Encyclopedia Brown sets the pace

by Sobol, Donald J. , 1924-

  "There'll be waves of interviews," he said, straightening. "You know, radio, television, newspapers. I'll feed 'em a few choice lines about the conquest of pain and how I never quit. Then I'll bring up my acting career."

  "Why should anyone interview you?" inquired Sally. "How can you hope to win?"

  "Who said anything about winning?" asked Cicero.

  "Well, what—"

  "I've been training for three days," declared Cicero. "Plenty of overeating and no exercise. I'm in shape, and I'm ready. I plan to finish last."

  Encyclopedia wished him luck.

  "I'll need it," replied Cicero. "Anyone can win a marathon. It isn't so easy to finish last."

  With that, he departed the way he had entered, staggering toward an imaginary finish line.

  The Case of the Marathon Runner

  The next day, Sunday, the detectives hiked to City Hall, where the marathon was to begin. Cicero, the youngest runner, wore number 84.

  At two o'clock, the starter fired his gun. Encyclopedia and Sally watched till the runners were out of sight. Then they peddled to the seven-mile mark of the race.

  Nearly two hours later, Cicero jogged by. He was locked in a struggle for last place with a woman wearing a neck brace and a man running backward.

  "Keep it up, Cicero!" Sally shouted. To Encyclopedia she said with a sigh, 'This may go on all night."

  There was nothing to do but telephone their parents and say they would be home late. They went to a movie and ate dinner at Andy's Pizza Parlor.

  Night had fallen when they stopped outside the Idaville Concert Hall, a mile from the finish, and cheered a few runners laboring past. Encyclopedia pointed to the large electric sign above the concert hall: "Tonight Only—Railroad Brotherhood Band Concert."

  "We might as well go in," he said. "Cicero won't be coming by for another hour."

  The detectives bought tickets and forgot about the time as they sat listening to the

  ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN SETS THE PACE

  music. Just before the intermission, the band struck up a medley of state songs.

  'This piece sounds Uke IVe Been Workin' on the Railroad/ " Sally said. ''But the program lists the title as 'Eyes of Texas.' "

  "Both songs have the same tune," Encyclopedia explained, glancing down at Sally's program. He noticed her watch. It was nearly nine o'clock!

  "We may miss Cicero!" he gasped. "C'mon!"

  By taking a shortcut, they reached the finish line of the marathon in three minutes. The area was nearly deserted.

  All the spectators had gone home, and the last officials were preparing to leave. The first-aid station had closed. A single reporter chatted idly with men from a television truck as they packed their gear.

  Suddenly someone shouted, "Hold everything! Here comes one more!"

  A TV man grabbed a camera and aimed it down the shadowed street at a small figure— number 84. It was Cicero! The young actor wobbled like a broken top and fell across the finish line.

  "He's done it!" yelled Sally. "He's lost to everyone!"

  "He took more than seven hours," marveled Encyclopedia.

  ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN SETS THE PACE

  Surrounded by a storm of congratulations, Cicero quickly livened to his task. He struck pose after pose, gestured, bowed, and likened the hardships of a marathon to getting ahead in acting.

  He was delivering lines from his most recent dramatic appearance when Millicent Potter, number 76, crossed the finish line. All at once, Cicero was without an audience. Everyone dashed to welcome the new loser.

  Millicent, a pretty tenth grader, seemed astonished by her sudden importance. She hadn't realized, she said, that she was the only runner still on the course.

  "This is my first marathon, and I didn't think I could make it," she said, panting. "Then I passed the concert hall while the Railroad Band was playing 'Eyes of Texas.' The music inspired me."

  She wiped her face with a forearm and smiled bravely at the TV camera.

  "I started humming as I ran the last mile," she said. "Music gives me strength. Music is my life. 1 hope to be a singer after I graduate high school. But it's so hard for an unknown to get a break today. ..."

  Cicero was listening to her in shock. She had not only stolen his great moment, she was

  The Case of the Marathon Runner

  using it to advance her career.

  ''I feel sorry for Cicero/' Sally said. "What tough luck to have outrun Millicent."

  "He didn't/' replied Encyclopedia. "When the officials learn what Millicent did, they'll declare Cicero the rightful last-place finisher."

  WHAT DID ENCYCLOPEDIA MEAN?

  (Turn to page 89 for the solution to 'The Case of the Marathon Runner/')

  Solution

  THE CASE

  OF THE

  SUPERMARKET SHOPPER

  Encyclopedia realized the thief was Mr. Houser, who made sure Mr. Quinn was away from his house a good while.

  Mr. Quinn had to buy four rolls of paper towels, a whisk broom for Mr. Trad, and two loaves of bread for Mr. Finkelstein. With only seven purchases, Mr. Quinn could use the speed counter, where the limit was ten.

  So Mr. Houser asked for four tubes of toothpaste to bring the total to eleven purchases. Therefore, Mr. Quinn had to wait in one of the long lines at the regular checkout counters, delaying his return home by fifteen or twenty minutes.

  The painting was found hidden in Mr. Houser's attic.

  Solution

  THE CASE

  OF THE

  DINOSAUR HUNTER

  Bugs said the towel had fallen into Mill Pond and that he had hung it out to dry. Because it was a plain white towel, he didn't think anyone could prove it wasn't his.

  Wrong! Encyclopedia could.

  The detective felt the towel. It was soft and fluffy.

  Only a towel that has been machine dried—like Garth's was—will come out soft and fluffy. A towel that has been thoroughly soaked and hung out in the air will feel stiff after it has dried.

  Thanks to Encyclopedia, Bugs took back the dinosaur license and returned Garth's towel.

  Solution

  THE CASE

  OF THE

  USED FIRECRACKERS

  Bugs Meany blamed Encyclopedia and Sally for setting off firecrackers. Actually, he and his Tigers had been setting them off all summer.

  Bugs thought he had everything figured out. Officer Friedman naturally would radio his position when he arrived on the scene. So he wouldn't be sure about hearing a firecracker go off, as Bugs said it had.

  But Bugs had forgotten about the birds. If the detectives had really set off a firecracker, the noise would have frightened the birds away.

  As Encyclopedia pointed out to Officer Friedman, the birds were sitting peacefully on the wires above them.

  Solution

  THE CASE

  OF THE

  UGLIEST DOG

  Earl Hanes sought to improve his dog's chances of winning the ugUest-dog class.

  While pretending to pat Twitchy, Earl secretly fed her sleeping pills. But then he became afraid that Scott Curtis had unknowingly photographed him in the act. So Earl removed the evidence, Scott's color film, and substituted a roll of his own, which was black and white.

  Later, Kate Felton didn't wish to pose in her orange blouse and Sally's purple skirt. Impatient with Kate, Earl gave himself away. He shouted that the colors ''won't show." Only the person who knew Scott had black-and-white film in his camera could have been so certain.

  Because of Encyclopedia's keen ear and memory, Earl had to confess.

  Solution

  THE CASE

  OF

  HILBERT'S SONG

  The thief was Maggie, who pretended to be terribly upset about the disappearance of the tape.

  Using an eyedropper, she faked a tear. But she placed the drop of water on the outside corner of her eye. That was her mistake!

  If only one tear falls, it will run from the inside corner of the
eye, by the nose, and not from the outside corner.

  Encyclopedia spotted the mistake, and Maggie confessed. She had hidden the tape, planning to sell it as her own.

  Hilbert sent the tape to a record company. It was returned with a note saying his song had a pretty good beat, but it wasn't loud enough, and it needed more singers.

  Solution

  THE CASE

  OF THE

  CROWING ROOSTER

  Encyclopedia noticed what the other children had overlooked—what really made the rooster crow. It wasn't the ray.

  Bill had kept the rooster hidden under his overcoat, in darkness. When he took it out, the bird saw the first shades of sunset. But it thought, after being kept in darkness, that the time of day was sunrise.

  Hence the rooster did what roosters do naturally at sunrise. It crowed.

  Thanks to Encyclopedia, none of the children gave Wilford money for the phony ray.

  Solution

  THE CASE

  OF THE

  BUBBLE GUM SHOOTOUT

  Teresa wasn't the ''perfect stranger" Malcolm made her out to be. She had come prepared to blow bubble gum.

  Encyclopedia realized immediately that the peanut butter wasn't her lunch, as she pretended. There was nothing to spread it on or eat it with.

  What was the peanut butter for? Encyclopedia knew.

  Peanut butter is the handiest thing to use for untangling hair stuck with bubble gum.

  After being faced with the evidence, Malcolm admitted he had cheated. Teresa was his cousin—the under-sixteen girls' bubble gum champion of nearby Glenn City.

  Cephas lost the shootout, but he won the bike.

  Solution

  THE CASE

  OF THE

  BOY JUGGLER

  The thief was Archie, who wanted to win the jugghng contest.

  When Encyclopedia remarked that the thief's fingerprints would be on Fangs's suitcase, Archie became frightened. He tried to cast suspicion on the woman in the yellow dress. He said, "... she had a yellow suitcase like Fangs's."

  But earlier Archie had said he hadn't seen Fangs's suitcase. So he couldn't have known it was yellow unless he was the thief!

  Foiled by his own words, he showed Fangs where he'd hidden the suitcase.

  Fangs had just enough time to take the stage. But without a warm-up, he gagged on an apple and had to withdraw.

  Solution

  THE CASE

  OF THE

  PRACTICAL JOKERS

  Conrad had put the water bucket over the screen door, but Morris was the thief.

  Having failed to kidnap JuUus the night before, he stole the book. He expected to grow his own super-strong hog by learning what to feed it.

  Encyclopedia knew because Morris hopped around "for several minutes" after receiving the "hot foot." An innocent boy would have removed the painfully hot shoe immediately.

  Morris was afraid to take off his shoe and show the telltale hole in his sock, Encyclopedia realized.

  After Conrad and Andrew threatened to hold him down and search him, Morris confessed.

  Solution

  THE CASE

  OF THE

  MARATHON RUNNER

  Millicent lied when she said she had ''passed the concert hall while the Railroad Band was playing 'Eyes of Texas.' "

  She knew the sign out front gave the name of the band. So, running past, she would have assumed the song was "I've Been Workin' on the Railroad."

  Only if she had been inside the hall and seen the program could she have known the song was "Eyes of Texas." Both songs, as Encyclopedia told Sally, have the same tune!

  Thanks to Encyclopedia, the truth came out. She had left the race after two miles and had not come back until the last mile.

  Millicent was disqualified. Cicero was declared the official loser.

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