“How much?” inquired the boy, suggestively.
“Five cents,” answered Pietro, understanding his meaning.
“It isn’t much,” said the boy, reflectively. “Tell me what you want.”
Though Pietro was not much of a master of English, he contrived to make the boy understand that he was to go round to the back door and tell Mrs. McGuire that he, Pietro, was gone. He intended to hide close by, and when Phil came out, as he hoped, on the strength of his disappearance, he would descend upon him and bear him off triumphantly.
Armed with these instructions, the boy went round to the back door and knocked.
Thinking it might be Phil’s enemy, Mrs. McGuire went to the door, holding in one hand a dipper of hot suds, ready to use in case of emergency.
“Well, what do you want?” she asked, abruptly, seeing that it was a boy.
“He’s gone,” said the boy.
“Who’s gone?”
“The man with the hand-organ, ma’am.”