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minutes Chief Brown looked through field glasses at a small red boat in the distance.
    According to the newspaper stories, the two robbers had worn masks. No one knew what they looked like. As it had been dark, no one could be sure of what their boat looked like-only that it was not white.
    Chief Brown slowed the motor. He handed Encyclopedia a fishing rod. “Time to try our luck,” he said.
    The fish were biting. Father and son had landed ten beauties when Chief Brown suddenly put aside his rod. For several minutes he looked through field glasses at a small red boat in the distance.
    Then he called the Coast Guard on the ship-to-shore radio.
    Within forty minutes a Coast Guard cutter came alongside. It carried a big gun on the front deck.
    Chief Brown greeted the captain. “I think that’s the one we’ve been looking for,” he said, pointing to the red boat. “I would have moved closer, but my son is with me.”
    “Better drop anchor and come aboard,” said the captain. “This will be the safest place if there is shooting.”
    Chief Brown put over the anchor. He and Encyclopedia climbed aboard the cutter. The captain shouted orders. The cutter headed for the small red boat.
    At first the red boat seemed empty. Then Encyclopedia saw a man. He came out of the tiny cabin and waved.
    The cutter swung alongside. A rope ladder was dropped, and the man reached for it weakly. Three Coast Guardsmen helped him aboard.
    “Thank goodness you saw us!” the man gasped, stepping onto the deck of the cutter. He took off his cap. With a handkerchief he wiped the heavy sweat from his bald head and face. “Water, please,” he said. “Water!” .
    Water was brought. The man drank it in great gulps.
    “I’m Rodney Ascot,” he said at last. “Ben Page and I were out for a day’s fishing when the storm hit us. The waves were terrible. The radio went dead right away. Sea water got into the gas, and the engine quit.”
    Again he dried the sweat from his head and face with his handkerchief.
    “We’ve been drifting four days without food and water,” he went on. “We had some food in a chest, but it was washed overboard with our fishing things. Ben passed out yesterday from thirst. He’s in the cabin.”
    Ben Page was immediately brought onto the cutter and taken below. Roger Ascot followed him.
    Chief Brown climbed down the rope ladder. For a few minutes he looked carefully around the red boat.
    “There’s water in the gas, all right,” he said. “The radio doesn’t work, and I don’t see any food or drinking water.”
    “How about guns?” said Encyclopedia. “And the stolen jewels and furs?”
    “The boat is clean,” said Chief Brown. “I may have made a mistake. Roger Ascot and Ben Page don’t appear to be the robbers.”
    “Don’t believe Roger Ascot’s story,” warned Encyclopedia. “He has the face of a liar!”
     
    WHAT DID ENCYCLOPEDIA MEAN?
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    (Turn to page 96 for the solution to The Case of the Red Boat.)

Solution to The Case of the Silver fruit Bowl
    Chief Brown’s words pointed out to Encyclopedia where Mr. Holt had lied.
    Chief Brown said that the silver fruit bowl “was rounded inside like a big spoon.”
    It would have been impossible for Mr. Holt, looking into the fruit bowl, to get a good idea of what the holdup man looked like, as he claimed.
    Look into a shiny spoon. What do you see? You see yourself as in a mirror, but-upside down!
    Shown how impossible his story was, Mr. Holt told the truth. He had made up the holdup man. He had stolen the silver dishes himself, hoping to sell them in another city and keep all the money.
    Solution to The Case of the Dwarf’s Beard
    Bugs claimed he had burned the candle in the clubhouse with the door open.
    Further, he said he had not touched the candle after placing it on the orange crate.
    But the dwarf faced the door, from where the breeze came. And “all the drippings” of the melted wax were on the front of