“Can’t you think?” begged Larry, to whom finding the former copy boy meant so much.
“I vas so glad to see him go I care not where he lives yet,” the woman answered. “But he has an aunt vat lives somewheres about t’ree blocks from here. Maybe she can tell.”
Larry got the location of Peter’s aunt, and with a somewhat lighter heart he set off to the address the Jewish woman had given him.
He had a little difficulty in finding Mrs. Jackson, the former copy boy’s aunt, as she had moved twice since the Jewish woman knew of her, but eventually Larry discovered her. At first she was very guarded in her answers.
“What do you want to know for?” she demanded.
Then Larry told her as much of the story of his missing brother as he thought necessary. He described how he came to believe Peter had a hand in taking him away.
“I always knew Peter would come to no good end,” said his aunt. “I warned my brother to whip him at least once a day to make him a better boy, but he would not, and now see what he has come to. Well, if I can help you, young man, I will. I’d just like to get hold of Peter,” and she looked as though Peter’s experience under her administration would be anything but pleasant.
She looked over some old letters, and from them got the address of Peter’s father, who had died some time before, leaving the boy in charge of a stepmother. To that address Larry went, only to find that the stepmother had married again, and gone away. Neighbors said Peter had not been seen about the place where he used to live, in some time. Larry was about to leave, when a boy, about his own age, who had heard his questions, said:
“I know how to find him.”
“How?” asked Larry, his heart beating high with hope again. “Tell me where he is.”