in the parking lot?”
    “Oh, yes,” said Laurie.
    “Oh, no,” said Joy. “All we know is that he ran out of the parking lot and right across the road.”
    “And he wasn’t even run over,” Laurie added.
    “No,” agreed Uncle Eric without a smile. “I should say he got across the road safely. You don’t know which way he went after that?”
    “Oh, yes, we know which way he went. Do you know that shortcut in Essex to the old back road? Well, that’s where he was going. Right to that old country road.”
    “We hoped he would find his way home, because the next night it rained. Did you find him?”
    “He found us,” said Benny. “He climbed in our window to get out of the rain. On that old country road.”
    Henry asked, “And you saw him again at a roadside stand?”
    “That’s right,” said Joy. “My father says Smoky will get first prize in any dog show next year. We want to say hello to him.”
    Smoky seemed to know the little twins. He tried to get out of the cage, and he licked their hands and whined.
    A policeman had been walking around the show all day. Now he came walking up to the Aldens. He said to Henry, “You kids want to help me? I hear that you had a bit of trouble with a man and a woman who tried to get your dog.”
    “That’s right,” Henry answered.
    “Would you know them again, if you saw them?” asked the officer.
    “We would!” said Benny.
    The officer looked at the four Aldens and smiled. He said, “Well, we have a couple at the police station. Tomorrow will you come with me and tell me if they are the same ones you saw?”
    “We certainly will,” answered Henry.
    “That’s all I want,” the officer said with a wink. “You all agree?”
    “Yes, sir,” Jessie said. “They tried twice to get the dog.”
    “Good,” the policeman said. “We found them with two stolen poodles and a Scottie that didn’t belong to them. That man and woman will go back where they came from, but they will pay a great big fine!”
    “They deserve it!” Benny said. “I hope they won’t do it again.”
    “They won’t,”