Read Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Treasure Hunt for Free Online

dirt.

    The children crowded around, waiting for results. They waited and waited.
    After what seemed hours, a worm wiggled to the surface. Then another and another. Eventually twelve worms lay upon the wet dirt.
    “Did you see that?” Wilford screamed with excitement. “I put twelve worms in this box. Melvin’s magic pill brought every one out into the open.”
    “Yucky, yucky, who cares about worms?” a girl said.
    “Fishermen!” The word burst from Wilford as if he couldn’t hold it back any longer. “Do you know how many fishermen there are in Idaville? Thousands! Every one of ’em needs cheap live bait—like
worms.”
    “You can start your own worm business,” Melvin said, his voice as sweet as the sight of cash. “Buy a bottle of my magic worm pills and sprinkle your backyard. If you don’t want to dirty your hands, sprinkle your front yard. You’ll sweep the little darlings off the sidewalk like so many dollar bills.”
    Wilford said, “For today only, I’m offeringyou a special low, low rate. A bottle of twenty of the magic worm pills for only five dollars!”
    The children chattered excitedly. There was money to be had in selling worms to fishermen, all right. The pills made it easy—and gave a little kid the chance to start a business.
    “What do you think, Encyclopedia? Should I buy a bottle of Melvin’s pills?” Olivia asked.
    “Buy his pills and all you’ll get is a soaking,” the detective replied.
    WHAT WAS WRONG WITH THE PILLS?
    (Turn to this page for the solution to
The Case of the Worm Pills.)

Solution to
The Case of the Masked Robber

    Mr. Crandan said the robber was wearing a short-sleeved shirt. So he must have seen the robber’s forearms.
    The racquet arm of a tennis professional like Carl Enright, who played for twenty years, would be heavily developed. Thus, if the robber had one forearm much thicker than the other, he was Carl. If both forearms wereabout the same size, he was Fred, the store clerk.
    Mr. Crandan, himself a tennis teacher, could have immediately told whether the robber was Carl or Fred by the forearms. The fact that he didn’t proved he had lied.
    He had hoped to collect the insurance money, throw suspicion on one of the Enrights, and still keep the three screens.
    Solution to
The Case of the Round Pizza

    Bugs said, “We Tigers share everything equally. We each had a couple of pieces, so you can have the last one.”
    He was telling the truth—almost—and that was his mistake.
    If Bugs and his two Tigers had each eaten two pieces, there would not have been an odd number, such as one, left in the box.
    Pizzas are sliced into an even number ofpieces. The Tigers ate six. Thus there would have been an even number of pieces left in the box if Bugs had come with a whole pie.
    So Bugs had brought to the clubhouse an odd number of pieces. One piece was missing—the piece he stole from Farnsworth before he took the whole pizza.
    Trapped by Encyclopedia’s sharp brain, Bugs took up a collection and bought Farnsworth another pizza.
    Solution to
The Case of Bugs’s Zebra

    Bugs had one of his Tigers call Sally, say he was Phil Birch, and hire her to pick up the shopping bag at the zoo.
    Bugs had to have a reason for being at the zoo when the detectives arrived. He had to be able to say he saw them feeding the antelopes sweets.
    So he said he was sketching a zebra.
    Actually, he had drawn the zebra at homefrom memory. That was his mistake!
    Had he drawn the zebra from sight, he would not have had one of the body stripes “running from the front to the hind legs.”
    Body stripes on a zebra do not run side to side, but up and down.
    Bugs confessed, snarled, and slunk out of the zoo.
    Solution to
The Case of the Treasure Hunt

    Having spied on Mr. McPherson, Regina knew the last clue was: “Look beneath the best-known dairy in town.” She also knew the “You Won” card was under the windshield wiper of the pickup truck there.
    So Encyclopedia told Mr. McPherson