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away the footprints!” exclaimed Otto.
    “Barney Slade and his wife live in a shack about two miles on the other side of the beach,” said Chief Brown. “Barney has limped since he took a nasty fall last year.”
    “Is Barney the thief?” asked Otto.
    “He might be,” said Chief Brown. “I’d say Barney might have stolen a car and driven out here after the robbery. He probably then left the car by the old dock, hoping the police would believe the thief got away by boat.”
    “Instead he took a shortcut across the beach,” said Otto. “He had his own car parked at the north end!”
    “Yes,” said Chief Brown. “But halfway across the beach, he noticed you. It was too late to do anything. He knew you were too far away to see his face, but he worried about his footprints. So after you ran to town, he returned and wiped them away.”
    “But there is no car except yours by the dock,” said Otto. “And I don’t think he’d dare chance smoothing out the sand. Somebody else might have seen him.”
    “Maybe he covered the footprints and then hid the getaway car,” said Chief Brown. “Still, I agree. It doesn’t add up.”
    “And I’m still stuck with the ghost of Jennifer MacIntosh,” complained Otto. “No one will ever believe me!”
    “Wrong,” said Encyclopedia. “I believe you.”
     
     
    WHAT DID ENCYCLOPEDIA MEAN?

Solution to The Case of the Growling Dog
    Rover, an attack dog, was trained to hold strangers by the clothing.
    But what if Rover had nothing to hold?
    The poor dog could not do what he had been trained to do. So he would have a fit and break down.
    That, Encyclopedia realized, is what had happened.
    Ed had caught his shirt on the low branch, but not while he was crawling. The shirt was dangling from his hand!
    For Ed was carrying his shirt—and all his clothing. He left his clothing outside the fenced yard.
    Then he climbed the fence and walked past the confused Rover— naked!
    Found out, Ed confessed to stealing Mr. Dale’s tools.
    And Rover recovered after a time.

Solution to The Case of the Red Harmonica
    Bugs said he found the red harmonica on a trash pile at night.
    He described the trash pile by Northcliff’s house. He wanted Encyclopedia to believe that Northcliff had thrown the harmonica away or misplaced it.
    But the only lights by the trash pile were blue.
    So Bugs lied. He could not have seen something red shining in the blue light.
    If only blue light shines on a red object, it would not appear red.
    It would appear black!
    Bugs gave back the harmonica—after he had dashed off a few bars of “Sad Heart of Mine.”

Solution to The Case of the Knockout Artist
    Bugs wanted to get even with Sally for licking him. So he tried to match her against his cousin, Bearcat.
    He had Ike go to the detective agency with a fake story. Ike said Bugs owed him two dollars.
    To get Sally angry enough to fight Bearcat, Ike claimed that Bearcat had said he fought no better than a girl.
    But Ike got carried away with his role. He said he had hurt his hands on Bearcat’s head. He couldn’t even reach into his pocket and get a quarter.
    Later, however, he helped lace up Sally’s gloves.
    He had forgotten his hands were supposed to be too sore!
    But Encyclopedia hadn’t.

Solution to The Case of the Headless Runner
    From behind some bushes, Duke had thrown a rock at the door light—just as the lightning flashed.
    The street lit up, and he saw Encyclopedia and Charlie approaching. He was afraid they might see him hiding or running back to his house.
    So he made up a story. He had been awakened by the thunder. Then, in the flash of lightning, he had seen two boys break the door light. He had grabbed his shirt and given chase.
    Impossible! Thunder comes after, not before, lightning. When the thunder roared, the lightning had already passed. Duke could have seen only darkness if the thunder had awakened him.
    He was taking off his shirt as he ran toward Encyclopedia and Charlie, pretending