He hurried forward elated, but when within a few yards he discovered to his disappointment that it was not Phil, but a little fiddler of about his size.

He was in the employ of a different padrone.

He was doubtless the one the boy had seen.
Disappointed, Pietro now turned back, and bent his steps to the ferry.
But he saw nothing of Phil on the way.
"I would like to beat him, the little wretch!" he said to himself, angrily.

"If I had not been too late for the boat, I would have easily caught him." It never occurred to Pietro that Phil might have taken the cars for a more distant point, as he actually did.

The only thing he could think of, for he was not willing to give up the pursuit, was to go back.