“I’ll find that money!” Mrs. Schmitz offered quickly.
“I’ll pay it back if it takes me years to earn it. And I’ll never go inside the Fifth Avenue High again till Max goes with me.” Sydney straightened with a decision new to Billy. It seemed as if he had in a moment taken up a great burden that he would carry to success or die in the attempt.
Mrs. Schmitz stood beside him and patted his arm. “Seedney, that leetle yeller fellow iss good and dead now already. He never again squeaks. Now I will go mit you to find—”
He faced her with determination. “No, Mrs. Schmitz, I must do this alone—if I can. Let me take my own way for three days. If the detective—if I learn nothing then I will ask you—”
“Me, too, Mumps!” Billy flung in.
“Yes, both of you. Max had no money to speak of; I happened to see his purse when he paid his fare this morning; there was only a little small change. He can’t go far on that.”
“No. And while you’re hunting him I’ll talk things over with mother and sister, the quartette and the bunch; and when Max returns we’ll all camp on his trail, so that no matter what the Buckman crowd does, Max will feel he has a jolly good gang behind him.”
“Goot! That’s right, Billy. The friends that beliefs in you before you prove out are worth having. After you are successful you don’t need ’em. Comes so many then they are in the way.”
Sydney left them and went down town, going first to Mr. Streeter, and laying the whole case before him, not sparing himself.
His faith was warranted, for Mr. Streeter had not befriended many boys in trouble without coming well in touch with the machinery of the law. He knew the best detective, and went with Sydney to find him. This man had more than once successfully run down a boy for this kind friend of boys.