The Mystery of the Blinking Eye

way over potholes in the pavement and in and around cars and trucks. Finally, with a flourish, he drew up in front of the Lionel trains showroom.
    “There you are, buddy,” he told Jim in the seat next to him. “Delivered safe and sound. Never thought I’d make it, did you, little lady?” he asked Barbara as she hurried out of the cab.
    “I honestly didn’t,” she told him.
    Then she colored as he shouted with satisfaction, “I always do! Ride with me, and you won’t have to mess around gawking at scenic railways in the park for a thrill.”
    Inside the showroom, there was a maze of trains— big, little, antique, diesel, electric. Cars for every conceivable use stood on tracks leading to every conceivable kind of terminal.
    “Here are your hats,” a smiling attendant told them as he met them at the door and fitted them out with blue-and-white-striped caps bearing the inscription LIONEL ENGINEER. The boys pocketed theirs, for they really were intended for little-boy heads. The girls jauntily pulled theirs on.
    “Make yourselves at home,” the guide told them. “Stay as long as you want. Go wherever you want. If you don’t find the train you’re looking for, let me know. We’ve got it someplace.”
    “I’m sure you have,” Barbara said, bewildered. “I’ve never seen so many trains before in all my life. Even big ones. There’s a railroad junction at Valley Park in Iowa near where we live. Ned and Bob and I and our gang have gone there to watch the engines turn around in the roundhouse, but, heavens, there must be a million trains here!”
    “I still like the trains over at Reeds’ better,” Jim said, looking around him.
    “Is that a boy you know?” Barbara asked, then blushed when the Bob-Whites laughed.
    “I’m sorry,” Jim said when he saw Barbara’s embarrassment. “I mean the model railroad that belongs to Dr. Joe.”
    “Dr. Reed,” Trixie explained. “He’s just about the most important orthopedic surgeon in the whole city of New York.”
    “In the whole world!” Diana insisted. “He operated on my little brother’s leg when he broke it in three places. It’s as good as ever now. That’s when we met Dr. Joe. I do wish you could see his trains. It’s a wonder he isn’t here today. Trains are his hobby, and he haunts this place whenever he can get a minute off. Today is the day most of the doctors take off each week, isn’t it, Jim?”
    “Right! I’ll bet a penny we’ll find him in one of these rooms before we go, probably buying some kind of equipment. He calls his railroad the ‘B and J.’ ”
    “It’s for ‘Bone and Joint,’ ” Trixie explained. “I wish we’d run into him. We’re all just crazy about him. Everyone who knows him is—big, little, any age. His wife, Betty, is just as wonderful, and their children are honeys. There’s Tex—he’s about ten and the oldest —then Chris and Jeff, twins, about seven, and little Nancy, four.”
    “I suppose he built the railroad for his kids,” Ned said.
    “Heavens, no!” Trixie answered. “He’s the owner, builder, chief dispatcher, chief engineer— Hey, there he is! Dr. Joe! Dr. Joe!”
    A big, handsome, dark-haired man put down the transformer he was examining and hurried to the young people, both hands outstretched. “Your father told me you were all here in the city, Diana, but I never thought I’d run into you. Is one of your visitors a model railroad bug?”
    “Bob is, I guess,” Trixie said. “Dr. Joe, these are our friends from Iowa—Barbara and Bob Hubbell, and Ned Schulz.”
    “I’m a railroad bug, all right,” Bob acknowledged with a smile, “but I don’t have a railroad.”
    “He has a collection of old trains he saved from when he was little,” Barbara said. “Now he’s adding other antique trains as he finds them.”
    “The Bob-Whites have just been telling us about your Bone and Joint Railroad, sir. That’s a great name for it,” Ned said.
    Mart grinned. “It’s a great railroad.”
    “Why don’t you come home with me to our apartment and have a look at it?” Dr. Reed suggested cordially. “My wife and the kids would be delighted. Do you have time to fit it into your schedule?”
    “Oh, Dr. Joe, you must know we were waiting here with our fingers crossed, just hoping you’d ask us. We’re shameless, but, jeepers, it’d be terrific!” Trixie was overjoyed to think the Iowans would have a chance to see the B & J.
    “Then come along with me. I’ve parked