"Did Proctor and Jurgens make the boy a prisoner?" he demanded.

"I know nozzing, m'sieu," replied the creole; "I haf done nozzing wrong."

"Did you——"

Just at that moment a door opened—a door opposite the one leading upon the gallery that overlooked the court.

"Bangs!" shouted Dick, pointing to a wild figure that appeared in the doorway.

With a snarl like that of an angry panther, the figure turned and leaped for an open window. Matt and Dick both sprang in pursuit.


[CHAPTER XI.]

A BLACK MYSTERY.

Bangs, it seemed clear, had entered the other room through a window in the side of the house. The roof of a one-story building came close up under the window, so that it was comparatively easy to enter Rigolette's house in that manner.