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 illustrious 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 warmt