Mystery of the Glowing Eye Read Online Free

opened by a slender, elderly woman whose plain black dress and severe hair-style fitted the rigid surroundings. “Good afternoon,” she said, but her face was expressionless.
    “I’m Nancy Drew.” The young detective smiled. “My father is Carson Drew, a lawyer in River Heights. He suggested I visit your museum.” She then introduced Bess and George.
    Nancy’s smile was not returned. “I’m Miss Wilkin. I don’t know your father and we have no lawsuits pending. The only person from River Heights who has been here lately is a Miss King. What in particular do you wish to see?”
    Nancy’s mind whirled. On a hunch she said quickly, “Just what Miss King saw.”
    Bess and George could have shouted with excitement but they kept still and followed the straight-backed woman with the uptilted head. She led the girls through a section filled with figures of knights in armor and deadly swords.
    “Ugh! I don’t like this room,” Bess whispered. “It’s too scary.”
    “That is too bad,” said Miss Wilkin. “Brave men fighting for their countries used these weapons.”
    Presently they came to the most unusual exhibit the girls had ever seen. Enlarged glass eyes hung on all the walls. In display cases beneath them were pictures of fish, animals, and humans, with descriptions of their types of eyes.
    “Look!” said George. “This caption says a housefly has a compound eye with four thousand lenses.”
    “No wonder he’s hard to catch,” Nancy remarked.
    Just then all the lights went out. The room was in complete darkness, but in a moment a reddish light began to appear high on the rear wall.
    Seconds later it became a fiery, glowing eye!

CHAPTER IV
    Fiery Red Hair
    FOR several seconds Nancy, Bess, and George stood transfixed by the awesome sight of the glowing eye. At times it blinked and seemed to grow redder.
    Bess grabbed Nancy’s hand. “What is it?” she whispered tensely.
    “I don’t know.”
    “Let’s get out of here,” Bess pleaded. “This place gives me the creeps.”
    “Not yet,” Nancy answered. “I want to see what happens.”
    The words were barely said when the glowing eye disappeared. There was pitch blackness for several seconds, then the ceiling lights came on. Nancy turned to ask Miss Wilkin for an explanation.
    She had vanished!
    “Where did she go and why?” George asked. “She’s a strange person.”
    Bess and George started for the entrance, but Nancy paused to look closely at the spot where the glowing eye had appeared. Though the wall was of wood and paneled in large squares, there was no visible opening or sliding section near the glowing eye. Nancy found a high stool and set it under the panel where the glowing eye had shone. She stood on the stool but was unable to move the panel. And the wood was not hot!
    Nancy was sure no image of the eye had been projected onto the wall.
    “There must be a cold light behind this panel,” she said to herself. “A very bright heat-less light.”
    Her friends had come back. “Learn anything?” George asked.
    “No,” Nancy replied. “It’s a puzzle.”
    The girls found Miss Wilkin at her desk in the entrance hall. She still had the same expressionless look and offered no explanation of what had happened. Nancy asked her for one.
    The woman answered stiffly, “I left to see why the lights went out.”
    “And the glowing eye?” Nancy prodded.
    “That,” Miss Wilkin replied, “is used by the engineering students at Emerson who come here to attend lectures given by our member scientists.”
    “And are the students supposed to give an explanation of the glowing eye?” Nancy asked.
    “Yes, but so far none of them has.”
    The woman stood up and escorted the visitors to the front door. She seemed eager to have them leave.
    Nancy smiled and said, “May we come again sometime and see more of the exhibits?”
    “If you wish,” Miss Wilkin replied, but there was no cordiality in her voice.
    The girls drove off, discussing the