The Mystery of the Blinking Eye Page 4

  “I wish the wind were blowing today,” Bob said, looking around him. “We’d see some action with those sails all filled. Gosh, do we have to leave?”

  “I’m afraid we do,” Trixie told him. “We have miles to go and many, many other things to see.”

  Reluctantly they went back to the carriages, where they found both cabbies "relaxing while the horses chomped at the feed bags.

  “I never saw a park so full of statues,” Barbara said as the older cabbie sat up and rubbed his eyes. “There’s one of Hans Christian Andersen, of the Ugly Duckling, the Mad Hatter, and Alice in Wonderland, and—”

  “Statues?” the driver repeated. “Yes, statues. It’s a queer thing, though. You’ll not see a sign of a statue of William Cullen Bryant, him that thought up the whole idea of Central Park.”

  “William Cullen Bryant?” Trixie remembered her English class at Sleepyside. “He was a Massachusetts poet.”

  “He was born there,” the cab driver corrected her. “But for fifty years he lived right here in New York. He edited the best newspaper New York ever had, the Post. In an editorial, way back in the eighties, he spoke out for a city park where people could breathe clean air. The idea caught on, and all this land was bought piece by piece. It cost a fabulous sum... about seven million dollars. Today this very same land is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. A pity they never put up a statue to the greatest poet that ever lived.”

  “Dad always said if you want any information, ask a hansom cab driver or the driver of a taxicab,” Jim whispered to the others. “Shall we go to the zoo now?”

  “Gosh, yes!” Bob said.

  “Then, if it’s all right with the rest of you, we’ll go out of the park at Seventy-ninth Street, down Fifth Avenue, driver, and back into the park at the zoo.”

  “Right-o, laddie!” the old cabbie said and led off with his carriage.

  Trixie sat down in the second cab, next to Mart. She wriggled around, stood up again, looked back at the crowd around the pond, sat down again, then turned her body completely around.

  “What’s the matter with you?” Mart asked disgustedly. “Don’t you think the driver knows where he’s going? What is the matter?”

  “I don’t want to tell you. You’re always making fun of everything I say.”

  “Did you think you saw someone you knew back there?” Jim asked in a low voice.

  “Yes, Jim,” Trixie replied soberly. “Those men we saw at the antique shop window, the ones who followed us last night.”

  “Where?”

  “Over on the bridle path, parallel to this road. Can’t you see them? Oh, bother! They’re gone now.”

  The carriages had reached the edge of the park. The driver pulled up his horse and waited for a chance to slip alongside the Fifth Avenue traffic.

  Just as he saw his opportunity, just as he turned his horse south, two rough-looking men shot out of the park and caught his horse’s reins. The frightened animal reared, whinnying loudly. The abrupt stop almost tumbled the driver from his seat.

  Trixie and Jim rose in the carriage to help him, but as Trixie stepped from the cab, she was tripped. She stumbled and fell to the pavement. One of the strange men swooped down and tried to pry her purse from her arm. With a quick uppercut, Jim sent the man sprawling. Rubbing his jaw, he got to his feet and fled with his companion, just as a mounted policeman rode out from the park.

  In a few minutes, the officer had the traffic unsnarled, the bruised driver back in his seat, and everything under control.

  “It was those same men!” Trixie said emphatically, rubbing her elbow. “I told you I saw them in the park, Jim. The same ones who followed us last night. They’re thieves.”

  “What were they after?” the policeman asked.

  “My purse!” Trixie said indignantly.

  “I think not,” the old cab driver said. “Not a little girl’s purse. They have grander ideas than that, the rapscallions. They were like as not making a quick getaway from some job. They made off in a great hurry.”

  “They got into a car that was cruising along the Avenue. I saw them!” Ned said. “They brushed by our carriage and went north.”

  “The things that happen now in broad daylight!” the policeman said. “Everyone has sense enough to stay out of the park at night. But daylight! Are you all right, miss?”

  Trixie grimaced instead of answering.

  “Your knee is bleeding!” Honey cried, horrified. She used her handkerchief to try to stop the flow. “It’s a disgrace! Those men should be put in jail!” Honey looked at the policeman.

  “There’s little the officer can do,” the old driver put in. “Sure, they were a couple of crooks runnin’ away from a job. We just happened to be in the way. Shall I stop at the drugstore so you can get something for the young lady’s knee?”

  The policeman jotted down their names and where they lived, then moved on.

  “I think, instead, we’ll just go straight back to the apartment,” Brian told the driver. “I’ll look after your cuts there, Trixie. Some antiseptic and a bandage will do the trick.” Brian planned to be a doctor someday, and he was always eager to do first-aid work. “Does your knee hurt very much?”

  “Not too much,” Trixie sputtered, “but I’m mad clear through. I’ve ruined my brand-new pantyhose, and I’m afraid the afternoon is spoiled. I can’t go to the zoo looking like this! Please go without me, won’t you, Ned, Bob, Barbara?”

  “I don’t want to go anyplace till I’m sure you’re not badly hurt, Trixie,” Barbara declared firmly. “Heavens, bad things surely can happen in this city, as well as good things.”

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, Barbara.”

  Dan helped her back into the carriage. “You can’t wear rose-colored glasses all the time—not in New York!”

  “You’re dead right, Dan,” Jim agreed. “I’m sure Trixie’s going to be all right, though. I’ll go back to the apartment with her... Brian, too. The rest of you go on to the zoo.”

  “Please do,” Trixie begged. “All I need is an antiseptic and some fresh stockings.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Honey insisted. “The rest of you can tell us about the zoo later.”

  “It Isn’t Any Joke!” ● 5

  TRIXIE LIMPED SLIGHTLY as they left the cab at their apartment. “It did hurt you more than you admitted, didn’t it, Trixie?” Brian asked. “Sit down here and let me look at it. Say, the skin sure took a beating. It’s all off your knee. I’d better put a bandage on it as soon as I clean it thoroughly.”

  “Brian, it doesn’t hurt at all,” Trixie insisted. “Heavens, when you think of all the accidents Bobby has! I can’t remember him without a bandage on his body somewhere. The only thing that hurts me is thinking about those terrible men. And they got away! You landed a good punch on that shorter one, Jim. He’ll remember that for a while.”

  “You don’t suppose he could possibly have thought the horse was going to run away, do you, and really was a hero trying to stop him?” Honey’s face showed her concern.

  “Don’t waste any tears over him,” Trixie answered. “I saw the two men slinking along trying to hide behind the shrubbery just before we turned onto Fifth Avenue—you know I mentioned it to you, Jim. And furthermore....” Trixie stopped, put her hand over her mouth, and looked quickly at Honey.

  “Furthermore, what?” Jim asked. “What were you going to say?”

  “Shall I tell him?” Trixie asked Honey.

  “You might as well. You’ve been dying to for hours.”

  “Tell me what?”

  “I’ll show you.”

  Trixie opened her straw handbag and found the folded paper. “What do you think of this? The Mexican woman at the airport tucked it into my purse. Honey and I found it last night. It was written in Spanish. Miss Trask translated it for us. What do you think of it?”

  Jim read the couplets through hurriedly, then passed the paper on to Brian. He looked puzzled.

  �
��It sounds like something out of Alice in Wonderland,” he said. “It has just about as much sense as the Jabberwocky.’ What do you think, Brian?”

  “I think it was about time that woman left the country,” Brian replied, handing the paper back to Trixie. “They probably put her in a straitjacket when she got to Mexico City.”

  Trixie limped over to the sofa, sat down, and put her leg up to rest. “You couldn’t be more mistaken,” she said solemnly. “I was impressed with the prophecy from the very start. Now I’m convinced it isn’t any joke. It’s real.”

  “What are you talking about?” Honey asked.

  “Just this—if you haven’t noticed it. Look at the very first two lines. ‘Great-headed man’... that’s the cab driver who thought he knew it all. ‘Shaded road’... that’s the road through the park. ‘A horse’s cry’... well, that horse whinnied like mad when the man grabbed the reins. What more do you want from a prophecy?” Trixie looked about her triumphantly.

  “Trixie Belden, you can read anything into two lines that you want to read!” Brian said impatiently. “Look at all the rest of it. What do you make of all the rest of the crazy things on the paper?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m sure going to find out,” Trixie stated firmly. “Jim, you think there’s some sense to it, don’t you?”

  “I didn’t at first. It’s beginning to get through to me, though. Say, Trixie... it’s terrific!”

  “I know it,” Trixie said happily. “Barbara and Bob and Ned would think so, too, if they knew about it.”

  “Don’t worry.” Honey spoke a little sharply. “You’ll let them in on it just as you did Jim and Brian, when the right time comes.”

  Trixie’s face fell. Honey ran to her quickly and dropped on her knees beside the sofa. “Oh, Trixie, I wasn’t criticizing you. I think you should tell the others. It’ll be heaps of fun to watch what happens from now on.”

  “The trouble with the darned thing,” Brian mused, “is that we can’t figure out what it means till after it’s happened.”

  “That’s right. I don’t like all the ‘guns’ and ‘dangers’ and ‘bewares’ that run through the thing.” Jim shook his head as though he’d like to clear his brain. “What’s the matter with me, anyway? You’d think I really believed in it!”

  Time passed quickly as they discussed the prophecy. Much later, Brian walked to the window and looked out. “The rest of the gang is back from the zoo. The cab’s just stopping down in front to let them out. Tell them, Trixie, and see what they think.” Barbara and Bob, Ned, Diana, Dan, and Mart burst through the door of the apartment, all talking and laughing at once.

  “Gosh, the zoo was the greatest!” Bob said happily. “How are you feeling, Trixie?” He looked at Trixie with concern. “What did her knee look like, Brian?” Barbara slipped off her shoes and curled up in a chair. “You look a lot better, Trixie,” she said, “but kind of queer. You look funny—odd....”

  “Yeah, what’s up?” Mart asked curiously. “Come °n, give!”

  So Trixie and Honey, talking together, told them about the prophecy and let them read it. Jim called their attention to its application to the incident outside the park that morning.

  Excited, they sat on the floor in a circle, shouting out as each couplet was read. Mart ridiculed it from time to time, although he didn’t miss a word that was read.

  Miss Trask arrived to find them sitting, sprawling, and pacing the floor. Barbara was hopping from one stockinged foot to the other.

  “What happened?” Miss Trask asked quickly when she spied the bandage on Trixie’s knee.

  “I’m all right!” Trixie said reassuringly. “But listen to what really happened!”

  After they told her, Miss Trask said sadly, “I wish I’d never translated it for you.” Her voice quieted them. “I can see what is going to happen from now on. Trixie Belden, you’ll actually wish those awful things into happening.”

  “I honestly won’t do any such thing,” Trixie said, laughing. “I’m not silly enough to think anyone would know in advance what is going to happen to anyone. It’s just fun and exciting.”

  Miss Trask sighed, appearing somewhat relieved. “I don’t know what to think about you, Trixie. I really can’t decide.”

  “You’re not alone in that, for sure,” Mart said fervently.

  “I like Trixie,” Barbara said indignantly. “I think, it’s the most wonderful, wonderful thing in the world to be near her. Things happen!”

  “You can say that again,” Mart admitted. “When do we eat around here? I don’t suppose Trixie had better go out anyplace tonight.”

  “We don’t want to go anyplace, anyway,” Bob and Barbara said, practically in unison. “There are some good programs on TV,” Barbara added.

  “I’ve a big casserole ready to pop into the oven,” Miss Trask said with a smile. “Trixie should have all the rest she can possibly get if you are all going to see the United Nations tomorrow.”

  “I’m ashamed of myself. I slept just like a log last night,” Trixie said next morning when the group had gathered for breakfast.

  “I did, too,” Barbara echoed. “I never thought either one of us would shut an eye after all that excitement yesterday. Trixie, you aren’t even limping this morning.”

  “No. I’m good as new. Let’s get going. I suppose it’s the hospital again for you, Miss Trask?”

  “Yes,” Miss Trask replied. “I’m quite encouraged about my sister. I’m reading to her now. We both enjoy that. Are you all ready to start? Then let’s go down in the elevator together.”

  Trixie showed very little sign of her injury of the day before as they all walked briskly toward the United Nations buildings.

  “My mom and Bob and Barbara’s mom have both done a lot of work for UNICEF,” Ned said, stepping along at Trixie’s side.

  “I know,” Trixie said with a warm smile. “Barbara rounded up all the children in the neighborhood to collect money for UNICEF on Halloween, didn’t she? One of the girls at Rivervale High, when I was visiting in Iowa, told me that the little ‘Trick-or-Treaters’ raised nearly two hundred dollars.”

  “That was swell!” Mart said. “I’m going to try to do some organizing myself at Sleepyside this year. I’ll see if some of the bigger kids won’t lay off the trick stuff and maybe have a special basketball game to raise money for the International Children’s Fund instead.”

  “Say, that’s a neat idea,” Ned said eagerly. “We can try it at Rivervale, too. Mom and Mrs. Hubbell sell lots of UNICEF Christmas cards every year. Mom wants me to tell her all about the United Nations when I get back home.”

  “That’s a big order!” Brian laughed.

  “I don’t mean all the things they do here,” Ned said hastily. “She just wants me to tell her what the people and buildings look like. My mom and dad belong to a study group, and they really know what goes on at the United Nations.”

  “We study about it, too, in school,” Trixie said quickly. “One of the girls who used to go to Sleepyside High is a guide here—Betsy Tucker. I hope she’s on duty when we take the tour.”

  “I wonder what qualifications are needed to be a United Nations guide,” Diana said. “I think that would be an interesting career.”

  “Wouldn’t it be fascinating to work where decisions affecting the entire world are made daily?” Trixie looked admiringly at her friend. “Do you really think you may want to be a United Nations guide someday?”

  “Why not? You and Honey know just what you’re going to do when you finish college. By that time your detective agency will be going strong, if you keep on as you’ve started. I’m going to ask Betsy, when we see her, just what preparation is needed. It isn’t too early to think about it.”

  “You’ll have to bone up on languages, that’s for sure,” Mart said.

  “Only French,” Honey reminded him. “When we go inside, you’ll notice that all signs are in English or French. There are guides from so many countries that almost every lang
uage is spoken. Guides from the United States aren’t expected to know any language other than French.”

  “There we are... right ahead!” Jim called out. “See the circle of flagstaffs?”

  “Wheeew! Is that ever a sight!” Ned stood still, overwhelmed by the nearness of the tall glass Secretariat and the curved line of flags whipped by wind from the East River close by.

  Far above the colorful avenue of flags from all member nations rose the standard of the United Nations itself—a white field with an olive wreath.

  As they crossed the wide stone plaza that surrounded the entrance to the United Nations buildings, the visitors could see in the distance the great Queensboro Bridge arching above Roosevelt Island in the East River.

  A sight-seeing boat steamed lazily past and tooted its salute.

  “We go in here,” Brian directed. He held open the door that led to the vast lobby. “There’s Betsy waving to us!”

  “The Idol Is Worthless!” ● 6

  A LOVELY GIRL, smiling warmly, hurried to greet the Bob-Whites. “How nice to see someone from Sleepyside!”

  “You haven’t met Dan Mangan,” Trixie told her. “He’s our newest club member. And these are our friends from Iowa.” She presented the Hubbell twins and Ned Schulz. “Do you think you can be our guide?”

  “I think so. I’ll ask. We take turns, but the tours haven’t started yet today and won’t for another twenty minutes. In the meantime, wouldn’t you all like to meet some of the other guides? Especially some of the ones from other countries?”

  “Trixie, this is super!” Barbara cried as Betsy left to find the other guides. “Just imagine what I’ll tell my friends at home when I see them!”

  “This is Steffi,” Betsy said, returning. “She really has a long Hindu name, but she wants us to call her just Steffi.”

  “How do you do?” Steffi asked in a soft voice. She spoke perfect English. “I have not been here long. I have not met many young people in the United States.”