Charlie McCarthy #2

Charlie and Mortimer solve a mystery of the escaped convicts. Then, Charlie tries to make a quick buck with a baby alligator.

Synopsis

Super-Duper Snooper

Charlie is excited to open his Open Eye Detective School but laments a lack of students. He sees Mortimer and convinces him that he is the perfect candidate to be a detective. The two discuss fingerprints until they hear a call for help. Investigating, the two find that Missus Dugan's recently made pie has gone missing. Charlie solves the case by explaining that a trade rat must have taken the pie; the trade rat had left a marble as a token of exchange. As the two leave, Mortimer notices Charlie has pie stains on his shirt.

Down the street, Charlie and Mortimer overhear talk of two escaped convicts, Scar-Puss and Jarface. The boys keep a look-out and notice a man walking around with stripes on his suit - just what they'd expect a convict to walk around in! (Nevermind the fact that the man had just sat on a bench with wet paint.) They follow the man to a house and then Charlie leads Mortimer to the police station and try to convince the chief that they saw one of the escaped convicts and know where the hideout is. The chief feigns interest and then kicks the boys out, laughing at the naiveté needed to think that escaped convicts would walk around in their striped prison clothes.

Taking the law into their own hands, the boys sneak into the house at night. They have to hide when they realize that they have awakened the tenants. One of the men states aloud that he'd have mercy on fellow crooks, but not for detectives. The boys change professions and emerge as "hardened" crooks. They almost escape when Mortimer is mistaken for a famous crook-boxer. A friendly fight ensues and Mortimer gets his clock cleaned. Mortimer is finally able to knock the crook out by cheating and discovers a horseshoe in the crook's glove. He tosses it aside and it knocks out the other crook. The police put the convicts back behind bars.

The next day, Charlie makes Mortimer a partner in his detective agency. Mortimer hears his cow Bessie mooing like mad and he rushes to find out if cow-nappers are messing with Bessie. The mooing is due to Mortimer's negligence in feeding her on time and she gives him a nice set of hoof prints to analyze, right in his rump.

Gladstone the Alligator

Grampaw Snerd pays the boys a quarter in advance for beating out his rug. Charlie leaves the task to Mortimer. As Charlie lounges, he is surprised to find an alligator by his side. The boys can't figure where the alligator could have come from so they decide to keep him. Charlie rushes off to find a leash and returns to see that the alligator has Mortimer by the trousers. They put the alligator (whom they have dubbed Gladstone) in the bathtub while they figure out how to raise him so they can start a leather company.

In the meantime, Grampaw returns and tries to take a bath. He is shocked to see an alligator. He gets mad at the boys and tells them to get the alligator out and, more importantly, to finish their chore. Charlie comes up with a new use for Gladstone: he starts a rug beating business in which Gladstone uses his tail for the rug-beating.