The Mystery of the Blinking Eye

receiver.
    “Dr. Joe, I’m so ashamed. I know it was a crazy thing to do, especially after what you said to us. Now those men have disappeared completely. There were three of them, instead of two. The police didn’t have to look at the video tape after all. Blinky, Big Tony, and Pedro are well known to them. They think they’re the slipperiest crooks they’ve ever encountered. Please don’t tell Tex what I did. He thinks I’m a real detective. I’m going to be, too, one of these days. Next time
    I won’t be fooled so easily. Dr. Joe, are you still my friend?”
    “Did he say he was your friend?” Diana asked after Trixie had put down the receiver. “Don’t answer. I know he did. Dr. Joe seems to understand everything.”
    “He does, doesn’t he?” Trixie answered thoughtfully. “He told me not to be so impatient to get started on a career. He’s right, I know. I don’t suppose we’ll ever find out the real truth about my Incan statue. We’ve seen the last of those men, anyway. Or have we? Honey, if you ever catch a glimpse of Blinky— you couldn’t miss him in a crowd—you tell me right away.”
    “There you go again!” Mart sighed.
    “See here”—Mr. Wheeler’s voice was very serious— “if anyone ever catches sight of any of those men, we want to know it. Only don’t bother to tell Trixie first; just—”
    “Call a cop!” Dan interrupted.
    “Right!” Mr. Wheeler said. “Do it immediately. Now that they know the police are onto them, they just might try to make a last desperate move. Let’s be alert constantly. Let’s make the rest of the time count, too, before Barbara and Bob and Ned must leave. I’m going to stay right with you till we see the Iowans on the plane.”
    “Don’t forget, Daddy,” Honey reminded him, “that the plane from Orly Airport in Paris gets in not long before the Maine plane leaves. We told Sally, Billy, and Bob Wellington we’d meet them when they arrived. They live near us in Westchester County,” Honey explained to the Iowans, “only we never met them till we went to Di’s uncle’s ranch in Arizona. They’ve been traveling in Europe. Do you think you’d like to go with us to meet them?”
    “And see a plane arriving from Paris?” Barbara asked enthusiastically. “I’d love to go.”
    “Someday you’ll be taking a plane to Paris, when you and Bob are famous musicians,” Trixie told the twins. “Even if you stick to your intention of teaching, you’ll both be famous teachers!”

    While Trixie, at Miss Trask’s insistence, rested, Bob and Barbara and Ned packed everything except the clothes they needed to wear for dinner that night and on the plane to Maine the next day.
    That night at Rockefeller Center, the plaza was a blaze of flowers, lights, fountains, and music. Everywhere people milled and crowded—some of them just walking down the concourse, many of them seeking seats in the open-air restaurant.
    “We’ll be lucky if we ever get a table in all this mob,” Mart said, looking around him at the crowd.
    “Daddy reserved one before we left the apartment,” Honey said. “They’re arranging it right now.”
    Busy busboys pushed smaller tables together to make room for the party of twelve, wedging the big table in close to other diners. The Bob-Whites apologized for crowding other guests.
    Across from them, against the wall, the statue of Prometheus stood out, two figures on either side, a boy and a girl. A lighted fountain played around them. Barbara could hardly take her eyes from it. “Everything in New York is terrific!” she sighed.
    “Even Blinky, Big Tony, and Pedro?” Mart teased. Trixie shivered. “Let’s not talk about them. I’m still ashamed. I’m ashamed, too, to think that Honey and I couldn’t solve the mystery.”
    “You didn’t give Honey much chance, Trix,” Mart reminded her gently.
    Honey went immediately to Trixie’s defense. “I knew about all of it except the visit to that hamburger place. Trixie would have let me go there with her, too, except that Blinky told her she wouldn’t get the thousand dollars unless she went alone.”
    “She didn’t get it anyway, did she?” Mart was still critical.
    “Not yet, but I seem to remember that the prophecy said she’ll get a fortune. Did anyone read the next part of that verse?”
    “I guess not, Honey,” Brian said, speaking for the rest. “We were in too much of a stir about Trixie.”
    “That’s what makes me so angry with myself,