The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen Read Online Free Page A

“I’m little Eddie Wax. Remember me?”
    Lily and Jasper looked mystified at Eddie Wax. They had never met him before. He was red haired and wasn’t wearing any shoes. He had filled the bib pocket of his overalls with trail mix.
    â€œYep,” said Eddie. “Picture me about five feet higher? With a horse’s head? And the rest of the horse?”
    Lily and Jasper still had no idea who he was.
    â€œYou know, from the horse books. Eddie Wax! I rided Stumpy. In
Stumpy Rides to Glory.
”
    Lily nodded, smiling. “Oh, sure. I did a book report on
Stumpy Rides to Glory!”
    â€œYep. I’m Stumpy’s rider. Stumpy is my series.”
    Lily looked confused. “I, um, I only remember the first book.”
    â€œYep, I’m Stumpy’s rider.” Eddie nodded and waved his hand in the air, saying, “For that whole series, I was. Yep, she’s a good horse. Good, sweet horse.”
    â€œAre you sure there was—”
    â€œGentle as a luna moth and brave as a grizzly in the Coldstream Guards.” Eddie looked upset, and his voice had that weird, embarrassing gluey quality that voices get when we’re trying to pretend we’re not about to cry. “She’s a good horse, Stumpy. Best horse anyone could ask for.”
    â€œAttention!” cried the hotel manager. “Wefound one of the Quints’ books under the player piano in the hotel library.”
    â€œRead it to us!” an older woman in pearls and a broad straw hat beseeched him. “I do so love a story!”
    â€œOkay, okay. If you’ll all sit down for a second, I’ll read you the description of the Quints from the beginning of the book. Will that work?”
    They all sat down, and waiters walked between them, handing out sandwiches and bottled lemonade.
    The hotel manager opened to the first page of
The Hooper Quints on an Oil Derrick; or, The Danger Gang!
and he began to read.

DERRICK!” said Ray Hooper. “Jeepers-to-crow, an oil derrick is the perfectest place to spend our holiday!”
    â€œYes,” said La Hooper, “I’ve always wanted to gad about on an oil derrick! If I couldn’t have come, I would have broken my fingers! Come, let’s run and play dress-up near the extraction pipes!”
    â€œSuch larks!” exclaimed Doe Hooper, swaying by one arm from the scaffolding. “I can almost see slag from here! This will be the best holi—”
    â€œSid, duckie,” said the woman in the wide straw hat to the hotel manager. “Maybe skip to the next page?”
    â€œAh yes. Thank you, Mrs. Mandrake.” The manager flipped to the next page. He scanned it, looking for clues of the Hoopers’ appearance. “Aha,” he said. “Here’s where the Hooper Quints are first described.” He looked around the crowd. “Pay close attention,” he said.
    The Hoopers were all quintuplets. They had been born all together! That’s why they got along so well. They did everything together! They went on picnics and solved mysteries together. Recently, they had solved a mystery of a big hard old cake in
The Loud Ratcheting Noise (Hooper Quints No. 42).
They also solved mysteries on farms.
    They had a nanny! She was a musical nun. She was always there to give them sandwiches and ginger beer when they were hungry. She was a fun nun! Once, when they were very poor, she made them little matching suits out of the living-room curtains. That was great fun! When the curtain pants wore out and the shirts got torn, she cut the linoleum on the kitchen floor into lederhosen.
    She also taught them how to sing. She gave each one of them the name of a note. That’s where their nicknames came from! Doe! Ray! Mi! And so on all in a row! Would you like to hear them sing?
    No, you wouldn’t. They were awful! It was kind of a joke that the nun played on them. She told them they had beautiful voices, but they sounded really