"What is the matter?" the housekeeper asked anxiously.
"The Black Imp is gone!" Penny exclaimed. "Did you do anything with it?"
"Why, no. It was on the desk the last time I saw it."
"It isn't there now. Someone has stolen it!"
"Nonsense!" Mrs. Gallup said impatiently. "Who would want that little statue? If a thief entered the house he would take things of greater value than that. You must have put it in a different place and forgotten about it."
"Oh, but I didn't, Mrs. Gallup. The Imp was on the desk this morning when I left the house."
"Well, I've not seen it." The housekeeper began to open bureau drawers, for despite Penny's words she was not entirely convinced that the girl had left the statue on the desk. Penny often misplaced cherished possessions only to spend an unhappy hour trying to recall where she had deposited them.
"It's no use to search, Mrs. Gallup," she wailed disconsolately. "The Black Imp is gone and will never be found."
"But no one has been in the house all day."
"The window is open," Penny observed. "I know I closed it this morning before I left the house."