The Mystery of the Blinking Eye

from Morocco said. “It is very inspiring to be here where all nations wish to help one another. In my country, almost everyone in our city of Rabat was afflicted with an eye disease that always leads to blindness. Do you know what my father wrote to me a few days ago? He said that for the first time there has been saifbalash ramad. That means ‘summer without eye disease.’ Our people in the mountains and on the desert do not know how to read, so it is very difficult to teach them what they must do to prevent eye infection. UNICEF sent motion pictures showing children washing their hands, having their eyes examined, and doctors giving treatment. So much suffering and blindness is being prevented. It’s wonderful that my people have had such help.”
    “In my country, El Salvador,” a pretty black-haired girl said, “so many United Nations countries have helped. A public health consultant came from Mexico, a sanitary engineer from Colombia, nurses from the United States. They organized teams to clear my homeland of malaria, going from house to house with spray guns for mosquito control. Malaria has been wiped out!”
    “I guess the first thing to be done is to try to make people well,” Brian said thoughtfully. “It’s a great challenge to doctors. Maybe I’d have a bigger challenge helping with world health projects than I would helping you with your school for boys, Jim.”
    “Maybe you can do that for a while, then help me later,” Jim said soberly. “I’m sure glad we had this chance to talk to guides from other countries, Betsy. It widens our world, doesn’t it? Maybe I, too, could work to better advantage in a larger field.”
    “Why, Jim, you know very well what you’ve always said: You have to make small beginnings to accomplish big things,” Trixie said loyally. “I think your plan for a school for underprivileged boys is wonderful! Just think,” she told the girls around her, “Jim inherited a big fortune from his uncle, and he hasn’t touched a penny of it. He’s going to invest it all in a school to give boys a chance for education—boys who wouldn’t have a chance otherwise.”
    “That seems a pretty big dream itself!” Betsy said. The other guides clapped, and Jim turned redder than his hair. “It’s really what all this whole concept means, isn’t it?” Betsy spread her arms to include the dream that was the United Nations. “It’s each one helping the other. It’s great! Wait till I show you the home of that dream. There’s the loudspeaker—listen!”
    “Tour number one assembling! Betsy Tucker will be your guide!”
    As Betsy led the group to the big area where the plaster models of the buildings had been set up, Trixie touched Barbara on the arm. “Do you mind if I don’t go on the tour with you?”
    The group halted. “It’s your leg. It’s hurting you, isn’t it?” Barbara asked anxiously. “We shouldn’t have tried to come today.”
    “Oh, no,” Trixie assured her hastily, “it isn’t that at all. It’s just that every time I come here, I go on the tour, and while I learn something new each time, I never get to stay long enough in one place. I’d like to meet you all later if you don’t mind.”
    “Of course we don’t mind.” Barbara smiled. “I’m glad that’s the reason, rather than a hurting knee.”
    “I’ll stay with you, Trixie,” Honey offered. “I’d like to browse in the shops. The rest of you won’t miss us, you’ll be so excited at the things you’ll see and hear.”
    “We’ll meet you in the cafeteria when the tour’s over,” Trixie called after the group as they assembled in the hall.
    “Now, Trixie Belden, you can just tell me what that was all about!” Honey exploded when they were a short distance away.
    “Calm down, Honey. You must know what I want to do. It’s as plain as the nose on your face that those men who tripped me yesterday wanted something that was in my purse. I had less than five dollars in money. It wasn’t that, was it?”
    Honey shook her head, puzzled.
    “Well, then, the only other thing I have, aside from my lipstick and dark glasses, is the idol I bought in that antique shop!”
    “Why in the world would anyone want that odd little man?”
    “That’s exactly what I want to find out,” Trixie answered emphatically. “There’s a shop downstairs where they sell all kinds of things from South America. They’re almost sure to have some wood carvings there. If they don’t, whoever