found several odd jobs to do when there was no snow to shovel and so managed to make enough to live on.
The four boys and Mr. Wilding kept up their search. The police and private detectives did what they could but to no purpose. Personals were inserted in the papers, begging Ned to communicate with his father, but Ned never thought of looking for them.
One afternoon, William, who had adopted the plan of walking about the streets in the hope of seeing Ned, whom he knew by description and a photograph, paused in front of a commission store, where a youth about his own age was helping to move boxes of oranges from a truck. Something about the lad attracted William's attention.
"I wonder if that's Ned?" he said to himself. "He looks just like the boys told me he would and like that photograph Mr. Wilding had. Still I wouldn't like to make a mistake. I must get closer."
He pretended to be searching for a number on the building, and so approached near to the boy helping unload the crates.
"I'll bet it is Ned," William said to himself with conviction. "I'm going to ask him. He can't any more than say no."
