The Case of the Jumping Frogs (7 page)

Hector received the reward, a wristwatch that told time underwater.

Having just finished the twelve-hour race, Mary Mullins was very tired. So she accepted Bill Marshall’s offer to go and get wrenches rather than get them herself.

Bill offered to get the wrenches to throw suspicion off himself by helping Mary.

He didn’t fool Encyclopedia.

Being tired, Mary Mullins forgot to tell Bill the size of the wrenches she needed. But he fetched the right size wrenches for the nut and bolt!

Bill could not have known what size wrenches to bring unless he was the one who had
loosened
the nut and bolt.

Mary finished last in the one-miler.

But she had helped her teammates win the twelve-hour race. Their prize was a free trip to Washington, D.C., and the honor of mowing the south lawn of the White House.

Bill was banned from the mower races for five years.

The thief was Hal, the tractor driver.

He had cut a firebreak, leaving a trail of ground-up bushes, rocks, and stumps. Then he had come back and stolen Ribbet’s camera while everyone was frog hunting.

Hal had told the ranger he hadn’t driven the tractor into the campgrounds again.

Encyclopedia proved he had.

After the frog hunt, the children had returned to the campgrounds and played leapfrog among the
tire tracks
in the firebreak.

Encyclopedia reasoned that the driver had lowered the wheels and raised the disks in order to travel quietly. The tire tracks showed he had driven into the campgrounds
after
cutting the firebreak.

Thanks to Encyclopedia’s sharp brain, Ribbet got his camera back. Hal was fired.

Encyclopedia saw through Sledge’s lie.

A revolving door turns counterclockwise. So Sledge would have had his right arm to the open side of his door.

But Sledge had his right arm in a sling. The bag was over his left shoulder.

No thief would risk taking the time to squeeze into the revolving door with Sledge, reach around him, pull down his left arm, which was pushing the door, yank the bag free, and squeeze out again. Thieves would target someone carrying a bag over their right (or outside) shoulder.

Sledge confessed. The locomotive had not been stolen. He had hidden it, intending to come back for it. He had made up the theft so he could get another toy free.

Sledge kept the locomotive, which he had paid for, but gave back the music box. Sol bought the music box for five dollars and twenty cents and gave it to Birdie.

One of the two boys overheard in the office said, “It’s nearly twenty minutes past eleven.” That’s the way someone looking at a watch with hands states the time.

The other boy answered, “You’re fast. It’s only eleven-eighteen.” That’s the way someone with a watch that shows numbers digitally states the time. Then he added, “Oops, eleven-nineteen.” That meant a number (the minute number, in this case) had changed, as numbers do on a digital watch.

The digital watch belonged to Phil Twining. He confessed. He and Manny Foster had dumped Herb’s music down the sewer, hoping to better their chance of winning.

The judges disqualified them. They let Herb select another piece of music. He chose Scott’s piece, “The Tasmanian Jump.”

As he hadn’t practiced to “The Tasmanian Jump,” Herb finished second, behind Scott, who won.

In his eagerness to frame Felix as the thief, Rupert made a slip of the tongue. He said he saw Felix running down the exit lane after he had jogged
past
it.

That meant his back was to Felix. Sally caught the mistake.

So Rupert had to come up with an explanation fast. He said he was jogging backwards, and that was how he could see Felix.

“I always jog backwards when the sun is in my eyes, like today,” he said.

That was his second mistake.

Encyclopedia knew the sun couldn’t have been in Rupert’s eyes, whether he had been jogging forwards or backwards.

It was noon, as the church bells proclaimed. Hence, the sun was directly overhead.

Rupert’s father made him pay for the pen. The coach of the wrestling team made him run one mile after practice each day
backwards
.