ght repeat it to the man who occupied the top floor. She had not
intended to reveal how much she had seen.

Penny entered her father's office just as he was leaving on a business
errand.

"Hello, Dad," she called out. "I seem to have caught the bird on the
wing."

Mr. Nichols smiled at his young daughter and obligingly hung his hat
back on the rack.

"My flight is off now that the fledgling has returned to the nest.
What's on your mind now, Penny?"

"This little ornament, for one thing." Penny unwrapped the model of
the Black Imp which Amy Coulter had given her and set it down on her
father's desk. "Doesn't he look kind of lonesome and,
well--mysterious?"

"He does at that," Mr. Nichols said as he picked up the little art
piece and turned it over and over. "I should say the fellow has a
wicked glint to his eye."

"Be careful how you handle him," Penny warned. "The clay is still
damp."

Mr. Nichols placed the figure back on the desk. "It's a very clever
design. I don't suppose this is that Black Imp you were telling me
about?"

"It's a copy of the original."

"How did you get it?"

"I guess you might say I swiped it," Penny smiled, "or rather, Amy and
I did together."

"You don't make yourself very clear."

Penny related her experience in Hanley Cron's studio, but at mention of
the jewelry theft, Mr. Nichols lost all interest in the Black Imp. He
insisted upon hearing every detail of the theft.

"It doesn't surprise me a bit," he declared when Penny finished the
story. "I warned Mrs. Dillon that necklace would be stolen if she
didn't get it locked up."

"She lost it on the way to the bank, Dad. Perhaps she thinks now that
if she hadn't attempted to follow your advice, the pearls would still
be safe."

"Nonsense!" Mr. Nichols exclaimed impatiently. "That necklace was
stolen by someone who was lying in wait for her. Possibly by one of
the same thieves who attempted to hold up the Dillon ball the other
evening."

"Mrs. Dillon did make a grave mistake to carry the pearls unguarded,"
Penny admitted. "But it seems to me the thief must have been someone
who was in the house after the holdup."

"Why do you think that?"

"Because otherwise how would the thief have known that Mrs. Dillon
intended to take her necklace to the bank today? You remember she
spoke of the matter openly before her guests."

"I remember," Mr. Nichols smiled.

"And Mrs. Dillon made an appointment to meet Hanley