Free Encyclopedia Brown Takes the Case by Donald J. Sobol Page A

free and called the police.”
    “Did Mr. Aukland get a look at the two men while he still wore his eyeglasses?” asked Mrs. Brown.
    “Yes,” replied Chief Brown. “He says that if he sees them again, he’ll recognize them.”
    “Then what is the mystery?” exclaimed Mrs. Brown. “Why did Chief Carleton telephone you for help, dear?”
    “He suspects Aukland,” said Chief Brown. “He thinks Aukland stole the money and made up the part about the two men. But he can’t prove Aukland is lying.”
    Mrs. Brown glanced at Encyclopedia. As yet the boy detective had not asked his one question -the question that always enabled him to break a case.
    Encyclopedia had finished his soup. He was sitting with his eyes closed. He always closed his eyes when he did his hardest thinking.
    Suddenly his eyes opened.
    “What was the temperature in the house, Dad?” he asked.
    Chief Brown looked at his notebook.
    “Aukland says that the house was comfortably warm when he entered it. After finding his eyeglasses and calling the police, he checked the reading. It was seventy degrees.”
    “Leroy ...” murmured Mrs. Brown. Disappointment was in her voice.
    She was so proud when Encyclopedia solved a mystery for his father before she served the main course. But sometimes she had to wait until dessert. This looked like a dessert case.
    “What is important about heat?” she asked.
    “Not any heat, Mom,” said Encyclopedia. “The heat in the house.”
    “I don’t follow you, son,” said Chief Brown.
    “The house was too hot for Mr. Aukland to have seen two men robbing the safe,” answered Encyclopedia. “He made them up.”
    HOW DID ENCYCLOPEDIA KNOW?
     
     
     
     
    (Turn to page 87 for the solution to The Case of the Stolen Money.)

The Case of the Talking House
    Encyclopedia helped his father solve mysteries throughout the year. In the summer, he helped the neighborhood children as well.
    When school let out, he opened his own detective agency in the garage. Every morning he hung out his sign.

    His first customer Monday afternoon was Scoop McGinnis.
    Scoop was five. He could neither read nor write. But with the help of his older sister, he put out a two-page weekly newspaper, The Cricket.
    The Cricket was by kids, for kids, and about kids. It stood for good citizenship, zoos, toys, and better hot dogs. It was against bad candy and people who didn’t like The Cricket.
    When he came to see Encyclopedia, Scoop was sucking his forefinger.
    Right away Encyclopedia knew something was wrong. Scoop usually sucked his thumb.
    “You know the old Webster house on the beach?” asked Scoop.
    Encyclopedia knew it. No one had lived there for years and years. The window glass had fallen out. Six inches of sand covered the floors.
    “The house is so old it’s dangerous,” said Encyclopedia. “The city plans to knock it down next week.”
    “That house was mad,” said Scoop. “It bited me.”
    “You mean it bit you,” corrected Encyclopedia. Then he caught himself. “Houses don’t bite! ”
    “Look at my finger,” said Scoop.
    Encyclopedia looked. “You’ve got a splinter,” he said.
    Scoop frowned. “If that house didn’t bite me, then maybe it didn’t talk to me.”
    “Keep calm,” Encyclopedia told himself. “I was once five years old myself.”
    To Scoop he said, “Would you mind starting at the beginning, please?”
    “This morning after breakfast, I interviewed that house for The Cricket,” said Scoop. “I wanted to know how it felt about being knocked down.”
    “That’s when it bit you?”
    “That’s when it talked to me,” said Scoop. “It said it takes a lot of money to save a house. It told me to go home and bring all my money. I did—a dollar and fifty cents.”
    “It wasn’t enough,” guessed Encyclopedia.
    “How did you know?” said Scoop. “Because I didn’t bring more, the house got mad and bit me—I thought. I dropped the money and ran.”
    “Were you alone in the house?”