despair, he slunk off through the railway yards, taking a roundabout
way to the circus grounds.

There was money in his purse,--plenty of it; but he was afraid to
enter an eating-house, or to even approach the "snack-stand" on the
edge of the circus lot. For a long time he stood afar off in the
darkness, his legs trembling, his mouth twitching, his eyes bent with
pathetic intentness upon the single pie and hot sandwich stand that
remained near the sideshow tent, presided over by a kind-faced, sleepy
old man in spectacles.

A huge placard tacked to the board fence back of this stand attracted
his attention. Impelled by a strange curiosity, he ventured into the
circle of light, knowing full well, before he was near enough to
distinguish more than the bold word "Reward," that this sinister bill
had to do with him and no other.

Held by the same mysterious power that a serpent exercises in charming
its victim, the lad stared at the face of this ominous thing that
proclaimed him a fugitive for whom five hundred dollars would be paid,
dead or alive.

Stricken to the soul, he read and re-read the black words, unable, for
a long time, to tear himself away from the spot. A quick alarm seized
him. He slunk back into the shadows, his hunger forgotten. For many
minutes he stood in the grisly darkness, staring at the white patch on
the fence. Curses rose to his lips--lips that had never known an oath
before; prayers and pleadings were forgotten in that bitter
arraignment of fate.