The Mystery of the Blinking Eye

the door to go to the boys’ apartment across the hall. “There isn’t one single thing anyone can do till noon.”
    “I think I’ll try to, control my curiosity till then, too,” Miss Trask said and bade everyone good night.
    “I know what I’m going to do,” Trixie announced determinedly. “At daylight I’m going back to the plaza and watch them sort the trash. Jim will go with me, won’t you?”
    “Of course,” Jim said. “So will the rest of the gang, I know.”
    “You bet!” Ned agreed. “Let’s get out the playing cards. Two cents says the girls will fall asleep over the game. Barbara and Di are yawning right now.”
    “Not me!” Trixie said briskly. “Will you shuffle the cards, please, Jim?”

    When the first light of dawn crept into the living room, Trixie, Jim, Dan, and Ned were the only ones awake. The rest were sound asleep in their chairs or on the sofa. Someone had turned off the television.
    “We can go now,” Trixie said. “We’ll have to wake the rest, though. They’d never forgive us if we went without them.”
    “Barb and Bob wouldn’t, for sure,” Ned declared and nudged the twins to arouse them.
    “Dad and Miss Trask will know we just couldn’t possibly wait any longer, since Bob and Barb and Ned have to leave this afternoon,” Jim said. “I don’t think they’ll mind. It’ll be daylight, and we’ll all be together. I’ll leave a note for them; then we’ll get breakfast somewhere at the plaza.”

    No elevator was running in the apartment building, so they rushed down the ten flights of stairs to the street, too excited to be quiet.
    Out on the street, the early morning traffic honked, banged, and whistled. An amazing number of people were hurrying to work. Trixie and her friends hurried even faster.
    When they reached the plaza, it was deserted. They went to every entrance. All were locked. Lights shone here and there inside, but when Trixie and Jim peeked through the windows, they couldn’t see anyone moving about.
    Suddenly, out of nowhere, huge trucks backed up on the very low level of the building. Men in denims clambered out. Great doors swung open. The denim-clad men hurried through. Quick as a flash, Trixie was after them, Jim right behind her.
    “Hey, kids, where do you think you’re going?” one of the truckmen called.
    “Beat it!” a stocky maintenance man in front of the door shouted, barring the way.
    “We had dinner here last night, out on the open terrace—” Trixie began.
    “Yeah? So what?” the stocky man asked sarcastically.
    “I lost a very valuable jewel. Haven’t the police called about it?”
    “At five o’clock in the mornin’? Are you kiddin’? Say, Mac,” he called to someone inside the building, “seen anything of a diamond tiara?” He laughed and slapped his sides. “Watch out there, kids!” he called to the rest of the group who were trying to push their way inside. “Keep out of here, or I’ll call a cop.”
    “But, don’t you see, that’s exactly what we want you to do!” Trixie insisted. “The police want to search the sweepings from the restaurant before all the trash gets mixed up together.”
    “Whyn’t you say so?” the man asked. “Hey, Mac, you’d better talk to this kid. Maybe there’s somethin’ in what she’s sayin’. Keep back there, the rest of you. Just you two,” he told Trixie and Jim. “Wait outside, the rest of you. Hey, look. Here comes a cop now, Mac.”
    Mac and the policeman were soon in deep conversation. Soon the maintenance man’s attitude changed. He let the rest of the young people go inside.
    “We’ll hold up the sweepings, but you’ll have to wait till the rest of the trash is hauled away. Keep back out of the way, please,” the policeman warned. “Someone will have to come from headquarters to supervise the job.”
    For an hour and a half the watchers hung around the entrance as huge container after huge container was emptied into the jaws of trucks and driven away.
    “That diamond just has to turn up before we go to the airport!” Barbara said. “We’ll die dead if we aren’t in on the finish.”
    “It doesn’t look as though there ever will be a finish. Why don’t they get going?” Bob moaned.
    It was another hour before anyone showed up from the police department. Then, when two men finally did arrive, they were accompanied by three deeply tanned policemen in foreign uniforms. They were quickly identified as the visiting Peruvians. They