Part 16 (1/2)
”May I ask what you are doing in my apartment?” a cold, masculine voice demanded.
Penny whirled around to face Hanley Cron. He had entered the studio from an adjoining kitchenette.
”Oh, Mr. Cron, did you see him in here?” she gasped.
”Did I see whom?” the man asked with provoking calmness.
”A thief just entered your studio by means of the fire escape,” Penny informed. ”I saw him come in here.”
Hanley Cron shook his head and a slight sneer played over his lips.
”No one has been in my studio during the past hour except yourself.”
”But I'm positive I saw him. He entered through the open window.”
”I've been in the studio all the time. As you see, the outside door is locked. The man couldn't have escaped.”
Penny was baffled. Although several other windows opened off the fire escape, it was difficult to make herself believe that she had been mistaken. However, a careful glance about the room a.s.sured her that the thief was not hiding there.
”Will you leave?” Cron asked impatiently. ”Your story about a thief running up the fire escape doesn't ring true. You probably used it as an excuse to get in here and spy!”
”You'll soon learn that it's the truth,” Penny exclaimed with rising anger. ”Just wait until your friend Mrs. Dillon arrives.”
”What has she to do with it?”
”Her pearls were stolen. And it was partly your fault too, Mr. Cron, because you invited her to call at your studio on the way to the bank!
You must have known she ran a great risk in carrying that necklace unguarded.”
”Are you meaning to imply--?”
”I'm not hinting anything,” Penny returned shortly. She was provoked at herself for wasting to much time in idle talk. It had given the thief an opportunity to escape from the building.
She turned to go, but just then her attention was drawn to a small statue upon which Cron evidently had been working. His smock was splattered with wet clay and the little figure which rested on a nearby pedestal had not yet fully dried.
As the girl's gaze wandered to the statue, Cron became slightly confused. Picking up a dark cloth from the floor he covered the ma.s.s of clay, endeavoring to make the action appear casual.
Penny was not to be deceived. She instantly divined that the art critic did not wish her to see 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.