The Mystery of the Blinking Eye

back up there and lost themselves in the crowd coming down. Okay, sister, keep your eyes open, and remember what I said. In the meantime, you’d better stick close together, all of you in a group.”

Dr. Joe ● 13

    OUTSIDE THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING, THE BOB-WHITES, SOBERED, CROWDED INTO CABS. EVEN THE ENTHUSIASTIC COMMENTS OF THE IOWA VISITORS DIDN’T TAKE THE WORRIED FROWN FROM TRIXIE’S FOREHEAD.
    “So many things have happened to spoil everything for you,” she told them. “Now tonight was the worst of all.”
    “What do you mean? You’ve said that before. It’s the thrill of a lifetime for Ned and Barbara and me!” Bob exclaimed.
    “I’ll say,” Ned agreed. “I only wish I could have been with you and Di up there when you ran into those gangsters!”
    “You could have substituted for me. Welcome to it,” Diana said, shivering. “I don’t enjoy Trixie’s narrow escapes. You’ll find out Miss Trask doesn’t think much of them, either.”
    Diana was right. When Miss Trask learned of the latest episode, she wanted to telephone Mr. Wheeler immediately.
    “Daddy is in Washington,” Honey reminded her. “And anyway—”
    “Anyway, I can call the Beldens,” Miss Trask went on. “I just don’t want the responsibility of looking after all of you when these things keep happening. The very next time those men show up—and they will show up, you can depend on that—something tragic could happen.”
    “Not those guys,” Mart said. “I think they’re chicken.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    “Because they’ve had half a dozen chances already to do real harm if they’d intended to. They’ve acted like one of those old cops-and-robbers comedies we see on late TV. They run for cover all the time. Take tonight, even. If they’d really wanted—”
    “You’d have been as frightened as we were, Mart Belden,” Trixie interrupted, “if you’d been way up there in that building all alone. I guess if you had my sore knee from being knocked down in the park, too, you wouldn’t make fun of it.”
    “Trixie could have been badly injured when those men tripped her,” Jim said soberly. “No, Mart, it won’t do to write those men off as comics. On the other hand, if they really are after the statue, we must find some way of talking to them to find out why they want it. If you’d call Dad, Miss Trask, or Trixie’s folks, we’d all have to go back home to Sleepyside right away.”
    “Oh, please , let’s not have to do that,” Barbara begged. “We’d never have such a wonderful opportunity again to see and do things in New York. We’re thrilled to pieces about the whole business.”
    “I’m not,” Miss Trask said emphatically. “Jim, what was it you were going to say?”
    “Let me say something first, please,” Brian said soberly. “We’re inside the apartment now, and no one is going to come here when we’re all home. Tomorrow Bob and Ned and Barbara want to see all the Lionel trains in action. Bob has been looking forward to it. It will be in daylight. Will you be willing to call off getting in touch with any of our parents till after then and if those men don’t show up again, forget it till Bob and Barbara and Ned have finished their visit to the city?”
    “I certainly don’t want to be a spoilsport,” Miss Trask said uncomfortably.
    “Jeepers, thanks!” Trixie cried.
    “You didn’t let me finish what I started to say, Trixie.” Miss Trask was sober. “It’s just this: I’ll agree to the daylight visit to the trains, but no more going about at night!”
    “Not even if you’d come with us?” Barbara asked. “I can’t do that, Barbara. At least, I don’t think I can, unless my sister gets much better—”
    “Which we hope happens, no matter how it affects what we do,” Honey said sincerely.
    “I know that, dear. Let’s just see what tomorrow brings. We’ll take it from there. Is that all right?”
    “Fine!” the twins chorused.

    “People in New York City practically live in taxicabs, it seems to me,” Barbara said the next day as she settled back into the seat next to Trixie.
    “It would be a long walk from here to the Lionel showroom. We’ll get there sooner this way.”
    “If we get there at all,” Diana told Trixie, shivering as the driver went down a narrow street, with only inches separating him from the parked cars.
    He turned to the girls in the backseat. “Don’t you kids ever try that!” he chuckled, then turned back to fight his