“Walk quick, but don’t run,” he whispered.
He told me a moment later that a man who had hurried past him on the pavement was saying, “Where’s that thief? I’ll get him!” We went out by the other end of the alley.
“If it had not been for the fog we should have been arrested as thieves,” said Mattia.
For a moment I stood almost choking. They had made a thief of my good honest Capi!
“Hold him tight,” I said, “and come back to the house.”
We walked quickly.
The father and mother were seated at the table folding up material. I threw the pair of stockings down. Allen and Ned laughed.
“Here’s a pair of stockings,” I said; “you’ve made a thief of my dog. I thought you took him out to amuse people.”
I was trembling so I could scarcely speak, and yet I never felt more determined.
“And if it was not for amusement,” demanded my father, “what would you do, I’d like to know?”