Encyclopedia Brown Keeps the Peace by Donald J. Sobol

The Case of the Silver Fruit Bowl
    “Stay away from Idaville!”
    Across the nation the warning sped from crook to crook.
    Big and small, they knew what to expect if they tried anything funny in Idaville—a quick trip to jail. For more than a year, no child or grown-up had gotten away with breaking a law there.
    How did Idaville do it? What secret lay behind its war on crime? No one could guess. Idaville looked like many other seaside towns its size.
    It had two car washes, two delicatessens, three movie theaters, and four banks. It had rich families and poor families, churches and a synagogue, lovely beaches, and good places to fish.
    And on Rover Avenue it had a red brick house with a white picket fence in front.
    This was the real headquarters of Idaville’s war on crime. For within the red brick walls lived Encyclopedia Brown.
    Encyclopedia’s father was chief of the Idaville police. For more than a year now Chief Brown had brought home his hardest cases. Encyclopedia solved them at the dinner table.
    It pained Chief Brown not to tell the world. He wanted to shout from the rooftops, “My son is the greatest detective who ever walked in sneakers!”
    But how could he?
    Who would believe that the mastermind behind Idaville’s crime cleanup was ten years old?
    Encyclopedia never let drop a word about the help he gave his father. He didn’t want to seem different from other fifth-graders.
    His nickname was something else. There was nothing he could do about it.
    Only his parents and teachers called him by his real name, Leroy. Everyone else in Idaville called him Encyclopedia.
    An encyclopedia is a book or set of books filled with facts from A to Z. So was Encyclopedia’s head. He had read more books than anybody, and he never forgot a word. You might say he was the only library in America that could play second base.
    One evening his father ate his soup very slowly. Encyclopedia knew what that meant. Chief Brown had come up against a case he couldn’t solve.
    Chief Brown put down his spoon. He leaned back and said, “Mr. Holt says he was robbed this afternoon.”
    “Says?” questioned Mrs. Brown. “You make it sound as if you don’t believe him.”
    “I’m not sure,” replied Chief Brown. “Mr. Holt owns the Silver Shop on Main Street. He claims that eight fine silver dishes were stolen. No one saw the holdup, however.”
    “Why should he lie?” asked Mrs. Brown.
    “Mr. Holt won’t lose any money because of the robbery,” said Chief Brown. “He doesn’t own the silver dishes that were stolen.”
    “Who owns them?” asked Encyclopedia.
    “Mrs. Cartwright,” answered Chief Brown. “Mr. Holt agreed to show the dishes in his store. If he sold them at the price Mrs. Cartwright was asking, she was to pay him for his time and trouble.”
    “Do you think he claimed the dishes were stolen so that he can sell them himself out of town and keep all the money?” asked Encyclopedia.
    “It has been done before,” said Chief Brown.
    “Did Mr. Holt see who held him up?” inquired Mrs. Brown.
    “A single gunman,” said Chief Brown. “Mr. Holt is sure he can recognize the man if he sees him again.”
    Chief Brown unbuttoned his shirt pocket. He took out a notebook.
    “I wrote down everything Mr. Holt told me about the holdup,” he said to Encyclopedia. “Here is what he said happened.”
    Chief Brown read:
    “I was alone in the store shortly after one o’clock. I had my back to the door. I was locking a wall showcase in which I keep eight very fine silver dishes belonging to Mrs. Cartwright. Suddenly I heard the door open. A man’s voice said, ‘Don’t turn around—this is a stickup!‘ I felt a gun in my back. ’Just hand over everything in the showcase,’ the voice said. After I had given him everything—it sounded as if he put the dishes in a suitcase—he left.”
     
    Encyclopedia said, “Mr. Holt’s back was to the holdup man all the time. So how can he say he could recognize the man if