Once a tip came in that a boy, who might be the one wanted, was held a captive in a lonely hut on the New Jersey meadows, just over the river from New York.
Larry went out on this, and tramped half a day through a swamp, looking for the lonely hut. He found it, but also found that it was a sort of camp for some boys from Jersey City, who had a small motor boat, which they ran in the Hackensack River. They had fitted up a hut on the dryest part of the meadows, and there they had royal good times, in spite of the mosquitoes. Larry came upon them one afternoon, and found the members of the “club” all present.
They made him welcome when he stated his errand, but, of course, they knew nothing of the stolen boy.
“Have something to eat?” asked the one called “Cap,” probably from the fact that he ran the motorboat.
“Well, I am hungry,” admitted the young reporter, with a smile.
Thereupon they set out what they had, and it was not at all unpalatable. They had a small stove, over which they made coffee, and fried eggs and bacon, and Larry made a good meal in rather novel surroundings.
He questioned the boys, and managed to get material for a Sunday supplement story, for such were always welcome to the hard-worked editor of that edition of the Leader. In turn the boys asked Larry about his work, and one and all, before he left, had determined to become reporters.
Another time Larry was sent down into the slums, where, so the “tip” stated, a boy was being held a captive. Larry did not find the boy he sought, but he did come upon a case that called for attention.
A boy, who was not perfect, mentally, had been kept in a small, dark room by some relatives who cared for him, as he was an orphan. His condition was woeful, and Larry, taking pity, notified the proper authorities. The boy was taken to an institution, operated on, and fully restored to health, becoming, some time later, a copy-boy on the Leader, and eventually making a useful member of society.
So, though the tips were often misleading, not through malice, but because of overzealousness, or ignorance, some of them resulted in good.