The Case of the Leaking Tent
As we’ve learned before, no one liked camping with Benny Breslin because of his chronic snoring. However, Encyclopedia and Charlie Stewart threw caution into the wind and went camping with him anyway. Benny’s father had bought him a tent that was supposedly soundproof, so the others should have been able to sleep in another tent undisturbed. Even though the tent had a thicker, leather-like surface, they were still skeptical of the sound-proofing ability of this tent.
After the three boys pitched their tents, they began throwing a football around. After a while, two sixth-graders, John Carter and Gower Bell rode by on their bicycles. They pitched their tents at a nearby campsite and joined the other three.
An hour later, the group decided to go fishing. On their way, John got a thorn stuck deep into his finger. Gower went to his tent with a sewing kit and some first aid supplies. He sterilized a sewing needle by burning the tip with a match and dug the thorn out. Then he put some antiseptic on the wound and covered it with a bandage.
Benny had the most luck with getting the fish. While no one caught anything, Benny caught four. Encyclopedia built a fire and the fish were fried up and served. The five boys sat around the fire talking about whatever kids talk about until it was time to turn in.
Within minutes, Benny’s snore proved to be too mighty for the sound-proofing on his tent. His snoring was so loud, the Encyclopedia and Charlie could even hear it over the sound of the heavy rain on their tent.
At dawn, Benny woke his two friends up saying that ruined his tent and that the rain got in. When Encyclopedia looked at it, he noticed that it was full of tiny holes. He looked around the area and noticed a bandage, similar to the one John had on his finger, and a penny on the ground nearby.
The boys suspected that John and Gower had ruined the tent, but they had to prove it first. Encyclopedia decided that their best bet would be to use the bandage and the penny to get them to confess.
John and Gower were jealous of Benny’s fishing ability and also kept awake by his snoring. To get back at him, they poked little holes into his tent. I’m not sure how that qualified as sufficient payback, but whatever. Gower was unable to get the needle through the thick material of Benny’s tent, so he taped a penny to his finger using a bandage and used it as a thimble. When he was done ruining Benny’s tent, he left the penny and bandage in the mud, figuring no one would be able to put it together that that was used to poke the holes. Except Encyclopedia knew. Or, at least, he assumed. And he also lied and said that he was able to get a fingerprint on the penny.
It was at that point that Gower confessed and bought Benny a new tent. So really, Encyclopedia was just lucky that Gower was gullible enough to believe that he had left a fingerprint on the penny. Had Gower not confessed, Encyclopedia wasn’t able to prove anything.
Encyclopedia’s entire case rested upon the fact that two boys’ jealousy over Benny’s ability to catch fish would be enough to cause them to cause deliberate damage to Benny’s tent and to be stupid enough to leave evidence of said crime behind.
But really, who does that? “Oooh, this guy’s good at catching fish. Let’s get revenge by poking very small holes into his tent.” No one says that.
