The Mystery of the Blinking Eye

strangest feeling that something terrible may happen!”
    “It’s because you’re afraid of high places,” Mart said. “Come on, Di; try to get over it.”
    “No. You can all go without me. I’ve never been up there, and I’m never going.” She shuddered.
    “I’ll stay here with you,” Trixie told her. “I’ve seen it often. I wouldn’t want Barbara and Bob to miss it, though, if they aren’t afraid. Di and I will look around here a little while, everybody, then meet you downstairs later.”
    “Don’t go far from the elevators when you get downstairs, Trixie,” Jim warned. “Even if you have to wait a long time for us, please stay right there.”
    “I will,” Trixie promised. She put her arm around Diana protectively as the rest of her crowd scrambled for the elevator to take them to the tower.
    While they were in the enclosed area, Diana was quite brave. “I never had any idea it could be so beautiful,” she said. “It almost seems as though we were looking down from heaven, doesn’t it? Trixie, I’m sorry you didn’t go with the rest of them. I’m sorry I’m such a fraidycat.”
    “Don’t think a thing about it. Lots of people much older than you have a fear of going up in high places. It has some kind of name—that fear—but I can’t think of it. I’ve been to the tower many times, as I told you, so forget it. I’m not disappointed.”
    The two girls were so absorbed in the view from inside the windows that they didn’t realize that the crowd had become much smaller. Many had gone to the higher parapet. Others apparently had seen all they wanted to see and had gone down on the elevators.
    Aware, finally, of the lack of chatter and bustle around them, Trixie turned away from the windows to look about. .
    “Jeepers, we’re almost the last ones up here!” she gasped. “How long have we been here? Maybe the others are waiting for us downstairs. We’ve just been standing here gazing so much we’ve forgotten the time. Let’s go, Di!”
    Diana whirled around. Then she caught Trixie’s arm. “Don’t look!” she warned. “But those two men over there look awfully suspiciously like— They are! Trixie, run! There’s nobody up here but us and those men. Run! Run for the elevator!”
    Trixie caught Diana’s hand, and they both sprinted down the corridor.
    “Where’s the guard who’s supposed to be here?” Trixie gasped as she ran.
    “Way up there at the other end of the platform, I suppose,” Diana cried. “Trixie, they’re right back of us. It’s those thieves! I know it is! Oh, I told you I knew something awful was going to happen. Run! Run faster!”
    “It is those men!” Trixie gasped. Running, she called back to them, “I don’t have the statue! I don’t have it! Stay away from us.”
    The men caught up and dodged around them.
    “They’re in front of the elevator!” Diana’s voice was frantic. “They’re going to stop us! Trixie! Don’t go that way!”
    “You got our idol! You give it back!” the taller man called, guarding the bell so the girls couldn’t reach it to signal the elevator.
    “I don't have it, I tell you. I gave it to somebody else! Get away from that bell! Let us out of here! Guard! Guard!” Trixie screamed.
    “I don’t see a soul in sight to help us,” Diana moaned. “They’ll kill us, Trixie!”
    “Keep quiet!” Trixie commanded, realizing that Diana was almost hysterical. “The stairway, Di! Pretend we’re going back along the corridor—here! Duck down here! Be quick!”
    The girls pushed through the door leading to the stairway and flew down the steps. As they turned at the bend, they heard the door above them swish. The sound of footsteps followed.
    “We—can’t—possibly—run—like—this—for eighty —six—floors,” Diana gasped. “Help! Help! Help!”
    As they passed lighted floors, not a soul was visible. Above them, hardly a floor away, the men’s heavy footsteps followed.
    “In here!” Trixie cried and pulled Diana through one of the stair doorways, then down a hall. “We’re sure to find someone here!”
    “There’s no one! We’re lost! That—awful—statue!”
    “Hush! We’ll be all right. I don’t think they followed us through that door. Walk quietly now, Di—hush— don’t make a sound—softly—there! Look down the hall! There’s an office door open. In there, quickly!” Trixie shoved Diana ahead of her through the halfopened door, closed it after her, and turned around to