And to Larry’s delighted surprise the view, while a most gloomy one from a scenic standpoint, was just what he wanted. As he looked from the topmost rear porch of the tenement, he could see little else but chimneys, tall stacks and short ones, big and little—a veritable forest of brick and sheet-iron stacks.
“Well, this is the best place I’ve struck yet!” the young reporter exclaimed. “Now to make some inquiries.” He knew two ways of doing this—both good. One was to interview the children, and the other was to apply at the nearest small grocery.
For, if you ever want to know anything that has happened in a tenement, ask the children about it. If that doesn’t give you the information, try the grocery.
Larry began his inquiries at the grocery first, and the keeper of it, a shrewd Hebrew, had the history of every family in the neighboring tenement down “pat.” It was part of his business, for he did a big credit trade; that is, big in the number of persons he trusted.
Yes, there were in the building several Italian boys of the age of the one Larry sought. But whether they were strangers from New York, the grocer could not say. There were suspicious looking men, too. There always were, but who could say they were the ones wanted. Then Larry got down to “brass tacks,” as he called it.
“Do you happen to know whether there is a boy held captive in a rear room of the tenement?” asked Larry.
“A captiff! Vor why should I?” exclaimed the Hebrew with a shrug of his shoulders. “I haf not zeen him. I know not.”
“I’ve got to make a sort of house-to-house canvass,” thought Larry. “Let’s see. How can I do it? Guess I’ll be a sort of inspector for the time being. I’ll be looking for sick children. That will be a safe play. I’ll use my fire badge.”
He had one that he had used to gain admission inside the fire lines in New York. Pinning this on his coat, the young reporter started to knock on doors in the tenement, beginning on the second floor, for from the lower rear rooms no view of the chimneys could be had, and it was on this view that the young reporter relied.
His harmless masquerade as an inspector of sick children worked well. Most of the youngsters were at school, but there were plenty at home, and many were ill. Larry pretended to make notes about them, and some women took him for a doctor.