He had no difficulty in finding a place, for there were many such nearby. He got a fifteen cent bed, in a room where scores of other men and youths were sleeping. His entrance excited no comment, and, in fact, few were awake to notice his arrival. Ned was so tired he fell asleep with most of his clothes on. He had little fear of being robbed for he had little left to take. He got a frugal breakfast the next morning and started out to search for work. But New York seemed to be overflowing with men and boys on the same errand. Every place where Ned applied, either from seeing a sign "Boy Wanted," or by getting the address from a newspaper he bought, had been taken or else he would not fill the bill. All day long he tramped, spending a few cents for some buns and coffee at a lunch stand. At night, tired and discouraged, he went back to the lodging house where he had last stayed, and again got a fifteen cent bed. "To-morrow's Thursday," thought Ned, as he crawled under his overcoat, which he once more used as a blanket. "I wonder if the boys arrived to-day? What could they have thought when they saw the house closed? Oh, I wish I could find them. If this keeps on I'll have to pawn my overcoat for something to eat, and it looks as if it would snow to-morrow. What a pickle I'm in!" Then, in spite of his troubles he fell asleep, for he was very tired. CHAPTER XXII OUT IN THE STORM The telegram from Ned's father, which the three chums received that Wednesday evening, telling them their friend was not at his home in Darewell, was a great shock to them. "Why," remarked Bart, as he picked up the message he had dropped, "it hardly seems possible. I wonder where in the world he can be. He starts for home but he never arrives." "Are we sure he started for home?" asked Frank. "Why of course," Fenn answered. "Didn't the telegram from Mrs. Kenfield say so?" "She would hardly know," Frank went on. "Ned's train for Darewell wouldn't leave until four o'clock. The timetable shows that. According to what the woman who lives next door to Mrs. Kenfield told us, Ned's aunt started away before noon. Her train must have left about that time, so Ned couldn't have gotten away from New York, if he left at all, until after his aunt had started for Chicago. Consequently though she may have seen him leave the depot where she was, with the intention of going back to Darewell, that's no proof that he really went back home." "That's so," admitted Bart, struck with the force of Frank's reasoning. "But where then can he be?" "That's what we've got to find out," said Fenn. "How are we going to do it?" Bart inquired.