The red-haired man began shouting in Italian. Antonio shouted back, also in Italian.
“What’s happening, Mr. Paolo?” Ella asked. She held Pumpkin tightly in her arms.
“Antonio told the man—I believe his name is Carlo—to give back the gondola. Carlo said no because the gondola rightly belongs to his grandfather,” Paolo translated.
Antonio switched to English just then. “These children saw you steal my gondola!” he told Carlo, pointing to Ethan and Ella.
“You mean my grandfather’s gondola,” Carlo said angrily. “I don’t know how your family came to possess it. But after I spoke to you last week, I came straight home and matched it against photographs of my grandfather’s boat. They were the same. So I went to the police, but they said I had no real proof! That’s why I had to take the gondola back on my own.”
“How do you know the two boats are the same?” Ella asked Carlo.
Carlo was startled. “Why, because the details are identical. The black and green colors, the eagle ornament . . .”
“Wait! The ornament on this gondola is a hawk, not an eagle!” Ethan told him.
“What?” Carlo walked around to the front of the boat. He stared closely at the ornament. Then his shoulders slumped. “You are right. It is a hawk ornament. I am very sorry for the confusion,” he said to Antonio.