“Of course he did! But what of it? You don’t expect to find him waiting for you to come back, do you?”
Toby shook his head doubtfully. “No, I guess not. Only I thought he might be still around here. I’d know him in a minute if I saw him. Don’t you think that maybe if we sort of walked around and kept our eyes open we might find him?”
“No, I certainly don’t,” said Arnold decidedly. “As soon as he got that purse of yours he hiked out for some other place, naturally.”
“Oh!” murmured Toby disappointedly. “Where do you think he went?”
“Great Scott! How do I know? He might be just around the corner or he may be a mile away by this time. You might just as well make up your mind to doing without that money, Toby. I’m awfully sorry, old man. And I do wish you’d let me lend you some. It’s perfectly silly not to. If it was I who had lost my purse I’d take a loan from you in a minute.”
Toby smiled wanly at the idea of lending money to Arnold. Then the smile faded and he said: “Gee, I needed that eight dollars, Arn. It—it’s tough, isn’t it?”
“It certainly is, Toby. I’m as sorry as anything. Hang it, if you hadn’t been crazy enough to hand out money to a beggar it wouldn’t have happened. After this—”
“I know, but there won’t be any after this. Look here, Arn, I wish you’d let me have a dime and then run along home. I want to look around a bit and there’s no use dragging you around too. Will you?”
“Look around? You mean you want to look for the chap who swiped your purse? That’s crazy, Toby, honestly. You haven’t got one chance in a hundred, one chance in ten thousand, of ever seeing him again.”
“Maybe not, but—but I’d sort of like to try, Arn. You slip me a dime and—”