The Case of the Slippery Salamander Read Online Free PDF Page B

solution to The Case of the Calculating Kid.)

The Case of the Presidential Auction

    “T hree down is a nine-letter word for a fraud or a faker,” Sally said to Encyclopedia.
    The two detectives were working on the crossword puzzle in
The Idaville News
. Yesterday it had taken them only seven minutes and forty-two seconds to finish the puzzle. Today they were trying to beat their own record.
    “That’s easy,” Encyclopedia replied. “ ‘Charlatan.’ ”
    Sally wrote down the answer. “Speaking of a nine-letter word for a faker, Gwendolyn is having an auction today.”
    “I heard,” Encyclopedia replied. “And since it’salmost the Fourth of July, she’s auctioning off stuff that used to belong to U.S. presidents.”
    “That’s what she claims, anyway,” Sally said in a disgusted tone.
    Gwendolyn Harris was an eighth-grader who collected antiques. At least that was what she called the stuff that she picked out of people’s trash. About once a month Gwendolyn auctioned off the junk. Somehow she managed to trick people into thinking that her “antiques” were worth something.
    Encyclopedia was reading the clue for sixteen across when two of his best pals, Benny Breslin and Charlie Stewart, burst into the garage.
    “Guess what!” Benny said. He proudly held up a red bow tie. “I just bought a bow tie that used to belong to Harry S. Truman. I’m giving it to my mother for her birthday.”
    Sally scowled. “Don’t tell me, let me guess—Gwendolyn said it’s an antique worth thousands of dollars.”
    “Well, it’s not worth that much yet,” Benny informed her. “But Gwendolyn says that if my mom holds on to it for a few more years, it’ll pay for her retirement!”
    Encyclopedia looked at Charlie. “I hope
you
didn’t buy anything from Gwendolyn,” he said.
    “I sure did!” Charlie held up an old pair of black flip-flops. “I bought Ronald Reagan’s beach shoes. He used to wear them when he was governor of California.”
    Benny finally noticed the suspicious looks on the detectives’ faces. “You think we’ve been conned?”
    “Let me put it this way, Benny,” Encyclopedia said with a frown. “I have the feeling that bow tie is as genuine as a three-dollar bill.”
    “Oh, no!” Benny moaned, slapping a hand to his forehead. “I can’t believe it! I can’t give my mom a phony bow tie for her birthday. You’ve got to help me and Charlie get our money back, Encyclopedia!”
    “I’d like nothing more,” Encyclopedia informed his friends.
    Fifteen minutes later, Encyclopedia and Sally arrived at Gwendolyn’s house. The Presidential Auction was still under way. A large group of kids and adults was gathered around the Harrises’ front porch. It was so hot, several of them stood under umbrellas or fanned themselves with sheets of paper.
    Encyclopedia spotted Gwendolyn on the top step. She was holding up a plastic pink flamingo.
    “Do I hear three dollars, folks?” she called. “Just three dollars for this pink plastic flamingo that Richard Milhous Nixon used to decorate the White House lawn.”
    A boy raised his hand. “Three dollars,” he called.
    “Five!” a lady up front shouted.
    “I’ll give you ten,” a man chimed in.
    “Going … going … gone!” Gwendolyn shouted. “The pink flamingo is sold to the man in the blue-and-white shirt.”
    As the man raced over to get the flamingo, Sally clenched her teeth. “We’ve got to stop her, Encyclopedia,” she muttered. “This auction is a disgrace to our nation’s history.”
    “I agree,” Encyclopedia replied. “I’m just waiting till she slips up somehow.”
    In the next few minutes, Gwendolyn auctioned off a belt buckle that she said belonged to Thomas Jefferson, a Frisbee that she claimed came from John F. Kennedy’s summer home on Cape Cod, and a plastic cup that Jimmy Carter had supposedly used as a container for peanuts.
    Then Gwendolyn held up an old toothbrush.Most of its bristles were missing. The