the story he had given me should be exclusive, regardless of pressure brought to bear, a pledge he kept with strictest fidelity. I was the last person to bid him good-bye on the scaffold, just before the black cap was adjusted, and his last words were an expression of gratitude for the kindness of my treatment.
I returned to St. Charles and printed a story that was appreciated for its news value, being put on the Associated Press wire and sent to the four corners of the earth. By my metropolitan contemporaries it was accounted a clever bit of newspaper work, although none knew at what cost to my sensory nerves.
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