The Mystery of the Blinking Eye Page 8

  A man on drums beat out a staccato background for guitar and piano. The twins’ feet shuffled to the rhythm as they moved along the line, filling their plates.

  “You were the one who said he didn’t want to waste time dancing,” Barbara told Bob, right behind her, as his feet, too, caught the tempo.

  “Put dancing and food together and watch me work!” Bob chuckled. “Cake, Barbara?” He put a huge piece of chocolate cake on Barbara’s plate.

  Luckily they found a table big enough that they could all sit together. Laughing, humming the music, they crowded around it. When they had finished eating, they danced.

  The girls went breathlessly from one partner to another, excited, laughing. “Isn’t it wonderful?” Barbara’s eyes danced as Brian took her from Mart and whirled her around. “New York’s the most wonderful place in the whole world!”

  “I guess New York does seem wonderful,” Jim admitted later as Barbara, exhausted, dropped into her chair beside him and sat dreamily sipping a cola. “I imagine, though, if you lived near the city all the time, as we do, you’d be just like Trixie. She can take fun for a while; then she has to get to work on something serious.”

  Mart snorted. “Boy, does she have you dazzled, Jim! You should hear her when Moms wants her to dust the house or help with the cooking.”

  “Gosh, why should she have to do that, when she can catch a gang of thieves like those you told us were after the antiques in your show?” Bob asked admiringly.

  “And show up Di’s phony uncle the way she did,” Ned added. “Here, just let me touch you, won’t you, please, Miss Sherlock?”

  “Stop it!” Trixie insisted, embarrassed. “The Bob-Whites all helped on those projects. It just seems that I get the credit, and I don’t deserve it. Save all the applause till I find out who those men are who are after my Incan idol—and why. That’s a puzzler. Come on, Dan; you haven’t danced at all, and this time you’re dancing with me!”

  Dan protested. “I haven’t danced because I don’t know how. You know I can’t, Trixie.”

  “I know you can’t if you don’t try. Come on!” Trixie waited until he got to his feet and took her hand.

  “It’s your funeral... your feet’s funeral, anyway,” Dan said.

  While Dan danced, the other boys carried the plates and other things to the back of the room and piled them on trays to be washed.

  “I sure wish we had a hangout like this in Rivervale or even in Des Moines,” Ned said. “They don’t charge very much for all this, either.”

  “That’s because all the kids pitch in and help,” Jim explained. “They don’t have to have any waiters. They put their money in good food and good music. The guy who started this place has about a dozen of them around the city now. They’re catching on all over the country.”

  “Don’t you think we’d better be shoving off?” Dan asked as he and Trixie came back to the table after the dance. “We said we’d be back for an early dinner. Miss Trask may be expecting us.”

  “She won’t expect us till she sees us,” Honey said knowingly.

  “We’re going to stop at the Museum of Natural History, though, on our way home, aren’t we?” Bob asked. “It may be our only chance, with all the other things you’ve planned for us to do.”

  “Sure thing, we’ll stop,” Jim assured him. “We wouldn’t pass up a chance to show you a ghostfish like the ones we found in that Ozark cave this summer. This one will be in a jar, though, and pickled. Let’s get going!”

  A little tired from all the dancing, the group walked slowly across the park to the big red brick museum building.

  “We’ll go right up to the fourth floor, because we don’t have much time before closing,” Brian said and led the way to the elevator.

  “Gosh, is it a giant fish you’re going to show us?” Bob asked as they went through the dinosaur room and began to walk toward the alcove where the fish were exhibited.

  “Hardly. The fish we want to show you is about three inches long.” Mart measured the distance with his two hands. “Look at that boy, though! He’s more than three inches long! I’d hate to meet him wandering around in the woods!”

  The skeleton of a huge Gorgosaurus faced them, its short front feet upraised, a giant lizardlike tail trailing. Its huge head was set on a long neck, and a light exposed the bones and great eye sockets.

  “That baby roamed all over North America several million years ago. There’s a Tyrannosaurus rex over there.” Mart pointed to another exhibit. “He was a meat-eater. Right beyond him are a duck-billed dinosaur and a horned one. Over in the corner is a skeleton of a Pterosaur. ”

  “Not really!” Dan pretended amazement. “You left me behind a long time ago, Mart. What is the what-do-you-call-it you just said?”

  “A flying reptile.”

  Ned was fascinated. “I know where I want to spend some time when I come back to New York, if we get to come back. Right here. I want to explore all four floors.”

  “While you’re doing that, Barbara and I will go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art,” Diana told him. “Right now, though, we’d better take a quick look at that ghostfish, then go back to the apartment.”

  “It’s right here.” Brian stopped in front of a series of shelves. There were dozens of jars containing rare fish suspended in alcohol. “There’s one that looks just like our little contribution to science—the one we found in the Ozark cave.”

  A jar stood on a small square pedestal. Inside, in alcohol, there was a fish so white it seemed transparent. The legend under it read:

  BLIND CAVE FISH. In the process of evolution, because its life-span is spent in complete darkness underground, the cave fish loses its sight. Then, through generations of lack of use, its eyes disappear.

  A printed card stood against the jar. It related the recent discovery of a similar fish in “Bob-White Cave” in the Ozarks and listed the names of the club members underneath.

  “How come my name is there?” Dan asked.

  “You’re a Bob-White, aren’t you, Dan?” Trixie reminded him.

  “One for all,” Mart chanted. “All for one.”

  “Well, that’s just too wonderfully wonderful!” Barbara exclaimed. “To think you knew how important that little fish was!”

  “We didn’t know exactly,” Jim said. “Trixie read about it in a magazine when we were at her Uncle Andrew’s lodge in the Ozark Mountains, and she led us on the hunt for it.”

  “We all worked together on that project,” Trixie said modestly. “I never do anything by myself. Honey and I both know that our detective agency just could not exist without help from all the Bob-Whites. It’s a long story about the fish. We’ll tell you all about it later.”

  “Seems to me it’d be a lot easier to discover something the size of that GorgosaurusBob remarked.

  “Except that he was found all in pieces,” Mart told Bob, “some of them not even as big as our little fish.”

  “I’d like to take another look at those ‘sauruses.’ Does anyone mind?” Bob asked.

  “Me, too,” Barbara echoed. “Remember that movie, Bob, where all those big prehistoric animals were moving around on earth? Do we have time, Jim, to take another look at the skeletons?”

  “You’ll have to make it snappy. Come on, gang, let’s start toward the exit. Bob and Barbara can look at the prehistoric exhibit again on our way out.”

  Trixie and Honey were on the other side of the big room, completely absorbed in a great glass case filled with skeletons of deep-sea fish. They didn’t hear what Jim said or see the rest of the crowd leaving.

  “How would you like to encounter something like that in the dead of night?” Honey asked, pointing through the glass to a skeleton fish, almost all mouth.

  Its great jaws were open to display two long rows of sharp, ugly teeth.

  “Right next to the skeleton, too, see, Trixie—a picture of the way that fish looks in real life. Heavens! It has luminous eyes and a real cavern for a mouth!” Trixie c
rouched down to peer through the glass. She shuddered as she saw the pictured monster’s eyes gleaming. Then she realized she was gazing right into the eyes of a man looking into the case from the other side.

  The face was that of the sleek-haired man they had seen at the United Nations!

  Honey saw him at the same moment. She seized Trixie’s hand tightly, and they both looked around for the rest of their crowd.

  “They’re gone!” Trixie gasped. “Honey, some of the lights have been turned off! It must be closing time! Where did Jim go?” Her voice fell to a whisper. “Did you see that awful man?”

  Honey squeezed Trixie’s hand tightly in answer. “Let’s get out of here fast!”

  They looked around frantically. Far down the corridors more lights went off. The girls, desperate, plunged madly around the great glass case, practically into the arms of the stranger!

  “It’s my little friends from the Peruvian exhibit, isn’t it? How lucky for you, you found me here!” He chuckled softly.

  Trixie, almost taken off her feet with the impact, recovered herself, her eyes seeking escape.

  “It’s lucky, young ladies, because if you will only follow me, you will discover you are not to be locked in. I know a quick way out of the building. Just follow me!” He grasped Trixie’s arm with one hand and Honey’s arm with the other and tried to pull them along with him.

  Angrily they struggled to free themselves, almost speechless with fright. “Jim!” Trixie called in a shrill voice. “Jim! Where are you? Where is everybody? Mart! Brian! Dan! Jim! Jim! Help!”

  The man held tight to their arms. “Young ladies! Young ladies! I’m trying to help you!”

  Honey’s voice rose pleadingly. “Somebody help us! Anybody! Don’t lock the doors!”

  Fighting fiercely, Trixie echoed, “Help! Help! Jim —Brian—help!”

  There was a sound of hurrying feet. Lights flashed. The man quickly released the girls, smoothed his tie, and set his hat at a jaunty angle as Jim rushed down the corridor shouting, “We’re coming, Trix—Honey— hold on!”

  The other Bob-Whites followed closely after him. A worried-looking attendant hurried in, protesting, apologizing.

  Before Trixie-could speak, the dark-haired man said in an oily voice, “The little girls were worried. They thought they were being locked in. I wanted to show them another exit. They became excited. I only wanted to help!”

  Jim, evidently puzzled when he found someone with

  the girls, said brusquely, “Thanks! We’ll take care of things here now. Thank you very much.”

  The man bowed with exaggerated politeness, backed off, turned, and hurried down the hall. Honey and Trixie, so relieved to see their friends, didn’t even see him leave.

  “Didn’t you hear the warning bell sound?” the attendant demanded sharply. “The museum closes promptly at five o’clock. It’s fifteen minutes after now.”

  “Of course they didn’t hear the bell, or they’d have left when they should,” Jim said. “I’d suggest you calm down a little. Can’t you see that the girls have been frightened?”

  “I raised my voice without thinking,” the attendant said in apology. “I guess it was because it scared me, too, to think someone might have been locked in. Now, if you’ll all leave, I’ll go ahead and close up.” Out on the street, Trixie found her voice again. “We should have followed that man, Jim. He was the same one we saw at the gift shop in the United Nations. He tried to hold us—tried to drag us along with him!”

  “He said he was trying to help us,” Honey added. “Said he wanted to show us another exit.”

  “Why on earth didn’t you speak up before he left?” Jim asked, his face burning red. “We thought you were crying out because you were afraid of being locked in. I did think something sounded phony....”

  “So did I. Boy, are we a bunch of dumbbells!” Dan looked right and left, up and down the street. “It’s too late now, that’s for sure!”

  “The most awful things happen to you, Trixie.” Diana shivered. “I don’t ever want to be a detective.”

  “Well, I do.” Trixie was very firm. “Anyway, maybe that man was trying to help. Mart says I’m always imagining things. Maybe the man thought he had two hysterical girls on his hands—”

  “I doubt that very much,” Jim said grimly. “Watch out for that bird if you ever see him again, Trixie. It looks to me as though we have three characters to beware of now: the pair who followed us home from Central Park, and the man you saw at the gift shop and here again today.”

  “I don’t think so. I think the man we saw just now is the short one of the pair who followed us home.” Honey’ shook her head. “How could he have been at Liberty Island looking so dirty and shabby, then just now at the museum all dressed up, looking so sleek?”

  “Maybe it was the tall man of the pair, then, who tried to take my purse over at the Island.... Oh, I’m so muddled and mixed-up right now, I’m not sure about anything.” Trixie threw up her hands. “What a day! I’ll be glad to get back to our apartment.”

  Showstoppers • 11

  WHEN THE DOORMAN opened the apartment door for them, he said to Trixie. “Did your uncle find you?”

  “My uncle?” Trixie asked, puzzled.

  “Yes, miss. After you left this morning, your uncle was here. When nobody was home, he asked if I knew where you were. I did, because you asked me about the nearest subway to the Liberty Island ferry, and then you asked me the hours of the Museum of Natural History. I told him I thought you might be intending to go both places. So he missed you, eh?”

  “Yes... we didn’t see my uncle.” Trixie’s face was very serious. Her companions suddenly sobered.

  “What do you think now, Trix?” Mart asked as the group got into the elevator.

  “I give up. Wait till Miss Trask hears what has happened.”

  “It’s that Incan idol,” Miss Trask said grimly when they told her about the man who pretended to be Trixie’s uncle and about their encounter at the museum. The Bob-Whites and their guests were seated around the dining room table, finishing a delicious dinner prepared by Miss Trask.

  “I’m sure of that, but why?” Trixie stood the little carved statue on the table in front of them. She shrugged her shoulders, perplexed.

  “Not one of us can find anything concealed around his nibs,” Brian explained to Miss Trask. “The woman at the gift shop in the United Nations Building told Trix it isn’t a rare antique. Pass it over to Miss Trask. See if she can find anything different about it.”

  Miss Trask put on her glasses, ran her slender fingers carefully over the statue, then shook her head. “I can’t find a thing. It’s all solid wood.”

  “Not much chance for gold or jewels to be concealed in it that I can see,” Jim said. “Some strange religious cults, though, get quite attached to their idols. Maybe this little chap guards their crops in their homeland, and the guys who want him back are afraid of a famine if he doesn’t come back home.”

  “I’d give him back in a minute if I thought they were worried about that,” Trixie said quickly. “We never have a chance to ask the men anything. If they’d come right out and say why they want the statue.... But instead they keep scaring the life out of us.”

  “Nix on giving it back,” Dan said firmly. “I’ve seen a lot of crooks in this city, and I never yet saw one who wanted to steal for any reason except greed. That little idol means money in their pockets in some way.”

  “All of it’s too much for me,” Diana admitted.

  “It’s the most exciting thing in the world!” Barbara cried as Miss Trask refilled her glass with milk.

  “Trixie will solve the mystery, sure as you’re alive. Just give her time!” Ned said.

  “Especially with that old Mexican woman’s prophecy to guide her,” Bob added.

  “The less said about that, the better,” Miss Trask suggested. “If that woman could see into the future, she’d be the wealthiest woman on earth.”

  “She
hit everything right on the nose so far,” Mart said. “Everything up till now, I mean. She missed on the man at the museum.”

  “How about ‘Watch out for thieves; they’re everywhere’?” Trixie quoted.

  “You keep bringing that up all the time, as though it proved everything,” Mart said impatiently. “It’s worn out. Everybody watches out for thieves in New York.”

  “Just wait, Mart Belden. Wait one second. The next line goes on to say, ‘At home, on island, dead beasts’ lair. ’ Don’t you see—all those dinosaurs and other skeletons at the museum?”

  “Gosh!” Mart was stunned.

  “After all that has happened today, don’t you think you’d better not go to the Empire State Building tonight? Why don’t you put it off till tomorrow night?” Miss Trask asked.

  “Oh, no!” Trixie wailed. “Ned and the twins have counted on going tonight.”

  “It’s okay. Barbara and Bob have the broadcast coming up tomorrow,” Ned said.

  “We really should practice a little tonight, Trixie,” Bob told her. “It’s pretty important to be on a national program. Barb and I sent our parents a telegram and told them to watch for it.”

  “All of the gang at Rivervale will be watching, you can be sure of that,” Ned added. “Des Moines, too, I’ll bet a cookie. And it’ll be in the Des Moines Register, for sure.”

  “I didn’t think about the practicing,” Trixie said. “I suppose you will have to do that.... I guess we should put off going to the Empire State Building till afterward. You’ll enjoy it more when the broadcast is off your minds. You won’t be so nervous.”

  Bob straightened in his chair. “We’re not nervous at all!”

  “We are too, Bob Hubbell... at least I am. Heavens!” Barbara pushed her chair back into place. “After we help with the dishes, we’ll get our guitars out and run over the new song we want to sing tomorrow.”

  “No dishes!” Dan stacked the plates. “It’s our contribution to genius. We’ll get a bang out of listening to you practice while we wash. Trixie and Honey had better be excused, too. Even if they won’t admit it, they’ve had a bad scare.”