"I took the statue to my father's office. Max Lynch came to talk with Dad and saw it. He hurried out of the office as if he had seen a ghost."

"Of course he knew the pearls were hidden inside the statue," the officer smiled. "He probably thought Mr. Nichols had discovered them and suspected the plot."

"That's the way I figured it out," Penny nodded.

"Our house was watched. Then one day the Black Imp mysteriously disappeared. I never saw it again until I entered this room."

"Either Cron or Lynch stole it."

"Cron I think, for the Black Imp was in his possession."

"Well, young lady, you've done a fine bit of work today," the captain said soberly. "It's evident that you're destined to follow in the footsteps of your ill.u.s.trious father."

"Thank you, sir," Penny flushed.

With the four crooks on their way to jail, and the Rembrandt and the pearl necklace in the possession of the police, she felt that her responsibility was ended. Calling a taxicab, she drove to Amy Coulter's new rooming house.

"I have wonderful news for you!" she greeted the girl. "The painting has been recovered!"

"Then I'm exonerated?"

"Completely."

"Oh, Penny! It's your doing, I know. How can I thank you?" Tears of joy streamed down Amy's face.

She listened breathlessly to the story Penny related.

"So George Hoges turned out to be a thief!" she exclaimed. "When he asked me to copy a painting for him, I was suspicious that he had involved himself in something dishonest."

Penny spoke of the meeting she had witnessed in the park.

"Yes, Mr. Hoges gave me money," Amy acknowledged ruefully. "I needed it so badly or I shouldn't have listened to him."

"Then you knew you were to copy the Rembrandt?" Penny questioned quickly.

"Oh, no! He didn't tell me what painting I was to reproduce. I accepted the money because I needed it so badly. Later, when I thought the matter over more carefully, I realized that the scheme couldn't be an honest one. So I sent the money back."

"A fortunate thing that you did," Penny commented. "Had you kept the money you might have been accused of being one of the gang."

"I'm glad the painting has been recovered," Amy said. "And to think that my little Black Imp guarded the hiding place of Mrs. Dillon's jewels!"

Penny remembered that she had a taxicab waiting outside and hastily said goodbye. When she reached her father's office, he was talking on the telephone. He smiled broadly as he hung up the receiver.

"Well, I've heard all about it," he declared. "You'll be famous as soon as the evening papers are on the street. Reporters are on their way here now."

It developed that Mr. Nichols had not been informed of all the details of Penny's remarkable adventure. He was quite shaken when he learned of her narrow escape from death in the burning building. The warmth of his praise for her courage, brought the color rushing to the girl's cheeks.

"I only hope Cron and his friends receive the sentences they deserve,"

she commented.

"Don't worry, they will, Penny. You fairly snowed them under with damaging evidence."

Mr. Nichols was entirely correct in his opinion. Under police grilling, Hoges and Cron confessed to the crimes for which they were charged. Max Lynch refused to plead guilty but in the end a long legal battle availed him nothing. With his three companions he was sentenced to the state penitentiary.

Hanley Cron in his confession admitted that he had accepted a fee as a bribe for awarding the Huddleson prize to "Winged Night," a statue of inferior merit. The entire contest therefore was declared void.

Months later a new compet.i.tion was held, and to the delight of everyone Amy Coulter's Black Imp won the cherished prize.

Penny and her father were not to learn of these important developments for some time. But they were both elated at the outcome of the case.

"Well, you seem to have relieved your old Dad of a job," the detective smiled. "Now that Mrs. Dillon's necklace has been recovered, my work for the Insurance Company is over."

"I hope you haven't been cheated out of any fat fees on my account."

"The company will be pleased because its financial responsibility to Mrs. Dillon is over," the detective answered. "I may charge a double fee on the strength of your work!"

"And do I get half of it?" Penny countered.

Her father smiled broadly. "Perhaps, if you promise to lock it up in your bank account." He added with a chuckle: "I believe I could increase my profits by taking you into the firm. 'Nichols and Nichols.' How does that strike you?"

"I think it would look grand in print," Penny laughed. "Let's paint it on the door right now!"

THE END