Mrs. Ismond had a worn yellow sheet of paper in her hand.
“Markham,” she said, in a sad, pained way. “I was getting out some neckties for you, and by mistake opened the bureau drawer where he kept his belongings. I found this.”
“What is it, mother?” asked Frank, taking the paper from her hand. He saw for himself, and his face turned quite as white and troubled as her own.
“Too bad—too bad,” said Frank, looking down at the time-worn sheet of paper in a disheartened way.
[CHAPTER XXI]
AN UNEXPECTED MEETING
It was a depressing discovery that Mrs. Ismond had made. Frank sat staring at the paper in his hand in silence for some minutes.
This was a printed sheet. It was headed: “Reward—One Hundred Dollars.” In short, the warden of the Juvenile Reformatory at Linwood, offered that amount for the return to that institution of an escaped inmate—Richard Markham Welmore.
“Yes, it is our Markham,” murmured Frank—“that is his middle name. The description answers him exactly,” and again Frank said in a troubled way: “Too bad—too bad.”