Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Soccer Scheme Read Online Free Page A

singing with the Black Ties. I thought I’d read the newspaper while I had breakfast.”
    â€œWeren’t you worried about soiling your dress at breakfast?” Sally asked. “If I had to perform, I wouldn’t dress up until I’d eaten.”
    â€œMy black dress is always spotless. I take care of all my clothes,” Lily snapped. “I’m not ten years old.”
    â€œWhere were you when Chuck delivered the newspaper?” said Encyclopedia.
    Lily rolled her eyes. “Where would I be able to see Chuck at the front door? I was sitting on the couch!”
    Sally howled. “You sat on the cats?”
    Lily laughed scornfully. “Don’t be silly, you twit. I chased them off first.”
    All at once she stopped laughing. Her face looked as if she’d been hit over the head with the floor.
    Encyclopedia had told her how he knew she was not telling the truth.
    HOW DID ENCYLOPEDIA KNOW?
    ( Click here for the solution to “The Case of the April Fools’ Plot.” )

The Case of Wilford’s Big Deal

    Danny Proxmire, who was eight, laid twenty-five cents on the empty gas can by Encyclopedia. “I’m hiring you.”
    â€œFor what?” asked Encyclopedia.
    â€œWilford Wiggins called a secret meeting for little kids at five o’clock. He promised to make us rich beyond imagining,” Danny said.
    â€œWilford, oh that Wilford!” Sally groaned. “Phew!”
    Wilford Wiggins was a high-school dropout and as peppy as seaweed washed up on the beach. He swore he wasn’t afraid of work. He had fought it for years.
    â€œThe only exercise he gets is yawning,” Sally said.
    Wilford championed the grand old rule. Never stand if you can sit and never sit if you can lie down. While on his back he dreamed up new ways to cheat the little kids out of their piggy-bank savings.
    Last month he was raising money to save the Pony Express. A week ago it was funds for an electric napkin. It lit up so you could see to wipe your mouth in the dark.
    Wilford never got away with his phony get-rich deals, however. Encyclopedia was always there to stop him.
    â€œYou can’t trust Wilford,” Sally advised Danny.
    â€œThat’s why I’m here,” Danny said. “I need you to make sure he’s on the up-and-up this time.”
    â€œWilford wouldn’t be on the up-and-up in a ski lift,” Sally said.
    â€œWe’ll take the case,” Encyclopedia said.
    * * *
    Wilford usually held his secret meetings in the city dump. This one was in the dance classroom of the Community Center.
    â€œThe dance class for today was called off,” Danny said to the detectives. “The teacher had to fly to Akron. Wilford gets to use the room because he claimed his talk is educational. It teaches little kids how to invest their money wisely. Lucky for us, this secret meeting isn’t in the city dump again. We won’t go home stinky.”
    The dance classroom at the Community Center was overcrowded with little kids eager to hear Wilford on how to get rich quick.
    Wilford was standing in front of the children, about to offer them his newest can’t-lose moneymaking deal. Beside him stood a thin, pale-faced teenager holding a knapsack.
    â€œMeet Bruno McCumber,” Wilford announced in the voice of a duke introducing the king of England.
    Bruno bent in a modest bow. Encyclopedia remembered seeing him around town.
    He was usually admiring himself in the nearest mirror.
    â€œBruno got home yesterday from the desert where he’d been for three months prospecting for gold,” Wilford said. “He barely had enough water to stay alive. It was hot and rainless. But Bruno, alone day and night, didn’t give up. Thirsty and tired, he kept digging. Finally he struck pay dirt, and here it is. Show ’em, Bruno!”
    Bruno carefully shook a few bright yellow pebbles from his knapsack. He held them for everyone to