Page:Harvey O'Higgins--Silent Sam and other stories.djvu/380

368 decided to carry off the situation with a bold front. He disguised himself, quickly and effectually, by pulling his cap down to his eyes and clasping his hands behind him. Then he stepped out from his hiding-place—and swaggered into the arms of his mother.

"Mickey!" she screamed, and caught him by the arm.

He looked at her, bewildered. "Gee!" he said, surprised to find himself suddenly in another world and subject to maternal authority.

She shook him. "Yeh little imp, yeh! 'T was at the theayter yeh was, was yeh? Did n't I tell yeh—"

He did not listen to what it was that she had told him. He knew that young "Shirty" Schurz must have betrayed him. If "Shirty" had not betrayed Mr. Flynn, too, it must be because the traitorous villain had failed to see that Mickey was not alone in the gallery. He hunched up his shoulders against his mother's wrath, and planned to be avenged on "Shirty."

She hustled him along with her, scolding plaintively. "Have yeh no consarn at all fer yer poor mother—worryin' me soul out about yeh—thinkin' yeh 'd been run down be the cayrs er drownded in the river? Are yeh goin' to grow up no better than yer fahther? An' me thinkin' I 'd bring y' up dacint to be a comfourt to me." He remained sulkily silent. "Whayr 'd yeh get money fer the theayter?" she demanded in another tone. "Have yeh been play in' the craps again?"

"Naw, I ain't. I ain't been doin' not'in'."

"Whayr 'd yeh come by it, thin?"