Under His Thumb — page 186: what you’re looking at

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

UNDER HIS THUMB. os 477 most Wormidable one in all respects, and Only invol- untarily took a backward step. _ “Hah! ejaculated the stranger, in a_ hoarse, threatening tone. The detective coolly surveyed him from head to foot. Then, in exact mimicry of the ruffian, he ex- claimed: “Hah! } 9? The ruffian’s face flamed with anger, and he clenched his great hands as though he would crush his adversary at a single grip. ‘“Who’re you?’ the man growled. ‘“That’s my affair,’’ was the retort, in a tone so exactly imitating that of the other, that the ruffian stared in consternation. But for the difference in the words uttered, one might have mistaken the retort for an echo. ‘‘Don’t you mock me!”’ he roared. “Then don’t try to scare me.’’ ‘“What yer here for, eh?’ ‘*What are you here for?’’ ‘*T live here.”’ “Well, so do I.’’ ‘What do yer mean?”’’ ‘“‘T mean that I live here as much as you do.”’ “Do you say this isn’t my home?”’ ‘‘T say just that.’’ ‘Then I lie, do [?’’ “It appears that you do.’’ “Then you say that to my teeth?”’ ‘‘No—to your ears. You don’t hear through your teeth, do you?”’ The big ruffian evidently preferred blustering to fighting, gan the slender detective’s irritating retorts were more than the big fellow could withstand. He stepped toward Croly and sent out a blow which seemingly would have felled an ox: It would have felled Croly had it hit him. But it did not. He adroitly eluded it, and before the man had recovered from the momentum of his effort, he received a sharp blow from the small, clenched hand of the detective that sent him reeling against the outer door. €o mn Eomicbooks