I inquired for letters at the post-offices in Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany and Tempe at every chance, but finally gave up in despair.
2 I had only one hope, and that was to find the hump-backed man with the black beard--the man Rucker was talking to on the boat we had passed on our voyage eastward before I found my home deserted.

This was a very slim chance, but it was all there was left.

Captain Sproule had noticed him, and said he had seen him a great many times before.

He was a land agent, who made it a business to get emigrants to go west, away up the lakes somewhere.
"If your stepfather had any money," said the captain, "you can bet that hunchback tried to bamboozle him into some land deal, and probably did.
And if he did, he'll remember him and his name, and where he left the canal or the Lakes, and maybe where he located." "I must watch for him," I said.
"We'll all watch for him," said the captain.
Paddy was not with us the next summer; but Bill was, and so was Ace, with whom I was now on the best of terms.

We all agreed to keep our eyes peeled for a hunchback with a black beard.