Under His Thumb — page 41: what you’re looking at

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

- 32 UNDER HIS THUMB, You wrong me. I have committed no crime. It was not I who shot Hiram Waldron.”’ ‘*Do you mean it?’’ ‘It is true, Steve. I am innocent.’’ The boy was silent a moment, his brain intensely active. He suddenly exclaimed: ‘‘Are you truly innocent, George Dyer?’’ ‘“As innocent as you are.”’ “Then I know what the racket is. I know why yer are so ’feared of being caught.’’ ‘“’*Cause yer knows who fired the shot. I guess you seen it done. That’s why.’’ ‘‘Ladmit it, Steve; 1 witnessed the crime,’’ said the young man, in a low, trembling voice. - There was a moment of intense silence, and then he added: “*T should not have admitted this even to you, had — you not already guessed the truth. Wiull you prom- ise, now, not to betray me?’’ “That would be helpin’ to shield the murderer from justice,’’ Steve declared, shaking his head. “You will do so much for me!’’ ‘“No, I won’t, and don’t you forget it.”’ ‘‘Is your decision final?”’ ‘“Yer can wait a week, if yer think Vl change my mind. I[ain’t in no wartickler hurry.” These words had scarcely passed the boy’s lips when he was suddenly lifted in the arms of his cap- tor, and borne swiftly across the room. ‘‘Help—help!’’ shouted the lad, assailed by a des- perate fear. But the thick walls sent back his cry with a dead sound, and he knew that it could have reached the ears of no one outside. comicbooks.co