“I will go to see Mr. Barriscale.”
That closed the incident so far as Captain McCormack was concerned. But Hal’s mother was not so easily pacified. She continued alternately to pity and to blame her boy, and to make dire predictions of what was likely to happen to him when he should come in contact with Mr. Barriscale. And as for Hal’s young sisters, they would not be appeased until they had drawn from him a full recital of the escapade of Hallowe’en. But he did not permit either his mother’s lamentations or the volubility of his sisters to impede the carrying out of his programme. As it was Saturday morning and there was no school he was able to set about at once the performance of his most unwelcome task. He resurrected a boy’s express wagon that he had used with delight a few years back, loaded the fragments of broken statuary carefully into it, covered them discreetly with a piece of burlap, and started out on his journey to the Barriscale mansion.
Two blocks from home he ran unexpectedly into Slicker, who stood for a moment gazing at him and his outfit in wild-eyed astonishment.
“What you got there?” asked Slicker.
“Stolen goods,” replied Hal sententiously.
“What you mean stolen goods? It ain’t the stone cupid, is it?”
“Yes.”
“Where you takin’ him?”
“Back home.”
“Perry make you take it back?”