Under His Thumb — page 143: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

134 UNDER HIS THUMB. CHAPTER XVIII. A SKILLED SHOT. As Croly, the detective, uttered the remark which closes chapter sixteen, he advanced and placed one hand lightly upon the arm of the vagabond. Brandon did not stir a muscle. But a sudden, fierce light flashed from his dark eyes, and in a low, cold voice he exclaimed: ‘*Do you mean to arrest me, sir?’’ “Why should I not? You know, without doubt, who committed the dastardly murder of Hiram “Waldron, and yet you refuse to give me the light which it is in your power to give. Thus you become the same as an accomplice of the murderer.’ ‘“*T told you I did not know.”’’ “You say you suspect.”’ ‘Which I have aright todo. A man may have > suspicions, and yet be unwilling to disclose them.”’ ‘“T would hold nothing back that would lead to the clearing up of the mystery.’’ ‘“What you would do and what I will do are two different things. My suspicions are my own, and for the present they remain so.”’ “Then, aS I said, it becomes my duty to arrest you.”’ Croly’s purpose was not, as it might seem, to bull- doze the outcast into making a confession. He did not suspect Brandon of complicity in the crime, but he believed, if permitted to go free, the unknown conspirator would manage to use the unfortunate comicbooks.co