The Case of the Jumping Frogs (6 page)

E
ncyclopedia and Sally were biking by the Grove Shopping Center when they saw a fight about to break out.

Felix McGee and Rupert Dugan were on the sidewalk near the exit lane of the parking lot, screaming in each other’s faces.

Oscar, a security guard, was trying to keep them from putting their fists in each other’s faces.

It wasn’t easy. Both boys were built like barrels.

Felix played tackle on the seventh-grade football team. Rupert was the star of the seventh-grade wrestling team.

“Those two have never liked each other,” Sally said. “In fact, they hate each other.”

“We’d better find out what this is about,” Encyclopedia said.

The detectives walked their bikes onto the sidewalk.

Felix shook his fist under Rupert’s nose. “You’re cleared for takeoff, fatso!”

Rupert shook his fist under Felix’s jaw. “If I hit you with this, you’d better have wings that fit you.”

Oscar was glad to see Encyclopedia and Sally. He wouldn’t have to separate the two boys by force. He let the young detectives take over.

Felix and Rupert were glad, too. They were saved from having to make good their threats to punch each other out.

Oscar told the detectives what had happened. A few minutes earlier, he had seen a boy palm a silver pen from a counter in Fabian’s Gift Shoppe. The boy shoved it into his pocket and legged it out of there.

“I chased him outside,” Oscar said. “He ran from the parking lot down the exit lane to the street.”

“You never saw the thief’s face?” Sally asked.

“No, I saw only his back,” Oscar said. “I lost sight of him for a moment when a pickup truck drove between us. Then I saw these two boys. Both were dressed like the thief, in a white T-shirt, blue shorts, and sneakers. They were quarreling. Neither had the pen on him.”

“That’s because I saw Felix toss something small into a pickup truck that was driving past,” Rupert said. “It must have been the pen he stole.”

“He could have,” Oscar admitted. “I didn’t see that because the pickup truck passed between us.”

“Felix had to get rid of it before you caught up with
him,” Rupert continued. “It was evidence. Now it’s out. He’s been living a dark and secret life—the life of a shoplifter!”

“I didn’t steal anything. I didn’t toss anything into a truck,” Felix insisted. “Rupert did.”

“Then why were you running?” Encyclopedia asked.

“Because I had to be home by noon for my aunt’s birthday party. I ran because I realized it was noon and I was late.”

“Without a watch, how did you know it was noon?” Sally said, pointing to Felix’s bare wrist.

“I was in the bookstore when I heard the bells in the church behind the shopping center. They chime at noon,” Felix replied.

Oscar nodded. “The church bells did chime.”

Felix said, “My house is only three blocks away. I figured if I ran like crazy I wouldn’t be more than a couple of minutes late. Now I’ll really be late.”

Encyclopedia turned to Rupert. “What were you doing near the shopping center?”

“I was jogging,” he answered. “I like to keep in shape.”

“The shape of a watermelon,” Felix said.

“I had jogged past the exit lane when I saw Felix running down it,” Rupert said. “I saw him toss something small and shiny into a passing truck. It must have been the pen. I stopped to see what was going on.”

“How could you see Felix running down the exit lane?” demanded Sally. “You just said you had jogged
past
it. That means you had your back to him.”

“I was jogging backwards when I saw Felix running,” Rupert said. “I always jog backwards when the sun is in my eyes, like today. Everything that forwards running messes up, backwards running puts right. Backwards running helps the knees and hips and is easier on the joints. But it’s tiring.”

“You hunk of blubber!” Felix cried. “You didn’t see anything.”

“I know what I saw,” Rupert said. “You didn’t want Oscar to find the pen on you, so you threw it into a passing truck. My eyes don’t lie.”

“Oh, yeah?” Felix snapped. “You remind me of an ostrich. An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.”

“Oh, yeah?” Rupert retorted. “You remind me of a starfish. A starfish
has
no brain.”

“Encyclopedia,” Sally whispered. “What do you think? Felix could have stolen the pen and tossed it into the truck before Oscar caught up with him. Or Rupert could have stolen the pen and dumped it in the truck himself.”

“A case about a pen is a case about words,” answered the detective. “Therefore, the boy who didn’t tell the truth is—”

When Chief Brown said there were mile markers along the border of the Landsmill Highway, Encyclopedia knew where the jewelry was buried.

The last two lines of the riddle told him.

The line “But the first clue is in order” meant that the first number of the mile marker was forty. It is the only number in the English language whose letters are in alphabetical order.

The second number of the mile marker was one. It is the only number in English whose letters are in reverse alphabetical order.

Therefore, Mrs. Cushman’s jewelry was buried by or under marker forty-one.

Chief Brown ordered a stakeout of mile marker forty-one. Six days later, The Poet was captured as he dug up Mrs. Cushman’s jewelry.

Encyclopedia realized what was stopping the water from coming out of the small hole near the bottom of the bottle.

It was not the Antiflow pill, which was nothing but a piece of wood painted white.

It was the bottle cap.

Had Wilford not screwed the cap on tightly, the water would have continued to come out of the hole.

Prove this for yourself. Do as Wilford did. Let water flow out a small hole near the bottom of a plastic bottle.

Now press the palm of your hand over the top of the bottle or screw the cap on tightly.

The water will stop coming out until you remove your hand or loosen the cap!

Wilford was forced to admit the pill was a fake and stopped trying to sell Antiflow.

Stinky said he had become sick when his horse moved up and down on its pole. He had gone to the bench to recover.

He had already seen Waldo carrying the bag toward the carousel. He had stood by the black horse as if preparing to mount. The black horse was three horses behind Waldo’s white one. Hence, once the carousel began to turn, Waldo was unlikely to look back and see what Stinky was up to.

Stinky never sat on the black horse.

When the ride started, he went straight to the bench to see what was in the bag. He was too busy reading Waldo’s essay to notice his mistake.

But Encyclopedia noticed.

A carousel horse with three feet (or four feet) on the ground, like the black horse, doesn’t move up and down. It doesn’t move at all! Stinky couldn’t have gotten sick!

Stinky returned Waldo’s essay. It won second prize, a globe.

Alma wanted to get even with Nemo for beating her to the tuba and knocking her off her bike. So she telephoned Mr. Downing, the orchestra conductor. She told him that she was hurt and couldn’t get to school to play in “March of the Frosty Flowers.” She promised to practice the trumpet at home.

Alma thought that gave her an alibi. How could she have switched the valves on the tuba if she wasn’t at the school?

Encyclopedia knew better.

She had hurt not only her foot, but her lip, too. It was bleeding when she fell off the bike.

She couldn’t have been at home blowing a trumpet with a cut lip.

Caught in the lie, she confessed. She had switched the valves on Nemo’s tuba.

Mr. Downing moved her from the trumpet to the triangle.

Nemo kept the tuba.

Bugs had also read about the lost ring in the
Idaville Gazette
. He had to say he found the ring in the water around the reef where Mrs. van Colling thought she had lost it.

That would prove how smart he was, smarter than the divers she had hired.

The divers would have searched all the parts of the reef. But they wouldn’t have bothered to look under a dead yellow fish lying on the bottom. At least that’s what Bugs thought.

He was right. The divers didn’t look under the fish because it wasn’t there.

Fish that haven’t been dead long enough to lose their color don’t sink to the bottom. They float near the surface.

Caught like a fish out of water, Bugs admitted taking the ring from Hector. Truth, he decided, hurt less than Sally’s fists. He gave back the ring.