The trouble with the first half of this is that you have to believe that five kids (McGurk's detective squad) would waste their time trying to figure out who stashed a bunch of old junk from garbage cans up in a tree. The stuff is discovered by Wanda, the organization's one girl member, when she climbs up to rescue a kitten; and the plot doesn't thicken until, midway, a real antique sterling bowl joins the loot. Soon after, the police get a note from someone who is trying to frame Wanda with the silver bowl; and kids who've stuck with the case this far will be rewarded with a nifty demonstration of detective Brains Bellingham's homemade card computer--which, in the end, singles out the very kid suspect that McGurk has zeroed in on by hunch. Once more McGurk just barely pulls it off.