"You would not heed my warning--you left me in the hands of those two young ruffians while you entered the bank to do the wrong into which you had been led by that young villain, Cutts, whom I knew to be a thief and an associate of thieves. "No sooner had you entered than Cutts sprang back, and joining the two young men who had held me down, all three ran off down Rector street and disappeared. "Meanwhile I slipped across the street and crawled beneath an empty truck, determined to follow you in secret the instant you appeared. "There I found this good boy, Barney, who told me of the bank robbery and just how it had occurred. He had with him the tin box, also, which the burglars had dropped in the street. Examining the papers I recognized your grandfather's will at a glance. "This I left with Barney, with instructions to give it to you, while I took the parchment myself, that by no combination of circumstances might it be lost. "It was by my directions that Barney rescued you and took you into the vault, and when I knew you were safe I started to meet my unfortunate sister, Mrs. Tisdale--who had long been suffering from insanity from the brutal treatment of her husband--whom I had just succeeded in finding upon the morning of the day in which these events occurred. "At the corner of Rector street and Broadway I met Detective Hook. "He followed me, but at Park Row and Frankfort street, seeing my sister, who exactly resembled me, awaiting me, I slipped away while his eyes were for the moment turned, and saw him following her in my stead." "Then it was she who was murdered?" cried Frank, lost in wonder and surprise. "It was," replied Mrs. Mansfield, sadly. "Murdered beyond all doubt by the husband who drove her mad and made her life a curse." "And he's the man I'll hang, even if he is my father!" exclaimed Jerry Buck, who, with whitened features and firmly-set teeth, had been listening attentively to the woman's tale. "See here," he added, stretching out his hand in which a bundle of papers was grasped. "I've been looking at these 'ere while you two have been talking, an' can read well enough to know that they'll give me the grip on him an' his pal." "Where did you find them?" cried Frank, eagerly. He had seized the papers from Jerry Buck, and hastily examined them in the light of the burning house from which the flames were now pouring, illuminating the surrounding scene with the brightness of day. They were small, but well-executed plans of the vaults of the Lispenard Bank, all marked "duplicate," and bearing upon them Elijah Callister's name. "Where did I find them?" cried the boy. "Why, in the pocket of this here coat to be sure. Come, we must take 'em to the chief of police. If they ain't the fixin' of him what killed my mother an' the feller what's runnin' you down to earth, why, it won't be for want of tryin' on the part of the 'Bats in the Wall'--that's all I've got to say." CHAPTER XXVI.