ee his work. But she had caught a glimpse
of the statue. She had seen enough to know that Hanley Cron was making
a copy of the Black Imp--Amy Coulter's entry in the Huddleson prize
contest!

CHAPTER X

Hanley Cron's Studio

Penny wondered why Hanley Cron should wish to duplicate the Black Imp.
He had not thought highly enough of it even to award Amy honorable
mention in the Huddleson contest.

She had no time to consider the matter, for her chief thought was to
capture the jewel thief before he escaped from the building. Already
she feared that she had lost him.

"Why do you keep your studio door locked from the inside?" she
demanded, turning the key to open it.

"Because I don't care to be interrupted while I am working," Cron
retorted significantly. "As a rule, visitors don't have the effrontery
to come in the windows!"

Penny did not reply to the gibe. She opened the door just as Amy came
running up the corridor, holding something in her hand. She stopped
short when she saw Hanley Cron.

"Amy Coulter, I believe," he said sharply. "Wanted by the police."

"I've done nothing wrong," the girl retorted.

"You are under suspicion for the theft of a valuable painting from the
Gage Galleries."

"I don't know anything about the picture."

"The charge is silly," Penny added.

"You seem to have an unlucky faculty of being present whenever
valuables are stolen," Cron commented coldly. "Isn't that Mrs.
Dillon's bag you have in your hand?"

"Yes, it is. I picked it up by the elevator. It was lying on the
floor."

"The thief must have dropped it," Penny declared. "Are the pearls
gone?"

"I haven't even looked yet," Amy admitted.

She offered the beaded bag to Penny who promptly turned it inside out.
Save for a compact and a handkerchief the purse was empty.

"The pearls are missing all right," Cron commented, looking
half-accusingly at Amy.

"Don't you dare suggest I had anything to do with it!" the girl cried
furiously. "Mrs. Dillon will tell you that Penny and I were only
trying to help!"

"I don't know anything about the pearls," Cron replied cuttingly, "but
I intend to turn you over to the police for questioning in regard to
the stolen painting."

Penny turned blazing eyes upon the art critic.

"Before you do that, Mr. Cron, you might explain to Miss Coulter why
you are copying her statue!"

Darting across the room, she snatched off the cloth which covered the
sculptor's work