The Mystery of the Blinking Eye

him.
    Angrily they struggled to free themselves, almost speechless with fright. “Jim!” Trixie called in a shrill voice. “Jim! Where are you? Where is everybody? Mart! Brian! Dan! Jim! Jim! Help!”
    The man held tight to their arms. “Young ladies! Young ladies! I’m trying to help you!”
    Honey’s voice rose pleadingly. “Somebody help us! Anybody! Don’t lock the doors!”
    Fighting fiercely, Trixie echoed, “Help! Help! Jim —Brian—help!”
    There was a sound of hurrying feet. Lights flashed. The man quickly released the girls, smoothed his tie, and set his hat at a jaunty angle as Jim rushed down the corridor shouting, “We’re coming, Trix—Honey— hold on!”
    The other Bob-Whites followed closely after him. A worried-looking attendant hurried in, protesting, apologizing.
    Before Trixie-could speak, the dark-haired man said in an oily voice, “The little girls were worried. They thought they were being locked in. I wanted to show them another exit. They became excited. I only wanted to help!”
    Jim, evidently puzzled when he found someone with
    the girls, said brusquely, “Thanks! We’ll take care of things here now. Thank you very much.”
    The man bowed with exaggerated politeness, backed off, turned, and hurried down the hall. Honey and Trixie, so relieved to see their friends, didn’t even see him leave.
    “Didn’t you hear the warning bell sound?” the attendant demanded sharply. “The museum closes promptly at five o’clock. It’s fifteen minutes after now.”
    “Of course they didn’t hear the bell, or they’d have left when they should,” Jim said. “I’d suggest you calm down a little. Can’t you see that the girls have been frightened?”
    “I raised my voice without thinking,” the attendant said in apology. “I guess it was because it scared me, too, to think someone might have been locked in. Now, if you’ll all leave, I’ll go ahead and close up.” Out on the street, Trixie found her voice again. “We should have followed that man, Jim. He was the same one we saw at the gift shop in the United Nations. He tried to hold us—tried to drag us along with him!”
    “He said he was trying to help us,” Honey added. “Said he wanted to show us another exit.”
    “Why on earth didn’t you speak up before he left?” Jim asked, his face burning red. “We thought you were crying out because you were afraid of being locked in. I did think something sounded phony....”
    “So did I. Boy, are we a bunch of dumbbells!” Dan looked right and left, up and down the street. “It’s too late now, that’s for sure!”
    “The most awful things happen to you, Trixie.” Diana shivered. “I don’t ever want to be a detective.”
    “Well, I do.” Trixie was very firm. “Anyway, maybe that man was trying to help. Mart says I’m always imagining things. Maybe the man thought he had two hysterical girls on his hands—”
    “I doubt that very much,” Jim said grimly. “Watch out for that bird if you ever see him again, Trixie. It looks to me as though we have three characters to beware of now: the pair who followed us home from Central Park, and the man you saw at the gift shop and here again today.”
    “I don’t think so. I think the man we saw just now is the short one of the pair who followed us home.” Honey’ shook her head. “How could he have been at Liberty Island looking so dirty and shabby, then just now at the museum all dressed up, looking so sleek?”
    “Maybe it was the tall man of the pair, then, who tried to take my purse over at the Island.... Oh, I’m so muddled and mixed-up right now, I’m not sure about anything.” Trixie threw up her hands. “What a day! I’ll be glad to get back to our apartment.”

Showstoppers • 11

    WHEN THE DOORMAN opened the apartment door for them, he said to Trixie. “Did your uncle find you?”
    “My uncle?” Trixie asked, puzzled.
    “Yes, miss. After you left this morning, your uncle was here. When nobody was home, he asked if I knew where you were. I did, because you asked me about the nearest subway to the Liberty Island ferry, and then you asked me the hours of the Museum of Natural History. I told him I thought you might be intending to go both places. So he missed you, eh?”
    “Yes... we didn’t see my uncle.” Trixie’s face was very serious. Her companions suddenly sobered.
    “What do you think now, Trix?” Mart asked as the group got into the elevator.
    “I give up. Wait till