The Nut leaped to his feet, and the four men fell back, for he was a match for them. Only they knew he shrank from the task of "pitching into jail-birds," and indeed he contented himself with shouting a few threats against them, which roused their laughter, though they kept their distance.
"Do you think you can bounce us with the things you say," sneered the Burglar. "Hold your jaw."
"All my eye and tommy rot," said the Burglar, prudently retiring into the background. "All brag."
"When you've done talking I may have something to get off my chest," said the Parisian, who did not venture to try conclusions with the Nut, but whose hatred of him was so intense that he would have liked to kill him.
He made a step towards the Nut, who clenched his fists and began to see red, when the arrival of another person put the four miscreants to flight as if by magic. There was no need for the newcomer to open his mouth. He had but to show his face.
It was Chéri-Bibi!
[CHAPTER II]
CHÉRI-BIBI
"Have you left the black hole?" asked the Nut.
"Yes," returned Chéri-Bibi, who held in his hand a peculiarly shaped piece of hard wood which he was carving with the point of his knife.