Meanwhile, Willis Ford had left no stone unturned to obtain news of the runaways. This he did not find difficult, though attended with delay. He struck the right trail, and then had only to inquire, as he went along, whether two boys had been seen, one small and delicate, the other large and well-grown, wandering through the country. Plenty had seen the two boys, and told him so.
“Are they your sons, mister?” asked a laborer of whom he inquired.
“Not both of them—only the smaller,” answered Ford, with unblushing falsehood.
“And what made them run away now?”
“My son probably did not like the boarding place I selected for him.”
“Why didn't he write to you?”
“He didn't know where to direct.”
“Who is the other lad?”
“The son of the man I placed him with. I think he may have induced Sam to run away.”
Finally Ford reached Claremont, the town where the boys had actually found refuge. Here he learned that two boys had been taken in by Dr. Stone, answering to the description he gave. One, the younger one, had been sick, but now was better. This information he obtained at the hotel.