Riccio had turned bright red.

"Go on, tell him," Mosca said.

"I stole something off him," Riccio muttered. "OK, I tried to steal something, and he caught me. So I threatened him with my friends and he let me go on the condition that I took him to meet my gang."

"Back then we were living in the basement of an old house," Mosca explained. "Riccio, Hornet, and me. It was over in Castello. You can always find a place there. No one wants to live there anymore. It was awful: wet and cold and we were always ill and we never had enough to eat."

"You may as well say it straight: We were in deep trouble," Riccio interrupted him impatiently. '"You can't live in a rat hole like this,' is what Scipio told us. And so he brought us here, to the Star-Palace. He picked the lock of the emergency exit and told us to barricade the front entrance. And since then we've been doing quite well. Until you turned up."

"OK, I get it. Victor the spoilsport." Victor looked at Prosper. "And when Hornet picked up you and Bo," he said to him, "the Thief Lord just fed the two of you as well."

"Scip brought us coats and blankets. And he even gave me these." Bo sat down next to Victor and held up one of his kittens. Lost in thought, Victor began to tickle it behind the ears until it started to purr and lick his fingers with its rough tongue.

"Why did you say Scipio was a liar?" Hornet asked.

"Forget what I said." Victor patted Bo's black hair. "Just tell me one more thing. Bo told me you were going to come into a lot of money soon. You're not planning to do something stupid, are you?"

"Bo, why can't you just keep your big mouth shut for once?" Riccio tore himself away from Prosper, but he quickly caught him again.

"Hey, Riccio, don't you talk to my little brother like that, understand?"

"Then you keep a better eye on him!" Riccio pushed away Prosper's hands. "Or he'll blab about everything!"

"Bo, you're not to tell him any more, OK?" Prosper said without letting Riccio out of his sight.

But Bo gave his brother a defiant look and whispered into Victor's ear, "We're going to break into a house with Scipio. But we're only going to steal some silly wooden wing."

"Bo!" Hornet shouted.

"You want to break in somewhere?" Victor was back on his feet immediately. "Are you crazy? You want to end up in the orphanage?" He placed himself in front of Prosper and looked down at him angrily. "Is that how you look after your little brother? Teaching him how to creep into strange houses?"

"That's not true!" Prosper grew quite pale. "Bo's not coming with us."

"I am!" Bo shouted.

"You're not!" Prosper barked back.

"Stop it!" Riccio shouted, pointing at Victor with trembling fingers. "It's all his fault. Everything was all right, until he started snooping around here. And now we're all fighting with one another and we need a new hideout."

"You don't need a new hideout!" Victor boomed. "Goshdarnit! I am NOT going to tell on you! But that may well change if you're going to do that burglary. Is that clear? What's going to happen to the little one if the Carabinieri catch you all? Housebreaking is a bit different from stealing cameras and handbags."

"Scipio knows what he's doing. The Thief Lord doesn't steal handbags." Riccio's voice cracked. "So you can just stop being horrible about him, you blown-up toad!"

Victor gasped. "Blown-up toad? Thief Lord? I'll tell you something!" He made a threatening step toward Riccio. Mosca and Hornet moved protectively between them, but Victor just pushed them away. "You've fallen for the biggest toad who ever lived. Why don't you take a little trip to the Fondamenta Bollani number 223. That's where you'll learn the truth about the Thief Lord. Everything you'd want to know, or maybe wouldn't want to know."

"Fondamenta Bollani?" Riccio bit his lips. "What's this? A trick?"

"As if!" Victor turned his back and crouched down next to the dismantled radio again. "Don't forget to lock up your prisoner before you leave now, will you?" he said over his shoulder. "I'll finish repairing this thing now."

24 Young Master Massimo

Nobody wanted to stay behind in the movie theater, not even Riccio, although on the entire journey he kept declaring how horrible he thought it was that they were spying on Scipio. Mosca had locked Victor in the bathroom before they had left. Now they were standing in front of the address Victor had given them: Fondamenta Bollani 223.

They hadn't expected such a grand house. Shyly, they looked up at the high-arched windows. They all felt small, grubby, and worthless. Slowly, keeping close together, they walked toward the entrance.

"We can't just ring the bell!" Hornet whispered.

"Someone has to!" Mosca hissed back. "If we just stand around, we'll never find out what the snoop meant."

Nobody moved.

"I'll say it again: Scipio'll go ballistic if he finds out we're spying on him," Riccio whispered. He looked uneasily at the golden nameplate next to the entrance. It said MASSIMO in elaborate letters.

"We'll let Bo ring!" Hornet proposed. "Bo's the least noticeable, isn't he?"

"No, I'll do it!" Prosper pushed Bo behind him and quickly pressed the golden button. Twice. He could hear the bell resound through the whole house. The others hid on either side of the entrance. So when a girl in a white apron opened the door, she saw only Prosper, with Bo smiling timidly at her from behind him.

"Buonasera, Signorina," Prosper said. "Do you happen to know a boy called Scipio?"

The girl frowned. "What is this? Some stupid prank? What do you want with him?" She eyed Prosper from head to dusty shoe. His pants were definitely not as immaculate as her whiter-than-white apron and there were some pigeon droppings on his sweater.

"So, it's true?" Prosper's tongue suddenly felt too big for his mouth. "He lives here? Scipio?"

The girl's face became even more hostile. "I think I'd better call Dottor Massimo," she said. But at that moment Bo poked his head out from behind Prosper.

"I'm sure Scipio would like to see us," he said. "We were supposed to play today."

"Play?" The girl still looked unconvinced, but when Bo smiled at her she almost managed a smile herself. Without another word, she opened the big door. Prosper hesitated for a second, but Bo shot across the threshold. Prosper caught sight of a nervous-looking Hornet before following him.

The maid led the two boys through a dark entrance hall into the courtyard. Bo immediately made for the big staircase, but the girl gently held him back and pointed toward a stone bench at the bottom of the stairs. Then she turned without so much as another look, walked up the stairs, and vanished behind the balustrade on the first floor.

"Maybe this is a different Scipio!" Bo whispered to Prosper. "Or he sneaked in here so he can rob the house later on."

"Maybe," Prosper murmured. He looked around uneasily while Bo ran toward the fountain in the middle of the courtyard.

Ten minutes can be a long time when you're waiting with a beating heart for something you don't understand, something you don't really want to know. Bo didn't seem particularly bothered by the whole thing. He was quite happy to touch the lions' heads by the fountain and to dip his hands into the cold water. But Prosper felt terrible. He felt betrayed. Deceived. What was Scipio doing in this house? Who was he really?