Under His Thumb — page 219: what you’re looking at

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

. — =a 210° UNDER HIS THUMB. Clarence Blain, sobered by the terrible tragedy which made him the son of a murderer and suicide, > MS 5» SE ue bat se 2) me Fo ok 2 : : é “Ge ‘ "YF oe » ey at ; Be, %) , % - ‘ >! = . a ~ > Va = “ > a> , Ms © ie, - -~ ‘’ ¥ . : ~ of “a . 4 + “ +< has changed his habits—has become, in fact, a staid, | honorable gentleman. He took up the wreck of his father’s business and worked it up to prosperity again; and two or three years later he took Carl Brandon into partnership. The vagabond was a vagabond no longer, he having promptly reformed after the revelation of the mystery regarding the terrible crime in which he came so near being impli- cated. His beautiful daughter’s influence; and, per- haps, more than these influences, the sustaining friendship and watchfulness of Croly, the detective, brought him up from the abyss, and he is in a meas- ure fulfilling the promise of his younger manhood. As manager of the printing-house none could be more skillful than he. Brandon & Blain is the title — . by which the firm is now styled. Carl Brandon, a year later, made his home with his daughter and her husband; for—queer that we have not hinted it before—Stella, the brave, beauti- ful child of the dissipated outcast, became what she was just fitted to be—the wife of the detective. Mrs. Croly is her name. Her admiration for his skill and bravery had resulted as such things usually do. Steve Lawton came in for a share of glory in the solution of the case, for, in the interview between Leary and the disguised person, which he overheard, as stated in chapter twenty-six, he had recognized the voice of the unknown as that of Julian Blain. Thus, although he would not have known how to work out the case alone, he really solved the mys- tery to his own satisfaction unaided. The boy returned to work in the printing-house, and thoroughly learned the trade like a sensible lad. But he was afterward frequently called upon to as- sist Croly upon difficult cases, and always sustained the reputation which he had gained so early in his career. Only one point remains unexplained, and that was brought out in the trial of Bill Leary. Stella Brandon’s pistol, which was the weapon comicbooks a « ft - - ld - 7 - — > = ~