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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/5435-8.txt b/5435-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fbeb261 --- /dev/null +++ b/5435-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8453 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Stillwater Tragedy, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Stillwater Tragedy + +Author: Thomas Bailey Aldrich + +Release Date: April, 2004 [EBook #5435] +Posting Date: July 11, 2010 +[This file last updated on July 21, 2010] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STILLWATER TRAGEDY *** + + + + +Produced by This eBook was created by Charles Aldarondo +(pg@aldarondo.net). + + + + + + + + + +The Stillwater Tragedy + +By Thomas Bailey Aldrich + + + + +I + + +It is close upon daybreak. The great wall of pines and hemlocks +that keep off the west wind from Stillwater stretches black and +indeterminate against the sky. At intervals a dull, metallic sound, +like the guttural twang of a violin string, rises form the +frog-invested swamp skirting the highway. Suddenly the birds stir in +their nests over there in the woodland, and break into that wild +jargoning chorus with which they herald the advent of a new day. In +the apple-orchards and among the plum-trees of the few gardens in +Stillwater, the wrens and the robins and the blue-jays catch up the +crystal crescendo, and what a melodious racket they make of it with +their fifes and flutes and flageolets! + +The village lies in a trance like death. Possibly not a soul hears +this music, unless it is the watchers at the bedside of Mr. Leonard +Tappleton, the richest man in town, who has lain dying these three +days, and cannot last until sunrise. Or perhaps some mother, drowsily +hushing her wakeful baby, pauses a moment and listens vacantly to the +birds singing. But who else? + +The hubbub suddenly ceases,--ceases as suddenly as it began,--and +all is still again in the woodland. But it is not so dark as before. +A faint glow of white light is discernible behind the ragged line of +the tree-tops. The deluge of the darkness is receding from the face +of the earth, as the mighty waters receded of old. + +The roofs and tall factory chimneys of Stillwater are slowly +taking shape in the gloom. Is that a cemetery coming into view +yonder, with its ghostly architecture of obelisks and broken columns +and huddled head-stones? No, that is only Slocum's Marble Yard, with +the finished and unfinished work heaped up like snowdrifts,--a +cemetery in embryo. Here and there in an outlying farm a lantern +glimmers in the barn-yard: the cattle are having their fodder +betimes. Scarlet-capped chanticleer gets himself on the nearest +rail-fence and lifts up his rancorous voice like some irate old +cardinal launching the curse of Rome. Something crawls swiftly along +the gray of the serpentine turnpike,--a cart, with the driver lashing +a jaded horse. A quick wind goes shivering by, and is lost in the +forest. + +Now a narrow strip of two-colored gold stretches along the +horizon. + +Stillwater is gradually coming to its senses. The sun has begun to +twinkle on the gilt cross of the Catholic chapel and make itself +known to the doves in the stone belfry of the South Church. The +patches of cobweb that here and there cling tremulously to the coarse +grass of the inundated meadows have turned into silver nets, and the +mill-pond--it will be steel-blue later--is as smooth and white as if +it had been paved with one vast unbroken slab out of Slocum's Marble +Yard. Through a row of button-woods on the northern skirt of the +village is seen a square, lap-streaked building, painted a +disagreeable brown, and surrounded on three sides by a platform,--one +of seven or eight similar stations strung like Indian heads on a +branch thread of the Great Sagamore Railway. + +Listen! That is the jingle of the bells on the baker's cart as it +begins its rounds. From innumerable chimneys the curdled smoke gives +evidence that the thrifty housewife--or, what is rarer in Stillwater, +the hired girl--has lighted the kitchen fire. + +The chimney-stack of one house at the end of a small court--the +last house on the easterly edge of the village, and standing quite +alone--sends up no smoke. Yet the carefully trained ivy over the +porch, and the lemon verbena in a tub at the foot of the steps, +intimate that the place is not unoccupied. Moreover, the little +schooner which acts as weather-cock on one of the gables, and is now +heading due west, has a new top-sail. It is a story-and-a-half +cottage, with a large expanse of roof, which, covered with porous, +unpainted shingles, seems to repel the sunshine that now strikes full +upon it. The upper and lower blinds on the main building, as well as +those on the extensions, are tightly closed. The sun appears to beat +in vain at the casements of this silent house, which has a curiously +sullen and defiant air, as if it had desperately and successfully +barricaded itself against the approach of morning; yet if one were +standing in the room that leads from the bed-chamber on the +ground-floor--the room with the latticed window--one would see a ray +of light thrust through a chink of the shutters, and pointing like a +human finger at an object which lies by the hearth. + +This finger, gleaming, motionless, and awful in its precision, +points to the body of old Mr. Lemuel Shackford, who lies there dead +in his night-dress, with a gash across his forehead. + +In the darkness of that summer night a deed darker than the night +itself had been done in Stillwater. + + + + +II + + +That morning, when Michael Hennessey's girl Mary--a girl sixteen +years old--carried the can of milk to the rear door of the silent +house, she was nearly a quarter of hour later than usual, and looked +forward to being soundly rated. + +"He's up and been waiting for it," she said to herself, observing +the scullery door ajar. "Won't I ketch it! It's him for growling and +snapping at a body, and it's me for always being before or behind +time, bad luck to me. There's no plazing him." + +Mary pushed back the door and passed through the kitchen, nerving +herself all the while to meet the objurgations which she supposed +were lying in wait for her. The sunshine was blinding without, but +sifted through the green jalousies, it made a gray, crepuscular light +within. As the girl approached the table, on which a plate with knife +and fork had been laid for breakfast, she noticed, somewhat +indistinctly at first, a thin red line running obliquely across the +floor from the direction of the sitting-room and ending near the +stove, where it had formed a small pool. Mary stopped short, scarcely +conscious why, and peered instinctively into the adjoining apartment. +Then, with a smothered cry, she let fall the milk-can, and a dozen +white rivulets, in strange contrast to that one dark red line which +first startled her, went meandering over the kitchen floor. With her +eyes riveted upon some object in the next room, the girl retreated +backward slowly and heavily dragging one foot after the other, until +she reached the gallery door; then she turned swiftly, and plunged +into the street. + +Twenty minutes later, every man, woman, and child in Stillwater +knew that old Mr. Shackford had been murdered. + +Mary Hennessey had to tell her story a hundred times during the +morning, for each minute brought to Michael's tenement a fresh +listener hungry for the details at first hand. + +"How was it, Molly? Tell a body, dear!" + +"Don't be asking me!" cried Molly, pressing her palms to her eyes +as if to shut out the sight, but taking all the while a secret creepy +satisfaction in living the scene over again. "It was kinder dark in +the other room, and there he was, laying in his night-gownd, with his +face turned towards me, so, looking mighty severe-like, jest as if he +was a-going to say, 'It's late with the milk ye are, ye hussy!'--a +way he had of spaking." + +"But he didn't spake, Molly darlin'?" + +"Niver a word. He was stone dead, don't you see. It was that still +you could hear me heart beat, saving there wasn't a drop of beat in +it. I let go the can, sure, and then I backed out, with me eye on 'im +all the while, afeard to death that he would up and spake them +words." + +"The pore child! for the likes of her to be wakin' up a murthered +man in the mornin'!" + +There was little or no work done that day in Stillwater outside +the mills, and they were not running full handed. A number of men +from the Miantowona Iron Works and Slocum's Yard--Slocum employed +some seventy or eighty hands--lounged about the streets in their +blouses, or stood in knots in front of the tavern, smoking short clay +pipes. Not an urchin put in an appearance at the small red brick +building on the turnpike. Mr. Pinkham, the school-master, waited an +hour for the recusants, then turned the key in the lock and went +home. + +Dragged-looking women, with dishcloth or dustpan in hand, stood in +door-ways or leaned from windows, talking in subdued voices with +neighbors on the curb-stone. In a hundred far-away cities the news of +the suburban tragedy had already been read and forgotten; but here +the horror stayed. + +There was a constantly changing crowd gathered in front of the +house in Welch's Court. An inquest was being held in the room +adjoining the kitchen. The court, which ended at the gate of the +cottage, was fringed for several yards on each side by rows of +squalid, wondering children, who understood it that Coroner Whidden +was literally to sit on the dead body,--Mr. Whidden, a limp, +inoffensive little man, who would not have dared to sit down on a +fly. He had passed, pallid and perspiring, to the scene of his +perfunctory duties. + +The result of the investigation was awaited with feverish +impatience by the people outside. Mr. Shackford had not been a +popular man; he had been a hard, avaricious, passionate man, holding +his own way remorselessly. He had been the reverse of popular, but he +had long been a prominent character in Stillwater, because of his +wealth, his endless lawsuits, and his eccentricity, an illustration +of which was his persistence in living entirely alone in the isolated +and dreary old house, that was henceforth to be inhabited by his +shadow. Not his shadow alone, however, for it was now remembered that +the premises were already held in fee by another phantasmal tenant. +At a period long anterior to this, one Lydia Sloper, a widow, had +died an unexplained death under that same roof. The coincidence +struck deeply into the imaginative portion of Stillwater. "The Widow +Sloper and old Shackford have made a match of it," remarked a local +humorist, in a grimmer vein than customary. Two ghosts had now set up +housekeeping, as it were, in the stricken mansion, and what might not +be looked for in the way of spectral progeny! + +It appeared to the crowd in the lane that the jury were +unconscionably long in arriving at a decision, and when the decision +was at length reached it gave but moderate satisfaction. After a +spendthrift waste of judicial mind the jury had decided that "the +death of Lemuel Shackford was caused by a blow on the left temple, +inflicted with some instrument not discoverable, in the hands of some +person or persons unknown." + +"We knew that before," grumbled a voice in the crowd, when, to +relieve public suspense, Lawyer Perkins--a long, lank man, with +stringy black hair--announced the verdict from the doorstep. + +The theory of suicide had obtained momentary credence early in the +morning, and one or two still clung to it with the tenacity that +characterizes persons who entertain few ideas. To accept this theory +it was necessary to believe that Mr. Shackford had ingeniously hidden +the weapon after striking himself dead with a single blow. No, it was +not suicide. So far from intending to take his own life, Mr. +Shackford, it appeared, had made rather careful preparations to live +that day. The breakfast-table had been laid over night, the coals +left ready for kindling in the Franklin stove, and a kettle, filled +with water to be heated for his tea or coffee, stood on the hearth. + +Two facts had sharply demonstrated themselves: first, that Mr. +Shackford had been murdered; and, second, that the spur to the crime +had been the possession of a sum of money, which the deceased was +supposed to keep in a strong-box in his bedroom. The padlock had been +wrenched open, and the less valuable contents of the chest, chiefly +papers, scattered over the carpet. A memorandum among the papers +seemed to specify the respective sums in notes and gold that had been +deposited in the box. A document of some kind had been torn into +minute pieces and thrown into the waste-basket. On close scrutiny a +word or two here and there revealed the fact that the document was of +a legal character. The fragments were put into an envelope and given +in charge of Mr. Shackford's lawyer, who placed seals on that and on +the drawers of an escritoire which stood in the corner and contained +other manuscript. + +The instrument with which the fatal blow had been dealt--for the +autopsy showed that there had been but one blow--was not only not +discoverable, but the fashion of it defied conjecture. The shape of +the wound did not indicate the use of any implement known to the +jurors, several of whom were skilled machinists. The wound was an +inch and three quarters in length and very deep at the extremities; +in the middle it scarcely penetrated to the cranium. So peculiar a +cut could not have been produced with the claw part of a hammer, +because the claw is always curved, and the incision was straight. A +flat claw, such as is used in opening packing-cases, was suggested. A +collection of the several sizes manufactured was procured, but none +corresponded with the wound; they were either too wide or too narrow. +Moreover, the cut was as thin as the blade of a case-knife. + +"That was never done by any tool in these parts," declared +Stevens, the foreman of the finishing shop at Slocum's. + +The assassin or assassins had entered by the scullery door, the +simple fastening of which, a hook and staple, had been broken. There +were footprints in the soft clay path leading from the side gate to +the stone step; but Mary Hennessey had so confused and obliterated +the outlines that now it was impossible accurately to measure them. A +half-burned match was found under the sink,--evidently thrown there +by the burglars. It was of a kind known as the safety-match, which +can be ignited only by friction on a strip of chemically prepared +paper glued to the box. As no box of this description was discovered, +and as all the other matches in the house were of a different make, +the charred splinter was preserved. The most minute examination +failed to show more than this. The last time Mr. Shackford had been +seen alive was at six o'clock the previous evening. + +Who had done the deed? + +Tramps! answered Stillwater, with one voice, though Stillwater lay +somewhat out of the natural highway, and the tramp--that bitter +blossom of civilization whose seed was blown to us from over +seas--was not then so common by the New England roadsides as he +became five or six years later. But it was intolerable not to have a +theory; it was that or none, for conjecture turned to no one in the +village. To be sure, Mr. Shackford had been in litigation with +several of the corporations, and had had legal quarrels with more +than one of his neighbors; but Mr. Shackford had never been +victorious in any of these contests, and the incentive of revenge was +wanting to explain the crime. Besides, it was so clearly robbery. + +Though the gathering around the Shackford house had reduced itself +to half a dozen idlers, and the less frequented streets had resumed +their normal aspect of dullness, there was a strange, electric +quality in the atmosphere. The community was in that state of +suppressed agitation and suspicion which no word adequately +describes. The slightest circumstance would have swayed it to the +belief in any man's guilt; and, indeed, there were men in Stillwater +quite capable of disposing of a fellow-creature for a much smaller +reward than Mr. Shackford had held out. In spite of the tramp theory, +a harmless tin-peddler, who had not passed through the place for +weeks, was dragged from his glittering cart that afternoon, as he +drove smilingly into town, and would have been roughly handled if Mr. +Richard Shackford, a cousin of the deceased, had not interfered. + +As the day wore on, the excitement deepened in intensity, though +the expression of it became nearly reticent. It was noticed that the +lamps throughout the village were lighted an hour earlier than usual. +A sense of insecurity settled upon Stillwater with the falling +twilight,--that nameless apprehension which is possibly more trying +to the nerves than tangible danger. When a man is smitten +inexplicably, as if by a bodiless hand stretched out of a +cloud,--when the red slayer vanishes like a mist and leaves no +faintest trace of his identity,--the mystery shrouding the deed +presently becomes more appalling than the deed itself. There is +something paralyzing in the thought of an invisible hand somewhere +ready to strike at your life, or at some life dearer than your own. +Whose hand, and where is it? Perhaps it passes you your coffee at +breakfast; perhaps you have hired it to shovel the snow off your +sidewalk; perhaps it has brushed against you in the crowd; or may be +you have dropped a coin into the fearful palm at a street corner. Ah, +the terrible unseen hand that stabs your imagination,--this immortal +part of you which is a hundred times more sensitive than your poor +perishable body! + +In the midst of situations the most solemn and tragic there often +falls a light purely farcical in its incongruity. Such a gleam was +unconsciously projected upon the present crisis by Mr. Bodge, better +known in the village as Father Bodge. Mr. Bodge was stone deaf, +naturally stupid, and had been nearly moribund for thirty years with +asthma. Just before night-fall he had crawled, in his bewildered, +wheezy fashion, down to the tavern, where he found a somber crowd in +the bar-room. Mr. Bodge ordered his mug of beer, and sat sipping it, +glancing meditatively from time to time over the pewter rim at the +mute assembly. Suddenly he broke out: "S'pose you've heerd that old +Shackford's ben murdered." + +So the sun went down on Stillwater. Again the great wall of pines +and hemlocks made a gloom against the sky. The moon rose from behind +the tree-tops, frosting their ragged edges, and then sweeping up to +the zenith hung serenely above the world, as if there were never a +crime, or a tear, or a heart-break in it all. + + + + +III + + +On the afternoon of the following day Mr. Shackford was duly +buried. The funeral, under the direction of Mr. Richard Shackford, +who acted as chief mourner and was sole mourner by right of kinship, +took place in profound silence. The carpenters, who had lost a day on +Bishop's new stables, intermitted their sawing and hammering while +the services were in progress; the steam was shut off in the +iron-mills, and no clinking of the chisel was heard in the marble +yard for an hour, during which many of the shops had their shutters +up. Then, when all was over, the imprisoned fiend in the boilers gave +a piercing shriek; the leather bands slipped on the revolving drums, +the spindles leaped into life again, and the old order of things was +reinstated,--outwardly, but not in effect. + +In general, when the grave closes over a man his career is ended. +But Mr. Shackford was never so much alive as after they had buried +him. Never before had he filled so large a place in the public eye. +Though invisible, he sat at every fireside. Until the manner of his +death had been made clear, his ubiquitous presence was not to be +exorcised. On the morning of the memorable day a reward of one +hundred dollars--afterwards increased to five hundred, at the +insistence of Mr. Shackford's cousin--had been offered by the board +of selectmen for the arrest and conviction of the guilty party. +Beyond this and the unsatisfactory inquest, the authorities had done +nothing, and were plainly not equal to the situation. + +When it was stated, the night of the funeral, that a professional +person was coming to Stillwater to look into the case, the +announcement was received with a breath of relief. + +The person thus vaguely described appeared on the spot the next +morning. To mention the name of Edward Taggett is to mention a name +well known to the detective force of the great city lying sixty miles +southwest of Stillwater. Mr. Taggett's arrival sent such a thrill of +expectancy through the village that Mr. Leonard Tappleton, whose +obsequies occurred this day, made his exit nearly unobserved. Yet +there was little in Mr. Taggett's physical aspect calculated to stir +either expectation or enthusiasm: a slender man of about twenty-six, +but not looking it, with overhanging brown mustache, sparse +side-whiskers, eyes of no definite color, and faintly accentuated +eyebrows. He spoke precisely, and with a certain unembarrassed +hesitation, as persons do who have two thoughts to one word,--if +there are such persons. You might have taken him for a physician, or +a journalist, or the secretary of an insurance company; but you would +never have supposed him the man who had disentangled the complicated +threads of the great Barnabee Bank defalcation. + +Stillwater's confidence, which had risen into the nineties, fell +to zero at sight of him. "Is _that_ Taggett?" they asked. That +was Taggett; and presently his influence began to be felt like a +sea-turn. The three Dogberrys of the watch were dispatched on secret +missions, and within an hour it was ferreted out that a man in a cart +had been seen driving furiously up the turnpike the morning after the +murder. This was an agricultural district, the road led to a market +town, and teams going by in the early dawn were the rule and not the +exception; but on that especial morning a furiously driven cart was +significant. Jonathan Beers, who farmed the Jenks land, had heard the +wheels and caught an indistinct glimpse of the vehicle as he was +feeding the cattle, but with a reticence purely rustic had not been +moved to mention the circumstance before. + +"Taggett has got a clew," said Stillwater under its breath. + +By noon Taggett had got the man, cart and all. But it was only +Blufton's son Tom, of South Millville, who had started in hot haste +that particular morning to secure medical service for his wife, of +which she had sorely stood in need, as two tiny girls in a willow +cradle in South Millville now bore testimony. + +"I haven't been cutting down the population _much,"_ said +Blufton, with his wholesome laugh. + +Thomas Blufton was well known and esteemed in Stillwater, but if +the crime had fastened itself upon him it would have given something +like popular satisfaction. + +In the course of the ensuing forty-eight hours four or five tramps +were overhauled as having been in the neighborhood at the time of the +tragedy; but they each had a clean story, and were let go. Then one +Durgin, a workman at Slocum's Yard, was called upon to explain some +half-washed-out red stains on his overalls, which he did. He had +tightened the hoops on a salt-pork barrel for Mr. Shackford several +days previous; the red paint on the head of the barrel was fresh, and +had come off on his clothes. Dr. Weld examined the spots under a +microscope, and pronounced them paint. It was manifest that Mr. +Taggett meant to go to the bottom of things. + +The bar-room of the Stillwater hotel was a center of interest +these nights; not only the bar-room proper, but the adjoining +apartment, where the more exclusive guests took their seltzer-water +and looked over the metropolitan newspapers. Twice a week a social +club met here, having among its members Mr. Craggie, the postmaster, +who was supposed to have a great political future, Mr. Pinkham, +Lawyer Perkins, Mr. Whidden, and other respectable persons. The room +was at all times in some sense private, with a separate entrance from +the street, though another door, which usually stood open, connected +it with the main salon. In this was a long mahogany counter, one +section of which was covered with a sheet of zinc perforated like a +sieve, and kept constantly bright by restless caravans of lager-beer +glasses. Directly behind that end of the counter stood a Gothic +brass-mounted beer-pump, at whose faucets Mr. Snelling, the landlord, +flooded you five or six mugs in the twinkling of an eye, and raised +the vague expectation that he was about to grind out some popular +operatic air. At the left of the pump stretched a narrow mirror, +reflecting he gaily-colored wine-glasses and decanters which stood on +each other's shoulders, and held up lemons, and performed various +acrobatic feats on a shelf in front of it. + +The fourth night after the funeral of Mr. Shackford, a dismal +southeast storm caused an unusual influx of idlers in both rooms. +With the rain splashing against the casements and the wind slamming +the blinds, the respective groups sat discussing in a desultory way +the only topic which could be discussed at present. There had been a +general strike among the workmen a fortnight before; but even that +had grown cold as a topic. + +"That was hard on Tom Blufton," said Stevens, emptying the ashes +out of his long-stemmed clay pipe, and refilling the bowl with cut +cavendish from a jar on a shelf over his head. + +Michael Hennessey sat down his beer-mug with an air of +argumentative disgust, and drew one sleeve across his glistening +beard. + +"Stevens, you've as many minds as a weather-cock, jist! Didn't ye +say yerself it looked mighty black for the lad when he was took?" + +"I might have said something of the sort," Stevens admitted +reluctantly, after a pause. "His driving round at daybreak with an +empty cart did have an ugly look at first." + +"Indade, then." + +"Not to anybody who knew Tom Blufton," interrupted Samuel Piggott, +Blufton's brother-in-law. "The boy hasn't a bad streak in him. It was +an outrage. Might as well have suspected Parson Langly or Father +O'Meara." + +"If this kind of thing goes on," remarked a man in the corner with +a patch over one eye, "both of them reverend gents will be hauled up, +I shouldn't wonder." + +"That's so, Mr. Peters," responded Durgin. "If my respectability +didn't save me, who's safe?" + +"Durgin is talking about his respectability! He's joking." + +"Look here, Dexter," said Durgin, turning quickly on the speaker, +"when I want to joke, I talk about your intelligence." + +"What kind of man is Taggett, anyhow?" asked Piggott. "You saw +him, Durgin." + +"I believe he was at Justice Beemis's office the day Blufton and I +was there; but I didn't make him out in the crowd. Shouldn't know him +from Adam." + +"Stillwater's a healthy place for tramps jest about this time," +suggested somebody. "Three on 'em snaked in to-day." + +"I think, gentlemen, that Mr. Taggett is on the right track +there," observed Mr. Snelling, in the act of mixing another Old +Holland for Mr. Peters. "Not too sweet, you said? I feel it in my +bones that it was a tramp, and that Mr. Taggett will bring him yet." + +"He won't find him on the highway yonder," said a tall, swarthy +man named Torrini, an Italian. Nationalities clash in Stillwater. +"That tramp is a thousand miles from here." + +"So he is if he has any brains under his hat," returned Snelling. +"But they're on the lookout for him. The minute he pawns anything, +he's gone." + +"Can't put up greenbacks or gold, can he? He didn't take nothing +else," interposed Bishop, the veterinary surgeon. + +"Now jewelry nor nothing?" + +"There wasn't none, as I understand it," said Bishop, "except a +silver watch. That was all snug under the old man's piller." + +"Wanter know!" ejaculated Jonathan Beers. + +"I opine, Mr. Craggie," said the school-master, standing in the +inner room with a rolled-up file of the Daily Advertiser in his hand, +"that the person who--who removed our worthy townsman will never be +discovered." + +"I shouldn't like to go quite so far as that, sir," answered Mr. +Craggie, with that diplomatic suavity which leads to postmasterships +and seats in the General Court, and has even been known to oil a dull +fellow's way into Congress. "I cannot take quite so hopeless a view +of it. There are difficulties, but they must be overcome, Mr. +Pinkham, and I think they will be." + +"Indeed, I hope so," returned the school-master. "But there are +cases--are there not?--in which the--the problem, if I may so +designate it, has never been elucidated, and the persons who +undertook it have been obliged to go to the foot, so to speak." + +"Ah, yes, there are such cases, certainly. There was the Burdell +mystery in New York, and, later, the Nathan affair--By the way, I've +satisfactory theories of my own touching both. The police were +baffled, and remain so. But, my _dear_ sir, observe for a moment +the difference." + +Mr. Pinkham rested one finger on the edge of a little round table, +and leaned forward in a respectful attitude to observe the +difference. + +"Those crimes were committed in a vast metropolis affording a +thousand chances for escape, as well as offering a thousand +temptations to the lawless. But we are a limited community. We have +no professional murderers among us. The deed which has stirred +society to its utmost depths was plainly done by some wayfaring +amateur. Remorse has already arrived upon him, if the police haven't. +For the time being he escapes; but he is bound to betray himself +sooner or later. If the right steps are taken,--and I have myself the +greatest confidence in Mr. Taggett,--the guilty party can scarcely +fail to be brought to the bar of justice, if he doesn't bring himself +there." + +"Indeed, indeed, I hope so," repeated Mr. Pinkham. + +"The investigation is being carried on very closely." + +"Too closely," suggested the school-master. + +"Oh dear, no," murmured Mr. Craggie. "The strictest secrecy is +necessary in affairs of this delicate nature. If Tom, Dick, and Harry +were taken behind the scenes," he added, with the air of one wishing +to say too much, "the bottom would drop out of everything." + +Mr. Pinkham shrunk from commenting on a disaster like that, and +relapsed into silence. Mr. Craggie, with his thumbs in the arm-holes +of his waistcoat, and his legs crossed in an easy, senatorial +fashion, leaned back in the chair and smiled blandly. + +"I don't suppose there's nothing new, boys!" exclaimed a fat, +florid man, bustling in good-naturedly at the public entrance, and +leaving a straight wet trail on the sanded floor from the threshold +to the polished mahogany counter. Mr. Wilson was a local humorist of +the Falstaffian stripe, though not so much witty in himself as the +cause of wit in others. + +"No, Jimmy, there isn't anything new," responded Dexter. + +"I suppose you didn't hear that the ole man done somethin' +handsome for me in his last will and testyment." + +"No, Jemmy, I don't think he has made any provision whatever for +an almshouse." + +"Sorry to hear that, Dexter," said Willson, absorbedly chasing a +bit of lemon peel in his glass with the spoon handle, "for there +isn't room for us all up at the town-farm. How's your grandmother? +Finds it tol'rably comfortable?" + +They are a primitive, candid people in their hours of unlaced +social intercourse in Stillwater. This delicate _tu quoque_ was +so far from wounding Dexter that he replied carelessly,-- + +"Well, only so so. The old woman complains of too much +chicken-sallid, and hot-house grapes all the year round." + +"Mr. Shackford must have left a large property," observed Mr. +Ward, of the firm of Ward & Lock, glancing up from the columns of the +Stillwater Gazette. The remark was addressed to Lawyer Perkins, who +had just joined the group in the reading-room. + +"Fairly large," replied that gentleman crisply. + +"Any public bequests?" + +"None to speak of." + +Mr. Craggie smiled vaguely. + +"You see," said Lawyer Perkins, "there's a will and no will,--that +is to say, the fragments of what is supposed to be a will were found, +and we are trying to put the pieces together. It is doubtful if we +can do it; it is doubtful if we can decipher it after we have done +it; and if we decipher it it is a question whether the document is +valid or not." + +"That is a masterly exposition of the dilemma, Mr. Perkins," said +the school-master warmly. + +Mr. Perkins had spoken in his court-room tone of voice, with one +hand thrust into his frilled shirt-bosom. He removed this hand for a +second, as he gravely bowed to Mr. Pinkham. + +"Nothing could be clearer," said Mr. Ward. "In case the paper is +worthless, what then? I am not asking you in your professional +capacity," he added hastily; for Lawyer Perkins had been known to +send in a bill on as slight a provocation as Mr. Ward's. + +"That's a point. The next of kin has his claims." + +"My friend Shackford, of course," broke in Mr. Craggie. "Admirable +young man!--one of my warmest supporters." + +"He is the only heir at law so far as we know," said Mr. Perkins. + +"Oh," said Mr. Craggie, reflecting. "The late Mr. Shackford might +have had a family in Timbuctoo or the Sandwich Islands." + +"That's another point." + +"The fact would be a deuced unpleasant point for young Shackford +to run against," said Mr. Ward. + +"Exactly." + +"If Mr. Lemuel Shackford," remarked Coroner Whidden, softly +joining the conversation to which he had been listening in his +timorous, apologetic manner, "had chanced, in the course of his early +sea-faring days, to form any ties of an unhappy complexion"-- + +"Complexion is good," murmured Mr. Craggie. "Some Hawaiian lady!" + +--"perhaps that would be a branch of the case worth investigating +in connection with the homicide. A discarded wife, or a disowned son, +burning with a sense of wrong"-- + +"Really, Mr. Whidden!" interrupted Lawyer Perkins witheringly, "it +is bad enough for my client to lose his life, without having his +reputation filched away from him." + +"I--I will explain! I was merely supposing"-- + +"The law never supposes, sir!" + +This threw Mr. Whidden into great mental confusion. As coroner was +he not an integral part of the law, and when, in his official +character, he supposed anything was not that a legal supposition? But +was he in his official character now, sitting with a glass of +lemonade at his elbow in the reading-room of the Stillwater hotel? +Was he, or was he not, a coroner all the time? Mr. Whidden stroked an +isolated tuft of hair growing low on the middle of his forehead, and +glared mildly at Mr. Perkins. + +"Young Shackford has gone to New York, I understand," said Mr. +Ward, breaking the silence. + +Mr. Perkins nodded. "Went this morning to look after the +real-estate interests there. It will probably keep him a couple of +weeks,--the longer the better. He was of no use here. Lemuel's death +was a great shock to him, or rather the manner of it was." + +"That shocked every one. They were first cousin's weren't they?" +Mr. Ward was a comparatively new resident in Stillwater. + +"First cousins," replied Lawyer Perkins; "but they were never very +intimate, you know." + +"I imagine nobody was ever very intimate with Mr. Shackford." + +"My client was somewhat peculiar in his friendships." + +This was stating it charitably, for Mr. Perkins knew, and every +one present knew, that Lemuel Shackford had not had the shadow of a +friend in Stillwater, unless it was his cousin Richard. + +A cloud of mist and rain was blown into the bar-room as the street +door stood open for a second to admit a dripping figure from the +outside darkness. + + _"What's_ blowed down?" asked Durgin, turning round on his +stool and sending up a ring of smoke which uncurled itself with +difficulty in the dense atmosphere. + +"It's only some of Jeff Stavers's nonsense." + +"No nonsense at all," said the new-comer, as he shook the heavy +beads of rain from his felt hat. "I was passing by Welch's +Court--it's as black as pitch out, fellows--when slap went something +against my shoulder; something like wet wings. Well, I was scared. +It's a bat, says I. But the thing didn't fly off; it was still +clawing at my shoulder. I put up my hand, and I'll be shot if it +wasn't the foremast, jib-sheet and all, of the old weather-cock on +the north gable of the Shackford house! Here you are!" and the +speaker tossed the broken mast, with the mimic sails dangling from +it, into Durgin's lap. + +A dead silence followed, for there was felt to be something weirdly +significant in the incident. + +"That's kinder omernous," said Mr. Peters, interrogatively. + +"Ominous of what?" asked Durgin, lifting the wet mass from his +knees and dropping it on the floor. + +"Well, sorter queer, then." + +"Where does the queer come in?" inquired Stevens, gravelly. "I +don't know; but I'm hit by it." + +"Come, boys, don't crowd a feller," said Mr. Peters, getting +restive. "I don't take the contract to explain the thing. But it does +seem some way droll that the old schooner should be wrecked so soon +after what has happened to the old skipper. If you don't see it, or +sense it, I don't insist. What's yours, Denyven?" + +The person addressed as Denyven promptly replied, with a fine +sonorous English accent, "a mug of 'alf an' 'alf,--with a head on it, +Snelling." + +At the same moment Mr. Craggie, in the inner room was saying to +the school-master,-- + +"I must really take issue with you there, Mr. Pinkham. I admit +there's a good deal in spiritualism which we haven't got at yet; the +science is in its infancy; it is still attached to the bosom of +speculation. It is a beautiful science, that of psychological +phenomena, and the spiritualists will yet become an influential class +of"--Mr. Craggie was going to say voters, but glided over +it--"persons. I believe in clairvoyance myself to a large extent. +Before my appointment to the post-office I had it very strong. I've +no doubt that in the far future this mysterious factor will be made +great use of in criminal cases; but at present I should resort to it +only in the last extremity,--the very last extremity, Mr. Pinkham!" + +"Oh, of course," said the school-master deprecatingly. "I threw it +out only as the merest suggestion. I shouldn't think of--of--you +understand me?" + +"Is it beyond the dreams of probability," said Mr. Craggie, +appealing to Lawyer Perkins, "that clairvoyants may eventually be +introduced into cases in our courts?" + +"They are now," said Mr. Perkins, with a snort,--"the police bring +'em it." + +Mr. Craggie finished the remainder of his glass of sherry in +silence, and presently rose to go. Coroner Whidden and Mr. Ward had +already gone. The guests in the public room were thinning out; a +gloom, indefinable and shapeless like the night, seemed to have +fallen upon the few that lingered. At a somewhat earlier hour than +usual the gas was shut off in the Stillwater hotel. + +In the lonely house in Welch's Court a light was still burning. + + + + +IV + + +A sorely perplexed man sat there, bending over his papers by the +lamp-light. Mr. Taggett had established himself at the Shackford +house on his arrival, preferring it to the hotel, where he would have +been subjected to the curiosity of the guests and to endless +annoyances. Up to this moment, perhaps not a dozen persons in the +place had had more than a passing glimpse of him. He was a very busy +man, working at his desk from morning until night, and then taking +only a brief walk, for exercise in some unfrequented street. His +meals were sent in from the hotel to the Shackford house, where the +constables reported to him, and where he held protracted conferences +with Justice Beemis, Coroner Whidden, Lawyer Perkins, and a few +others, and declined to be interviewed by the local editor. + +To the outside eye that weather-stained, faded old house appeared +a throbbing seat of esoteric intelligence. It was as if a hundred +invisible magnetic threads converged to a focus under that roof and +incessantly clicked out the most startling information,--information +which was never by any chance allowed to pass beyond the charmed +circle. The pile of letters which the mail brought to Mr. Taggett +every morning--chiefly anonymous suggestions, and offers of +assistance from lunatics in remote cities--was enough in itself to +exasperate a community. + +Covertly at first, and then openly, Stillwater began seriously to +question Mr. Taggett's method of working up the case. The Gazette, in +a double-leaded leader, went so far as to compare him to a bird with +fine feathers and no song, and to suggest that perhaps the bird might +have sung if the inducement offered had been more substantial. A +singer of Mr. Taggett's plumage was not to be taught by such chaff as +five hundred dollars. Having killed his man, the editor proceeded to +remark that he would suspend judgment until next week. + +As if to make perfect the bird comparison, Mr. Taggett, after +keeping the public in suspense for six days and nights, abruptly flew +away, with all the little shreds and straws of evidence he had picked +up, to build his speculative nest elsewhere. + +The defection of Mr. Taggett caused a mild panic among a certain +portion of the inhabitants, who were not reassured by the statement +in the Gazette that the case would now be placed in the proper +hands,--the hand so the county constabulary. "Within a few days," +said the editor in conclusion, "the matter will undoubtedly be +cleared up. At present we cannot say more;" and it would have puzzled +him very much to do so. + +A week passed, and no fresh light was thrown upon the catastrophe, +nor did anything occur to rattle the usual surface of life in the +village. A man--it was Torrini, the Italian--got hurt in Dana's iron +foundry; one of Blufton's twin girls died; and Mr. Slocum took on a +new hand from out of town. That was all. Stillwater was the +Stillwater of a year ago, with always the exception of that shadow +lying upon it, and the fact that small boys who had kindling to get +in were careful to get it in before nightfall. It would appear that +the late Mr. Shackford had acquired a habit of lingering around +wood-piles after dark, and also of stealing into bed-chambers, where +little children were obliged to draw the sheets over their heads in +order not to see him. + +The action of the county constabulary had proved quite as +mysterious and quite as barren of result as Mr. Taggett's had been. +They had worn his mantle of secrecy, and arrested the tramps over +again. + +Another week dragged by, and the editorial prediction seemed as +far as ever from fulfillment. But on the afternoon which closed that +fortnight a very singular thing did happen. Mr. Slocum was sitting +alone in his office, which occupied the whole of a small building at +the right of the main gate to the marble works. When the door behind +him softly opened and a young man, whose dress covered with +stone-dust indicated his vocation, appeared on the threshold. He +hesitated a second, and then stepped into the room. Mr. Slocum turned +round with a swift, apprehensive air. + +"You gave me a start! I believe I haven't any nerves left. Well?" + +"Mr. Slocum, I have found the man." + +The proprietor of the marble yard half rose from the desk in his +agitation. + +"Who is it?" he asked beneath his breath. + +The same doubt or irresolution which had checked the workman at +the threshold seemed again to have taken possession of him. It was +fully a moment before he gained the mastery over himself; but the +mastery was complete; for he leaned forward gravely, almost coldly, +and pronounced two words. A quick pallor overspread Mr. Slocum's +features. + +"Good God!" he exclaimed, sinking back into the chair. "Are you +mad?" + + + + +V + + +The humblest painter of real life, if he could have his desire, +would select a picturesque background for his figures; but events +have an inexorable fashion for choosing their own landscape. In the +present instance it is reluctantly conceded that there are few uglier +or more commonplace towns in New England than Stillwater,--a +straggling, overgrown village, with whose rural aspects are curiously +blended something of the grimness and squalor of certain shabby city +neighborhoods. Being of comparatively recent date, the place has none +of those colonial associations which, like sprigs of lavender in an +old chest of drawers, are a saving grace to other quite as dreary +nooks and corners. + +Here and there at what is termed the West End is a neat brick +mansion with garden attached, where nature asserts herself in dahlias +and china-asters; but the houses are mostly frame houses that have +taken a prevailing dingy tint from the breath of the tall chimneys +which dominate the village. The sidewalks in the more aristocratic +quarter are covered with a thin, elastic paste of asphalt, worn down +to the gravel in patches, and emitting in the heat of the day an +astringent, bituminous odor. The population is chiefly of the rougher +sort, such as breeds in the shadow of foundries and factories, and if +the Protestant pastor and the fatherly Catholic priest, whose +respective lots are cast there, have sometimes the sense of being +missionaries dropped in the midst of a purely savage community, the +delusion is not wholly unreasonable. + +The irregular heaps of scoria that have accumulated in the +vicinity of the iron works give the place an illusive air of +antiquity; bit it is neither ancient nor picturesque. The oldest and +most pictorial thing in Stillwater is probably the marble yard, +around three sides of which the village may be said to have sprouted +up rankly, bearing here and there an industrial blossom in the shape +of an iron-mill or a cardigan-jacket manufactory. Rowland Slocum, a +man of considerable refinement, great kindness of heart, and no +force, inherited the yard from his father, and at the period this +narrative opens (the summer of 187-) was its sole proprietor and +nominal manager, the actual manager being Richard Shackford, a +prospective partner in the business and the betrothed of Mr. Slocum's +daughter Margaret. + +Forty years ago every tenth person in Stillwater was either a +Shackford or a Slocum. Twenty years later both names were nearly +extinct there. That fatality which seems to attend certain New +England families had stripped every leaf but two from the Shackford +branch. These were Lemuel Shackford, then about forty-six, and +Richard Shackford, aged four. Lemuel Shackford had laid up a +competency as ship-master in the New York and Calcutta trade, and in +1852 had returned to his native village, where he found his name and +stock represented only by little Dick, a very cheerful orphan, who +stared complacently with big blue eyes at fate, and made mud-pies in +the lane whenever he could elude the vigilance of the kindly old +woman who had taken him under her roof. This atom of humanity, by +some strange miscalculation of nature, was his cousin. + +The strict devotion to his personal interests which had enabled +Mr. Shackford to acquire a fortune thus early caused him to look +askance at a penniless young kinsman with stockings down at heel, and +a straw hat three sizes too large for him set on the back of his +head. But Mr. Shackford was ashamed to leave little Dick a burden +upon the hands of a poor woman of no relationship whatever to the +child; so little Dick was transferred to that dejected house which +has already been described, and was then known as the Sloper house. + + Here, for three of four years, Dick grew up, as neglected as a +weed, and every inch as happy. It should be mentioned that for the +first year or so a shock-headed Cicely from the town-farm had +apparently been hired not to take care of him. But Dick asked nothing +better than to be left to his own devices, which, moreover, were +innocent enough. He would sit all day in the lane at the front gate +pottering with a bit of twig or a case-knife in the soft clay. From +time to time passers-by observed that the child was not making +mud-pies, but tracing figures, comic or grotesque as might happen, +and always quite wonderful for their lack of resemblance to anything +human. That patch of reddish-brown clay was his sole resource, his +slate, his drawing-book, and woe to anybody who chanced to walk over +little Dick's arabesques. Patient and gentle in his acceptance of the +world's rebuffs, this he would not endure. He was afraid of Mr. +Shackford, yet one day, when the preoccupied man happened to trample +on a newly executed hieroglyphic, the child rose to his feet white +with rage, his fingers clenched, and such a blue fire flashing in the +eyes that Mr. Shackford drew back aghast. + +"Why, it's a little devil!" + +While Shackford junior was amusing himself with his primitive +bas-reliefs, Shackford senior amused himself with his lawsuits. From +the hour when he returned to the town until the end of his days Mr. +Shackford was up to his neck in legal difficulties. Now he resisted a +betterment assessment, and fought the town; now he secured an +injunction on the Miantowona Iron Works, and fought the corporation. +He was understood to have a perpetual case in equity before the +Marine Court in New York, to which city he made frequent and +unannounced journeys. His immediate neighbors stood in terror of him. +He was like a duelist, on the alert to twist the slightest thing into +a _casus belli_. The law was his rapier, his recreation, and he +was willing to bleed for it. + +Meanwhile that fairy world of which every baby becomes a Columbus +so soon as it is able to walk remained an undiscovered continent to +little Dick. Grim life looked in upon him as he lay in the cradle. +The common joys of childhood were a sealed volume to him. A single +incident of those years lights up the whole situation. A vague rumor +had been blown to Dick of a practice of hanging up stockings at +Christmas. It struck his materialistic mind as a rather senseless +thing to do; but nevertheless he resolved to try it one Christmas +Eve. He lay awake a long while in the frosty darkness, skeptically +waiting for something remarkable to happen; once he crawled out of +the cot-bed and groped his way to the chimney place. The next morning +he was scarcely disappointed at finding nothing in the piteous little +stocking, except the original holes. + +The years that stole silently over the heads of the old man and +the young child in Welch's Court brought a period of wild prosperity +to Stillwater. The breath of war blew the forges to a white heat, and +the baffling problem of the mediæval alchemists was solved. The baser +metals were transmuted into gold. A disastrous, prosperous time, with +the air rent periodically by the cries of newsboys as battles were +fought, and by the roll of the drum in the busy streets as fresh +recruits were wanted. Glory and death to the Southward, and at the +North pale women in black. + +All which interested Dick mighty little. After he had learned to +read at the district school, he escaped into another world. Two +lights were now generally seen burning of a night in the Shackford +house: one on the ground-floor where Mr. Shackford sat mouthing his +contracts and mortgages, and weaving his webs like a great, lean, +gray spider; and the other in the north gable, where Dick hung over a +tattered copy of Robinson Crusoe by the flicker of the candle-ends +which he had captured during the day. + +Little Dick was little Dick no more: a tall, heavily built blond +boy, with a quiet, sweet disposition, that at first offered +temptations to the despots of the playground; but a sudden flaring up +once or twice of that unexpected spirit which had broken out in his +babyhood brought him immunity from serious persecution. + +The boy's home life at this time would have seemed pathetic to an +observer,--the more pathetic, perhaps, in that Dick himself was not +aware of its exceptional barrenness. The holidays that bring new +brightness to the eyes of happier children were to him simply days +when he did not go to school, and was expected to provide an extra +quantity of kindling wood. He was housed, and fed, and clothed, after +a fashion, but not loved. Mr. Shackford did not ill-treat the lad, in +the sense of beating him; he merely neglected him. Every year the man +became more absorbed in his law cases and his money, which +accumulated magically. He dwelt in a cloud of calculations. Though +all his interests attached him to the material world, his dry, +attenuated body seemed scarcely a part of it. + +"Shackford, what are you going to do with that scapegrace of +yours?" + +It was Mr. Leonard Tappleton who ventured the question. Few +persons dared to interrogate Mr. Shackford on his private affairs. + +"I am going to make a lawyer of him," said Mr. Shackford, +crackling his finger-joints like stiff parchment. + +"You couldn't do better. You _ought_ to have an attorney in +the family." + +"Just so," assented Mr. Shackford, dryly. "I could throw a bit of +business in his way now and then,--eh?" + +"You could make his fortune, Shackford. I don't see but you might +employ him all the time. When he was not fighting the corporations, +you might keep him at it suing you for his fees." + +"Very good, very good indeed," responded Mr. Shackford, with a +smile in which his eyes took no share, it was merely a momentary +curling up of crisp wrinkles. He did not usually smile at other +people's pleasantries; but when a person worth three or four hundred +thousand dollars condescends to indulge a joke, it is not to be +passed over like that of a poor relation. "Yes, yes," muttered the +old man, as he stooped and picked up a pin, adding it to a row of +similarly acquired pins which gave the left lapel of his threadbare +coat the appearance of a miniature harp, "I shall make a lawyer of +him." + +It had long been settled in Mr. Shackford's mind that Richard, so +soon as he had finished his studies, should enter the law-office of +Blandmann & Sharpe, a firm of rather sinister reputation in South +Millville. + +At fourteen Richard's eyes had begun to open on the situation; at +fifteen he saw very clearly; and one day, without much preliminary +formulating of his plan, he decided on a step that had been taken by +every male Shackford as far back as tradition preserves the record of +his family. + +A friendship had sprung up between Richard and one William Durgin, +a school-mate. This Durgin was a sallow, brooding boy, a year older +than himself. The two lads were antipodal in disposition, +intelligence, and social standing; for though Richard went poorly +clad, the reflection of his cousin's wealth gilded him. Durgin was +the son of a washerwoman. An intimacy between the two would perhaps +have been unlikely but for one fact: it was Durgin's mother who had +given little Dick a shelter at the period of his parents' death. +Though the circumstance did not lie within the pale of Richard's +personal memory, he acknowledged the debt by rather insisting on +Durgin's friendship. It was William Durgin, therefore, who was +elected to wait upon Mr. Shackford on a certain morning which found +that gentleman greatly disturbed by an unprecedented +occurrence,--Richard had slept out of the house the previous night. + +Durgin was the bearer of a note which Mr. Shackford received in +some astonishment, and read deliberately, blinking with weak eyes +behind the glasses. Having torn off the blank page and laid it aside +for his own more economical correspondence (the rascal had actually +used a whole sheet to write ten words!), Mr. Shackford turned, and +with the absorbed air of a naturalist studying some abnormal bug +gazed over the steel bow of his spectacles at Durgin. + +"Skit!" + +Durgin hastily retreated. + +"There's a poor lawyer saved," muttered the old man, taking down +his overcoat from a peg behind the door, and snapping off a shred of +lint on the collar with his lean forefinger. Then his face relaxed, +and an odd grin diffused a kind of wintry glow over it. + +Richard had run away to sea. + + + + +VI + + +After a lapse of four years, during which he had as completely +vanished out of the memory of Stillwater as if he had been lying all +the while in the crowded family tomb behind the South Church, Richard +Shackford reappeared one summer morning at the door of his cousin's +house in Welch's Court. Mr. Shackford was absent at the moment, and +Mrs. Morganson, an elderly deaf woman, who came in for a few hours +every day to do the house-work, was busy in the extension. Without +announcing himself, Richard stalked up-stairs to the chamber in the +gable, and went directly to a little shelf in one corner, upon which +lay the dog's-eared copy of Robinson Crusoe just as he had left it, +save the four years' accumulation of dust. Richard took the book +fiercely in both hands, and with a single mighty tug tore it from top +to bottom, and threw the fragments into the fire-place. + +A moment later, on the way down-stairs, he encountered his kinsman +ascending. + +"Ah, you have come back!" was Mr. Shackford's grim greeting after +a moment's hesitation. + +"Yes," said Richard, with embarrassment, though he had made up his +mind not to be embarrassed by his cousin. + +"I can't say I was looking for you. You might have dropped me a +line; you were politer when you left. Why do you come back, and why +did you go away?" demanded the old man, with abrupt fierceness. The +last four years had bleached him and bent him and made him look very +old. + +"I didn't like the idea of Blandmann & Sharpe, for one thing," +said Richard, "and I thought I liked the sea." + +"And did you?" + +"No, sir! I enjoyed seeing foreign parts, and all that." + +"Quite the young gentleman on his travels. But the sea didn't +agree with you, and now you like the idea of Blandmann & Sharpe?" + +"Not the least in the world, I assure you!" cried Richard. "I take +to it as little as ever I did." + +"Perhaps that is fortunate. But it's going to be rather difficult +to suit your tastes. What _do_ you like?" + +"I like you, cousin Lemuel; you have always been kind to me--in +your way," said poor Richard, yearning for a glimmer of human warmth +and sympathy, and forgetting all the dreariness of his uncared-for +childhood. He had been out in the world, and had found it even +harder-hearted than his own home, which now he idealized in the first +flush of returning to it. Again he saw himself, a blond-headed little +fellow with stocking down at heel, climbing the steep staircase, or +digging in the clay at the front gate with the air full of the breath +of lilacs. That same penetrating perfume, blown through the open +hall-door as he spoke, nearly brought the tears to his eyes. He had +looked forward for years to this coming back to Stillwater. Many a +time, as he wandered along the streets of some foreign sea-port, the +rich architecture and the bright costumes had faded out before him, +and given place to the fat gray belfry and slim red chimneys of the +humble New England village where he was born. He had learned to love +it after losing it; and now he had struggled back through countless +trials and disasters to find no welcome. + +"Cousin Lemuel," said Richard gently, "only just us two are left, +and we ought to be good friends, at least." + +"We are good enough friends," mumbled Mr. Shackford, who could not +evade taking the hand which Richard had forlornly reached out to him, +"but that needn't prevent us understanding each other like rational +creatures. I don't care for a great deal of fine sentiment in people +who run away without so much as thank you." + +"I was all wrong!" + +"That's what folks always say, with the delusion that it makes +everything all right." + +"Surely it help,--to admit it." + +"That depends; it generally doesn't. What do you propose to do?" + +"I hardly know at the moment; my plans are quite in the air." + +"In the air!" repeated Mr. Shackford. "I fancy that describes +them. Your father's plans were always in the air, too, and he never +got any of them down." + +"I intend to get mine down." + +"Have you saved by anything?" + +"Not a cent." + +"I thought as much." + +"I had a couple of hundred dollars in my sea-chest; but I was +shipwrecked, and lost it. I barely saved myself. When Robinson +Crusoe"-- + +"Damn Robinson Crusoe!" snapped Mr. Shackford. + +"That's what I say," returned Richard gravely. "When Robinson +Crusoe was cast on an uninhabited island, shrimps and soft-shell +crabs and all sorts of delicious mollusks--readily boiled, I've no +doubt--crawled up on the beach, and begged him to eat them; but +_I_ nearly starved to death." + +"Of course. You will always be shipwrecked, and always be starved +to death; you are one of that kind. I don't believe you are a +Shackford at all. When they were not anything else they were good +sailors. If you only had a drop of _his_ blood in your veins!" +and Mr. Shackford waved his head towards a faded portrait of a +youngish, florid gentleman with banged hair and high coat-collar, +which hung against the wall half-way up the stair-case. This was the +counterfeit presentment of Lemuel Shackford's father seated with his +back at an open window, through which was seen a ship under full +canvas with the union-jack standing out straight in the wrong +direction. "But what are you going to do for yourself? You can't +start a subscription paper, and play with shipwrecked mariner, you +know." + +"No, I hardly care to do that," said Richard, with a good-natured +laugh, "though no poor devil ever had a better outfit for the +character." + +"What _are_ you calculated for?" + +Richard was painfully conscious of his unfitness for many things; +but he felt there was nothing in life to which he was so ill adapted +as his present position. Yet, until he could look about him, he must +needs eat his kinsman's reluctant bread, or starve. The world was +younger and more unsophisticated when manna dropped from the clouds. + +Mr. Shackford stood with his neck craned over the frayed edge of +his satin stock and one hand resting indecisively on the banister, +and Richard on the step above, leaning his back against the blighted +flowers of the wall-paper. From an oval window at the head of the +stairs the summer sunshine streamed upon them, and illuminated the +high-shouldered clock which, ensconced in an alcove, seemed to be +listening to the conversation. + +"There's no chance for you in the law," said Mr. Shackford, after +a long pause. "Sharpe's nephew has the berth. A while ago I might +have got you into the Miantowona Iron Works; but the rascally +directors are trying to ruin me now. There's the Union Store, if they +happen to want a clerk. I suppose you would be about as handy behind +a counter as a hippopotamus. I have no business of my own to train +you to. You are not good for the sea, and the sea has probably +spoiled you for anything else. A drop of salt water just poisons a +landsman. I am sure I don't know what to do with you." + +"Don't bother yourself about it at all," said Richard, cheerfully. +"You are going back on the whole family, ancestors and posterity, by +suggesting that I can't make my own living. I only want a little time +to take breath, don't you see, and a crust and a bed for a few days, +such as you might give any wayfarer. Meanwhile, I will look after +things around the place. I fancy I was never an idler here since the +day I learnt to split kindling." + +"There's your old bed in the north chamber," said Mr. Shackford, +wrinkling his forehead helplessly. "According to my notion, it is not +so good as a bunk, or a hammock slung in a tidy forecastle, but it's +at your service, and Mrs. Morganson, I dare say, can lay an extra +plate at table." + +With which gracious acceptance of Richard's proposition, Mr. +Shackford resumed his way upstairs, and the young man thoughtfully +descended to the hall-door and thence into the street, to take a +general survey of the commercial capabilities of Stillwater. + +The outlook was not inspiring. A machinist, or a mechanic, or a +day laborer might have found a foot-hold. A man without handicraft +was not in request in Stillwater. "What is your trade?" was the +staggering question that met Richard at the threshold. He went from +workshop to workshop, confidently and cheerfully at first, whistling +softly between whiles; but at every turn the question confronted him. +In some places, where he was recognized with thinly veiled surprise +as that boy of Shackford's, he was kindly put off; in others he +received only a stare or a brutal No. + +By noon he had exhausted the leading shops and offices in the +village, and was so disheartened that he began to dread the thought +of returning home to dinner. Clearly, he was a superfluous person in +Stillwater. A mortar-splashed hod-carrier, who had seated himself on +a pile of brick and was eating his noonday rations from a tin can +just brought to him by a slatternly girl, gave Richard a spasm of envy. +Here was a man who had found his place, and was establishing--what +Richard did not seem able to establish in his own case--a right to +exist. + +At supper Mr. Shackford refrained from examining Richard on his +day's employment, for which reserve, or indifference, the boy was +grateful. When the silent meal was over the old man went to his +papers, and Richard withdrew to his room in the gable. He had +neglected to provide himself with a candle. However, there was +nothing to read, for in destroying Robinson Crusoe he had destroyed +his entire library; so he sat and brooded in the moonlight, casting a +look of disgust now and then at the mutilated volume on the hearth. +That lying romance! It had been, indirectly, the cause of all his +woe, filling his boyish brain with visions of picturesque adventure, +and sending him off to sea, where he had lost four precious years of +his life. + +"If I had stuck to my studies," reflected Richard while +undressing, "I might have made something of myself. He's a great +friend, Robinson Crusoe." + +Richard fell asleep with as much bitterness in his bosom against +DeFoe's ingenious hero as if Robinson had been a living person +instead of a living fiction, and out of this animosity grew a dream +so fantastic and comical that Richard awoke himself with a bewildered +laugh just as the sunrise reddened the panes of the chamber window. +In this dream somebody came to Richard and asked him if he had heard +of that dreadful thing about young Crusoe. + +"No, confound him!" said Richard, "what is it?" + +"It has been ascertained," said somebody, who seemed to Richard at +once an intimate friend and an utter stranger,--"it has been +ascertained beyond a doubt that the man Friday was not a man Friday +at all, but a light-minded young princess from one of the neighboring +islands who had fallen in love with Robinson. Her real name was +Saturday." + +"Why, that's scandalous!" cried Richard with heat. "Think of the +admiration and sympathy the world has been lavishing on this precious +pair; Robinson Crusoe and his girl Saturday! That puts a different +face on it." + +"Another great moral character exploded," murmured the shadowy +shape, mixing itself up with the motes of a sunbeam and drifting out +through the window. Then Richard fell to laughing in his sleep, and +so awoke. He was still confused with the dream as he sat on the edge +of his bed, pulling himself together in the broad daylight. + +"Well," he muttered at length, "I shouldn't wonder! There's +nothing too bad to be believed of that man." + + + + +VII + + +Richard made an early start that morning in search of employment, +and duplicated the failure of the previous day. Nobody wanted him. If +nobody wanted him in the village where he was born and bred, a +village of counting-rooms and workshops, was any other place likely +to need him? He had only one hope, if it could be called a hope; at +any rate, he had treated it tenderly as such and kept it for the +last. He would apply to Rowland Slocum. Long ago, when Richard was an +urchin making pot-hooks in the lane, the man used occasionally to pat +him on the head and give him pennies. This was not a foundation on +which to rear a very lofty castle; but this was all he had. + +It was noon when Richard approached the marble yard, and the men +were pouring out into the street through the wide gate in the rough +deal fence which inclosed the works,--heavy, brawny men, covered with +fine white dust, who shouldered each other like cattle, and took the +sidewalk to themselves. Richard stepped aside to let them pass, eying +them curiously as possible comrades. Suddenly a slim dark fellow, who +had retained his paper cap and leather apron, halted and thrust forth +a horny hand. The others went on. + +"Hullo, Dick Shackford!" + +"What, is that you, Will? _You_ here?" + +"Been here two years now. One of Slocum's apprentices," added +Durgin, with an air of easy grandeur. + +"Two years? How time flies--when it doesn't crawl! Do you like +it?" + +"My time will be out next--Oh, the work? Well, yes; it's not bad, +and there's a jolly set in the yard. But how about you? I heard last +night you'd got home. Been everywhere and come back wealthy? The boys +used to say you was off pirating." + +"No such luck," answered Richard, with a smile. "I didn't prey on +the high seas,--quite the contrary. The high sea captured my kit and +four years' savings. I will tell you about it some day. If I have a +limb to my name and a breath left to my body, it is no thanks to the +Indian Ocean. That is all I have got, Will, and I am looking around +for bread and butter,--literally bread and butter." + +"No? and the old gentleman so rich!" + +Durgin said this with sincere indignation, and was perhaps +unconscious himself of experiencing that nameless, shadowy +satisfaction which Rochefoucauld says we find in the adversity of our +best friends. Certainly Richard looked very seedy in his suit of +slop-shop clothes. + +"I was on my way to Mr. Slocum's to see if I could do anything +with him," Richard continued. + +"To get a job, do you mean?" + +"Yes, to get work,--to learn _how_ to work; to master a +trade, in short." + +"You can't be an apprentice, you know," said Durgin. + +"Why not?" + +"Slocum has two." + +"Suppose he should happen to want another? He might." + +"The Association wouldn't allow it." + +"What Association?" + +"The Marble Workers' Association, of course." + +_"They_ wouldn't allow it! How is that?" + +"This the way of it. Slocum is free to take on two apprentices +every year, but no more. That prevents workmen increasing too fast, +and so keeps up wages. The Marble Workers' Association is a very neat +thing, I can tell you." + +"But doesn't Mr. Slocum own the yard? I thought he did." + +"Yes, he owns the yard." + +"If he wished to extend the business, couldn't he employ more +hands?" + +"As many as he could get,--skilled workmen; but not apprentices." + +"And Mr. Slocum agrees to that?" inquired Richard. + +"He does." + +"And likes it?" + +"Not he,--he hates it; but he can't help himself." + +"Upon my soul, I don't see what prevents him taking on as many +apprentices as he wants to." + +"Why, the Association, to be sure," returned Durgin, glancing at +the town clock, which marked seven minutes past the hour. + +"But how could they stop him?" + +"In plenty of ways. Suppose Slocum has a lot of unfinished +contracts on hand,--he always has fat contracts,--and the men was to +knock off work. That would be kind of awkward, wouldn't it?" + +"For a day or two, yes. He could send out of town for hands," +suggested Richard. + +"And they wouldn't come, if the Association said 'Stay where you +are.' They are mostly in the ring. Some outsiders might come, +though." + +"Then what?" + +"Why, then the boys would make it pretty hot for them in +Stillwater. Don't you notice?" + +"I notice there is not much chance for me," said Richard, +despondingly. "Isn't that so?" + +"Can't say. Better talk with Slocum. But I must get along; I have +to be back sharp at one. I want to hear about your knocking around +the worst kind. Can't we meet somewhere tonight,--at the tavern?" + +"The tavern? That didn't used to be a quiet place." + +"It isn't quiet now, but there's nowhere else to go of a night. +It's a comfortable den, and there's always some capital fellows +dropping in. A glass of lager with a mate is not a bad thing after a +hard day's work." + +"Both are good things when they are of the right sort." + +"That's like saying I'm not the right sort, isn't it?" + +"I meant nothing of the kind. But I don't take to the tavern. Not +that I'm squeamish; I have lived four years among sailors, and have +been in rougher places than you ever dreamed of; but all the same I +am afraid of the tavern. I've seen many a brave fellow wrecked on +that reef." + +"You always was a bit stuck up," said Durgin candidly. + +"Not an inch. I never had much reason to be; and less now than +ever, when I can scarcely afford to drink water, let alone beer. I +will drop round to your mother's some evening--I hope she's +well,--and tell you of my ups and downs. That will be pleasanter for +all hands." + +"Oh, as you like." + +"Now for Mr. Slocum, though you have taken the wind out of me." + +The two separated, Durgin with a half smile on his lip, and +Richard in a melancholy frame of mind. He passed from the +grass-fringed street into the deserted marble yard, where it seemed +as if the green summer had suddenly turned into white winter, and +threading his way between the huge drifts of snowy stone, knocked at +the door of Mr. Slocum's private office. + +William Durgin had summed up the case fairly enough as it stood +between the Marble Workers' Association and Rowland Slocum. The +system of this branch of the trades-union kept trained workmen +comparatively scarce, and enabled them to command regular and even +advanced prices at periods when other trades were depressed. The +older hands looked upon a fresh apprentice in the yard with much the +same favor as workingmen of the era of Jacquard looked upon the +introduction of a new piece of machinery. Unless the apprentice had +exceptional tact, he underwent a rough novitiate. In any case he +served a term of social ostracism before he was admitted to full +comradeship. Mr. Slocum could easily have found openings each year +for a dozen learners, had the matter been under his control; but it +was not. "I am the master of each man individually," he declared, +"but collectively they are my master." So his business, instead of +naturally spreading and becoming a benefit to the many, was kept +carefully pruned down to the benefit of the few. He was often forced +to decline important contracts, the filling of which would have +resulted to the advantage of every person in the village. + +Mr. Slocum recognized Richard at once, and listened kindly to his +story. It was Mr. Slocum's way to listen kindly to every one; but he +was impressed with Richard's intelligence and manner, and became +desirous, for several reasons, to assist him. In the first place, +there was room in the shops for another apprentice; experienced hands +were on jobs that could have been as well done by beginners; and, in +the second place, Mr. Slocum had an intuition that Lemuel Shackford +was not treating the lad fairly, though Richard had said nothing to +this effect. Now, Mr. Slocum and Mr. Shackford were just then at +swords' points. + +"I don't suppose I could annoy Shackford more," was Mr. Slocum's +reflection, "than by doing something for this boy, whom he has always +shamelessly neglected." + +The motive was not a high one; but Richard would have been well +satisfied with it, if he could have divined it. He did divine that +Mr. Slocum was favorably inclined towards him, and stood watching +that gentleman's face with hopeful anxiety. + +"I have my regulation number of young men, Richard," said Mr. +Slocum, "and there will be no vacancy until autumn. If you could wait +a few months." + +Richard's head drooped. + +"Can't do that? You write a good hand, you say. Perhaps you could +assist the book-keeper until there's a chance for you in the yard." + +"I think I could, sir," said Richard eagerly. + +"If you were only a draughtsman, now, I could do something much +better for you. I intend to set up a shop for ornamental carving, and +I want some one to draw patterns. If you had a knack at designing, if +you could draw at all"-- + +Richard's face lighted up. + +"Perhaps you _have_ a turn that way. I remember the queer +things you used to scratch in the mud in the court, when you were a +little shaver. Can you draw?" + +"Why, that is the one thing I can do!" cried Richard,--"in a rough +fashion, of course," he added, fearing he had overstated it. + +"It is a rough fashion that will serve. You must let me see some +of your sketches." + +"I haven't any, sir. I had a hundred in my sea-chest, but that was +lost,--pencillings of old archways, cathedral spires, bits of frieze, +and such odds and ends as took my fancy in the ports we touched at. I +recollect one bit. I think I could do it for you now. Shall I?" + +Mr. Slocum nodded assent, smiling at the young fellow's +enthusiasm, and only partially suspecting his necessity. Richard +picked up a pen and began scratching on a letter sheet which lay on +the desk. He was five or six minutes at the work, during which the +elder man watched him with an amused expression. + +"It's a section of cornice on the façade of the Hindoo College at +Calcutta," said Richard, handing him the paper,--"no, it's the +custom-house. I forget which; but it doesn't matter." + +The amused look gradually passed out of Mr. Slocum's countenance +as he examined the sketch. It was roughly but clearly drawn, and full +of facility. "Why, that's very clever!" he said, holding it at +arms'-length; and then, with great gravity, "I hope you are not a +genius, Richard; that would be too much of a fine thing. If you are +not, you can be of service to me in my plans." + +Richard laughingly made haste to declare that to the best of his +knowledge and belief he was not a genius, and it was decided on the +spot that Richard should assist Mr. Simms, the bookkeeper, and +presently try his hand at designing ornamental patterns for the +carvers, Mr. Slocum allowing him apprentice wages until the quality +of his work should be ascertained. + +"It is very little," said Mr. Slocum, "but it will pay your board, +if you do not live at home." + +"I shall not remain at my cousin's," Richard replied, "if you call +that home." + +"I can imagine it is not much of a home. Your cousin, not to put +too fine a point on it, is a wretch." + +"I am sorry to hear you say that, sir; he's my only living +kinsman." + +"You are fortunate in having but one, then. However, I am wrong to +abuse him to you; but I cannot speak of him with moderation, he has +just played me such a despicable trick. Look here." + +Mr. Slocum led Richard to the door, and pointing to a row of new +workshops which extended the entire length of one side of the marble +yard, said,-- + +"I built these last spring. After the shingles were on we +discovered that the rear partition, for a distance of seventy-five +feet, overlapped two inches on Shackford's meadow. I was ready to +drop when I saw it, your cousin is such an unmanageable old fiend. Of +course I went to him immediately, and what do you think? He demanded +five hundred dollars for that strip of land! Five hundred dollars for +a few inches of swamp meadow not worth ten dollars the acre! 'Then +take your disreputable old mill off my property!' says Shackford,--he +called it a disreputable old mill! I was hasty, perhaps, and I told +him to go to the devil. He said he would, and he did; for he went to +Blandmann. When the lawyers got hold of it, they bothered the life +out of me; so I just moved the building forward two inches, at an +expense of seven hundred dollars. Then what does the demon do but +board up all my windows opening on the meadow! Richard, I make it a +condition that you shall not lodge at Shackford's." + +"Nothing could induce me to live another day in the same house +with him, sir," answered Richard, suppressing an inclination to +smile; and then seriously, "His bread is bitter." + +Richard went back with a light heart to Welch's Court. At the gate +of the marble yard he met William Durgin returning to work. The +steam-whistle had sounded the call, and there was no time for +exchange of words; so Richard gave his comrade a bright nod and +passed by. Durgin turned and stared after him. + +"Looks as if Slocum had taken him on; but it never can be as +apprentice; he wouldn't dare do it." + +Mr. Shackford had nearly finished his frugal dinner when Richard +entered. "If you can't hit it to be in at your meals," said Mr. +Shackford, helping himself absently to the remaining chop, "perhaps +you had better stop away altogether." + + "I can do that now, cousin," replied Richard sunnily. "I have +engaged with Slocum." + +The old man laid down his knife and fork. + +"With Slocum! A Shackford a miserable marble-chipper!" + +There was so little hint of the aristocrat in Lemuel Shackford's +sordid life and person that no one suspected him of even self-esteem. +He went as meanly dressed as a tramp, and as careless of contemporary +criticism; yet clear down in his liver, or somewhere in his anatomy, +he nourished an odd abstract pride in the family Shackford. Heaven +knows why! To be sure, it dated far back; its women had always been +virtuous, and its men, if not always virtuous, had always been +ship-captains. But beyond this the family had never amounted to +anything, and now there was so very little left of it. For Richard as +Richard Lemuel cared nothing; for Richard as a Shackford he had a +chaotic feeling that defied analysis and had never before risen to +the surface. It was therefore with a disgust entirely apart from the +hatred of Slocum or regard for Richard that the old man exclaimed, "A +Shackford a miserable marble-chipper!" + +"That is better than hanging around the village with my hands in +my pockets. Isn't it?" + +"I don't know that anybody has demanded that you should hang +around the village." + +"I ought to go away, you mean? But I have found work here, and I +might not find it elsewhere." + +"Stillwater is not the place to begin life in. It's the place to +go away from, and come back to." + +"Well, I have come back." + +"And how? With one shirt and a lot of bad sailor habits." + +"My one shirt is my only very bad habit," said Richard, with a +laugh,--he could laugh now,--"and I mean to get rid of that." + +Mr. Shackford snapped his fingers disdainfully. + +"You ought to have stuck to the sea; that's respectable. In ten +years you might have risen to be master of a bark; that would have +been honorable. You might have gone down in a gale,--you probably +would,--and that would have been fortunate. But a stone-cutter! You +can understand," growled Mr. Shackford, reaching out for his straw +hat, which he put on and crushed over his brows, "I don't keep a +boarding-house for Slocum's hands." + +"Oh, I'm far from asking it!" cried Richard. "I am thankful for +the two nights' shelter I have had." + +"That's some of your sarcasm, I suppose," said Mr. Shackford, half +turning, with his hands on the door-knob. + +"No, it is some of my sincerity. I am really obliged to you. You +weren't very cordial, to be sure, but I did not deserve cordiality." + +"You have figured that out correctly." + +"I want to begin over again, you see, and start fair." + +"Then begin by dropping Slocum." + +"You have not given me a chance to tell you what the arrangement +is. However, it's irrevocable." + +"I don't want to hear. I don't care a curse, so long as it is an +arrangement," and Mr. Shackford hurried out of the room, slamming the +door behind him. + +Then Richard, quite undisturbed by his cousin's unreasonableness, +sat himself down to eat the last meal he was ever to eat under that +roof,--a feat which his cousin's appetite had rendered comparatively +easy. + +While engaged in this, Richard resolved in his mind several +questions as to his future abode. He could not reconcile his thought +to any of the workingmen's boarding-houses, of which there were five +or six in the slums of the village, where the doorways were greasy, +and women flitted about in the hottest weather with thick woolen +shawls over their heads. Yet his finances did not permit him to +aspire to lodgings much more decent. If he could only secure a small +room somewhere in a quiet neighborhood. Possibly Mrs. Durgin would +let him have a chamber in her cottage. He was beginning life over +again, and it struck him as nearly an ideal plan to begin it on the +identical spot where he had, in a manner, made his first start. +Besides, there was William Durgin for company, when the long nights +of the New England winter set in. The idea smiled so pleasantly in +Richard's fancy that he pushed the plate away from him impatiently, +and picked up his hat which lay on the floor beside the chair. + +That evening he moved from the Shackford house to Mrs. Durgin's +cottage in Cross Street. It was not an imposing ceremony. With a +small brown-paper parcel under his arm, he walked from one threshold +to the other, and the thing was done. + + + + +VIII + + +The six months which followed Richard's installment in the office +at Slocum's Yard were so crowded with novel experience that he +scarcely noted their flight. The room at the Durgins, as will +presently appear, turned out an unfortunate arrangement; but +everything else had prospered. Richard proved an efficient aid to Mr. +Simms, who quietly shifted the pay-roll to the younger man's +shoulders. This was a very complicated account to keep, involving as +it did a separate record of each employee's time and special work. An +ancient bookkeeper parts lightly with such trifles when he has a +capable assistant. It also fell to Richard's lot to pay the hands on +Saturdays. William Durgin blinked his surprise on the first occasion, +as he filed in with the others and saw Richard posted at the desk, +with the pay-roll in his hand and the pile of greenbacks lying in +front of him. + +"I suppose you'll be proprietor next," remarked Durgin, that +evening, at the supper table. + +"When I am, Will," answered Richard cheerily, "you will be on the +road to foreman of the finishing shop." + +"Thank you," said Durgin, not too graciously. It grated on him to +play the part of foreman, even in imagination, with Dick Shackford as +proprietor. Durgin could not disconnect his friend from that seedy, +half-crestfallen figure to whom, a few months earlier, he had given +elementary instruction on the Marble Workers' Association. + +Richard did not find his old schoolmate so companionable as memory +and anticipation had painted him. The two young men moved on +different levels. Richard's sea life, now that he had got at a +sufficient distance from it, was a perspective full of pleasant +color; he had a taste for reading, a thirst to know things, and his +world was not wholly shut in by the Stillwater horizon. It was still +a pitifully narrow world, but wide compared with Durgin's, which +extended no appreciable distance in any direction from the Stillwater +hotel. He spent his evenings chiefly there, returning home late at +night, and often in so noisy a mood as to disturb Richard, who slept +in an adjoining apartment. This was an annoyance; and it was an +annoyance to have Mrs. Durgin coming to him with complaints of +William. Other matters irritated Richard. He had contrived to +replenish his wardrobe, and the sunburn was disappearing from his +hands, which the nature of his occupation left soft and unscarred. +Durgin was disposed at times to be sarcastic on these changes, but +always stopped short of actual offense; for he remembered that +Shackford when a boy, amiable and patient as he was, had had a +tiger's temper at bottom. Durgin had seen it roused once or twice, +and even received a chance sweep of the paw. Richard liked Durgin's +rough wit as little as Durgin relished Richard's good-natured +bluntness. It was a mistake, that trying to pick up the dropped +thread of old acquaintance. + +As soon as the permanency of his position was assured, and his +means warranted the step, Richard transported himself and his effects +to a comfortable chamber in the same house with Mr. Pinkham, the +school-master, the perpetual falsetto of whose flute was positively +soothing after four months of William Durgin's bass. Mr. Pinkham +having but one lung, and that defective, played on the flute. + +"You see what you've gone and done, William," remarked Mrs. Durgin +plaintively, "with your ways. There goes the quietest young man in +Stillwater, and four dollars a week!" + +"There goes a swell, you'd better say. He was always a proud +beggar; nobody was ever good enough for him." + +"You shouldn't say that, William. I could cry, to lose him and his +cheerfulness out of the house," and Mrs. Durgin began to whimper. + +"Wait till he's out of luck again, and he'll come back to us fast +enough. That's when his kind remembers their friends. Blast him! he +can't even take a drop of beer with a chum at the tavern." + +"And right, too. There's beer enough taken at the tavern without +him." + +"If you mean me, mother, I'll get drunk tonight." + +"No, no!" cried Mrs. Durgin, pleadingly, "I didn't mean you, +William, but Peters and that set." + +"I thought you couldn't mean me," said William, thrusting his +hands into the pockets of his monkey-jacket, and sauntering off in +the direction of the Stillwater hotel, where there was a choice +company gathered, it being Saturday night, and the monthly meeting of +the Union. + +Mr. Slocum had wasted no time in organizing a shop for his +experiment in ornamental carving. Five or six men, who had worked +elsewhere at this branch, were turned over to the new department, +with Stevens as foreman and Richard as designer. Very shortly Richard +had as much as he could do to furnish the patterns required. These +consisted mostly of scrolls, wreaths, and mortuary dove-wings for +head-stones. Fortunately for Richard he had no genius, but plenty of +a kind of talent just abreast with Mr. Slocum's purpose. As the +carvers became interested in their work, they began to show Richard +the respect and good-will which at first had been withheld, for they +had not quite liked being under the supervision of one who had not +served at the trade. His youth had also told against him; but +Richard's pleasant, off-hand manner quickly won them. He had come in +contact with rough men on shipboard; he had studied their ways, and +he knew that with all their roughness there is no class so sensitive. +This insight was of great service to him. Stevens, who had perhaps +been the least disposed to accept Richard, was soon his warm ally. + +"See what a smooth fist the lad has!" he said one day holding up a +new drawing to the shop. "A man with a wreath of them acorns on his +head-stone oughter be perfectly happy, damn him!" + +It was, however, an anchor with a broken chain pendent--a design +for a monument to the late Captain Septimius Salter, who had parted +his cable at sea--which settled Richard's status with Stevens. + +"Boys, that Shackford is what _I_ call a born genei." + +After all, is not the one-eyed man who is king among the blind the +most fortunate of monarchs? Your little talent in a provincial +village looms a great deal taller than your mighty genius in a city. +Richard Shackford working for Rowland Slocum at Stillwater was +happier than Michaelangelo in Rome with Pope Julius II. at his back. +And Richard was the better paid, too! + +One day he picked up a useful hint from a celebrated sculptor, who +had come to the village in search of marble for the base of a +soldiers' monument. Richard was laboriously copying a spray of fern, +the delicacy of which eluded his pencil. The sculptor stood a moment +silently observing him. + +"Why do you spend an hour doing only passably well what you could +do perfectly in ten minutes?" + +"I suppose it is because I am stupid, sir," said Richard. + +"No stupid man ever suspected himself of being anything but +clever. You can draw capitally; but nature beats you out and out at +designing ferns. Just ask her to make you a fac-simile in plaster, +and see how handily she will lend herself to the job. Of course you +must help her a little." + +"Oh, I am not above giving nature a lift," said Richard modestly. + +"Lay a cloth on your table, place the fern on the cloth, and pour +a thin paste of plaster of Paris over the leaf,--do that gently, so +as not to disarrange the spray. When the plaster is set, there's your +mold; remove the leaf, oil the matrix, and pour in fresh plaster. +When that is set, cut away the mold carefully, and there's your +spray of fern, as graceful and perfect as if nature had done it all +by herself. You get the very texture of the leaf by this process." + +After that, Richard made casts instead of drawings for the +carvers, and fancied he was doing a new thing, until he visited some +marble-works in the great city. + +At this period, whatever change subsequently took place in his +feeling, Richard was desirous of establishing friendly relations with +his cousin. The young fellow's sense of kinship was singularly +strong, and it was only after several repulses at the door of the +Shackford house and on the street that he relinquished the hope of +placating the sour old man. At times Richard was moved almost to pity +him. Every day Mr. Shackford seemed to grow shabbier and more +spectral. He was a grotesque figure now, in his napless hat and +broken-down stock. The metal button-holes on his ancient waistcoat +had worn their way through the satin coverings, leaving here and +there a sparse fringe around the edges, and somehow suggesting little +bald heads. Looking at him, you felt that the inner man was as +threadbare and dilapidated as his outside; but in his lonely old age +he asked for no human sympathy or companionship, and, in fact, stood +in no need of either. With one devouring passion he set the world at +defiance. He loved his gold,--the metal itself, the weight and color +and touch of it. In his bedroom on the ground-floor Mr. Shackford +kept a small iron-clamped box filled to the lid with bright yellow +coins. Often, at the dead of night, with door bolted and curtain +down, he would spread out the glittering pieces on the table, and +bend over them with an amorous glow in his faded eyes. These were his +blond mistresses; he took a fearful joy in listening to their +rustling, muffle laughter as he drew them towards him with eager +hands. If at that instant a blind chanced to slam, or a footfall to +echo in the lonely court, then the withered old sultan would hurry +his slaves back into their iron-bound seraglio, and extinguish the +light. It would have been a wasted tenderness to pity him. He was +very happy in his own way, that Lemuel Shackford. + + + + +IX + + +Towards the close of his second year with Mr. Slocum, Richard was +assigned a work-room by himself, and relieved of his accountant's +duties. His undivided energies were demanded by the carving +department, which had proved a lucrative success. + +The rear of the lot on which Mr. Slocum's house stood was shut off +from the marble yard by a high brick wall pierced with a private door +for Mr. Slocum's convenience. Over the kitchen in the extension, +which reached within a few feet of the wall, was a disused chamber, +approachable on the outside by a flight of steps leading to a +veranda. To this room Richard and his traps were removed. With a +round table standing in the center, with the plaster models arranged +on shelves and sketches in pencil and crayon tacked against the +whitewashed walls, the apartment was transformed into a delightful +atelier. An open fire-place, with a brace of antiquated iron-dogs +straddling the red brick hearth, gave the finishing touch. The +occupant was in easy communication with the yard, from which the busy +din of clinking chisels came musically to his ear, and was still +beyond the reach of unnecessary interruption. Richard saw clearly all +the advantages of this transfer, but he was far form having any +intimation that he had made the most important move of his life. + +The room had two doors: one opened on the veranda, and the other +into a narrow hall connecting the extension with the main building. +Frequently, that first week after taking possession, Richard detected +the sweep of a broom and the rustle of drapery in this passage-way, +the sound sometimes hushing itself quite close to the door, as if +some one had paused a moment just outside. He wondered whether it was +the servant-maid or Margaret Slocum, whom he knew very well by sight. +It was, in fact, Margaret, who was dying with the curiosity of +fourteen to peep into the studio, so carefully locked whenever the +young man left it,--dying with curiosity to see the workshop, and +standing in rather great awe of the workman. + +In the home circle her father had a habit of speaking with deep +respect of young Shackford's ability, and once she had seen him at +their table,--at a Thanksgiving. On this occasion Richard had +appalled her by the solemnity of his shyness,--poor Richard, who was +so unused to the amenities of a handsomely served dinner, that the +chill which came over him cooled the Thanksgiving turkey on his +palate. + +When it had been decided that he was to have the spare room for +his workshop, Margaret, with womanly officiousness, had swept it and +dusted it and demolished the cobwebs; but since then she had not been +able to obtain so much as a glimpse of the interior. A ten minutes' +sweeping had sufficed for the chamber, but the passage-way seemed in +quite an irreclaimable state, judging by the number of times it was +necessary to sweep it in the course of a few days. Now Margaret was +not an unusual mixture of timidity and daring; so one morning, about +a week after Richard was settled, she walked with quaking heart up to +the door of the studio, and knocked as bold as brass. + +Richard opened the door, and smiled pleasantly at Margaret +standing on the threshold with an expression of demure defiance in +her face. Did Mr. Shackford want anything more in the way of pans and +pails for his plaster? No, Mr. Shackford had everything he required +of the kind. But would not Miss Margaret walk in? Yes, she would step +in for a moment, but with a good deal of indifference, though, giving +an air of chance to her settled determination to examine that room +from top to bottom. + +Richard showed her his drawings and casts, and enlightened her on +all the simple mysteries of the craft. Margaret, of whom he was a +trifle afraid at first, amused him with her candor and sedateness, +seeming now a mere child, and now an elderly person gravely +inspecting matters. The frankness and simplicity were hers by nature, +and the oldish ways--notably her self-possession, so quick to assert +itself after an instant's forgetfulness--came perhaps of losing her +mother in early childhood, and the premature duties which that +misfortune entailed. She amused him, for she was only fourteen; but +she impressed him also, for she was Mr. Slocum's daughter. Yet it was +not her lightness, but her gravity, that made Richard smile to +himself. + +"I am not interrupting you?" she asked presently. + +"Not in the least," said Richard. "I am waiting for these molds to +harden. I cannot do anything until then." + +"Papa says you are very clever," remarked Margaret, turning her +wide black eyes full upon him. _"Are_ you?" + +"Far from it," replied Richard, laughing to veil his confusion, +"but I am glad your father thinks so." + +"You should not be glad to have him think so," returned Margaret +reprovingly, "if you are not clever. I suppose you are, though. Tell +the truth, now." + +"It is not fair to force a fellow into praising himself." + +"You are trying to creep out!" + +"Well, then, there are many cleverer persons than I in the world, +and a few not so clever." + +"That won't do," said Margaret positively. + +"I don't understand what you mean by cleverness, Miss Margaret. +There are a great many kinds and degrees. I can make fairly honest +patterns for the men to work by; but I am not an artist, if you mean +that." + +"You are not an artist?" + +"No; an artist creates, and I only copy, and that in a small way. +Any one can learn to prepare casts; but to create a bust or a +statue--that is to say, a fine one--a man must have genius." + +"You have no genius?" + +"Not a grain." + +"I am sorry to hear that," said Margaret, with a disappointed +look. "But perhaps it will come," she added encouragingly. "I have +read that nearly all great artists and poets are almost always +modest. They know better than anybody else how far they fall short of +what they intend, and so they don't put on airs. You don't, either. I +like that in you. May be you have genius without knowing it, Mr. +Shackford." + +"It is quite without knowing it, I assure you!" protested Richard, +with suppressed merriment. "What an odd girl!" he thought. "She is +actually talking to me like a mother!" + +The twinkling light in the young man's eyes, or something that +jarred in his manner, caused Margaret at once to withdraw into +herself. She went silently about the room, examining the tools and +patterns; then, nearing the door, suddenly dropped Richard a quaint +little courtesy, and was gone. + +This was the colorless beginning of a friendship that was destined +speedily to be full of tender lights and shadows, and to flow on with +unsuspected depth. For several days Richard saw nothing more of +Margaret, and scarcely thought of her. The strangle little figure was +fading out of his mind, when, one afternoon, it again appeared at his +door. This time Margaret had left something of her sedateness behind; +she struck Richard as being both less ripe and less immature than he +had fancied; she interested rather than amused him. Perhaps he had +been partially insulated by his own shyness on the first occasion, +and had caught only a confused and inaccurate impression of +Margaret's personality. She remained half an hour in the workshop, +and at her departure omitted the formal courtesy. + +After this, Margaret seldom let a week slip without tapping once +or twice at the studio, at first with some pretext or other, and then +with no pretense whatever. When Margaret had disburdened herself of +excuses for dropping in to watch Richard mold his leaves and flowers, +she came oftener, and Richard insensibly drifted into the habit of +expecting her on certain days, and was disappointed when she failed +to appear. His industry had saved him, until now, from discovering +how solitary his life really was; for his life was as solitary--as +solitary as that of Margaret, who lived in the great house with only +her father, the two servants, and an episodical aunt. The mother was +long ago dead; Margaret could not recollect when that gray headstone, +with blotches of rusty-green moss breaking out over the lettering, +was not in the churchyard; and there never had been any brothers or +sisters. + +To Margaret Richard's installation in the empty room, where as a +child she had always been afraid to go, was the single important +break she could remember in the monotony of her existence; and now a +vague yearning for companionship, the blind sense of the plant +reaching towards the sunshine, drew her there. The tacitly prescribed +half hour often lengthened to an hour. Sometimes Margaret brought a +book with her, or a piece of embroidery, and the two spoke scarcely +ten words, Richard giving her a smile now and then, and she returning +a sympathetic nod as the cast came out successfully. + +Margaret at fifteen--she was fifteen now--was not a beauty. There +is the loveliness of the bud and the loveliness of the full-blown +flower; but Margaret as a blossom was not pretty. She was awkward and +angular, with prominent shoulder-blades, and no soft curves anywhere +in her slimness; only her black hair, growing low on the forehead, +and her eyes were fine. Her profile, indeed, with the narrow forehead +and the sensitive upper lip, might fairly have suggested the mask of +Clytie which Richard had bought of an itinerant image-dealer, and +fixed on a bracket over the mantel-shelf. But her eyes were her +specialty, if one may say that. They were fringed with such heavy +lashes that the girl seemed always to be in half-mourning. Her smile +was singularly sweet and bright, perhaps because it broke through so +much somber coloring. + +If there was a latent spark of sentiment between Richard and +Margaret in those earlier days, neither was conscious of it; they had +seemingly begun where happy lovers generally end,--by being dear +comrades. He liked to have Margaret sitting there, with her needle +flashing in the sunlight, or her eyelashes making a rich gloom above +the book as she read aloud. It was so agreeable to look up from his +work, and not be alone. He had been alone so much. And Margaret found +nothing in the world pleasanter than to sit there and watch Richard +making his winter garden, as she called it. By and by it became her +custom to pass every Saturday afternoon in that employment. + +Margaret was not content to be merely a visitor; she took a +housewifely care of the workshop, resolutely straightening out its +chronic disorder at unexpected moments, and fighting the white dust +that settled upon everything. The green-paper shade, which did not +roll up very well, at the west window was of her devising. An empty +camphor vial on Richard's desk had always a clove pink, or a pansy, +or a rose, stuck into it, according to the season. She hid herself +away and peeped out in a hundred feminine things in the room. +Sometimes she was a bit of crochet-work left on a chair, and +sometimes she was only a hair-pin, which Richard gravely picked up +and put on the mantel-piece. + +Mr. Slocum threw no obstacles in the path of this idyllic +friendship; possibly he did not observe it. In his eyes Margaret was +still a child,--a point of view that necessarily excluded any +consideration of Richard. Perhaps, however, if Mr. Slocum could have +assisted invisibly at a pretty little scene which took place in the +studio, one day, some twelve or eighteen months after Margaret's +first visit to it, he might have found food for reflection. + +It was a Saturday afternoon. Margaret had come into the workshop +with her sewing, as usual. The papers on the round table had been +neatly cleared away, and Richard was standing by the window, +indolently drumming on the glass with a palette-knife. + +"Not at work this afternoon?" + +"I was waiting for you." + +"That is no excuse at all," said Margaret, sweeping across the +room with a curious air of self-consciousness, and arranging her +drapery with infinite pains as she seated herself. + +Richard looked puzzled for a moment, and then exclaimed, +"Margaret, you have got on a long dress!" + +"Yes," said Margaret, with dignity. "Do you like it,--the train?" + +"That's a train?" + +"Yes," said Margaret, standing up and glancing over her left +shoulder at the soft folds of maroon-colored stuff, which, with a +mysterious feminine movement of the foot, she caused to untwist +itself and flow out gracefully behind her. There was really something +very pretty in the hesitating lines of the tall, slender figure, as +she leaned back that way. Certain unsuspected points emphasized +themselves so cunningly. + +"I never saw anything finer," declared Richard. "It was worth +waiting for." + +"But you shouldn't have waited," said Margaret, with a gratified +flush, settling herself into the chair again. "It was understood that +you were never to let me interfere with your work." + +"You see you have, by being twenty minutes late. I've finished +that acorn border for Stevens's capitals, and there's nothing more to +do for the yard. I am going to make something for myself, and I want +you to lend me a hand." + +"How can I help you, Richard?" Margaret asked, promptly stopping +the needle in the hem. + +"I need a paper-weight to keep my sketches from being blown about, +and I wish you literally to lend me a hand,--a hand to take a cast +of." + +"Really?" + +"I think that little white claw would make a very neat +paper-weight," said Richard. + +Margaret gravely rolled up her sleeve to the elbow, and +contemplated the hand and wrist critically. + +"It is like a claw, isn't it. I think you can find something +better than that." + +"No; that is what I want, and nothing else. That, or no +paper-weight for me." + +"Very well, just as you choose. It will be a fright." + +"The other hand, please." + +"I gave you the left because I've a ring on this one." + +"You can take off the ring, I suppose." + +"Of course I can take it off." + +"Well, then, do." + +"Richard," said Margaret severely, "I hope you are not a fidget." + +"A what?" + +"A fuss, then,--a person who always wants everything some other +way, and makes just twice as much trouble as anybody else." + +"No, Margaret, I am not that. I prefer your right hand because the +left is next to the heart, and the evaporation of the water in the +plaster turns it as cold as snow. Your arm will be chilled to the +shoulder. We don't want to do anything to hurt the good little heart, +you know." + +"Certainly not," said Margaret. "There!" and she rested her right +arm on the table, while Richard placed the hand in the desired +position on a fresh napkin which he had folded for the purpose. + +"Let your hand lie flexible, please. Hold it naturally. Why do you +stiffen the fingers so?" + +"I don't; they stiffen themselves, Richard. They know they are +going to have their photograph taken, and can't look natural. Who +ever does?" + +After a minute the fingers relaxed, and settled of their own +accord into an easy pose. Richard laid his hand softly on her wrist. + +"Don't move now." + +"I'll be as quiet as a mouse," said Margaret giving a sudden queer +little glance at his face. + +Richard emptied a paper of white powder into a great yellow bowl +half filled with water and fell to stirring it vigorously, like a +pastry-cook beating eggs. When the plaster was of the proper +consistency he began building it up around the hand, pouring on a +spoonful at a time, here and there, carefully. In a minute or two the +inert white fingers were completely buried. Margaret made a comical +grimace. + +"Is it cold?" + +"Ice," said Margaret, shutting her eyes involuntarily. + +"If it is too disagreeable we can give it up," suggested Richard. + +"No, don't touch it!" she cried, waving him back with her free +arm. "I don't mind; but it's as cold as so much snow. How curious! +What does it?" + +"I suppose a scientific fellow could explain the matter to you +easily enough. When the water evaporates a kind of congealing process +sets in,--a sort of atmospheric change, don't you know? The sudden +precipitation of the--the"-- + +"You're as good as Tyndall on Heat," said Margaret demurely. + +"Oh, Tyndall is well enough in his way," returned Richard, "but of +course he doesn't go into things so deeply as I do." + +"The idea of telling me that 'a congealing process set in,' when I +am nearly frozen to death!" cried Margaret, bowing her head over the +imprisoned arm. + +"Your unseemly levity, Margaret, makes it necessary for me to +defer my remarks on natural phenomena until some more fitting +occasion." + +"Oh, Richard, don't let an atmospherical change come over +_you!"_ + +"When you knocked at my door, months ago," said Richard, "I didn't +dream you were such a satirical little piece, or may be you wouldn't +have got in. You stood there as meek as Moses, with your frock +reaching only to the tops of your boots. You were a deception, +Margaret." + +"I was dreadfully afraid of you, Richard." + +"You are not afraid of me nowadays." + +"Not a bit." + +"You are showing your true colors. That long dress, too! I believe +the train has turned your head." + +"But just now you said you admired it." + +"So I did, and do. It makes you look quite like a woman, though." + +"I want to be a woman. I would like to be as old--as old as Mrs. +Methuselah. Was there a Mrs. Methuselah?" + +"I really forget," replied Richard, considering. "But there must +have been. The old gentleman had time enough to have several. I +believe, however, that history is rather silent about his domestic +affairs." + +"Well, then," said Margaret, after thinking it over, "I would like +to be as old as the youngest Mrs. Methuselah." + +"That was probably the last one," remarked Richard, with great +profundity. "She was probably some giddy young thing of seventy or +eighty. Those old widowers never take a wife of their own age. I +shouldn't want you to be seventy, Margaret,--or even eighty." + +"On the whole, perhaps, I shouldn't fancy it myself. Do you +approve of persons marrying twice?" + +"N--o, not at the same time." + +"Of course I didn't mean that," said Margaret, with asperity. "How +provoking you can be!" + +"But they used to,--in the olden time, don't you know?" + +"No, I don't." + +Richard burst out laughing. "Imagine him," he cried,--"imagine +Methuselah in his eight or nine hundredth year, dressed in his +customary bridal suit, with a sprig of century-plant stuck in his +button-hole!" + +"Richard," said Margaret solemnly, "you shouldn't speak jestingly +of a scriptural character." + +At this Richard broke out again. "But gracious me!" he exclaimed, +suddenly checking himself. "I am forgetting you all this while!" + +Richard hurriedly reversed the mass of plaster on the table, and +released Margaret's half-petrified fingers. They were shriveled and +colorless with the cold. + +"There isn't any feeling in it whatever," said Margaret, holding +up her hand helplessly, like a wounded wing. + +Richard took the fingers between his palms, and chafed them +smartly for a moment or two to restore the suspended circulation. + +"There, that will do," said Margaret, withdrawing her hand. + +"Are you all right now?" + +"Yes, thanks;" and then she added, smiling, "I suppose a +scientific fellow could explain why my fingers seem to be full of hot +pins and needles shooting in every direction." + +"Tyndall's your man--Tyndall on Heat," answered Richard, with a +laugh, turning to examine the result of his work. "The mold is +perfect, Margaret. You were a good girl to keep so still." + +Richard then proceeded to make the cast, which was soon placed on +the window-ledge to harden in the sun. When the plaster was set, he +cautiously chipped off the shell with a chisel, Margaret leaning over +his shoulder to watch the operation,--and there was the little white +claw, which ever after took such dainty care of his papers, and +ultimately became so precious to him as a part of Margaret's very +self that he would not have exchanged it for the Venus of Milo. + +But as yet Richard was far enough from all that. + + + + +X + + +Three years glided by with Richard Shackford as swiftly as those +periods of time which are imagined to elapse between the acts of a +play. They were eventless, untroubled years, and have no history. +Nevertheless, certain changes had taken place. Little by little Mr. +Slocum had relinquished the supervision of the workshops to Richard, +until now the affairs of the yard rested chiefly on his shoulders. It +was like a dream to him when he looked directly back to his humble +beginning, though as he reflected upon it, and retraced his progress +step by step, he saw there was nothing illogical or astonishing in +his good fortune. He had won it by downright hard work and the +faithful exercise of a sufficing talent. + +In his relations with Margaret, Richard's attitude had undergone +no appreciable change. Her chance visits to the studio through the +week and those pleasant, half-idle Saturday afternoons had become to +both Richard and Margaret a matter of course, like the sunlight, or +the air they breathed. + +To Richard, Margaret Slocum at nineteen was simply a charming, +frank girl,--a type of gracious young womanhood. He was conscious of +her influence; he was very fond of Margaret; but she had not yet +taken on for him that magic individuality which makes a woman the one +woman in the world to her lover. Though Richard had scant experience +in such matters, he was not wrong in accepting Margaret as the type +of a class of New England girls, which, fortunately for New England, +is not a small class. These young women for the most part lead quiet +and restricted lives so far as the actualities are concerned, but +very deep and full lives in the world of books and imagination, to +which they make early escapes. They have the high instincts that come +of good blood, the physique that naturally fits fine manners; and +when chance takes one of these maidens from her island country home +or from some sleepy town on the sea-board, and sets her amid the +complications of city existence, she is an unabashed and unassuming +lady. If in Paris, she differs from the Parisiennes only in the +greater delicacy of her lithe beauty, her innocence which is not +ignorance, and her French pronunciation; if in London, she differs +from English girls only in the matter of rosy cheeks and the rising +inflection. Should none of these fortunate transplantings befall her, +she always merits them by adorning with grace and industry and +intelligence the narrower sphere to which destiny has assigned her. + +Destiny had assigned Margaret Slocum to a very narrow sphere; it +had shut her up in an obscure New England manufacturing village, with +no society, strictly speaking, and no outlets whatever to large +experiences. To her father's affection, Richard's friendship, and her +household duties she was forced to look for her happiness. If life +held wider possibilities for her, she had not dreamed of them. She +looked up to Richard with respect,--perhaps with a dash of sentiment +in the respect; there was something at once gentle and virile in his +character which she admired and leaned upon; in his presence the +small housekeeping troubles always slipped from her; but her heart, +to use a pretty French phrase, had not consciously spoken,--possibly +it had murmured a little, incoherently, to itself, but it had not +spoken out aloud, as perhaps it would have done long ago if an +impediment had been placed in the way of their intimacy. With all her +subtler intuitions, Margaret was as far as Richard from suspecting +the strength and direction of the current with which they were +drifting. Freedom, habit, and the nature of their environment +conspired to prolong this mutual lack of perception. The hour had +sounded, however, when these two were to see each other in a +different light. + +One Monday morning in March, at the close of the three years in +question, as Richard mounted the outside staircase leading to his +studio in the extension, the servant-maid beckoned to him from the +kitchen window. + +Margaret had failed to come to the studio the previous Saturday +afternoon. Richard had worked at cross-purposes and returned to his +boarding-house vaguely dissatisfied, as always happened to him on +those rare occasions when she missed the appointment; but he had +thought little of the circumstance. Nor had he been disturbed on +Sunday at seeing the Slocum pew vacant during both services. The +heavy snow-storm which had begun the night before accounted for at +least Margaret's absence. + +"Mr. Slocum told me to tell you that he shouldn't be in the yard +to-day," said the girl. "Miss Margaret is very ill." + +"Ill!" Richard repeated, and the smile with which he had leaned +over the rail towards the window went out instantly on his lip. + +"Dr. Weld was up with her until five o'clock this morning," said +the girl, fingering the corner of her apron. "She's that low." + +"What is the matter?" + +"It's a fever." + +"What kind of fever?" + +"I don't mind me what the doctor called it. He thinks it come from +something wrong with the drains." + +"He didn't say typhoid?" + +"Yes, that's the name of it." + +Richard ascended the stairs with a slow step, and a moment +afterwards stood stupidly in the middle of the workshop. "Margaret is +going to die," he said to himself, giving voice to the dark +foreboding that had instantly seized upon him, and in a swift vision +he saw the end of all that simple, fortunate existence which he had +lived without once reflecting it could ever end. He mechanically +picked up a tool from the table, and laid it down again. Then he +seated himself on the low bench between the windows. It was +Margaret's favorite place; it was not four days since she sat there +reading to him. Already it appeared long ago,--years and years ago. +He could hardly remember when he did not have this heavy weight on +his heart. His life of yesterday abruptly presented itself to him as +a reminiscence; he saw now how happy that life had been, and how +lightly he had accepted it. It took to itself all that precious +quality of things irrevocably lost. + +The clamor of the bell in the South Church striking noon, and the +shrilling of the steam-whistle softened by the thick-falling snow, +roused Richard from his abstraction. He was surprised that it was +noon. He rose from the bench and went home through the storm, +scarcely heeding the sleet that snapped in his face like whip-lashes. +Margaret was going to die! + +For four or five weeks the world was nearly a blank to Richard +Shackford. The insidious fever that came and went, bringing alternate +despair and hope to the watchers in the hushed room, was in his veins +also. He passed the days between his lonely lodgings in Lime Street +and the studio, doing nothing, restless and apathetic by turns, but +with always a poignant sense of anxiety. He ceased to take any +distinct measurement of time further than to note that an interval of +months seemed to separate Monday from Monday. Meanwhile, if new +patterns had been required by the men, the work in the carving +departments would have come to a dead lock. + +At length the shadow lifted, and there fell a day of soft May +weather when Margaret, muffled in shawls and as white as death, was +seated once more in her accustomed corner by the west window. She had +insisted on being brought there the first practicable moment; nowhere +else in the house was such sunshine, and Mr. Slocum himself had +brought her in his arms. She leaned back against the pillows, smiling +faintly. Her fingers lay locked on her lap, and the sunlight showed +through the narrow transparent palace. It was as if her hands were +full of blush-roses. + +Richard breathed again, but not with so free a heart as before. +What if she had died? He felt an immense pity for himself when he +thought of that, and he thought of it continually as the days wore +on. + +Either a great alteration had wrought itself in Margaret, or +Richard beheld her through a clearer medium during the weeks of +convalescence that followed. Was this the slight, sharp-faced girl he +used to know? The eyes and the hair were the same; but the smile was +deeper, and the pliant figure had lost its extreme slimness without a +sacrifice to its delicacy. The spring air was filling her veins with +abundant health, and mantling her cheeks with a richer duskiness than +they had ever worn. Margaret was positively handsome. Her beauty had +come all in a single morning, like the crocuses. This beauty began to +awe Richard; it had the effect of seeming to remove her further and +further from him. He grew moody and restless when they were together, +and was wretched alone. His constraint did not escape Margaret. She +watched him, and wondered at his inexplicable depression when every +one in the household was rejoicing in her recovery. By and by this +depression wounded her, but she was too spirited to show the hurt. +She always brought a book with her now, in her visits to the studio; +it was less awkward to read than to sit silent and unspoken to over a +piece of needle-work. + +"How very odd you are!" said Margaret, one afternoon, closing the +volume which she had held mutely for several minutes, waiting for +Richard to grasp the fact that she was reading aloud. + +"I odd!" protested Richard, breaking with a jerk from one of his +long reveries. "In what way?" + +"As if I could explain--when you put the quotation suddenly, like +that." + +"I didn't intend to be abrupt. I was curious to know. And then the +charge itself was a trifle unexpected, if you will look at it. But +never mind," he added with a smile; "think it over, and tell me +to-morrow." + +"No, I will tell you now, since you are willing to wait." + +"I wasn't really willing to wait, but I knew if I didn't pretend +to be I should never get it out of you." + +"Very well, then; your duplicity is successful. Richard, I was +puzzled where to begin with your oddities." + +"Begin at the beginning." + +"No, I will take the nearest. When a young lady is affable enough +to read aloud to you, the least you can do is to listen to her. That +is a deference you owe to the author, when it happens to be +Hawthorne, to say nothing of the young lady." + +"But I _have_ been listening, Margaret. Every word!" + +"Where did I leave off?" + +"It was where--where the"--and Richard knitted his brows in the +vain effort to remember--"where the young daguerreotypist, +what's-his-name, took up his residence in the House of the Seven +Gables." + +"No, sir! You stand convicted. It was ten pages further on. The +last words were,"--and Margaret read from the book,-- + +"'Good-night, cousin,' said Phoebe, strangely affected by +Hepsibah's manner. 'If you being to love me, I am glad.'" + +"There, sir! what do you say to that?" + +Richard did not say anything, but he gave a guilty start, and shot +a rapid glance at Margaret coolly enjoying her triumph. + +"In the next place," she continued soberly, after a pause, "I +think it very odd in you not to reply to me,--oh, not now, for of +course you are without a word of justification; but at other times. +Frequently, when I speak to you, you look at me so," making a vacant +little face, "and then suddenly disappear,--I don't mean bodily, but +mentally." + +"I am no great talker at best," said Richard with a helpless air. +"I seldom speak unless I have something to say." + +"But other people do. I, for instance." + +"Oh, you, Margaret; that is different. When you talk I don't much +mind what you are talking about." + +"I like a neat, delicate compliment like that!" + +"What a perverse girl you are to-day!" cried Richard. "You won't +understand me. I mean that your words and your voice are so pleasant +they make anything interesting, whether it's important or not." + +"If no one were to speak until he had something important to +communicate," observed Margaret, "conversation in this world would +come to a general stop." Then she added, with a little ironical +smile, "Even you, Richard, wouldn't be talking all the time." + +Formerly Margaret's light sarcasms, even when they struck him +point-blank, used to amuse Richard, but now he winced at being merely +grazed. + +Margaret went on: "But it's not a bit necessary to be circular or +instructive--with me. I am interested in trivial matters,--in the +weather, in my spring hat, in what you are going to do next, and the +like. One must occupy one's self with something. But you, Richard, +nowadays you seem interested in nothing, and have nothing whatever to +say." + +Poor Richard! He had a great deal to say, but he did not know how, +nor if it were wise to breathe it. Just three little words, murmured +or whispered, and the whole conditions would be changed. With those +fateful words uttered, what would be Margaret's probable attitude, +and what Mr. Slocum's? Though the line which formerly drew itself +between employer and employee had grown faint with time, it still +existed in Richard's mind, and now came to the surface with great +distinctness, like a word written in sympathetic ink. If he spoke, +and Margaret was startled or offended, then there was an end to their +free, unembarrassed intercourse,--perhaps an end to all intercourse. +By keeping his secret in his breast he at least secured the present. +But that was to risk everything. Any day somebody might come and +carry Margaret off under his very eyes. As he reflected on this, the +shadow of John Dana, the son of the rich iron-manufacturer, etched +itself sharply upon Richard's imagination. Within the week young Dana +had declared in the presence of Richard that "Margaret Slocum was an +awfully nice little thing," and the Othello in Richard's blood had +been set seething. Then his thought glanced from John Dana to Mr. +Pinkham and the Rev. Arthur Langly, both of whom were assiduous +visitors at the house. The former had lately taken to accompanying +Margaret on the piano with his dismal little flute, and the latter +was perpetually making a moth of himself about her class at +Sunday-school. + +Richard stood with the edge of his chisel resting idly upon the +plaster mold in front of him, pondering these things. Presently he +heard Margaret's voice, as if somewhere in the distance, saying,-- + +"I have not finished yet, Richard." + +"Go on," said Richard, falling to work again with a kind of +galvanic action. "Go on, please." + +"I have a serious grievance. Frankly, I am hurt by your +preoccupation and indifference, your want of openness or +cordiality,--I don't know how to name it. You are the only person who +seems to be unaware that I escaped a great danger a month ago. I am +obliged to remember all the agreeable hours I have spent in the +studio to keep off the impression that during my illness you got used +to not seeing me, and that now my presence somehow obstructs your +work and annoys you." + +Richard threw his chisel on the bench, and crossed over to the +window where Margaret was. + +"You are as wrong as you can be," he said, looking down on her +half-lifted face, from which a quick wave of color was subsiding; for +the abruptness of Richard's movement had startled her. + +"I am glad if I am wrong." + +"It is nearly an unforgivable thing to be as wide of the mark as +you are. Oh, Margaret, if you had died that time!" + +"You would have been very sorry?" + +"Sorry? No. That doesn't express it; one outlives mere sorrow. If +anything had happened to you, I should never have got over it. You +don't know what those five weeks were to me. It was a kind of death +to come to this room day after day, and not find you." + +Margaret rested her eyes thoughtfully on the space occupied by +Richard rather than on Richard himself, seeming to look through and +beyond him, as if he were incorporeal. + +"You missed me like that?" she said slowly. + +"I missed you like that." + +Margaret meditated a moment. "In the first days of my illness I +wondered if you didn't miss me a little; afterwards everything was +confused in my mind. When I tried to think, I seemed to be somebody +else,--I seemed to be _you_ waiting for me here in the studio. +Wasn't that singular? But when I recovered, and returned to my old +place, I began to suspect I had been bearing your anxiety,--that I +had been distressed by the absence to which you had grown +accustomed." + +"I never got used to it, Margaret. It became more and more +unendurable. This workshop was full of--of your absence. There wasn't +a sketch or a cast or an object in the room that didn't remind me of +you, and seem to mock at me for having let the most precious moments +of my life slip away unheeded. That bit of geranium in the glass +yonder seemed to say with its dying breath, 'You have cared for +neither of us as you ought to have cared; my scent and her goodness +have been all one to you,--things to take or to leave. It was for no +merit of yours that she was always planning something to make life +smoother and brighter for you. What had you done to deserve it? How +unselfish and generous and good she has been to you for years and +years! What would have become of you without her? She left me here on +purpose'--it's the geranium leaf that is speaking all the while, +Margaret--'to say this to you, and to tell you that she was not half +appreciated; but now you have lost her.'" + +As she leaned forward listening, with her lips slightly parted, +Margaret gave an unconscious little approbative nod of the head. +Richard's fanciful accusation of himself caused her a singular thrill +of pleasure. He had never before spoken to her in just this fashion; +the subterfuge which his tenderness had employed, the little detour +it had made in order to get at her, was a novel species of flattery. +She recognized the ring of a distinctly new note in his voice; but, +strangely enough, the note lost its unfamiliarity in an instant. +Margaret recognized that fact also, and as she swiftly speculated on +the phenomenon her pulse went one or two strokes faster. + +"Oh, you poor boy!" she said, looking up with a laugh, and a flush +so interfused that they seemed one, "that geranium took a great deal +upon itself. It went quite beyond its instructions, which were simply +to remind you of me now and then. One day, while you were out,--the +day before I was taken ill,--I placed the flowers on the desk there, +perhaps with a kind of premonition that I was going away from you for +a time." + +"What if you had never come back?" + +"I wouldn't think of that if I were you," said Margaret softly. + +"But it haunts me,--that thought. Sometimes of a morning, after I +unlock the workshop door, I stand hesitating, with my hand on the +latch, as one might hesitate a few seconds before stepping into a +tomb. There were days last month, Margaret, when this chamber did +appear to me like a tomb. All that was happy in my past seemed to lie +buried here; it was something visible and tangible; I used to steal +in and look upon it." + +"Oh, Richard!" + +"If you only knew what a life I led as a boy in my cousin's house, +and what a doleful existence for years afterwards, until I found you, +perhaps you would understand my despair when I saw everything +suddenly slipping away from me. Margaret! the day your father brought +you in here, I had all I could do not to kneel down at your +feet"--Richard stopped short. "I didn't mean to tell you that," he +added, turning towards the work-table. Then he checked himself, and +came and stood in front of her again. He had gone too far not to go +further. "While you were ill I made a great discovery." + +"What was that, Richard?" + +"I discovered that I had been blind for two or three years." + +"Blind?" repeated Margaret. + +"Stone-blind. I discovered it by suddenly seeing--by seeing that I +had loved you all the while, Margaret! Are you offended?" + +"No," said Margaret, slowly; she was a moment finding her voice to +say it. "I--ought I to be offended?" + +"Not if you are not!" said Richard. + +"Then I am not. I--I've made little discoveries myself," murmured +Margaret, going into full mourning with her eyelashes. + +But it was only for an instant. She refused to take her happiness +shyly or insincerely; it was something too sacred. She was a trifle +appalled by it, if the truth must be told. If Richard had scattered +his love-making through the month of her convalescence, or if he had +made his avowal in a different mood, perhaps Margaret might have met +him with some natural coquetry. But Richard's tone and manner had +been such as to suppress any instinct of the kind. His declaration, +moreover, had amazed her. Margaret's own feelings had been more or +less plain to her that past month, and she had diligently disciplined +herself to accept Richard's friendship, since it seemed all he had to +give. Indeed, it had seemed at times as if he had not even that. + +When Margaret lifted her eyes to him, a second after her +confession, they were full of a sweet seriousness, and she had no +thought of withdrawing the hands which Richard had taken, and was +holding lightly, that she might withdraw them if she willed. She felt +no impulse to do so, though as Margaret looked up she saw her father +standing a few paces behind Richard. + +With an occult sense of another presence in the room, Richard, +turned at the same instant. + +Mr. Slocum had advanced two steps into the apartment, and had been +brought to a dead halt by the surprising tableau in the embrasure of +the window. He stood motionless, with an account-book under his arm, +while a dozen expressions chased each other over his countenance. + +"Mr. Slocum," said Richard, who saw that only one course lay open +to him, "I love Margaret, and I have been telling her." + +At that the flitting shadows on Mr. Slocum's face settled into one +grave look. He did not reply immediately, but let his glance wander +from Margaret to Richard, and back again to Margaret, slowly +digesting the fact. It was evident he had not relished it. Meanwhile +the girl had risen from the chair and was moving towards her father. + +"This strikes me as very extraordinary," he said at last. "You +have never given any intimation that such a feeling existed. How long +has this been going on?" + +"I have always been fond of Margaret, sir; but I was not aware of +the strength of the attachment until the time of her illness, when +I--that is, we--came near to losing her." + +"And you, Margaret?" + +As Mr. Slocum spoke he instinctively put one arm around Margaret, +who had crept closely to his side. + +"I don't know when I began to love Richard," said Margaret simply. + +"You don't know!" + +"Perhaps it was while I was ill; perhaps it was long before that; +may be my liking for him commenced as far back as the time he made +the cast of my hand. How can I tell, papa? I don't know." + +"There appears to be an amazing diffusion of ignorance here!" + +Margaret bit her lip, and kept still. Her father was taking it a +great deal more seriously than she had expected. A long, awkward +silence ensued. Richard broke it at last by remarking uneasily, +"Nothing has been or was to be concealed from you. Before going to +sleep to-night, Margaret would have told you all I've said to her." + +"You should have consulted with me before saying anything." + +"I intended to do so, but my words got away from me. I hope you +will overlook it, sir, and not oppose my loving Margaret, though I +see as plainly as you do that I am not worthy of her." + +"I have not said that. I base my disapproval on entirely different +ground. Margaret is too young. A girl of seventeen or eighteen"-- + +"Nineteen," said Margaret, parenthetically. + +"Of nineteen, then,--has no business to bother her head with such +matters. Only yesterday she was a child!" + +Richard glanced across at Margaret, and endeavored to recall her +as she impressed him that first afternoon, when she knocked defiantly +at the workshop door to inquire if he wanted any pans and pails; but +he was totally unable to reconstruct that crude little figure with +the glossy black head, all eyes and beak, like a young hawk's. + +"My objection is impersonal," continued Mr. Slocum. "I object to +the idea. I wish this had not happened. I might not have disliked +it--years hence; I don't say; but I dislike it now." + +Richard's face brightened. "It will be years hence in a few +years!" + +Mr. Slocum replied with a slow, grave smile, "I am not going to be +unreasonable in a matter where I find Margaret's happiness concerned; +and yours, Richard, I care for that, too; but I'll have no +entanglements. You and she are to be good friends, and nothing +beyond. I prefer that Margaret should not come to the studio so +often; you shall see her whenever you like at our fireside, of an +evening. I don't think the conditions hard." + +Mr. Slocum had dictated terms, but it was virtually a surrender. +Margaret listened to him with her cheek resting against his arm, and +a warm light nestled down deep under her eyelids. + +Mr. Slocum drew a half-pathetic sigh. "I presume I have not done +wisely. Every one bullies me. The Marble Workers' Association ruins +my yard for me, and now my daughter is taken off my hands. By the +way, Richard," he said, interrupting himself brusquely, and with an +air of dismissing the subject, "I forgot what I came for. I've been +thinking over Torrini's case, and have concluded that you had better +make up his account and discharge him." + +"Certainly, sir," replied Richard, with a shadow of dissent in his +manner, "if you wish it." + +"He causes a deal of trouble in the yard." + +"I am afraid he does. Such a clean workman when he's sober!" + +"But he is never sober." + +"He has been in a bad way lately, I admit." + +"His example demoralizes the men. I can see it day by day." + +"I wish he were not so necessary at this moment," observed +Richard. "I don't know who else could be trusted with the frieze for +the Soldiers' Monument. I'd like to keep him on a week or ten days +longer. Suppose I have a plain talk with Torrini?" + +"Surely we have enough good hands to stand the loss of one." + +"For a special kind of work there is nobody in the yard like +Torrini. That is one reason why I want to hold on to him for a while, +and there are other reasons." + +"Such as what?" + +"Well, I think it would not be wholly politic to break with him +just now." + +"Why not now as well as any time?" + +"He has lately been elected secretary of the Association." + +"What of that?" + +"He has a great deal of influence there." + +"If we put him out of the works it seems to me he would lose his +importance, if he really has any to speak of." + +"You are mistaken if you doubt it. His position gives him a chance +to do much mischief, and he would avail himself of it very adroitly, +if he had a personal grievance." + +"I believe you are actually afraid of the fellow." + +Richard smiled. "No, I am not afraid of him, but I don't underrate +him. The men look up to Torrini as a sort of leader; he's an +effective speaker, and knows very well how to fan a dissatisfaction. +Either he or some other disturbing element has recently been at work +among the men. There's considerable grumbling in the yard." + +"They are always grumbling, aren't they?" + +"Most always, but this is more serious than usual; there appears +to be a general stir among the trades in the village. I don't +understand it clearly. The marble workers have been holding secret +meetings." + +"They mean business, you think?" + +"They mean increased wages, perhaps." + +"But we are now paying from five to ten per cent more than any +trade in the place. What are they after?" + +"So far as I can gather, sir, the finishers and the slab-sawers +want an advance,--I don't know how much. Then there's some talk about +having the yard closed an hour earlier on Saturdays. All this is +merely rumor; but I am sure there is something in it." + +"Confound the whole lot! If we can't discharge a drunken hand +without raising the pay of all the rest, we had better turn over the +entire business to the Association. But do as you like, Richard. You +see how I am bullied, Margaret. He runs everything! Come, dear." + +And Mr. Slocum quitted the workshop, taking Margaret with him. +Richard remained standing awhile by the table, in a deep study, with +his eyes fixed on the floor. He thought of his early days in the +sepulchral house in Welch's Court, of his wanderings abroad, his long +years of toil since then, and this sudden blissful love that had come +to him, and Mr. Slocum's generosity. Then he thought of Torrini, and +went down into the yard gently to admonish the man, for Richard's +heart that hour was full of kindness for all the world. + + + + +XI + + +In spite of Mr. Slocum's stipulations respecting the frequency of +Margaret's visits to the studio, she was free to come and go as she +liked. It was easy for him to say, Be good friends, and nothing +beyond; but after that day in the workshop it was impossible for +Richard and Margaret to be anything but lovers. The hollowness of +pretending otherwise was clear even to Mr. Slocum. In the love of a +father for a daughter there is always a vague jealousy which refuses +to render a coherent explanation of itself. Mr. Slocum did not escape +this, but he managed, nevertheless, to accept the inevitable with +very fair grace, and presently to confess to himself that the +occurrence which had at first taken him aback was the most natural in +the world. That Margaret and Richard, thrown together as they had +been, should end by falling in love with each other was not a result +to justify much surprise. Indeed, there was a special propriety in +their doing so. The Shackfords had always been reputable people in +the village,--down to Lemuel Shackford, who of course was an old +musk-rat. The family attributes of amiability and honesty had skipped +him, but they had reappeared in Richard. It was through his foresight +and personal energy that the most lucrative branch of the trade had +been established. His services entitled him to a future interest in +the business, and Mr. Slocum had intended he should have it. Mr. +Slocum had not dreamed of throwing in Margaret also; but since that +addition had suggested itself, it seemed to him one of the happy +features of the arrangement. Richard would thus be doubly identified +with the yard, to which, in fact, he had become more necessary than +Mr. Slocum himself. + +"He has more backbone with the men than I have," acknowledged Mr. +Slocum. "He knows how to manage them, and I don't." + +As soft as Slocum was a Stillwater proverb. Richard certainly had +plenty of backbone; it was his only capital. In Mr. Slocum's +estimation it was sufficient capital. But Lemuel Shackford was a very +rich man, and Mr. Slocum could not avoid seeing that it would be +decent in Richard's only surviving relative if, at this juncture, he +were to display a little interest in the young fellow's welfare. + +"If he would only offer to advance a few thousand dollars for +Richard," said Mr. Slocum, one evening, to Margaret, with whom he had +been talking over the future--"the property must all come to him some +time,--it would be a vast satisfaction to me to tell the old man that +we can get along without any of his ill-gotten gains. He made the +bulk of his fortune during the war, you know. The old sea-serpent," +continued Mr. Slocum, with hopeless confusion of metaphor, "had a +hand in fitting out more than one blockade-runner. They used to talk +of a ship that got away from Charleston with a cargo of cotton that +netted the share-holders upwards of two hundred thousand dollars. He +denies it now, but everybody knows Shackford. He'd betray his country +for fifty cents in postage-stamps." + +"Oh, papa! you are too hard on him." + +In words dropped cursorily from time to time, Margaret imparted to +Richard the substance of her father's speech, and it set Richard +reflecting. It was not among the probabilities that Lemuel Shackford +would advance a dollar to establish Richard, but if he could induce +his cousin even to take the matter into consideration, Richard felt +that it would be a kind of moral support to him circumstanced as he +was. His pride revolted at the idea of coming quite unbacked and +disowned, as well as empty-handed, to Mr. Slocum. + +For the last twelve months there had been a cessation of ordinary +courtesies between the two cousins. They now passed each other on the +street without recognition. A year previously Mr. Shackford had +fallen ill, and Richard, aware of the inefficient domestic +arrangements in Welch's Court, had gone to the house out of sheer +pity. The old man was in bed, and weak with fever, but at seeing +Richard he managed to raise himself on one elbow. + +"Oh, it's you!" he exclaimed, mockingly. "When a rich man is sick +the anxious heirs crowd around him; but they're twice as honestly +anxious when he is perfectly well." + +"I came to see if I could do anything for you!" cried Richard, +with a ferocious glare, and in a tone that went curiously with his +words, and shook to the foundations his character of Good Samaritan. + +"The only thing you can do for me is to go away." + +"I'll do that with pleasure," retorted Richard bitterly. + +And Richard went, vowing he would never set foot across the +threshold again. He could not help having ugly thoughts. Why should +all the efforts to bring about a reconciliation and all the +forbearance be on his side? Thenceforth the crabbed old man might go +to perdition if he wanted to. + +And now here was Richard meditating a visit to that same house to +beg a favor! + +Nothing but his love for Margaret could have dragged him to such a +banquet of humble-pie as he knew was spread for his delectation, the +morning he passed up the main street of Stillwater and turned into +Welch's Court. + +As Richard laid his hand on the latch of the gate, Mr. Shackford, +who was digging in the front garden, looked up and saw him. Without +paying any heed to Richard's amicable salutation, the old man left +the shovel sticking in the sod, and walked stiffly into the house. At +another moment this would have amused Richard, but now he gravely +followed his kinsman, and overtook him at the foot of the staircase. + +"Cousin Shackford, can you spare me five or ten minutes?" + +"Don't know as I can," said Mr. Shackford, with one foot on the +lower stair. "Time is valuable. What do you want? You want +something." + +"Certainly, or I wouldn't think of trespassing on your time." + +"Has Slocum thrown you over?" inquired the old man, turning +quickly. A straw which he held between his thin lips helped to give +him a singularly alert expression. + +"No; Mr. Slocum and I agree the best in the world. I want to talk +with you briefly on certain matters; I want to be on decent terms +with you, if you will let me." + +"Decent terms means money, doesn't it?" asked Mr. Shackford, with +a face as wary and lean as a shark's. + +"I do wish to talk about money, among other things," returned +Richard, whom this brutal directness disconcerted a little,--"money +on satisfactory security." + +"You can get it anywhere with that." + +"So I might, and be asking no favor; but I would rather get it of +you, and consider it an obligation." + +"I would rather you wouldn't." + +"Listen to me a moment." + +"Well, I'm listening." + +Mr. Shackford stood in an attitude of attention, with his head +canted on one side, his eyes fixed on the ceiling, and the straw +between his teeth tilted up at an angle of forty degrees. + +"I have, as you know, worked my way in the marble yard to the +position of general manager," began Richard. + +"I didn't know," said Mr. Shackford, "but I understand. You're a +sort of head grave-stone maker." + +"That is taking a rather gloomy view of it," said Richard, "but no +matter. The point is, I hold a responsible position, and I now have a +chance to purchase a share in the works." + +"Slocum is willing to take you in, eh?" + +"Yes." + +"Then the concern is hit." + +"Hit?" + +"Slocum is going into bankruptcy." + +"You are wrong there. The yard was never so prosperous; the coming +year we shall coin money like a mint." + +"You ought to know," said Mr. Shackford, ruminatively. "A thing as +good as a mint must be a good thing." + +"If I were a partner in the business, I could marry Margaret." + +"Who's Margaret?" + +"Mr. Slocum's daughter." + +"That's where the wind is! Now how much capital would it take to +do all that?" inquired Mr. Shackford, with an air of affable +speculation. + +"Three or four thousand dollars,--perhaps less." + +"Well, I wouldn't give three or four cents to have you marry +Slocum's daughter. Richard, you can't pull any chestnuts out of the +fire with my paw." + +Mr. Shackford's interrogation and his more than usual conciliatory +manner had lighted a hope which Richard had not brought with him. Its +sudden extinguishment was in consequence doubly aggravating. + +"Slocum's daughter!" repeated Mr. Shackford. "I'd as soon you +would marry Crazy Nan up at the work-house." + +The association of Crazy Nan with Margaret sent a red flush into +Richard's cheek. He turned angrily towards the door, and then halted, +recollecting the resolve he had made not to lose his temper, come +what would. If the interview was to end there it had better not have +taken place. + +"I had no expectation that you would assist me pecuniarily," said +Richard, after a moment. "Let us drop the money question; it +shouldn't have come up between us. I want you to aid me, not by +lending me money, but by giving me your countenance as the head of +the family,--by showing a natural interest in my affairs, and seeming +disposed to promote them." + +"By just seeming?" + +"That is really all I desire. If you were to propose to put +capital into the concern, Mr. Slocum would refuse it." + +"Slocum would refuse it! Why in the devil should he refuse it?" + +"Because"--Richard hesitated, finding himself unexpectedly on +delicate ground--"because he would not care to enter into business +relations with you, under the circumstances." + +Mr. Shackford removed the straw from his mouth, and holding it +between his thumb and forefinger peered steadily through his +half-closed eyelids at Richard. + +"I don't understand you." + +"The dispute you had long ago, over the piece of meadow land +behind the marble yard. Mr. Slocum felt that you bore on him rather +heavily in that matter, and has not quite forgiven you for forcing +him to rebuild the sheds." + +"Bother Slocum and his sheds! I understand him. What I don't +understand is _you_. I am to offer Slocum three or four thousand +dollars to set you up, and he is to decline to take it. Is that it?" + +"That is not it at all," returned Richard. "My statement was this: +If you were to propose purchasing a share for me in the works, Mr. +Slocum would not entertain the proposition, thinking--as I don't +think--that he would mortify you by the refusal of your money." + +"The only way Slocum could mortify me would be by getting hold of +it. But what are you driving at, anyhow? In one breath you demand +several thousand dollars, and in the next breath you tell me that +nobody expects it, or wants it, or could be induced to have it on any +terms. Perhaps you will inform me what you are here for?" + +"That is what you will never discover!" cried Richard. "It is not +in you to comprehend the ties of sympathy that ought to hold between +two persons situated as we are. In most families this sympathy binds +closely at times,--at christenings, or burials, or when some member +is about to take an important step in life. Generally speaking, blood +is thicker than water; but your blood, cousin Shackford, seems to be +a good deal thinner. I came here to consult with you as my sole +remaining kinsman, as one authorized by years and position to give me +wise counsel and kindly encouragement at the turning point in my +fortune. I didn't wish to go among those people like a tramp, with +neither kith nor kin to say a word for me. Of course you don't +understand that. How should you? A sentiment of that kind is +something quite beyond your conception." + +Richard's words went into one ear and out the other, without +seeming for an instant to arrest Mr. Shackford's attention. The idea +of Slocum not accepting money--anybody's money--presented itself to +Mr. Shackford in so facetious a light as nearly to throw him into +good humor. His foot was on the first step of the staircase, which he +now began slowly to mount, giving vent, as he ascended, to a series +of indescribable chuckles. At the top of the landing he halted, and +leaned over the rail. + +"To think of Slocum refusing,--that's a good one!" + +In the midst of his jocularity a sudden thought seemed to strike +Mr. Shackford; his features underwent a swift transformation, and as +he grasped the rail in front of him with both hands a malicious +cunning writhed and squirmed in every wrinkle of his face. + +"Sir!" he shrieked, "it was a trap! Slocum would have taken it! If +I had been ass enough to make any such offer, he would have jumped at +it. What do you and Slocum take me for? You're a pair of rascals!" + +Richard staggered back, bewildered and blinded, as if he had +received a blow in the eyes. + +"No," continued Mr. Shackford, with a gesture of intense contempt, +"you are less than rascals. You are fools. A rascal has to have +brains!" + +"You shameless old man!" cried Richard, as soon as he could get +his voice. + +To do Mr. Shackford justice, he was thoroughly convinced that +Richard had lent himself to a preposterous attempt to obtain money +from him. The absence of ordinary shrewdness in the method stamped it +at once as belonging to Slocum, of whose mental calibre Mr. Shackford +entertained no flattering estimate. + +"Slocum!" he muttered, grinding the word between his teeth. +"Family ties!" he cried, hurling the words scornfully over the +banister as he disappeared into one of the upper chambers. + +Richard stood with one hand on the newel-post, white at the lip +with rage. For a second he had a wild impulse to spring up the +staircase, but, controlling this, he turned and hurried out of the +house. + +At the gate he brushed roughly against a girl, who halted and +stared. It was a strange thing to see Mr. Richard Shackford, who +always had a pleasant word for a body, go by in that blind, excited +fashion, striking one fist into the palm of the other hand, and +talking to his own self! Mary Hennessey watched him until he wheeled +out of Welch's Court, and then picking up her basket, which she had +rested on the fence, went her way. + + + + +XII + + +At the main entrance to the marble works Richard nearly walked +over a man who was coming out, intently mopping his forehead with a +very dirty calico handkerchief. It was an English stone-dresser named +Denyven. Richard did not recognize him at first. + +"That you, Denyven!... what has happened!" + +"I've 'ad a bit of a scrimmage, sir." + +"A scrimmage in the yard, in work hours!" + +The man nodded. + +"With whom?" + +"Torrini, sir,--he's awful bad this day." + +"Torrini,--it is always Torrini! It seems odd that one man should +be everlastingly at the bottom of everything wrong. How did it +happen? Give it to me straight, Denyven; I don't want a crooked +story. This thing has got to stop in Slocum's Yard." + +"The way of it was this, sir: Torrini wasn't at the shop this +morning. He 'ad a day off." + +"I know." + +"But about one o'clock, sir, he come in the yard. He 'ad been at +the public 'ouse, sir, and he was hummin'. First he went among the +carvers, talking Hitalian to 'em and making 'em laugh, though he was +in a precious bad humor hisself. By and by he come over to where me +and my mates was, and began chaffin' us, which we didn't mind it, +seeing he was 'eavy in the 'ead. He was as clear as a fog 'orn all +the same. But when he took to banging the tools on the blocks, I +sings out, ''Ands off!' and then he fetched me a clip. I was never +looking for nothing less than that he'd hit me. I was a smiling at +the hinstant." + +"He must be drunker than usual." + +"Hevidently, sir. I went down between two slabs as soft as you +please. When I got on my pins, I was for choking him a bit, but my +mates hauled us apart. That's the 'ole of it, sir. They'll tell you +the same within." + +"Are you hurt, Denyven?" + +"Only a bit of a scratch over the heye, sir,--and the nose," and +the man began mopping his brow tenderly. "I'd like to 'ave that +Hitalian for about ten minutes, some day when he's sober, over yonder +on the green." + +"I'm afraid he would make the ten minutes seem long to you." + +"Well, sir, I'd willingly let him try his 'and." + +"How is it, Denyven," said Richard, "that you and sensible +workingmen like you, have permitted such a quarrelsome and +irresponsible fellow to become a leader in the Association? He's +secretary, or something, isn't he?" + +"Well, sir, he writes an uncommonly clean fist, and then he's a +born horator. He's up to all the parli'mentary dodges. Must 'ave 'ad +no end of hexperience in them sort of things on the other side." + +"No doubt,--and that accounts for him being over here." + +"As for horganizing a meeting, sir"-- + +"I know. Torrini has a great deal of that kind of ability; perhaps +a trifle too much for his own good or anybody else's. There was never +any trouble to speak of among the trades in Stillwater till he and +two or three others came here with foreign grievances. These men get +three times the pay they ever received in their own land, and are +treated like human beings for the first time in their lives. But what +do they do? They squander a quarter of their week's wages at the +tavern,--no rich man could afford to put a fourth of his income into +drink,--and make windy speeches at the Union. I don't say all of +them, but too many of them. The other night, I understand, Torrini +compared Mr. Slocum to Nero,--Mr. Slocum, the fairest and gentlest +man that ever breathed! What rubbish!" + +"It wasn't just that way, sir. His words was, and I 'eard +him,--'from Nero down to Slocum.'" + +"It amounts to the same thing, and is enough to make one laugh, if +he didn't make one want to swear. I hear that that was a very lively +meeting the other night. What was that nonsense about 'the privileged +class'?" + +"Well, there is a privileged class in the States." + +"So there is, but it's a large class, Denyven. Every soul of us +has the privilege of bettering out condition if we have the brain and +the industry to do it. Energy and intelligence come to the front, and +have the right to be there. A skillful workman gets double the pay of +a bungler, and deserves it. Of course there will always be rich and +poor, and sick and sound, and I don't see how that can be changed. +But no door is shut against ability, black or white. Before the year +2400 we shall have a chrome-yellow president and a black-and-tan +secretary of the treasury. But, seriously, Denyven, whoever talks +about privileged classes here does it to make mischief. There are +certain small politicians who reap their harvest in times of public +confusion, just as pickpockets do. Nobody can play the tyrant or the +bully in this country,--not even a workingman. Here's the Association +dead against an employer who, two years ago, ran his yard full-handed +for a twelvemonth at a loss, rather than shut down, as every other +mill and factory in Stillwater did. For years and years the +Association has prevented this employer from training more than two +apprentices annually. The result is, eighty hands find work, instead +of a hundred and eighty. Now, that can't last." + +"It keeps wages fixed in Stillwater, sir." + +"It keeps out a hundred workmen. It sends away capital." + +"Torrini says, sir"-- + +"Steer clear of Torrini and what he says. He's a dangerous +fellow--for his friends. It is handsome in you, Denyven, to speak up +for him--with that eye of yours." + +"Oh, I don't love the man, when it comes to that; but there's no +denying he's right smart," replied Denyven, who occasionally marred +his vernacular with Americanisms. "The Association couldn't do +without him." + +"But Slocum's Yard can," said Richard, irritated to observe the +influence Torrini exerted on even such men as Denyven. + +"That's between you and him, sir, of course, but"-- + +"But what?" + +"Well, sir, I can't say hexactly; but if I was you I would bide a +bit." + +"No, I think Torrini's time has come." + +"I don't make bold to advise you, sir. I merely throws out the +hobservation." + +With that Denyven departed to apply to his bruises such herbs and +simples as a long experience had taught him to be efficacious. + +He had gone only a few rods, however, when it occurred to him that +there were probabilities of a stormy scene in the yard; so he turned +on his tracks, and followed Richard Shackford. + +Torrini was a Neapolitan, who had come to the country seven or +eight years before. He was a man above the average intelligence of +his class; a marble worker by trade, but he had been a fisherman, a +mountain guide among the Abruzzi, a soldier in the papal guard, and +what not, and had contrived to pick up two or three languages, among +the rest English, which he spoke with purity. His lingual gift was +one of his misfortunes. + +Among the exotics in Stillwater, which even boasted a featureless +Celestial, who had unobtrusively extinguished himself with a +stove-pipe hat, Torrini was the only figure that approached +picturesqueness. With his swarthy complexion and large, indolent +eyes, in which a southern ferocity slept lightly, he seemed to +Richard a piece out of his own foreign experience. To him Torrini was +the crystallization of Italy, or so much of that Italy as Richard had +caught a glimpse of at Genoa. To the town-folks Torrini perhaps +vaguely suggested hand-organs and eleemosynary pennies; but Richard +never looked at the straight-limbed, handsome fellow without +recalling the Phrygian-capped sailors of the Mediterranean. On this +account, and for other reasons, Richard had taken a great fancy to +the man. Torrini had worked in the ornamental department from the +first, and was a rapid and expert carver when he chose. He had +carried himself steadily enough in the beginning, but in these later +days, as Mr. Slocum had stated, he was scarcely ever sober. Richard +had stood between him and his discharge on several occasions, partly +because he was so skillful a workman, and partly through pity for his +wife and children, who were unable to speak a word of English. But +Torrini's influence on the men in the yard,--especially on the +younger hands, who needed quite other influences,--and his +intemperate speeches at the trades-union, where he had recently +gained a kind of ascendancy by his daring, were producing the worst +effects. + +At another hour Richard might have been inclined to condone this +last offense, as he had condoned others; but when he parted from +Denyven, Richard's heart was still hot with his cousin's insult. As +he turned into the yard, not with his usual swinging gait, but with a +quick, wide step, there was an unpleasant dilation about young +Shackford's nostrils. + +Torrini was seated on a block of granite in front of the upper +sheds, flourishing a small chisel in one hand and addressing the men, +a number of whom had stopped work to listen to him. At sight of +Richard they made a show of handling their tools, but it was so clear +something grave was going to happen that the pretense fell through. +They remained motionless, resting on their mallets, with their eyes +turned towards Richard. Torrini followed the general glance, and +pause din his harangue. + +"Talk of the devil!" he muttered, and then, apparently continuing +the thread of his discourse, broke into a strain of noisy +declamation. + +Richard walked up to him quietly. + +"Torrini," he said, "you can't be allowed to speak here, you +know." + +"I can speak where I like," replied Torrini gravely. He was drunk, +but the intoxication was not in his tongue. His head, as Denyven had +asserted, was as clear as a fog-horn. + +"When you are sober, you can come to the desk and get your pay and +your kit. You are discharged from the yard." + +Richard was standing within two paces of the man, who looked up +with an uncertain smile, as if he had not quite taken in the sense of +the words. Then, suddenly straightening himself, he exclaimed,-- + +"Slocum don't dare do it!" + +"But I do." + +"You!" + +"When I do a thing Mr. Slocum backs me." + +"But who backs Slocum,--the Association, may be?" + +"Certainly the Association ought to. I want you to leave the yard +now." + +"He backs Slocum," said Torrini, settling himself on the block +again, "and Slocum backs down," at which there was a laugh among the +men. + +Richard made a step forward. + +"Hands off!" cried a voice from under the sheds. + +"Who said that?" demanded Richard, wheeling around. No one +answered, but Richard had recognized Durgin's voice. "Torrini, if you +don't quit the yard in two minutes by the clock yonder, I shall put +you out by the neck. Do you understand?" + +Torrini glared about him confusedly for a moment, and broke into +voluble Italian; then, without a warning gesture, sprung to his feet +and struck at Richard. A straight red line, running vertically the +length of his cheek, showed where the chisel had grazed him. The +shops were instantly in a tumult, the men dropping their tools and +stumbling over the blocks, with cries of "Keep them apart!" "Shame on +you!" "Look out, Mr. Shackford!" + +"Is it mad ye are, Torrany!" cried Michael Hennessey, hurrying +from the saw-bench. Durgin held him back by the shoulders. + +"Let them alone," said Durgin. + +The flat steel flashed again in the sunlight, but fell harmlessly, +and before the blow could be repeated, Richard had knitted his +fingers in Torrini's neckerchief and twisted it so tightly that the +man gasped. Holding him by this, Richard dragged Torrini across the +yard, and let him drop on the sidewalk outside the gate, where he lay +in a heap, inert. + +"That was nate," said Michael Hennessey, sententiously. + +Richard stood leaning on the gate-post to recover he breath. His +face was colorless, and the crimson line defined itself sharply +against the pallor; but the rage was dead within him. It had been one +of his own kind of rages,--like lightning out of a blue sky. As he +stood there a smile was slowly gathering on his lip. + +A score or two of the men had followed him, and now lounged in a +half-circle a few paces in the rear. When Richard was aware of their +presence, the glow came into his eyes again. + +"Who ordered you to knock off work?" + +"That was a foul blow of Torrini's, sir," said Stevens, stepping +forward, "and I for one come to see fair play." + +"Give us your 'and, mate!" cried Denyven; "there's a pair of us." + +"Thanks," said Richard, softening at once, "but there's no need. +Every man can go to his job. Denyven may stay, if he likes." + +The men lingered a moment, irresolute, and returned to the sheds +in silence. + +Presently Torrini stretched out one leg, then the other, and +slowly rose to his feet, giving a stupid glance at his empty hands as +he did so. + +"Here's your tool," said Richard, stirring the chisel with the toe +of his boot, "if that's what you're looking for." + +Torrini advanced a step as if to pick it up, then appeared to +alter his mind, hesitated perhaps a dozen seconds, and turning +abruptly on his heel walked down the street without a stagger. + +"I think his legs is shut off from the rest of his body by +water-tight compartments," remarked Denyven, regarding Torrini's +steady gait with mingled amusement and envy. "Are you hurt, sir?" + +"Only a bit of a scratch of the heye," replied Richard, with a +laugh. + +"As I hobserved just now to Mr. Stevens, sir, there's a pair of +us!" + + + + +XIII + + +After a turn through the shops to assure himself that order was +restored, Richard withdrew in the direction of his studio. Margaret +was standing at the head of the stairs, half hidden by the scarlet +creeper which draped that end of the veranda. + +"What are you doing there?" said Richard looking up with a bright +smile. + +"Oh, Richard, I saw it all!" + +"You didn't see anything worth having white cheeks about." + +"But he struck you ... with the knife, did he not?" said +Margaret, clinging to his arm anxiously. + +"He didn't have a knife, dear; only a small chisel, which couldn't +hurt any one. See for yourself; it is merely a cat-scratch." + +Margaret satisfied herself that it was nothing more; but she +nevertheless insisted on leading Richard into the workshop, and +soothing the slight inflammation with her handkerchief dipped in +arnica and water. The elusive faint fragrance of Margaret's hair as +she busied herself about him would of itself have consoled Richard +for a deep wound. All this pretty solicitude and ministration was new +and sweet to him, and when the arnica turned out to be cologne, and +scorched his cheek, Margaret's remorse was so delicious that Richard +half wished the mixture had been aquafortis. + +"You shouldn't have been looking into the yard," he said. "If I +had known that you were watching us it would have distracted me. When +I am thinking of you I cannot think of anything else, and I had need +of my wits for a moment." + +"I happened to be on the veranda, and was too frightened to go +away. Why did you quarrel?" + +In giving Margaret an account of the matter, Richard refrained +from any mention of his humiliating visit to Welch's Court that +morning. He could neither speak of it nor reflect upon it with +composure. The cloud which shadowed his features from time to time +was attributed by Margaret to the affair in the yard. + +"But this is the end of it, is it not?" she asked, with troubled +eyes. "You will not have any further words with him?" + +"You needn't worry. If Torrini had not been drinking he would +never have lifted his hand against me. When he comes out of his +present state, he will be heartily ashamed of himself. His tongue is +the only malicious part of him. If he hadn't a taste for drink and +oratory,--if he was not 'a born horator,' as Denyven calls him,--he +would do well enough." + +"No, Richard, he's a dreadful man. I shall never forget his +face,--it was some wild animal's. And you, Richard," added Margaret +softly, "it grieved me to see you look like that." + +"I was wolfish for a moment, I suppose. Things had gone wrong +generally. But if you are going to scold me, Margaret, I would rather +have some more--arnica." + +"I am not going to scold; but while you stood there, so white and +terrible,--so unlike yourself,--I felt that I did not know you, +Richard. Of course you had to defend yourself when the man attacked +you, but I thought for an instant you would kill him." + +"Not I," said Richard uneasily, dreading anything like a rebuke +from Margaret. "I am mortified that I gave up to my anger. There was +no occasion." + +"If an intoxicated person were to wander into the yard, papa would +send for a constable, and have the person removed." + +"Your father is an elderly man," returned Richard, not relishing +this oblique criticism of his own simpler method. "What would be +proper in his case would be considered cowardly in mine. It was my +duty to discharge the fellow, and not let him dispute my authority. I +ought to have been cooler, of course. But I should have lost caste +and influence with the men if I had shown the least personal fear of +Torrini,--if, for example, I had summoned somebody else to do what I +didn't dare do myself. I was brought up in the yard, remember, and to +a certain extent I have to submit to being weighed in the yard's own +scales." + +"But a thing cannot be weighed in a scale incapable of containing +it," answered Margaret. "The judgment of these rough, uninstructed +men is too narrow for such as you. They quarrel and fight among +themselves, and have their ideas of daring; but there is a higher +sort of bravery, the bravery of self-control, which I fancy they do +not understand very well; so their opinion of it is not worth +considering. However, you know better than I." + +"No, I do not," said Richard. "Your instinct is finer than my +reason. But you _are_ scolding me, Margaret." + +"No, I am loving you," she said softly. "How can I do that more +faithfully than by being dissatisfied with anything but the best in +you?" + +"I wasn't at my best a while ago?" + +"No, Richard." + +"I can never hope to be worthy of you." + +But Margaret protested against that. Having forced him to look at +his action through her eyes, she outdid him in humility, and then the +conversation drifted off into half-breathed nothings, which, though +they were satisfactory enough for these two, would have made a third +person yawn. + +The occurrence at Slocum's Yard was hotly discussed that night at +the Stillwater hotel. Discussions in that long, low bar-room, where +the latest village scandal always came to receive the finishing +gloss, were apt to be hot. In their criticism of outside men and +measures, as well as in their mutual vivisections, there was an +unflinching directness among Mr. Snelling's guests which is not to be +found in more artificial grades of society. The popular verdict on +young Shackford's conduct was as might not have been predicted, +strongly in his favor. He had displayed pluck, and pluck of the +tougher fibre was a quality held in so high esteem in Stillwater that +any manifestation of it commanded respect. And young Shackford had +shown a great deal; he had made short work of the most formidable man +in the yard, and given the rest to understand that he was not to be +tampered with. This had taken many by surprise, for hitherto an +imperturbable amiability had been the leading characteristic of +Slocum's manager. + +"I didn't think he had it in him," declared Dexter. + +"Well, ye might," replied Michael Hennessey. "Look at the lad's +eye, and the muscles of him. He stands on his own two legs like a +monumint, so he does." + +"Never saw a monument with two legs, Mike." + +"Didn't ye? Wait till ye're layin' at the foot of one. But ye'll +wait many a day, me boy. Ye'll be lucky if ye're supploid with a +head-stone made out of a dale-board." + +"Couldn't get a wooden head-stone short of Ireland, Mike." +Retorted Dexter, with a laugh. "You'd have to import it." + +"An' so I will; but it won't be got over in time, if ye go on +interruptin' gintlemen when they're discoorsin'. What was I sayin', +any way, when the blackguard chipped in?" continued Mr. Hennessey, +appealing to the company, as he emptied the ashes from his pipe by +knocking the bowl in the side of his chair. + +"You was talking of Dick Shackford's muscle," said Durgin, "and +you never talked wider of the mark. It doesn't take much muscle, or +much courage either, to knock a man about when he's in liquor. The +two wasn't fairly matched." + +"You are right there, Durgin," said Stevens, laying down his +newspaper. "They weren't fairly matched. Both men have the same +pounds and inches, but Torrini had a weapon and that mad strength +that comes to some folks with drink. If Shackford hadn't made a neat +twist on the neckerchief, he wouldn't have got off with a scratch." + +"Shackford had no call to lay hands on him." + +"There you are wrong, Durgin," replied Stevens. "Torrini had no +call in the yard; he was making a nuisance of himself. Shackford +spoke to him, and told him to go, and when he didn't go Shackford put +him out; and he put him out handsomely,--'with neatness and +dispatch,' as Slocum's prospectuses has it." + +"He was right all the time," said Piggott. "He didn't strike +Torrini before or after he was down, and stood at the gate like a +gentleman, ready to give Torrini his chance if he wanted it." + +"Torrini didn't want it," observed Jemmy Willson. "Ther' isn't +nothing mean about Torrini." + +"But he 'ad a dozen minds about coming back," said Denyven. + +"We ought to have got him out of the place quietly," said Jeff +Stavers; "that was our end of the mistake. He is not a bad fellow, +but he shouldn't drink." + +"He was crazy to come to the yard." + +"When a man 'as a day off," observed Denyven, "and the beer isn't +narsty, he 'ad better stick to the public 'ouse." + +"Oh, you!" exclaimed Durgin. "Your opinion don't weigh. You took a +black eye of him." + +"Yes, I took a black heye,--and I can give one, in a hemergency. +Yes, I gives and takes." + +"That's where we differ," returned Durgin. "I do a more genteel +business; I give, and don't take." + +"Unless you're uncommon careful," said Denyven, pulling away at +his pipe, "you'll find yourself some day henlarging your business." + +Durgin pushed back his stool. + +"Gentlemen! gentlemen!" interposed Mr. Snelling, appearing from +behind the bar with a lemon-squeezer in his hand, "we'll have no black +eyes here that wasn't born so. I am partial to them myself when +nature gives them; and I propose the health of Miss Molly Hennessey," +with a sly glance at Durgin, who colored, "to be drank at the expense +of the house. Name your taps, gentlemen." + +"Snelling, me boy, ye'd win the bird from the bush with yer +beguilin' ways. Ye've brought proud tears to the eyes of an aged +parent, and I'll take a sup out of that high-showldered bottle which +you kape under the counter for the gentle-folk in the other room." + +A general laugh greeted Mr. Hennessey's selection, and peace was +restored; but the majority of those present were workmen from +Slocum's, and the event of the afternoon remained the uppermost +theme. + +"Shackford is a different build from Slocum," said Piggott. + +"I guess the yard will find that out when he gets to be +proprietor," rejoined Durgin, clicking his spoon against the empty +glass to attract Snelling's attention. + +"Going to be proprietor, is he?" + +"Some day or other," answered Durgin. "First he'll step into the +business, and then into the family. He's had his eye on Slocum's girl +these four or five years. Got a cast of her fist up in his workshop. +Leave Dick Shackford alone for lining his nest and making it soft all +round." + +"Why shouldn't he?" asked Stevens. "He deserves a good girl, and +there's none better. If sickness or any sort of trouble comes to a +poor man's door, she's never far off with her kind words and them +things the rich have when they are laid up." + +"Oh, the girl is well enough." + +"You couldn't say less. Before your mother died,"--Mrs. Durgin had +died the previous autumn,--"I see that angil going to your house many +a day with a little basket of comforts tucked under her wing. But +she's too good to be praised in such a place as this," added Stevens. +After a pause he inquired, "What makes you down on Shackford? He has +always been a friend to you." + +"One of those friends who walk over your head," replied Durgin. "I +was in the yard two years before him, and see where he is." + +"Lord love you," said Stevens, leaning back in his chair and +contemplating Durgin thoughtfully, "there is marble and marble; some +is Carrara marble, and some isn't. The fine grain takes a polish you +can't get on to the other." + +"Of course, he is statuary marble, and I'm full of seams and +feldspar." + +"You are like the most of us,--not the kind that can be worked up +into anything very ornamental." + +"Thank you for nothing," said Durgin, turning away. "I came from +as good a quarry as ever Dick Shackford. Where's Torrini to-night?" + +"Nobody has seen him since the difficulty," said Dexter, "except +Peters. Torrini sent for him after supper." + +As Dexter spoke, the door opened and Peters entered. He went +directly to the group composed chiefly of Slocum's men, and without +making any remark began to distribute among them certain small blue +tickets, which they pocketed in silence. Glancing carelessly at his +piece of card-board, Durgin said to Peters,-- + +"Then it's decided?" + +Peters nodded. + +"How's Torrini?" + +"He's all right." + +"What does he say?" + +"Nothing in perticular," responded Peters, "and nothing at all +about his little skylark with Shackford." + +"He's a cool one!" exclaimed Durgin. + +Though the slips of blue pasteboard had been delivered and +accepted without comment, it was known in a second through the +bar-room that a special meeting had been convened for the next night +by the officers of the Marble Workers' Association. + + + + +XIV + + +On the third morning after Torrini's expulsion from the yard, Mr. +Slocum walked into the studio with a printed slip in his hand. A +similar slip lay crumpled under a work-bench, where Richard had +tossed it. Mr. Slocum's kindly visage was full of trouble and +perplexity as he raised his eyes from the paper, which he had been +re-reading on the way up-stairs. + +"Look at that!" + +"Yes," remarked Richard, "I have been honored with one of those +documents." + +"What does it mean?" + +"It means business." + +The paper in question contained a series of resolutions +unanimously adopted at a meeting of the Marble Workers' Association +of Stillwater, held in Grimsey's Hall the previous night. Dropping +the preamble, these resolutions, which were neatly printed with a +type-writing machine on a half letter sheet, ran as follows:-- + +_Resolved,_ That on and after the First of June proximo, the +pay of carvers in Slocum's Marble Yard shall be $2.75 per day, +instead of $2.50 as heretofore. + +_Resolved,_ That on and after the same date, the rubbers and +polishers shall have $2.00 per day, instead of $1.75 as heretofore. + +_Resolved,_ That on and after the same date the millmen are +to have $2.00 per day, instead of $1.75 as heretofore. + +_Resolved,_ That during the months of June, July, and August +the shops shall knock off work on Saturdays at five P.M., instead of +at six P.M. + +_Resolved,_ That a printed copy of these Resolutions be laid +before the Proprietor of Slocum's Marble Yard, and that his immediate +attention to them be respectfully requested. _Per order of +Committee M. W. A._ + +"Torrini is at the bottom of that," said Mr. Slocum. + +"I hardly think so. This arrangement, as I told you the other day +before I had the trouble with him, has been in contemplation several +weeks. Undoubtedly Torrini used his influence to hasten the movement +already planned. The Association has too much shrewdness to espouse +the quarrel of an individual." + +"What are we to do?" + +"If you are in the same mind you were when we talked over the +possibility of an unreasonable demand like this, there is only one +thing to do." + +"Fight it?" + +"Fight it." + +"I have been resolute, and all that sort of thing, in times past," +observed Mr. Slocum, glancing out of the tail of his eye at Richard, +"and have always come off second best. The Association has drawn up +most of my rules for me, and had its own way generally." + +"Since my time you have never been in so strong a position to make +a stand. We have got all the larger contracts out of the way. +Foreseeing what was likely to come, I have lately fought shy of +taking new ones. Here are heavy orders from Rafter & Son, the +Builders' Company, and others. We must decline them by to-night's +mail." + +"Is it really necessary?" asked Mr. Slocum, knitting his forehead +into what would have been a scowl if his mild pinkish eyebrows had +permitted it. + +"I think so." + +"I hate to do that." + +"Then we are at the mercy of the Association." + +"If we do not come to their terms, you seriously believe they will +strike?" + +"I do," replied Richard, "and we should be in a pretty fix." + +"But these demands are ridiculous." + +"The men are not aware of our situation; they imagine we have a +lot of important jobs on hand, as usual at this season. Formerly the +foreman of a shop had access to the order-book, but for the last year +or two I have kept it in the safe here. The other day Dexter came to +me and wanted to see what work was set down ahead in the blotter; but +I had an inspiration and didn't let him post himself." + +"Is not some kind of compromise possible?" suggested Mr. Slocum, +looking over the slip again. "Now this fourth clause, about closing +the yard an hour early on Saturdays, I don't strongly object to that, +though with eighty hands it means, every week, eighty hours' work +which the yard pays for and doesn't get." + +"I should advise granting that request. Such concessions are never +wasted. But, Mr. Slocum, this is not going to satisfy them. They have +thrown in one reasonable demand merely to flavor the rest. I happen +to know that they are determined to stand by their programme to the +last letter." + +"You know that?" + +"I have a friend at court. Of course this is not to be breathed, +but Denyven, without being at all false to his comrades, talks freely +with me. He says they are resolved not to give an inch." + +"Then we will close the works." + +"That is what I wanted you to say, sir!" cried Richard. + +"With this new scale of prices and plenty of work, we might +probably come out a little ahead the next six months; but it wouldn't +pay for the trouble and the capital invested. Then when trade +slackened, we should be running at a loss, and there'd be another +wrangle over a reduction. We had better lie idle." + +"Stick to that, sir, and may be it will not be necessary." + +"But if they strike"-- + +"They won't all strike. At least," added Richard, "I hope not. I +have indirectly sounded several of the older hands, and they have +half promised to hold on; only half promised, for every man of them +at heart fears the trades-union more than No-bread--until No-bread +comes." + +"Whom have you spoken with?" + +"Lumley, Giles, Peterson, and some others,--your pensioners, I +call them." + +"Yes, they were in the yard in my father's time; they have not +been worth their salt these ten years. When the business was turned +over to me I didn't discharge any old hand who had given his best +days to the yard. Somehow I couldn't throw away the squeezed lemons. +An employer owes a good workman something beyond the wages paid." + +"And a workman owes a good employer something beyond the work +done. You stood by these men after they outlived their usefulness, +and if they do not stand by you now, they're a shabby set." + +"I fancy they will, Richard." + +"I think they had better, and I wish they would. We have enough +odds and ends to keep them busy awhile, and I shouldn't like to have +the clinking of chisels die out altogether under the old sheds." + +"Nor I," returned Mr. Slocum, with a touch of sadness in his +intonation. "It has grown to be a kind of music to me," and he paused +to listen to the sounds of ringing steel that floated up from the +workshop. + +"Whatever happens, that music shall not cease in the yard except +on Sundays, if I have to take the mallet and go at a slab all alone." + +"Slocum's Yard with a single workman in it would be a pleasing +spectacle," said Mr. Slocum, smiling ruefully. + +"It wouldn't be a bad time for _that_ workman to strike," +returned Richard with a laugh. + +"He could dictate his own terms," returned Mr. Slocum, soberly. +"Well, I suppose you cannot help thinking about Margaret; but don't +think of her now. Tell me what answer you propose to give the +Association,--how you mean to put it; for I leave the matter wholly +to you. I shall have no hand in it, further than to indorse your +action." + +"To-morrow, then," said Richard, "for it is no use to hurry up a +crisis, I shall go to the workshops and inform them that their +request for short hours on Saturdays is granted, but that the other +changes they suggest are not to be considered. There will never be a +better opportunity, Mr. Slocum, to settle another question which has +been allowed to run too long." + +"What's that?" + +"The apprentice question." + +"Would it be wise to touch on that at present?" + +"While we are straightening out matters and putting things on a +solid basis, it seems to me essential to settle that. There was never +a greater imposition, or one more short-sighted, than this rule which +prevents the training of sufficient workmen. The trades-union will +discover their error some day when they have succeeded in forcing +manufacturers to import skilled labor by the wholesale. I would like +to tell the Marble Workers' Association that Slocum's Yard has +resolved to employ as many apprentices each year as there is room +for." + +"I wouldn't dare risk it!" + +"It will have to be done, sooner or later. It would be a capital +flank movement now. They have laid themselves open to an attack on +that quarter." + +"I might as well close the gates for good and all." + +"So you will, if it comes to that. You can afford to close the +gates, and they can't afford to have you. In a week they'd be back, +asking you to open them. Then you could have your pick of the live +hands, and drop the dead wood. If Giles or Peterson or Lumley or any +of those desert us, they are not to be let on again. I hope you will +promise me that, sir." + +"If the occasion offers, you shall reorganize the shops in your +own way. I haven't the nerve for this kind of business, though I have +seen a great deal of it in the villages, first and last. Strikes are +terrible mistakes. Even when they succeed, what pays for the lost +time and the money squandered over the tavern-bar? What makes up for +the days or weeks when the fire was out on the hearth and the +children had no bread? That is what happens, you know." + +"There is no remedy for such calamities," Richard answered. "Yet I +can imagine occasions when it would be better to let the fire go out +and the children want for bread." + +"You are not advocating strikes!" exclaimed Mr. Slocum. + +"Why not?" + +"I thought you were for fighting them." + +"So I am, in this instance; but the question has two sides. Every +man has the right to set a price on his own labor, and to refuse to +work for less; the wisdom of it is another matter. He puts himself in +the wrong only when he menaces the person or the property of the man +who has an equal right not to employ him. That is the blunder +strikers usually make in the end, and one by which they lose public +sympathy even when they are fighting an injustice. Now, sometimes it +_is_ an injustice that is being fought, and then it is right to +fight it with the only weapon a poor man has to wield against a power +which possesses a hundred weapons,--and that's a strike. For example, +the smelters and casters in the Miantowona Iron Works are meanly +underpaid." + +"What, have they struck?" + +"There's a general strike threatened in the village; foundry-men, +spinners, and all." + +"So much the worse for everybody! I did not suppose it was as bad +as that. What has become of Torrini?" + +"The day after he left us he was taken on as forgeman at Dana's." + +"I am glad Dana has got him!" + +"At the meeting, last night, Torrini gave in his resignation as +secretary of the Association; being no longer a marble worker, he was +not qualified to serve." + +"We unhorsed him, then?" + +"Rather. I am half sorry, too." + +"Richard," said Mr. Slocum, halting in one of his nervous walks up +and down the room, "you are the oddest composition of hardness and +softness I ever saw." + +"Am I?" + +"One moment you stand braced like a lion to fight the whole yard, +and the next moment you are pitying a miscreant who would have laid +your head open without the slightest compunction." + +"Oh, I forgive him," said Richard. "I was a trifle hasty myself. +Margaret thinks so too." + +"Much Margaret knows about it!" + +"I was inconsiderate, to say the least. When a man picks up a tool +by the wrong end he must expect to get cut." + +"You didn't have a choice." + +"I shouldn't have touched Torrini. After discharging him and +finding him disposed to resist my order to leave the yard, I ought to +have called in a constable. Usually it is very hard to anger me; but +three or four times in my life I have been carried away by a devil of +a temper which I couldn't control, it seized me so unawares. That was +one of the times." + +The mallets and chisels were executing a blithe staccato movement +in the yard below, and making the sparks dance. No one walking among +the diligent gangs, and observing the placid faces of the men as they +bent over their tasks, would have suspected that they were awaiting +the word that meant bread and meat and home to them. + +As Richard passed through the shops, dropping a word to a workman +here and there, the man addressed looked up cheerfully and made a +furtive dab at the brown paper cap, and Richard returned the salute +smilingly; but he was sad within. "The foolish fellows," he said to +himself, "they are throwing away a full loaf and are likely to get +none at all." Giles and two or three of the ancients were squaring a +block of marble under a shelter by themselves. Richard made it a +point to cross over and speak to them. In past days he had not been +exacting with these old boys, and they always had a welcome for him. + +Slocum's Yard seldom presented a serener air of contented industry +than it wore that morning; but in spite of all this smooth outside it +was a foregone conclusion with most of the men that Slocum, with +Shackford behind him, would never submit to the new scale of wages. +There were a few who had protested against these resolutions and +still disapproved of them, but were forced to go with the +Association, which had really been dragged into the current by the +other trades. + + The Dana Mills and the Miantowona Iron Works were paying lighter +wages than similar establishments nearer the great city. The managers +contended that they were paying as high if not higher rates, taking +into consideration the cheaper cost of living in Stillwater. "But you +get city prices for your wares," retorted the union; "you don't pay +city rents, and you shall pay city wages." Meetings were held at +Grimsey's Hall and the subject was canvassed, at first calmly and +then stormily. Among the molders, and possibly the sheet-iron +workers, there was cause for dissatisfaction; but the dissatisfaction +spread to where no grievance existed; it seized upon the spinners, +and finally upon the marble workers. Torrini fanned the flame there. +Taking for his text the rentage question, he argued that Slocum was +well able to give a trifle more for labor than his city competitors. +"The annual rent of a yard like Slocum's would be four thousand or +five thousand dollars in the city. It doesn't cost Slocum two hundred +dollars. It is no more than just that the laborer should have a +share--he only asks a beggarly share--of the prosperity which he has +helped to build up." This was specious and taking. Then there came +down from the great city a glib person disguised as The Workingman's +Friend,--no workingman himself, mind you, but a ghoul that lives upon +subscriptions and sucks the senses out of innocent human beings,--who +managed to set the place by the ears. The result of all which was +that one May morning every shop, mill, and factory in Stillwater was +served with a notice from the trades-union, and a general strike +threatened. + +But our business at present is exclusively with Slocum's Yard. + + + + +XV + + +"Since we are in for it," said Mr. Slocum the next morning, "put +the case to them squarely." + +Mr. Slocum's vertebræ had stiffened over night. + +"Leave that to me, sir," Richard replied. "I have been shaping out +in my mind a little speech which I flatter myself will cover the +points. They have brought this thing upon themselves, and we are +about to have the clearest of understandings. I never saw the men +quieter." + +"I don't altogether admire that. It looks as if they hadn't any +doubt as to the issue." + +"The clearest-headed have no doubt; they know as well as you and I +do the flimsiness of those resolutions. But the thick heads are in a +fog. Every man naturally likes his pay increased; if a simple fellow +is told five or six hundred times that his wages ought to be raised, +the idea is so agreeable and insidious that by and by he begins to +believe himself grossly underpaid, though he may be getting twice +what he is worth. He doesn't reason about it; that's the last thing +he'll do for you. In this mood he lets himself be flown away by the +breath of some loud-mouthed demagogue, who has no interest in the +matter beyond hearing his own talk and passing round the hat after +the meeting is over. That is what has happened to our folks below. +But they _are_ behaving handsomely." + +"Yes, and I don't like it." + +Since seven o'clock the most unimpeachable decorum had reigned in +the workshops. It was now nine, and this brief dialogue had occurred +between Mr. Slocum and Richard on the veranda, just as the latter was +on the point of descending into the yard to have his talk with the +men. + +The workshops--or rather the shed in which the workshops were, for +it was one low structure eighteen or twenty feet wide and open on the +west side--ran the length of the yard, and with the short extension +at the southerly end formed the letter L. There were no partitions, +an imaginary line separating the different gangs of workers. A person +standing at the head of the building could make himself heard more or +less distinctly in the remotest part. + +The grating lisp of the wet saws eating their way into the marble +boulder, and the irregular quick taps of the seventy or eighty +mallets were not suspended as Richard took his stand beside a tall +funereal urn at the head of the principal workshop. After a second's +faltering he rapped smartly on the lip of the urn with the key of +his studio-door. + +Instantly every arm appeared paralyzed, and the men stood +motionless, with the tools in their hands. + +Richard began in a clear but not loud voice, though it seemed to +ring on the sudden silence:-- + +"Mr. Slocum has asked me to say a few words to you, this morning, +about those resolutions, and one or two other matters that have +occurred to him in this connection. I am no speech-maker; I never +learned that trade"-- + +"Never learned any trade," muttered Durgin, inaudibly. + +--"but I think I can manage some plain, honest talk, for +straight-forward men." + +Richard's exordium was listened to with painful attention. + +"In the first place," he continued, "I want to remind you, +especially the newer men, that Slocum's Yard has always given steady +work and prompt pay to Stillwater hands. No hand has ever been turned +off without sufficient cause, or kept on through mere favoritism. +Favors have been shown, but they have been shown to all alike. If +anything has gone crooked, it has been straightened out as soon as +Mr. Slocum knew of it. That has been the course of the yard in the +past, and the Proprietor doesn't want you to run away with the idea +that that course is going to be changed. One change, for the time +being, is going to be made at our own suggestion. From now, until the +1st of September, this yard will close gates on Saturdays at five +P.M. instead of six P.M." + +Several voices cried, "Good for Slocum!" "Where's Slocum?" "Why +don't Slocum speak for himself?" cried one voice. + +"It is Mr. Slocum's habit," answered Richard, "to give his +directions to me, I give them to the foremen, and the foremen to the +shops. Mr. Slocum follows that custom on this occasion. With regard +to the new scale of wages which the Association has submitted to him, +the Proprietor refuses to accept it, or any modification of it." + +A low murmur ran through the workshops. + +"What's a modificashun, sir?" asked Jemmy Willson, stepping +forward, and scratching his left ear diffidently. + +"A modification," replied Richard, considerably embarrassed to +give an instant definition, "is a--a"-- + +"A splitting of the difference, by--!" shouted somebody in the +third shop. + +"Thank you," said Richard, glancing in the direction of his +impromptu Webster's Unabridged. "Mr. Slocum does not propose to split +the difference. The wages in every department are to be just what +they are,--neither more nor less. If anybody wishes to make a +remark," he added, observing a restlessness in several of the men, "I +beg he will hold on until I get through. I shall not detain you much +longer, as the parson says before he has reached the middle of his +sermon. + +"What I say now, I was charged to make particularly clear to you. +It is this: In future Mr. Slocum intends to run Slocum's Yard +himself. Neither you, nor I, nor the Association will be allowed to +run it for him. [Sensation.] Until now the Association has tied him +down to two apprentices a year. From this hour, out, Mr. Slocum will +take on, not two, or twenty, but two hundred apprentices if the +business warrants it." + +The words were not clearly off Richard's lips when the foreman of +the shop in which he was speaking picked up a couple of small drills, +and knocked them together with a sharp click. In an instant the men +laid aside their aprons, bundled up their tools, and marched out of +the shed two by two, in dead silence. That same click was repeated +almost simultaneously in the second shop, and the same evolution took +place. Then click, click, click! went the drills, sounding fainter +and fainter in the distant departments; and in less than three +minutes there was not a soul left in Slocum's Yard except the Orator +of the Day. + +Richard had anticipated some demonstration, either noisy or +violent, perhaps both; but this solemn, orderly desertion dashed him. + +He stepped into the middle of the yard, and glancing up beheld +Margaret and Mr. Slocum standing on the veranda. Even at that +distance he could perceive the pallor on one face, and the +consternation written all over the other. + +Hanging his head with sadness, Richard crossed the yard, which +gave out mournful echoes to his footfalls, and swung to the large +gate, nearly catching old Giles by the heel as he did so. Looking +through the slats, he saw Lumley and Peterson hobbling arm in arm +down the street,--after more than twenty-five years of kindly +treatment. + +"Move number one," said Richard, lifting the heavy cross-piece +into its place and fastening it with a wooden pin. "Now I must go and +prop up Mr. Slocum." + + + + +XVI + + +There is no solitude which comes so near being tangible as that of +a vast empty workshop, crowded a moment since. The busy, intense life +that has gone from it mysteriously leaves behind enough of itself to +make the stillness poignant. One might imagine the invisible ghost of +doomed Toil wandering from bench to bench, and noiselessly fingering +the dropped tools, still warm from the workman's palm. Perhaps this +impalpable presence is the artisan's anxious thought, stolen back to +brood over the uncompleted task. + +Though Mr. Slocum had spoken lightly of Slocum's Yard with only +one workman in it, when he came to contemplate the actual fact he was +struck by the pathos of it, and the resolution with which he awoke +that morning began to desert him. + +"The worst is over," exclaimed Richard, joining his two friends on +the veranda, "and everything went smoother than I expected." + +"Everything went, sure enough," said Mr. Slocum, gloomily; "they +all went,--old Giles, and Lumley, and everybody." + +"We somewhat expected that, you know." + +"Yes, I expected it, and wasn't prepared for it." + +"It was very bad," said Richard, shaking his head. + +The desertion of Giles and his superannuated mates especially +touched Mr. Slocum. + +"Bad is no word; it was damnable." + +"Oh, papa!" + +"Pardon me, dear; I couldn't help it. When a man's pensioners +throw him over, he must be pretty far gone!" + +"The undertow was too strong for them, sir, and they were swept +away with the rest. And they all but promised to stay. They will be +the very first to come back." + +"Of course we shall have to take the old fellows on again," said +Mr. Slocum, relenting characteristically. + +"Never!" cried Richard. + +"I wish I had some of your grit." + +"I have none to spare. To tell the truth, when I stood up there to +speak, with every eye working on me, like a half-inch drill, I would +have sold myself at a low figure." + +"But you were a perfect what's-his-name,--Demosthenes," said Mr. +Slocum, with a faint smile. "We could hear you." + +"I don't believe Demosthenes ever moved an audience as I did +mine!" cried Richard gaily. "If his orations produced a like effect, +I am certain that the Grecian lecture-bureau never sent him twice to +the same place." + +"I don't think, Richard, I would engage you over again." + +"I am sure Richard spoke very well," interrupted Margaret. "His +speech was short"-- + +"Say shortened, Margaret, for I hadn't got through when they +left." + +"No, I will not jest about it. It is too serious for jesting. What +is to become of the families of all these men suddenly thrown out of +employment?" + +"They threw themselves out, Mag," said her father. + +"That does not mend the matter, papa. There will be great +destitution and suffering in the village with every mill closed; and +they are all going to close, Bridget says. Thank Heaven that this did +not happen in the winter!" + +"They always pick their weather," observed Mr. Slocum. + +"It will not be for long," said Richard encouragingly. "Our own +hands and the spinners, who had no ground for complaint, will return +to work shortly, and the managers of the iron mills will have to +yield a point or two. In a week at the outside everything will be +running smoothly, and on a sounder foundation than before. I believe +the strike will be an actual benefit to everybody in the end." + +By dint of such arguments and his own sanguine temperament, +Richard succeeded in reassuring Mr. Slocum for the time being, though +Richard did not hide from himself the gravity of the situation. There +was a general strike in the village. Eight hundred men were without +work. That meant, or would mean in a few days, two or three thousand +women and children without bread. It does not take the wolf long to +reach a poor man's door when it is left ajar. + +The trades-union had a fund for emergencies of this sort, and some +outside aid might be looked for; but such supplies are in their +nature precarious and soon exhausted. It is a noticeable feature of +strikes that the moment the workman's pay stops his living expenses +increase. Even the more economical becomes improvident. If he has +money, the tobacco shop and the tavern are likely to get more of it +than the butcher's cart. The prolonged strain is too great to be +endured without stimulant. + + + + +XVII + + +During the first and second days of the strike, Stillwater +presented an animated and even a festive appearance. Throngs of +operatives in their Sunday clothes strolled through the streets, or +lounged at the corners chatting with other groups; some wandered into +the suburbs, and lay in the long grass under the elms. Others again, +though these were few, took to the turnpike or the railroad track, +and tramped across country. + +It is needless to say that the bar-room of the tavern was crowded +from early morning down to the hour when the law compelled Mr. +Snelling to shut off his gas. After which, John Brown's "soul" could +be heard "marching on" in the darkness, through various crooked lanes +and alleys, until nearly daybreak. + +Among the earliest to scent trouble in the air was Han-Lin, the +Chinaman before mentioned. He kept a small laundry in Mud Lane, where +his name was painted perpendicularly on a light of glass in the +basement window of a tenement house. Han-Lin intended to be buried +some day in a sky-blue coffin in his own land, and have a dozen packs +of firecrackers decorously exploded over his remains. In order to +reserve himself for this and other ceremonies involving the burning +of a great quantity of gilt paper, he quietly departed for Boston at +the first sign of popular discontent. As Dexter described it, +"Han-Lin coiled up his pig-tail, put forty grains of rice in a yallar +bag,--enough to last him a month!--and toddled off in his two-story +wooden shoes." He could scarcely have done a wiser thing, for poor +Han-Lin's laundry was turned wrong side out within thirty-six hours +afterwards. + +The strike was popular. The spirit of it spread, as fire and fever +and all elemental forces spread. The two apprentices in Brackett's +bakery had a dozen minds about striking that first morning. The +younger lad, Joe Wiggin, plucked up courage to ask Brackett for a day +off, and was lucky enough to dodge a piece of dough weighing nearly +four pounds. + +Brackett was making bread while the sun shone. He knew that before +the week was over there would be no cash customers, and he purposed +then to shut up shop. + +On the third and fourth days there was no perceptible fall in the +barometer. Trade was brisk with Snelling, and a brass band was +playing national airs on a staging erected on the green in front of +the post-office. Nightly meetings took place at Grimsey's Hall, and +the audiences were good-humored and orderly. Torrini advanced some +Utopian theories touching a universal distribution of wealth, which +were listened to attentively, but failed to produce deep impression. + +"That's a healthy idea of Torrini's about dervidin' up property," +said Jemmy Willson. "I've heerd it afore; but it's sing'ler I never +knowd a feller with any property to have that idea." + +"Ther' 's a great dale in it, I can tell ye," replied Michael +Hennessey, with a well-blackened Woodstock pipe between his teeth and +his hands tucked under his coat-tails. "Isn't ther', Misther +Stavens?" + +When Michael had on his bottle-green swallow-tailed coat with the +brass buttons, he invariably assumed a certain lofty air of ceremony +in addressing his companions. + +"It is sorter pleasant to look at," returned Stevens, "but it +don't seem to me an idea that would work. Suppose that, after all the +property was divided, a fresh shipload of your friends was to land at +New York or Boston; would there be a new deal?" + +"No, sir! by no means!" exclaimed Michael excitedly. "The +furreners is counted out!" + +"But you're a foreigner yourself, Mike." + +"Am I, then? Bedad, I'm not! I'm a rale American Know Nothing." + +"Well, Mike," said Stevens maliciously, "when it comes to a +reg'lar division of lands and greenbacks in the United States, I go +in for the Chinese having their share." + +"The Chinese!" shouted Michael. "Oh, murther, Misther Stevens! Ye +wouldn't be fur dividin' with thim blatherskites!" + +"Yes, with them,--as well as the rest," returned Stevens, dryly. + +Meanwhile the directors and stockholders of the various mills took +counsel in a room at the rear of the National Bank. Mr. Slocum, +following Richard's advice, declined to attend the meeting in person, +or to allow his name to figure on the list of vice-presidents. + +"Why should we hitch our good cause to their doubtful one?" +reflected Richard. "We have no concessions or proposals to make. When +our men are ready to come back to us, they will receive just wages +and fair treatment. They know that. We do not want to fight the +molders. Let the iron-mills do their own fighting;" and Richard +stolidly employed himself in taking an account of stock, and +forwarding by express to their destination the ten or twelve carved +mantel-pieces that happily completed the last contract. + +Then his responsibilities shrunk to winding up the office clock +and keeping Mr. Slocum firmly on his legs. The latter was by far the +more onerous duty, for Mr. Slocum ran down two or three times in the +course of every twenty-four hours, while the clock once wound was +fixed for the day. + +"If I could only have a good set of Waltham works put into your +father," said Richard to Margaret, after one of Mr. Slocum's +relapses, "he would go better." + +"Poor papa! he is not a fighter, like you." + +"Your father is what I call a belligerent non-combatant." + +Richard was seeing a great deal of Margaret these days. Mr. Slocum +had invited him to sleep in the studio until the excitement was past. +Margaret was afraid to have him take that long walk between the yard +and his lodgings in Lime Street, and then her father was an old man +to be without any protection in the house in such untoward times. + +So Richard slept in the studio, and had his plate at table, like +one of the family. This arrangement was favorable to many a stolen +five minutes with Margaret, in the hall or on the staircase. In these +fortuitous moments he breathed an atmosphere that sustained him in +his task of dispelling Mr. Slocum's recurrent fits of despondency. +Margaret had her duties, too, at this period, and the forenoons were +sacred to them. + +One morning as she passed down the street with a small wicker +basket on her arm, Richard said to Mr. Slocum,-- + +"Margaret has joined the strikers." + +The time had already come to Stillwater when many a sharp-faced +little urchin--as dear to the warm, deep bosom that had nursed it as +though it were a crown prince--would not have had a crust to gnaw if +Margaret Slocum had not joined the strikers. Sometimes her heart +drooped on the way home from these errands, upon seeing how little of +the misery she could ward off. On her rounds there was one cottage in +a squalid lane where the children asked for bread in Italian. She +never omitted to halt at that door. + +"Is it quite prudent for Margaret to be going about so?" queried +Mr. Slocum. + +"She is perfectly safe," said Richard,--"as safe as a Sister of +Charity, which she is." + +Indeed, Margaret might then have gone loaded with diamonds through +the streets at midnight. There was not a rough man in Stillwater who +would not have reached forth an arm to shield her. + +"It is costing me nearly as much as it would to carry on the +yard," said Mr. Slocum, "but I never put out any stamps more +willingly." + +"You never took a better contract, sir, than when you agreed to +keep Margaret's basket filled. It is an investment in real +estate--hereafter." + +"I hope so," answered Mr. Slocum, "and I know it's a good thing +now." + +Of the morals of Stillwater at this time, or at any time, the less +said the better. But out of the slime and ooze below sprang the white +flower of charity. + +The fifth day fell on a Sabbath, and the churches were crowded. +The Rev. Arthur Langly selected his text from St. Matthew, chap. +xxii, v. 21: "Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are +Cæsar's." But as he did not make it quite plain which was Cæsar,--the +trades-union or the Miantowona Iron Works,--the sermon went for +nothing, unless it could be regarded as a hint to those persons who +had stolen a large piece of belting from the Dana Mills. On the other +hand, Father O'Meara that morning bravely told his children to +conduct themselves in an orderly manner while they were out of work, +or they would catch it in this world and in the next. + +On the sixth day a keen observer might have detected a change in +the atmosphere. The streets were thronged as usual, and the idlers +still wore their Sunday clothes, but the holiday buoyancy of the +earlier part of the week had evaporated. A turn-out on the part of +one of the trades, though it was accompanied by music and a banner +with a lively inscription, failed to arouse general enthusiasm. A +serious and even a sullen face was not rare among the crowds that +wandered aimlessly up and down the village. + +On the seventh day it required no penetration to see the change. +There was decidedly less good-natured chaffing and more drunkenness, +though Snelling had invoked popular contumely and decimated his +bar-room by refusing to trust for drinks. Bracket had let his ovens +cool, and his shutters were up. The treasury of the trades-union was +nearly drained, and there were growlings that too much had been +fooled away on banners and a brass band for the iron men's parade the +previous forenoon. It was when Brackett's eye sighted the banner with +"Bread or Blood" on it, that he had put up his shutters. + +Torrini was now making violent harangues at Grimsey's Hall to +largely augmented listeners, whom his words irritated without +convincing. Shut off from the tavern, the men flocked to hear him and +the other speakers, for born orators were just then as thick as +unripe whortleberries. There was nowhere else to go. At home were +reproaches that maddened, and darkness, for the kerosene had given +out. + +Though all the trades had been swept into the movement, it is not +to be understood that every workman was losing his head. There were +men who owned their cottages and had small sums laid by in the +savings-bank; who had always sent their children to the district +school, and listened themselves to at least one of Mr. Langly's +sermons or one of Father O'Meara's discourses every Sunday. These +were anchored to good order; they neither frequented the bar-room nor +attended the conclaves at Grimsey's Hall, but deplored as deeply as +any one the spirit that was manifesting itself. They would have +returned to work now--if they had dared. To this class belonged +Stevens. + +"Why don't you come up to the hall, nights?" asked Durgin, +accosting him on the street, one afternoon. "You'd run a chance of +hearing me hold forth some of these evenings." + +"You've answered your own question, William. I shouldn't like to +see you making an idiot of yourself." + +"This is a square fight between labor and capital," returned +Durgin with dignity, "and every man ought to take a hand in it." + +"William," said Stevens meditatively, "do you know about the +Siamese twins?" + +"What about 'em,--they're dead, ain't they?" replied Durgin, with +surprise. + +"I believe so; but when they was alive, if you was to pinch one of +those fellows, the other fellow would sing out. If you was to black +the eye of the left-hand chap, the right-hand chap wouldn't have been +able to see for a week. When either of 'em fetched the other a clip, +he knocked himself down. Labor and capital is jined just as those two +was. When you've got this fact well into your skull, William, I shall +be pleased to listen to your ideas at Grimsey's Hall or anywhere +else." + +Such conservatism as Stevens's, however, was necessarily swept out +of sight for the moment. The wealthier citizens were in a state +bordering on panic,--all but Mr. Lemuel Shackford. In his flapping +linen duster, for the weather was very sultry now, Mr. Shackford was +seen darting excitedly from street to street and hovering about the +feverish crowds, like the stormy petrel wheeling on the edges of a +gale. Usually as chary of his sympathies as of his gold, he +astonished every one by evincing an abnormal interest in the +strikers. The old man declined to put down anything on the +subscription paper then circulating; but he put down his sympathies +to any amount. He held no stock in the concerns involved; he hated +Slocum, and he hated the directors of the Miantowona Iron Works. The +least he hoped was that Rowland Slocum would be laid out. + +So far the strikers had committed no overt act of note, unless it +was the demolition of Han-Lin's laundry. Stubbs, the provision +dealer, had been taught the rashness of exposing samples of potatoes +in his door-way, and the "Tonsorial Emporium" of Professor Brown, a +colored citizen, had been invaded by two humorists, who, after having +their hair curled, refused to pay for it, and the professor had been +too agitated to insist. The story transpiring, ten or twelve of the +boys had dropped in during the morning, and got shaved on the same +terms. "By golly, gen'l'men!" expostulated the professor, "ef dis yah +thing goes on, dis darkey will be cleaned cl'ar out fo de week's +done." No act of real violence had been perpetrated as yet; but with +bands of lawless men roaming over the village at all hours of the day +and night, the situation was critical. + +The wheel of what small social life there was in Stillwater had +ceased to revolve. With the single exception of Lemuel Shackford, the +more respectable inhabitants kept in-doors as much as practicable. +From the first neither Mr. Craggie nor Lawyer Perkins had gone to the +hotel to consult the papers in the reading-room, and Mr. Pinkham did +not dare to play on his flute of an evening. The Rev. Arthur Langly +found it politic to do but little visiting in the parish. His was not +the pinion to buffet with a wind like this, and indeed he was not +explicitly called upon to do so. He sat sorrowfully in his study day +by day, preparing the weekly sermon,--a gentle, pensive person, +inclined in the best of weather to melancholia. If Mr. Langly had +gone into arboriculture instead of into the ministry, he would have +planted nothing but weeping-willows. + +In the mean time the mill directors continued their deliberations +in the bank building, and had made several abortive attempts to +effect an arrangement with the leaders of the union. This seemed +every hour less possible and more necessary. + +On the afternoon of the seventh day of the strike a crowd gathered +in front of the residence of Mr. Alexander, the superintendent of the +Miantowona Iron Works, and began groaning and hooting. Mr. Alexander +sought out Mr. Craggie, and urged him, as a man of local weight and +one accustomed to addressing the populace, to speak a few words to +the mob. That was setting Mr. Craggie on the horns of a cruel +dilemma. He was afraid to disoblige the representative of so powerful +a corporation as the Miantowona Iron Works, but he equally dreaded to +risk his popularity with seven or eight hundred voters; so, like the +crafty chancellor in Tennyson's poem, he dallied with his golden +chain, and, smiling, put the question by. + +"Drat the man!" muttered Mr. Craggie, "does he want to blast my +whole political career! _I_ can't pitch into our adopted +countrymen." + +There was a blot on the escutcheon of Mr. Craggie which he was +very anxious not to have uncovered by any chance in these latter +days,--his ancient affiliation with the deceased native American +party. + +The mob dispersed without doing damage, but the fact that it had +collected and had shown an ugly temper sent a thrill of apprehension +through the village. Mr. Slocum came in a great flurry to Richard. + +"This thing ought to be stopped," said Mr. Slocum. + +"I agree to that," replied Richard, bracing himself not to agree +to anything else. + +"If we were to drop that stipulation as to the increase of +apprentices, no doubt many of the men would give over insisting on an +advance." + +"Our only salvation is to stick to our right to train as many +workmen as we choose. The question of wages is of no account compared +with that; the rate of wages will adjust itself." + +"If we could manage it somehow with the marble workers," suggested +Mr. Slocum, "that would demoralize the other trades, and they'd be +obliged to fall in." + +"I don't see that they lack demoralization." + +"If something isn't done, they'll end up by knocking in our front +doors or burning us all up." + +"Let them." + +"It's very well to say let them," exclaimed Mr. Slocum, +petulantly, "when you haven't any front door to be knocked in!" + +"But I have you and Margaret to consider, if there were actual +danger. When anything like violence threatens, there's an honest +shoulder for every one of the hundred and fifty muskets in the +armory." + +"Those muskets might get on the wrong shoulders." + +"That isn't likely. You do not seem to know, sir, that there is a +strong guard at the armory day and night." + +"I was not aware of that." + +"It is a fact all the same," said Richard; and Mr. Slocum went +away easier in his mind, and remained so--two or three hours. + +On the eighth, ninth, and tenth days the clouds lay very black +along the horizon. The marble workers, who began to see their +mistake, were reproaching the foundry men with enticing them into a +coalition, and the spinners were hot in their denunciations of the +molders. Ancient personal antagonisms that had been slumbering +started to their feet. Torrini fell out of favor, and in the midst of +one of his finest perorations uncomplimentary missiles, selected from +the animal kingdom, had been thrown at him. The grand torchlight +procession on the night of the ninth culminated in a disturbance, in +which many men got injured, several badly, and the windows of +Brackett's bakery were stove in. A point of light had pierced the +darkness,--the trades were quarreling among themselves! + +The selectmen had sworn in special constables among the citizens, +and some of the more retired streets were now patrolled after dark, +for there had been threats of incendiarism. + +Bishop's stables burst into flames one midnight,--whether fired +intentionally or accidentally was not known; but the giant bellows at +Dana's Mills was slit and two belts were cut at the Miantowona Iron +Works that same night. + +At this juncture a report that out-of-town hands were coming to +replace the strikers acted on the public mind like petroleum on fire. +A large body of workmen assembled near the railway station,--to +welcome them. There was another rumor which caused the marble workers +to stare at each other aghast. It was to the effect that Mr. Slocum, +having long meditated retiring from business, had now decided to do +so, and was consulting with Wyndham, the keeper of the green-house, +about removing the division wall and turning the marble yard into a +peach garden. This was an unlooked-for solution of the difficulty. +Stillwater without any Slocum's Marble Yard was chaos come again. + +"Good Lord, boys!" cried Piggott, "if Slocum should do that!" + +Meanwhile, Snelling's bar had been suppressed by the authorities, +and a posse of policemen, borrowed from South Millville, occupied the +premises. Knots of beetle-browed men, no longer in holiday gear, but +chiefly in their shirt-sleeves, collected from time to time at the +head of the main street, and glowered threateningly at the single +policeman pacing the porch of the tavern. The Stillwater Grays were +under arms in the armory over Dundon's drugstore. The thoroughfare +had ceased to be safe for any one, and Margaret's merciful errands +were necessarily brought to an end. How the poor creatures who had +depended on her bounty now continued to exist was a sorrowful +problem. + +Matters were at this point, when on the morning of the thirteenth +day Richard noticed the cadaverous face of a man peering into the +yard through the slats of the main gate. Richard sauntered down +there, with his hands in his pockets. The man was old Giles, and with +him stood Lumley and Peterson, gazing thoughtfully at the sign +outside,-- + +NO ADMITTANCE EXCEPT ON BUSINESS. + +The roughly lettered clapboard, which they had heedlessly passed a +thousand times, seemed to have taken a novel significance to them. + +_Richard_. What's wanted there? + +_Giles. [Very affably.]_ We was lookin' round for a job, Mr. +Shackford. + +_Richard_. We are not taking on any hands at present. + +_Giles_. Didn't know but you was. Somebody said you was. + +_Richard_. Somebody is mistaken. + +_Giles_. P'rhaps to-morrow, or nex' day? + +_Richard_. Rather doubtful, Giles. + +_Giles. [Uneasily.]_ Mr. Slocum ain't goin' to give up +business, is he? + +_Richard_. Why shouldn't he, if it doesn't pay? The business +is carried on for his amusement and profit; when the profit stops it +won't be amusing any longer. Mr. Slocum is not going to run the yard +for the sake of the Marble Workers' Association. He would rather +drive a junk-cart. He might be allowed to steer that himself. + +_Giles_. Oh! + +_Richard_. Good-morning, Giles. + +_Gikles_. 'Mornin', Mr. Shackford. + +Richard rushed back to Mr. Slocum. + +"The strike is broken, sir!" + +"What do you mean?" + +"The thing has collapsed! The tide is turning, _and has washed +in a lot of dead wood!"_ + +"Thank God!" cried Mr. Slocum. + +An hour or so later a deputation of four, consisting of Stevens, +Denyven, Durgin, and Piggott, waited upon Mr. Slocum in his private +office, and offered, on behalf of all the departments, to resume work +at the old rates. + +Mr. Slocum replied that he had not objected to the old rates, but +the new, and that he accepted their offer--conditionally. + +"You have overlooked one point, Mr. Stevens." + +"Which one, sir?" + +"The apprentices." + +"We thought you might not insist there, sir." + +"I insist on conducting my own business in my own way." + +The voice was the voice of Slocum, but the backbone was Richard's. + +"Then, sir, the Association don't object to a reasonable number of +apprentices." + +"How many is that?" + +"As many as you want, I expect, sir," said Stevens, shuffling his +feet. + +"Very well, Stevens. Go round to the front gate and Mr. Shackford +will let you in." + +There were two doors to the office, one leading into the yard, and +the other, by which the deputation had entered and was now making its +exit, opened upon the street. + +Richard heaved a vast sigh of relief as he took down the beam +securing the principal entrance. + +"Good-morning, boys," he chirped, with a smile as bright as newly +minted gold. "I hope you enjoyed yourselves." + +The quartet ducked their heads bashfully, and Stevens replied, +"Can't speak for the others, Mr. Shackford, but I never enjoyed +myself worse." + +Piggott lingered a moment behind the rest, and looking back over +his shoulder said, "That peach garden was what fetched us!" + +Richard gave a loud laugh, for the peach garden had been a +horticultural invention of his own. + +In the course of the forenoon the majority of the hands presented +themselves at the office, dropping into the yard in gangs of five or +six, and nearly all were taken on. To dispose definitely of Lumley, +Giles, and Peterson, they were not taken on at Slocum's Yard, though +they continued to be, directly or indirectly, Slocum's pensioners, +even after they were retired to the town farm. + +Once more the chisels sounded merrily under the long shed. That +same morning the spinners went back to the mules, but the molders +held out until nightfall, when it was signified to them that they +demands would be complied with. + +The next day the steam-whistles of the Miantowona Iron Works and +Dana's Mills sent the echoes flying beyond that undulating line of +pines and hemlocks which half encircles Stillwater, and falls away +loosely on either side, like an unclasped girdle. + +A calm, as if from out the cloudless blue sky that arched it day +after day, seemed to drift down upon the village. Han-Lin, with no +more facial expression than an orange, suddenly reappeared on the +streets, and went about repairing his laundry, unmolested. The +children were playing in the sunny lanes again, unafraid, and mothers +sat on doorsteps in the summer twilights, singing softly to the baby +in arm. There was meat on the table, and the tea-kettle hummed +comfortably at the back of the stove. The very winds that rustled +through the fragrant pines, and wandered fitfully across the vivid +green of the salt marshes, breathed peace and repose. + +Then, one morning, this blissful tranquility was rudely shattered. +Old Mr. Lemuel Shackford had been found murdered in his own house in +Welch's Court. + + + + +XVIII + + +The general effect on Stillwater of Mr. Shackford's death and the +peculiar circumstances attending the tragedy have been set forth in +the earlier chapters of this narrative. The influence which that +event exerted upon several persons then but imperfectly known to the +reader is now to occupy us. + +On the conclusion of the strike, Richard had returned, in the +highest spirits, to his own rooms in Lime Street; but the quiet week +that followed found him singularly depressed. His nerves had been +strung to their utmost tension during those thirteen days of +suspense; he had assumed no light responsibility in the matter of +closing the yard, and there had been moments when the task of +sustaining Mr. Slocum had appeared almost hopeless. Now that the +strain was removed a reaction set in, and Richard felt himself +unnerved by the fleeing shadow of the trouble which had not caused +him to flinch so long as it faced him. + +On the morning and at the moment when Mary Hennessey was pushing +open the scullery door of the house in Welch's Court, and was about +to come upon the body of the forlorn old man lying there in his +night-dress, Richard sat eating his breakfast in a silent and +preoccupied mood. He had retired very late the previous night, and +his lack-lustre eyes showed the effect of insufficient sleep. His +single fellow-boarder, Mr. Pinkham, had not returned from his +customary early walk, and only Richard and Mrs. Spooner, the +landlady, were at table. The former was in the act of lifting the +coffee-cup to his lips, when the school-master burst excitedly into +the room. + +"Old Mr. Shackford is dead!" he exclaimed, dropping into a chair +near the door. "There's a report down in the village that he has been +murdered. I don't know if it is true.... God forgive my +abruptness! I didn't think!" and Mr. Pinkham turned an apologetic +face towards Richard, who sat there deathly pale, holding the cup +rigidly within an inch or two of his lip, and staring blankly into +space like a statue. + +"I--I ought to have reflected," murmured the school-master, +covered with confusion at his maladroitness. "It was very +reprehensible in Craggie to make such an announcement to me so +suddenly, on a street corner. I--I was quite upset by it." + +Richard pushed back his chair without replying, and passed into +the hall, where he encountered a messenger from Mr. Slocum, +confirming Mr. Pinkham's intelligence, but supplementing it with the +rumor that Lemuel Shackford had committed suicide. + +Richard caught up his hat from a table, and hurried to Welch's +Court. Before reaching the house he had somewhat recovered his +outward composure; but he was still pale and internally much +agitated, for he had received a great shock, as Lawyer Perkins +afterwards observed to Mr. Ward in the reading-room of the tavern. +Both these gentlemen were present when Richard arrived, as were also +several of the immediate neighbors and two constables. The latter +were guarding the door against the crowd, which had already begun to +collect in the front yard. + +A knot of carpenters, with their tool-boxes on their shoulders, +had halted at the garden gate on their way to Bishop's new stables, +and were glancing curiously at the unpainted façade of the house, +which seemed to have taken on a remote, bewildered expression, as if +it had an inarticulate sense of the horror within. The men ceased +their whispered conversation as Richard approached, and respectfully +moved aside to let him pass. + +Nothing had been changed in the cheerless room on the ground +floor, with its veneered mahogany furniture and its yellowish leprous +wall-paper, peeling off at the seams here and there. A cane-seated +chair, overturned near the table, had been left untouched, and the +body was still lying in the position in which the Hennessey girl had +discovered it. A strange chill--something unlike any atmospherical +sharpness, a chill that seemed to exhale from the thin, pinched +nostrils--permeated the apartment. The orioles were singing madly +outside, their vermilion bosoms glowing like live coals against the +tender green of the foliage, and appearing to break into flame as +they took sudden flights hither and thither; but within all was +still. On entering the chamber Richard was smitten by the +silence,--that silence which shrouds the dead, and is like no other. +Lemuel Shackford had not been kind or cousinly; he had blighted +Richard's childhood with harshness and neglect, and had lately heaped +cruel insult upon him; but as he stood there alone, and gazed for a +moment at the firmly shut lips, upon which the mysterious white dust +of death had already settled,--the lips that were never to utter any +more bitter things,--the tears gathered in Richard's eyes and ran +slowly down his cheeks. After all said and done, Lemuel Shackford was +his kinsman, and blood is thicker than water! + +Coroner Whidden shortly appeared on the scene, accompanied by a +number of persons; a jury was impaneled, and then began that inquest +which resulted in shedding so very little light on the catastrophe. + +The investigation completed, there were endless details to attend +to,--papers to be hurriedly examined and sealed, and arrangements +made for the funeral on the succeeding day. These matters occupied +Richard until late in the afternoon, when he retired to his lodgings, +looking in on Margaret for a few minutes on his way home. + +"This is too dreadful!" said Margaret, clinging to his hand, with +fingers nearly as icy as his own. + +"It is unspeakably sad," answered Richard,--"the saddest thing I +ever knew." + +"Who--who could have been so cruel?" + +Richard shook his head. + +"No one knows." + +The funeral took place on Thursday, and on Friday morning, as has +been stated, Mr. Taggett arrived in Stillwater, and installed himself +in Welch's Court, to the wonder of many in the village, who would not +have slept a night in that house, with only a servant in the north +gable, for half the universe. Mr. Taggett was a person who did not +allow himself to be swayed by his imagination. + +Here, then, he began his probing of a case which, on the surface, +promised to be a very simple one. The man who had been seen driving +rapidly along the turnpike sometime near daybreak, on Wednesday, was +presumably the man who could tell him all about it. But it did not +prove so. Neither Thomas Blufton, nor William Durgin, nor any of the +tramps subsequently obliged to drop into autobiography could be +connected with the affair. + +These first failures served to stimulate Mr. Taggett; it required +a complex case to stir his ingenuity and sagacity. That the present +was not a complex case he was still convinced, after four days' +futile labor upon it. Mr. Shackford had been killed--either with +malice prepense or on the spur of the moment--for his money. The +killing had likely enough not been premeditated; the old man had +probably opposed the robbery. Now, among the exceptionally rough +population of the town there were possibly fifty men who would not +have hesitated to strike down Mr. Shackford if he had caught them +_flagrante delicto_ and resisted them, or attempted to call for +succor. That the crime was committed by some one in Stillwater or in +the neighborhood Mr. Taggett had never doubted since the day of his +arrival. The clumsy manner in which the staple had been wrenched from +the scullery door showed the absence of a professional hand. Then the +fact that the deceased was in the habit of keeping money in his +bedchamber was a fact well known in the village, and not likely to be +known outside of it, though of course it might have been. It was +clearly necessary for Mr. Taggett to carry his investigation into the +workshops and among the haunts of the class which was indubitably to +furnish him with the individual he wanted. Above all, it was +necessary that the investigation should be secret. An obstacle +obtruded itself here: everybody in Stillwater knew everybody, and a +stranger appearing on the streets or dropping frequently into the +tavern would not escape comment. + +The man with the greatest facility for making the requisite +searches would of course be some workman. But a workman was the very +agent not to be employed under the circumstances. How many times, and +by what strange fatality, had a guilty party been selected to shadow +his own movements, or those of an accomplice! No, Mr. Taggett must +rely only on himself, and his plan forthwith matured. Its execution, +however, was delayed several days, the cooperation of Mr. Slocum and +Mr. Richard Shackford being indispensable. + +At this stage Richard went to New York, where his cousin had made +extensive investments in real estate. For a careful man, the late Mr. +Shackford had allowed his affairs there to become strangely tangled. +The business would detain Richard a fortnight. + +Three days after his departure Mr. Taggett himself left +Stillwater, having apparently given up the case; a proceeding which +was severely criticized, not only in the columns of The Stillwater +Gazette, but by the townsfolks at large, who immediately relapsed +into a state of apprehension approximating that of the morning when +the crime was discovered. Mr. Pinkham, who was taking tea that +evening at the Danas', threw the family into a panic by asserting his +belief that this was merely the first of a series of artistic +assassinations in the manner of those Memorable Murders recorded by +De Quincey. Mr. Pinkham may have said this to impress the four Dana +girls with the variety of his reading, but the recollection of De +Quincey's harrowing paper had the effect of so unhinging the young +school-master that when he found himself, an hour or two afterwards, +in the lonely, unlighted street he flitted home like a belated ghost, +and was ready to drop at every tree-box. + +The next forenoon a new hand was taken on at Slocum's Yard. The +new hand, who had come on foot from South Millville, at which town he +had been set down by the seven o'clock express that morning, was +placed in the apprentice department,--there were five or six +apprentices now. Though all this was part of an understood +arrangement, Mr. Slocum nearly doubted the fidelity of his own eyes +when Mr. Taggett, a smooth-faced young fellow of one and twenty, if +so old, with all the traits of an ordinary workman down to the +neglected fingernails, stepped up to the desk to have the name of +Blake entered on the pay-roll. Either by chance or by design, Mr. +Taggett had appeared but seldom on the streets of Stillwater; the few +persons who had had anything like familiar intercourse with him in +his professional capacity were precisely the persons with whom his +present movements were not likely to bring him into juxtaposition, +and he ran slight risk of recognition by others. With his hair +closely cropped, and the overhanging brown mustache removed, the man +was not so much disguised as transformed. "I shouldn't have known +him!" muttered Mr. Slocum, as he watched Mr. Taggett passing from the +office with his hat in his hand. During the ensuing ten or twelve +days Mr. Slocum never wholly succeeded in extricating himself from +the foggy uncertainty generated by that one brief interview. From the +moment Mr. Taggett was assigned a bench under the sheds, Mr. Slocum +saw little or nothing of him. + +Mr. Taggett took lodging in a room in one of the most crowded of +the low boarding-houses,--a room accommodating two beds besides his +own: the first occupied by a brother neophyte in marble-cutting, and +the second by a morose middle-aged man with one eyebrow a trifle +higher than the other, as if it had been wrenched out of line by the +strain of habitual intoxication. This man's name was Wollaston, and +he worked at Dana's. + +Mr. Taggett's initial move was to make himself popular in the +marble yard, and especially at the tavern, where he spent money +freely, though not so freely as to excite any remark except that the +lad was running through pretty much all his small pay,--a +recklessness which was charitably condoned in Snelling's bar-room. He +formed multifarious friendships, and had so many sensible views on +the labor problem, advocating the general extinguishment of +capitalists, and so on, that his admittance to the Marble Workers' +Association resolved itself into merely a question of time. The old +prejudice against apprentices was already wearing off. The quiet, +evasive man of few words was now a loquacious talker, holding his own +with the hardest hitters, and very skillful in giving offense to no +one. "Whoever picks up Blake for a fool," Dexter remarked one night, +"will put him down again." Not a shadow of suspicion followed Mr. +Taggett in his various comings and goings. He seemed merely a +good-natured, intelligent devil; perhaps a little less devilish and a +trifle more intelligent than the rest, but not otherwise different. +Denyven, Peters, Dexter, Willson, and others in and out of the Slocum +clique were Blake's sworn friends. In brief, Mr. Taggett had the +amplest opportunities to prosecute his studies. Only for a pained +look which sometimes latterly shot into his eyes, as he worked at the +bench, or as he walked alone in the street, one would have imagined +that he was thoroughly enjoying the half-vagabond existence. + +The supposition would have been erroneous, for in the progress of +those fourteen days' apprenticeship Mr. Taggett had received a wound +in the most sensitive part of his nature: he had been forced to give +up what no man ever relinquishes without a wrench,--his own idea. + +With the exception of an accident in Dana's Mill, by which +Torrini's hand had been so badly mangled that amputation was deemed +necessary, the two weeks had been eventless outside of Mr. Taggett's +personal experience. What that experience was will transpire in its +proper place. Margaret was getting daily notes from Richard, and Mr. +Slocum, overburdened with the secret of Mr. Taggett's presence in the +yard,--a secret confined exclusively to Mr. Slocum, Richard, and +Justice Beemis,--was restlessly awaiting developments. + +The developments came that afternoon when Mr. Taggett walked into +the office and startled Mr. Slocum, sitting at the desk. The two +words which Mr. Taggett then gravely and coldly whispered in Mr. +Slocum's ear were,-- + +"RICHARD SHACKFORD." + + + + +XIX + + +Mr. Slocum, who had partly risen from the chair, sank back into +his seat. "Good God!" he said, turning very pale. "Are you mad?" + +Mr. Taggett realized the cruel shock which the pronouncing of that +name must have caused Mr. Slocum. Mr. Taggett had meditated his line +of action, and had decided that the most merciful course was +brusquely to charge young Shackford with the crime, and allow Mr. +Slocum to sustain himself for a while with the indignant disbelief +which would be natural to him, situated as he was. He would then in a +manner be prepared for the revelations which, if suddenly presented, +would crush him. + +If Mr. Taggett was without imagination, as he claimed, he was not +without a certain feminine quickness of sympathy often found in +persons engaged in professions calculated to blunt the finer +sensibilities. In his intercourse with Mr. Slocum at the Shackford +house, Mr. Taggett had been won by the singular gentleness and +simplicity of the man, and was touched by his misfortune. + +After his exclamation, Mr. Slocum did not speak for a moment or +two, but with his elbows resting on the edge of the desk sat +motionless, like a person stunned. Then he slowly lifted his face, to +which the color had returned, and making a movement with his right +hand as if he were sweeping away cobwebs in front of him rose from +the chair. + +"You are simply mad," he said, looking Mr. Taggett squarely and +calmly in the eyes. "Are you aware of Mr. Richard Shackford's +character and his position here?" + +"Precisely." + +"Do you know that he is to marry my daughter?" + +"I am very sorry for you, sir." + +"You may spare me that. It is quite unnecessary. You have fallen +into some horrible delusion. I hope you will be able to explain it." + +"I am prepared to do so, sir." + +"Are you serious?" + +"Very serious, Mr. Slocum." + +"You actually imagine that Richard Shackford--Pshaw! It's simply +impossible!" + +"I am too young a man to wish even to seem wiser than you, but my +experience has taught me that nothing is impossible." + +"I begin to believe so myself. I suppose you have grounds, or +something you consider grounds, for your monstrous suspicion. What +are they? I demand to be fully informed of what you have been doing +in the yard, before you bring disgrace upon me and my family by +inconsiderately acting on some wild theory which perhaps ten words +can refute." + +"I should be in the highest degree criminal, Mr. Slocum, if I were +to make so fearful an accusation against any man unless I had the +most incontestable evidence in my hands." + +Mr. Taggett spoke with such cold-blooded conviction that a chill +crept over Mr. Slocum, in spite of him. + +"What is the nature of this evidence?" + +"Up to the present stage, purely circumstantial." + +"I can imagine that," said Mr. Slocum, with a slight smile. + +"But so conclusive as to require no collateral evidence. The +testimony of an eye-witness of the crime could scarcely add to my +knowledge of what occurred that Tuesday night in Lemuel Shackford's +house." + +"Indeed, it is all so clear! But of course a few eye-witnesses +will turn up eventually," said Mr. Slocum, whose whiteness about the +lips discounted the assurance of his sarcasm. + +"That is not improbable," returned Mr. Taggett. + +"And meanwhile what are the facts?" + +"They are not easily stated. I have kept a record of my work day +by day, since the morning I entered the yard. The memoranda are +necessarily confused, the important and the unimportant being jumbled +together; but the record as it stands will answer your question more +fully than I could, even if I had the time--which I have not--to go +over the case with you. I can leave these notes in your hands, if you +desire it. When I return from New York"-- + +"You are going to New York!" exclaimed Mr. Slocum, with a start. +"When?" + +"This evening." + +"If you lay a finger on Richard Shackford, you will make the +mistake of your life, Mr. Taggett!" + +"I have other business there. Mr. Shackford will be in Stillwater +to-morrow night. He engaged a state-room on the Fall River boat this +morning." + +"How can you know that?" + +"Since last Tuesday none of his movements have been unknown to +me." + +"Do you mean to say that you have set your miserable spies upon +him?" cried Mr. Slocum. + +"I should not state the fact in just those words," Mr. Taggett +answered. "The fact remains." + +"Pardon me," said Mr. Slocum. "I am not quite myself. Can you +wonder at it?" + +"I do not wonder." + +"Give me those papers you speak of, Mr. Taggett. I would like to +look through them. I see that you are a very obstinate person when +you have once got a notion into your head. Perhaps I can help you out +of your error before it is irreparable." Then, after hesitating a +second, Mr. Slocum added, "I may speak of this to my daughter? +Indeed, I could scarcely keep it from her." + +"Perhaps it is better she should be informed." + +"And Mr. Shackford, when he returns to-morrow?" + +"If he broaches the subject of his cousin's death, I advise you to +avoid it." + +"Why should I?" + +"It might save you or Miss Slocum some awkwardness,--but you must +use your own discretion. As the matter stands it makes no difference +whether Mr. Shackford knows his position to-day or to-morrow. It is +too late for him to avail himself of the knowledge. Otherwise, of +course, I should not have given myself away in this fashion." + +"Very well," said Mr. Slocum, with an impatient movement of his +shoulders; "neither I nor my daughter will open our lips on this +topic. In the mean while you are to take no further steps without +advising me. That is understood?" + +"That is perfectly understood," returned Mr. Taggett, drawing a +narrow red note-book from the inner pocket of his workman's blouse, +and producing at the same time a small nickel-plated door-key. "This +is the key of Mr. Shackford's private workshop in the extension. I +have not been able to replace it on the mantel-shelf of his +sitting-room in Lime Street. Will you have the kindness to see that +it is done at once?" + +A moment later Mr. Slocum stood alone in the office, with Mr. +Taggett's diary in his hand. It was one of those costly little +volumes--gilt-edged and bound in fragrant crushed Levant +morocco--with which city officials are annually supplied by a +community of grateful taxpayers. + +The dark crimson of the flexible covers, as soft and slippery to +the touch as a snake's skin, was perhaps the fitting symbol of the +darker story that lay coiled within. With a gesture of repulsion, as +if some such fancy had flitted through his mind, Mr. Slocum tossed +the note-book on the desk in front of him, and stood a few minutes +moodily watching the _reflets_ of the crinkled leather as the +afternoon sunshine struck across it. Beneath his amazement and +indignation he had been chilled to the bone by Mr. Taggett's brutal +confidence. It was enough to chill one, surely; and in spite of +himself Mr. Slocum began to feel a certain indefinable dread of that +little crimson-bound book. + +Whatever it contained, the reading of those pages was to be a +repellent task to him; it was a task to which he could not bring +himself at the moment; to-night, in the privacy of his own chamber, +he would sift Mr. Taggett's baleful fancies. Thus temporizing, Mr. +Slocum dropped the volume into his pocket, locked the office door +behind him, and wandered down to Dundon's drug-store to kill the +intervening hour before supper-time. Dundon's was the aristocratic +lounging place of the village,--the place where the only genuine +Havana cigars in Stillwater were to be had, and where the favored +few, the initiated, could get a dash of hochheimer or cognac with +their soda-water. + +At supper, that evening, Mr. Slocum addressed scarcely a word to +Margaret, and Margaret was also silent. The days were dragging +heavily with her; she was missing Richard. Her own daring travels had +never extended beyond Boston or Providence; and New York, with +Richard in it, seemed drearily far away. Mr. Slocum withdrew to his +chamber shortly after nine o'clock, and, lighting the pair of candles +on the dressing-table, began his examination of Mr. Taggett's +memoranda. + +At midnight the watchman on his lonely beat saw those two candles +still burning. + + + + +XX + + +Mr. Taggett's diary was precisely a diary,--disjoined, full of +curt, obscure phrases and irrelevant reflections,--for which reason +it will not be reproduced here. Though Mr. Slocum pondered every +syllable, and now and then turned back painfully to reconsider some +doubtful passage, it is not presumed that the reader will care to do +so. An abstract of the journal, with occasional quotation where the +writer's words seem to demand it, will be sufficient for the +narrative. + +In the opening pages Mr. Taggett described his novel surroundings +with a minuteness which contrasted oddly with the brief, hurried +entries further on. He found himself, as he had anticipated, in a +society composed of some of the most heterogeneous elements. +Stillwater, viewed from a certain point, was a sort of microcosm, a +little international rag-fair to which nearly every country on earth +had contributed one of its shabby human products. "I am moving," +wrote Mr. Taggett, "in an atmosphere in which any crime is possible. +I give myself seven days at the outside to light upon the traces of +Shackford's murder. I feel him in the air." The writer's theory was +that the man would betray his identity in one of two ways: either by +talking unguardedly, or by indulging in expenditures not warranted by +his means and position. If several persons had been concerned in the +crime, nothing was more likely than a disagreement over the spoil, +and consequent treachery on the part of one of them. Or, again, some +of the confederates might become alarmed, and attempt to save +themselves by giving away their comrades. Mr. Taggett, however, +leaned to the belief that the assassin had had no accomplices. + +The sum taken from Mr. Shackford's safe was a comparatively large +one,--five hundred dollars in gold and nearly double that amount in +bank-notes. Neither the gold nor the paper bore any known mark by +which it could be recognized; the burglar had doubtless assured +himself of this, and would not hesitate to disburse the money. That +was even a safer course, judiciously worked, than to secrete it. The +point was, Would he have sufficient self-control to get rid of it by +degrees? The chances, Mr. Taggett argued, were ten to one he would +not. + +A few pages further on Mr. Taggett compliments the Unknown on the +adroit manner in which he is conducting himself. He has neither let +slip a suspicious word, nor made an incautious display of his booty. +Snelling's bar was doing an unusually light business. No one appeared +to have any money. Many of the men had run deeply into debt during +the late strike, and were now drinking moderately. In the paragraph +which closes the week's record Mr. Taggett's chagrin is evident. He +confesses that he is at fault. "My invisible friend does not +_materialize_ so successfully as I expected," is Mr. Taggett's +comment. + +His faith in the correctness of his theory had not abated; but he +continued his observation in a less sanguine spirit. These +observations were not limited to the bar-room or the workshop; he +informed himself of the domestic surroundings of his comrades. Where +his own scrutiny could not penetrate, he employed the aid of +correspondents. He knew what workmen had money in the local +savings-bank, and the amount of each deposit. In the course of his +explorations of the shady side of Stillwater life, Mr. Taggett +unearthed many amusing and many pathetic histories, but nothing that +served his end. Finally, he began to be discouraged. + +Returning home from the tavern, one night, in a rather desponding +mood, he found the man Wollaston smoking his pipe in bed. Wollaston +was a taciturn man generally, but this night he was conversational, +and Mr. Taggett, too restless to sleep, fell to chatting with him. +Did he know much about the late Mr. Shackford? Yes, he had known him +well enough, in an off way,--not to speak of him; everybody knew him +in Stillwater; he was a sort of miser, hated everybody, and bullied +everybody. It was a wonder somebody didn't knock the old silvertop on +the head years ago. + +Thus Mr. Wollaston grimly, with his pores stopped up with +iron-fillings,--a person to whom it would come quite easy to knock +any one on the head for a slight difference of opinion. He amused Mr. +Taggett in his present humor. + +No, he wasn't aware that Shackford had had trouble with any +particular individual; believed he did have a difficulty once with +Slocum, the marble man; but he was always fetching suits against the +town and shying lawyers at the mill directors,--a disagreeable old +cuss altogether. Adopted his cousin, one time, but made the house so +hot for him that the lad ran off to sea, and since then had had +nothing to do with the old bilk. + +Indeed! What sort of fellow was young Shackford? Mr. Wollaston +could not say of his own knowledge; thought him a plucky chap; he had +put a big Italian named Torrini out of the yard, one day, for talking +back. Who was Torrini? The man that got hurt last week in the Dana +Mill. Who were Richard Shackford's intimates? Couldn't say; had seen +him with Mr. Pinkham, the school-master, and Mr. Craggie,--went with +the upper crust generally. Was going to be partner in the marble yard +and marry Slocum's daughter. Will Durgin knew him. They lived +together one time. He, Wollaston, was going to turn in now. + +Several of these facts were not new to Mr. Taggett, but Mr. +Wollaston's presentation of them threw Mr. Taggett into a reverie. + +The next evening he got Durgin alone in a corner of the bar-room. +With two or three potations Durgin became autobiographical. Was he +acquainted with Mr. Shackford outside the yard? Rather. Dick +Shackford? His (Durgin's) mother had kept Dick from starving when he +was a baby,--and no thanks for it. Went to school with him, and knew +all about his running off to sea. Was near going with him. Old man +Shackford never liked Dick, who was a proud beggar; they couldn't +pull together, down to the last,--both of a piece. They had a jolly +rumpus a little while before the old man was fixed. + +Mr. Taggett pricked up his ears at this. + +A rumpus? How did Durgin know that? A girl told him. What girl? A +girl he was sweet on. What was her name? Well, he didn't mind telling +her name; it was Molly Hennessey. She was going through Welch's Court +one forenoon,--may be it was three days before the strike,--and saw +Dick Shackford bolt out of the house, swinging his arms and swearing +to himself at an awful rate. Was Durgin certain that Molly Hennessey +had told him this? Yes, he was ready to take his oath on it. + +Here, at last, was something that looked like a glimmer of +daylight. + +It was possible that Durgin or the girl had lied; but the story +had an air of truth to it. If it were a fact that there had recently +been a quarrel between these cousins, whose uncousinly attitude +towards each other was fast becoming clear to Mr. Taggett, then here +was a conceivable key to an enigma which had puzzled him. + +The conjecture that Lemuel Shackford had himself torn up the +will--if it was a will, for this still remained in dispute--had never +been satisfactory to Mr. Taggett. He had accepted it because he was +unable to imagine an ordinary burglar pausing in the midst of his +work to destroy a paper in which he could have no concern. But +Richard Shackford would have the liveliest possible interest in the +destruction of a document that placed a vast estate beyond his reach. +Here was a motive on a level with the crime. That money had been +taken, and that the fragments of the will had been carelessly thrown +into a waste-paper basket, just as if the old man himself had thrown +them there, was a stroke of art which Mr. Taggett admired more and +more as he reflected upon it. + +He did not, however, allow himself to lay too much stress on these +points; for the paper might turn out to be merely an expired lease, +and the girl might have been quizzing Durgin. Mr. Taggett would have +given one of his eye-teeth just then for ten minutes with Mary +Hennessey. But an interview with her at this stage was neither +prudent nor easily compassed. + +"If I have not struck a trail," writes Mr. Taggett, "I have come +upon what strongly resembles one; the least I can do is to follow it. +My first move must be to inspect that private workshop in the rear of +Mr. Slocum's house. How shall I accomplish it? I cannot apply to him +for permission, for that would provoke questions which I am not ready +to answer. Moreover, I have yet to assure myself that Mr. Slocum is +not implicated. There seems to have been also a hostile feeling +existing between him and the deceased. Why didn't some one tell me +these things at the start! If young Shackford is the person, there is +a tangled story to be unraveled. _Mem:_ Young Shackford is Miss +Slocum's lover." + +Mr. Slocum read this passage twice without drawing breath, and +then laid down the book an instant to wipe the sudden perspiration +from his forehead. + +In the note which followed, Mr. Taggett described the difficulty +he met with in procuring a key to fit the wall-door at the rear of +the marble yard, and gave an account of his failure to effect an +entrance into the studio. He had hoped to find a window unfastened; +but the window, as well as the door opening upon the veranda, was +locked, and in the midst of his operations, which were conducted at +noon-time, the approach of a servant had obliged him to retreat. + +Forced to lay aside, at least temporarily, his designs on the +workshop, he turned his attention to Richard's lodgings in Lime +Street. Here Mr. Taggett was more successful. On the pretext that he +had been sent for certain drawings which were to be found on the +table or in a writing-desk, he was permitted by Mrs. Spooner to +ascend to the bedroom, where she obligingly insisted on helping him +search for the apocryphal plans, and seriously interfered with his +purpose, which was to find the key of the studio. While Mr. Taggett +was turning over the pages of a large dictionary, in order to gain +time, and was wondering how he could rid himself of the old lady's +importunities, he came upon a half-folded note-sheet, at the bottom +of which his eye caught the name of Lemuel Shackford. It was in the +handwriting of the dead man. Mr. Taggett was very familiar with that +handwriting. He secured the paper at a venture, and put it in his +pocket without examination. + +A few minutes later, it being impossible to prolong the pretended +quest for the drawings, Mr. Taggett was obliged to follow Mrs. +Spooner from the apartment. As he did so he noticed a bright object +lying on the corner of the mantel-shelf,--a small nickel-plated key. +In order to take it he had only to reach out his hand in passing. It +was, as Mr. Taggett had instantly surmised, the key of Richard's +workshop. + +If it had been gold, instead of brass or iron, that bit of metal +would have taken no additional value in Mr. Taggett's eyes. On +leaving Mrs. Spooner's he held it tightly clasped in his fingers +until he reached an unfrequented street, where he halted a moment in +the shadow of a building to inspect the paper, which he had half +forgotten in his satisfaction at having obtained the key. A stifled +cry rose to Mr. Taggett's lips as he glanced over the crumpled +note-sheet. + +It contained three lines, hastily scrawled in lead-pencil, +requesting Richard Shackford to call at the house in Welch's Court at +eight o'clock on a certain Tuesday night. The note had been written, +as the date showed, on the day preceding the Tuesday night in +question--the night of the murder! + +For a second or two Mr. Taggett stood paralyzed. Ten minutes +afterwards a message in cipher was pulsing along the wires to New +York, and before the sun went down that evening Richard Shackford was +under the surveillance of the police. + +The doubtful, unknown ground upon which Mr. Taggett had been +floundering was now firm under his feet,--unexpected ground, but +solid. Meeting Mary Hennessey in the street, on his way to the marble +yard, Mr. Taggett no longer hesitated to accost her, and question her +as to the story she had told William Durgin. The girl's story was +undoubtedly true, and as a piece of circumstantial evidence was only +less important than the elder Shackford's note. The two cousins had +been for years on the worst of terms. At every step Mr. Taggett had +found corroboration of Wollaston's statement to that effect. + +"Where were Coroner Whidden's eyes and ears," wrote Mr. +Taggett,--the words were dashed down impatiently on the page, as if +he had sworn a little internally while writing them,--"when he +conducted that inquest! In all my experience there was never a thing +so stupidly managed." + +A thorough and immediate examination of Richard Shackford's +private workshop was now so imperative that Mr. Taggett resolved to +make it even if he had to do so under the authority of a +search-warrant. But he desired as yet to avoid publicity. + +A secret visit to the studio seemed equally difficult by day and +night. In the former case he was nearly certain to be deranged by the +servants, and in the latter a light in the unoccupied room would +alarm any of the household who might chance to awaken. From the +watchman no danger was to be apprehended, as the windows of the +extension were not visible from the street. + +Mr. Taggett finally decided on the night as the more propitious +time for his attempt,--a decision which his success justified. A +brilliant moon favored the in-door part of the enterprise, though it +exposed him to observation in his approach from the marble yard to +the veranda. + +With the dense moonlight streaming outside against the +window-shades, he could safely have used a candle in the studio +instead of the screened lantern which he had provided. Mr. Taggett +passed three hours in the workshop,--the last hour in waiting for the +moon to go down. Then he stole through the marble yard into the +silent street, and hurried home, carrying two small articles +concealed under his blouse. The first was a chisel with a triangular +piece broken out of the centre of the bevel, and the other was a box +of safety-matches. The peculiarity of this box of matches was--that +just one match had been used from it. + +Mr. Taggett's work was done. + +The last seven pages of the diary were devoted to a review of the +case, every detail of which was held up in various lights, and +examined with the conscientious pains of a lapidary deciding on the +value of a rare stone. The concluding entries ran as follow:-- + +_"Tuesday Night_. Here the case passes into other hands. I +have been fortunate rather than skillful in unmasking the chief actor +in one of the most singular crimes that ever came under my +investigation. By destroying three objects, very easily destroyed, +Richard Shackford would have put himself beyond the dream of +suspicion. He neglected to remove these dumb witnesses, and now the +dumb witnesses speak! If it could be shown that he was a hundred +miles from Stillwater at the time of the murder, instead of in the +village, as he was, he must still be held, in the face of the proofs +against him, accessory to the deed. These proofs, roughly summarized, +are:-- + +_"First_. The fact that he had had an altercation with his +cousin a short time previous to the date of the murder,--a murder +which may be regarded not as the result of a chance disagreement, but +of long years of bitter enmity between the two men. + +_"Secondly_. The fact that Richard Shackford had had an +appointment with his cousin on the night the crime was committed, and +had concealed that fact from the authorities at the time of the +coroner's inquest. + +_"Thirdly_. That the broken chisel found in the private +workshop of the accused explains the peculiar shape of the wound +which caused Lemuel Shackford's death, and corresponds in every +particular with the plaster impression taken of that wound. + +_"Fourthly_. That the partially consumed match found on the +scullery floor when the body was discovered (a style of match not +used in the house in Welch's Court) completes the complement of a box +of safety-matches belonging to Richard Shackford, and hidden in a +closet in his workshop. + +"Whether Shackford had an accomplice or not is yet to be +ascertained. There is nothing whatever to implicate Mr. Rowland +Slocum. I make the statement because his intimate association with +one party and his deep dislike of the other invited inquiry, and at +first raised an unjust suspicion in my mind." + +The little red book slipped from Mr. Slocum's grasp and fell at +his feet. As he rose from the chair, the reflection which he caught +of himself in the dressing-table mirror was that of a wrinkled, white +old man. + +Mr. Slocum did not believe, and no human evidence could have +convinced him, that Richard had deliberately killed Lemuel Shackford; +but as Mr. Slocum reached the final pages of the diary, a horrible +probability insinuated itself in his mind. Could Richard have done it +accidentally? Could he--in an instant of passion, stung to sudden +madness by that venomous old man--have struck him involuntarily, and +killed him? A certain speech which Richard had made in Mr. Slocum's +presence not long before came back to him now with fearful +emphasis:-- + +_"Three or four times in my life I have been carried away by a +devil of a temper which I couldn't control, it seized me so +unawares."_ + +"It seized me so unawares!" repeated Mr. Slocum, half aloud; and +then with a swift, unconscious gesture, he pressed his hands over his +ears, as if to shut out the words. + + + + +XXI + + +Margaret must be told. It would be like stabbing her to tell her +all this. Mr. Slocum had lain awake long after midnight, appalled by +the calamity that was about to engulf them. At moments, as his +thought reverted to Margaret's illness early in the spring, he felt +that perhaps it would have been a mercy if she had died then. He had +left the candles burning; it was not until the wicks sunk down in the +sockets and went softly out that slumber fell upon him. + +He was now sitting at the breakfast-table, absently crumbling bits +of bread beside his plate and leaving his coffee untouched. Margaret +glanced at him wistfully from time to time, and detected the restless +night in the deepened lines of his face. + +The house had not been the same since Lemuel Shackford's death; he +had never crossed its threshold; Margaret had scarcely known him by +sight, and Mr. Slocum had not spoken to him for years; but Richard's +connection with the unfortunate old man had brought the tragic event +very close to Margaret and her father. Mr. Slocum was a person easily +depressed, but his depression this morning was so greatly in excess +of the presumable cause that Margaret began to be troubled. + +"Papa, has anything happened?" + +"No, nothing new has happened; but I am dreadfully disturbed by +some things which Mr. Taggett has been doing here in the village." + +"I thought Mr. Taggett had gone." + +"He did go; but he came back very quietly without anybody's +knowledge. I knew it, of course; but no one else, to speak of." + +"What has he done to disturb you?" + +"I want you to be a brave girl, Margaret,--will you promise that?" + +"Why, yes," said Margaret, with an anxious look. "You frighten me +with your mysteriousness." + +"I do not mean to be mysterious, but I don't quite know how to +tell you about Mr. Taggett. He has been working underground in this +matter of poor Shackford's death,--boring in the dark like a +mole,--and thinks he has discovered some strange things." + +"Do you mean he thinks he has found out who killed Mr. +Shackford?" + +"He believes he has fallen upon clews which will lead to that. The +strange things I alluded to are things which Richard will have to +explain." + +"Richard? What has he to do with it?" + +"Not much, I hope; but there are several matters which he will be +obliged to clear up in order to save himself from very great +annoyance. Mr. Taggett seems to think that--that"-- + +"Good heavens, papa! What does he think?" + +"Margaret, he thinks that Richard knew something about the murder, +and has not told it." + +"What could he know? Is that all?" + +"No, that is not all. I am keeping the full truth from you, and it +is useless to do so. You must face it like a brave girl. Mr. Taggett +suspects Richard of being concerned, directly or indirectly, with the +crime." + +The color went from Margaret's cheek for an instant. The statement +was too horrible and sudden not to startle her, but it was also too +absurd to have more than an instant's effect. Her quick recovery of +herself reassured Mr. Slocum. Would she meet Mr. Taggett's specific +charges with the like fortitude? Mr. Slocum himself had been +prostrated by them; he prayed to Heaven that Margaret might have more +strength than he, as indeed she had. + +"The man has got together a lot of circumstantial evidence," +continued Mr. Slocum cautiously; "some of it amounts to nothing, +being mere conjecture; but some of it will look badly for Richard, to +outsiders." + +"Of course it is all a mistake," said Margaret, in nearly her +natural voice. "It ought to be easy to convince Mr. Taggett of that." + +"I have not been able to convince him." + +"But you will. What has possessed him to fall into such a +ridiculous error?" + +"Mr. Taggett has written out everything at length in this +memorandum-book, and you must read it for yourself. There are +expressions and statements in these pages, Margaret, that will +necessarily shock you very much; but you should remember, as I tried +to while reading them, that Mr. Taggett has a heart of steel; without +it he would be unable to do his distressing work. The cold +impartiality with which he sifts and heaps up circumstances involving +the doom of a fellow-creature appears almost inhuman; but it is his +business. No, don't look at it here!" said Mr. Slocum, recoiling; he +had given the book to Margaret. "Take it into the other room, and +read it carefully by yourself. When you have finished, come back and +tell me what you think." + +"But, papa, surely you"-- + +"I don't believe anything, Margaret! I don't know the true from +the false any more! I want you to help me out of my confusion, and +you cannot do it until you have read that book." + +Margaret made no response, but passed into the parlor and closed +the folding-doors behind her. + +After an absence of half an hour she reentered the breakfast room, +and laid Mr. Taggett's diary on the table beside her father, who had +not moved from his place during the interval. Margaret's manner was +collected, but it was evident, by the dark circles under her eyes, +and the set, colorless lips, that that half hour had been a cruel +thirty minutes to her. In Margaret's self-possession Mr. Slocum +recognized, not for the first time, the cropping out of an ancestral +trait which had somehow managed to avoid him in its wayward descent. + +"Well?" he questioned, looking earnestly at Margaret, and catching +a kind of comfort from her confident bearing. + +"It is Mr. Taggett's trade to find somebody guilty," said +Margaret, "and he has been very ingenious and very merciless. He was +plainly at his wits' ends to sustain his reputation, and would not +have hesitated to sacrifice any one rather than wholly fail." + +"But you have been crying, Margaret." + +"How could I see Richard dragged down in the dust in this fashion, +and not be mortified and indignant?" + +"You don't believe anything at all of this?" + +"Do _you?"_ asked Margaret, looking through and through him. + +"I confess I am troubled." + +"If you doubt Richard for a second," said Margaret, with a slight +quiver of her lip, "that will be the bitterest part of it to me." + +"I don't give any more credit to Mr. Taggett's general charges +than you do, Margaret; but I understand their gravity better. A +perfectly guiltless man, one able with a single word to establish his +innocence, is necessarily crushed at first by an accusation of this +kind. Now, can Richard set these matters right with a single word? I +am afraid he has a world of difficulty before him." + +"When he returns he will explain everything. How can you question +it?" + +"I do not wish to; but there are two things in Mr. Taggett's story +which stagger me. The motive for the destruction of Shackford's +papers,--that's not plain; the box of matches is a puerility unworthy +of a clever man like Mr. Taggett, and as to the chisel he found, why, +there are a hundred broken chisels in the village, and probably a +score of them broken in precisely the same manner; but, Margaret, did +Richard ever breathe a word to you of that quarrel with his cousin?" + +"No." + +"He never mentioned it to me either. As matters stood between you +and him, nothing was more natural than that he should have spoken of +it to you,--so natural that his silence is positively strange." + +"He may have considered it too unimportant. Mr. Shackford always +abused Richard; it was nothing new. Then, again, Richard is very +proud, and perhaps he did not care to come to us just at that time +with family grievances. Besides, how do we know they quarreled? The +village is full of gossip." + +"I am certain there was a quarrel; it was only necessary for those +two to meet to insure that. I distinctly remember the forenoon when +Richard went to Welch's Court; it was the day he discharged Torrini." + +A little cloud passed over Margaret's countenance. + +"They undoubtedly had angry words together," continued Mr. Slocum, +"and we are forced to accept the Hennessey girl's statement. The +reason you suggest for Richard's not saying anything on the subject +may suffice for us, but it will scarcely satisfy disinterested +persons, and doesn't at all cover another circumstance which must be +taken in the same connection." + +"What circumstance?" + +"His silence in regard to Lemuel Shackford's note,--a note written +the day before the murder, and making an appointment for the very +night of it." + +The girl looked steadily at her father. + +"Margaret!" exclaimed Mr. Slocum, his face illuminated with a +flickering hope as he met her untroubled gaze, "did Richard tell +_you?"_ + +"No," replied Margaret. + +"Then he told no one," said Mr. Slocum, with the light fading out +of his features again. "It was madness in him to conceal the fact. He +should not have lost a moment, after the death of his cousin, in +making that letter public. It ought instantly to have been placed in +Coroner Whidden's hands. Richard's action is inconceivable, +unless--unless"-- + +"Do not say it!" cried Margaret. "I should never forgive you!" + +In recapitulating the points of Mr. Taggett's accusation, Mr. +Slocum had treated most of them as trivial; but he had not been +sincere. He knew that that broken chisel had no duplicate in +Stillwater, and that the finding of it in Richard's closet was a +black fact. Mr. Slocum had also glossed over the quarrel; but that +letter!--the likelihood that Richard kept the appointment, and his +absolute silence concerning it,--here was a grim thing which no +sophistry could dispose of. It would be wronging Margaret to deceive +her as to the vital seriousness of Richard's position. + +"Why, why did he hide it!" Mr. Slocum persisted. + +"I do not see that he really hid it, papa. He shut the note in a +book lying openly on the table,--a dictionary, to which any one in +the household was likely to go. You think Mr. Taggett a person of +great acuteness." + +"He is a very intelligent person, Margaret." + +"He appears to me very short-sighted. If Richard were the dreadful +man Mr. Taggett supposes, that paper would have been burnt, and not +left for the first comer to pick up. I scorn myself for stooping to +the suggestion!" + +"There is something in the idea," said Mr. Slocum slowly. "But why +did Richard never mention the note,--to you, or to me, or to +anybody?" + +"He had a sufficient reason, you may be sure. Oh, papa, how ready +you are to believe evil of him!" + +"I am not, God knows!" + +"How you cling to this story of the letter! Suppose it turns out +to be some old letter, written two or three years ago? You could +never look Richard in the face again." + +"Unfortunately, Shackford dated it. It is useless for us to +blindfold ourselves, Margaret. Richard has managed in some way to get +himself into a very perilous situation, and we cannot help him by +shutting our eyes. You misconceive me if you imagine I think him +capable of coolly plotting his cousin's death; but it is not outside +the limits of the possible that what has happened a thousand times +may have happened once more. Men less impulsive than Richard"-- + +"I will not listen to it!" interrupted Margaret, drawing herself +up. "When Richard returns he will explain the matter to you,--not to +me. If I required a word of denial from him, I should care very +little whether he was innocent or not." + +Mr. Slocum threw a terrified glance at his daughter. Her lofty +faith sent a chill to his heart. What would be the result of a fall +from such a height? He almost wished Margaret had something less of +that ancestral confidence and obstinacy the lack of which in his own +composition he had so often deplored. + +"We are not to speak of this to Richard," he said, after a +protracted pause; "at least not until Mr. Taggett considers it best. +I have pledged myself to something like that." + +"Has Richard been informed of Mr. Taggett's singular proceeding?" +asked Margaret, freezingly. + +"Not yet; nothing is to be done until Mr. Taggett returns from New +York, and then Richard will at once have an opportunity of clearing +himself." + +"It would have spared us all much pain and misunderstanding if he +had been sent for in the first instance. Did he know that this person +was here in the yard?" + +"The plan was talked over before Richard left; the details were +arranged afterwards. He heartily approved of the plan." + +A leisurely and not altogether saint-like smile crept into the +corners of Margaret's mouth. + +"Yes, he approved of the plan," repeated Mr. Slocum. "Perhaps +he"--Here Mr. Slocum checked himself, and left the sentence flying at +loose ends. Perhaps Richard had looked with favor upon a method of +inquiry which was so likely to lead to no result. But Mr. Slocum did +not venture to finish the suggestion. He had never seen Margaret so +imperious and intractable; it was impossible to reason or to talk +frankly with her. He remained silent, sitting with one arm thrown +dejectedly across the back of the chair. + +Presently his abject attitude and expression began to touch +Margaret; there was something that appealed to her in the thin gray +hair fallowing over his forehead. Her eyes softened as they rested +upon him, and a pitying little tremor came to her under lip. + +"Papa," she said, stooping to his side, with a sudden rosy bloom +in her cheeks, "I have all the proof I want that Richard knew nothing +of this dreadful business." + +"You have proof!" exclaimed Mr. Slocum, starting from his seat. + +"Yes. The morning Richard went to New York"--Margaret hesitated. + +"Well!" + +"He put his arm around me and kissed me." + +"Well!" + +"Well?" repeated Margaret. "Could Richard have done that,--could +he have so much as laid his hand upon me--if--if"-- + + Mr. Slocum sunk back in the chair with a kind of groan. + +"Papa, you do not know him!" + +"Oh, Margaret, I am afraid that that is not the kind of evidence +to clear Richard in Mr. Taggett's eyes." + +"Then Richard's word must do it," she said haughtily. "He will be +home to-night." + +"Yes, he is to return to-night," said Mr. Slocum, looking away +from her. + + + + +XXII + + +During the rest of the day the name of Richard Shackford was not +mentioned again by either Margaret or her father. It was a day of +suspense to both, and long before night-fall Margaret's impatience +for Richard to come had resolved itself into a pain as keen as that +with which Mr. Slocum contemplated the coming; for every hour +augmented his dread of the events that would necessarily follow the +reappearance of young Shackford in Stillwater. + +On reaching his office, after the conversation with Margaret, Mr. +Slocum found Lawyer Perkins waiting for him. Lawyer Perkins, who was +as yet in ignorance of the late developments, had brought information +of his own. The mutilated document which had so grimly clung to its +secret was at last deciphered. It proved to be a recently executed +will, in which the greater part of Lemuel Shackford's estate, real +and personal, was left unconditionally to his cousin. + +"That disposes of one of Mr. Taggett's theories," was Mr. Slocum's +unspoken reflection. Certainly Richard had not destroyed the will; +the old man himself had destroyed it, probably in some fit of pique. +Yet, after all, the vital question was in no way affected by this +fact; the motive for the crime remained, and the fearful evidence +against Richard still held. + +After the departure of Lawyer Perkins, who had been struck by the +singular perturbation of his old friend, Mr. Slocum drew forth Mt. +Taggett's journal, and re-read it from beginning to end. Margaret's +unquestioning faith in Richard, her prompt and indignant rejection of +the whole story, had shaken her father at moments that morning; but +now his paralyzing doubts returned. This second perusal of the diary +impressed him even more strongly than the first. Richard had killed +Lemuel Shackford,--in self-defense, may be, or perhaps accidentally; +but he had killed him! As Mr. Slocum passed from page to page, +following the dark thread of narrative that darkened at each remove, +he lapsed into that illogical frame of mind when one looks half +expectantly for some providential interposition to avert the calamity +against which human means are impotent. If Richard were to drop dead +in the street! If he were to fall overboard off Point Judith in the +night! If only anything would happen to prevent his coming back! Thus +the ultimate disgrace might be spared them. But the ill thing is the +sure thing; the letter with the black seal never miscarries, and +Richard was bound to come! "There is no escape for him or for us," +murmured Mr. Slocum, closing his finger in the book. + +It was in a different mood that Margaret said to herself, "It is +nearly four o'clock; he will be here at eight!" As she stood at the +parlor window and watched the waning afternoon light making its +farewells to the flower-beds in the little square front-gardens of +the houses opposite, Margaret's heart was filled with the tenderness +of the greeting she intended to give Richard. She had never been cold +or shy in her demeanor with him, nor had she ever been quite +demonstrative; but now she meant to put her arms around his neck in a +wifely fashion, and recompense him so far as she could for all the +injustice he was to suffer. When he came to learn of the hateful +slander that had lifted its head during his absence, he should +already be in possession of the assurance of her faith. + +In the mean while the hands in Slocum's Yard were much exercised +over the unaccountable disappearance of Blake. Stevens reported the +matter to Mr. Slocum. + +"Ah, yes," said Mr. Slocum, who had not provided himself with an +explanation, and was puzzled to improvise one. "I discharged +him,--that is to say, I let him go. I forgot to mention it. He didn't +take to the trade." + +"But he showed a good fist for a beginner," said Stevens. "He was +head and shoulders the best of the new lot. Shall I put Stebbins in +his place?" + +"You needn't do anything until Mr. Shackford gets back." + +"When will that be, sir?" + +"To-night, probably." + +The unceremonious departure of Blake formed the theme of endless +speculation at the tavern that evening, and for the moment obscured +the general interest in old Shackford's murder. + +"Never to let on he was goin'!" said one. + +"Didn't say good-by to nobody," remarked a second. + +"It was devilish uncivil," added a third. + +"It is kind of mysterious," said Mr. Peters. + +"Some girl," suggested Mr. Willson, with an air of tender +sentiment, which he attempted further to emphasize by a capricious +wink. + +"No," observed Dexter. "When a man vanishes in that sudden way his +body is generally found in a clump of blackberry bushes, months +afterwards, or left somewhere on the flats by an ebb tide." + +"Two murders in Stillwater in one month would be rather crowding +it, wouldn't it?" inquired Piggott. + +"Bosh!" said Durgin. "There was always something shady about +Blake. We didn't know where he hailed from, and we don't know where +he's gone to. He'll take care of himself; that kind of fellow never +lets anybody play any points on him." With this Durgin threw away the +stump of his cigar, and lounged out at the street door. + +"I couldn't get anything out of the proprietor," said Stevens; +"but he never talks. May be Shackford when he"--Stevens stopped short +to listen to a low, rumbling sound like distant thunder, followed +almost instantly by two quick faint whistles. "He's aboard the train +to-night." + +Mr. Peters quietly rose from his seat and left the bar-room. + +The evening express, due at eight, was only a few seconds behind +time. As the screech of the approaching engine rung out from the dark +wood-land, Margaret and her father exchanged rapid glances. It would +take Richard ten minutes to walk from the railway station to the +house,--for of course he would come there directly after sending his +valise to Lime Street. + +The ten minutes went by, and then twenty. Margaret bent steadily +over her work, listening with covert intentness for the click of the +street gate. Likely enough Richard had been unable to find any one to +take charge of his hand-baggage. Presently Mr. Slocum could not +resist the impulse to look at his watch. It was half past eight. He +nervously unfolded The Stillwater Gazette, and sat with his eyes +fastened on the paper. + +After a seemingly interminable period the heavy bell of the South +Church sounded nine, and then tolled for a few minutes, as the dismal +custom is in New England country towns. + +A long silence followed, unrelieved by any word between father and +daughter,--a silence so profound that the heart of the old-fashioned +time-piece, throbbing monotonously in its dusky case at the foot of +the stairs, made itself audible through the room. Mr. Slocum's gaze +continued fixed on the newspaper which he was not reading. Margaret's +hands lay crossed over the work on her lap. + +Ten o'clock. + +"What can have kept him?" murmured Margaret. + +"There was only that way out of it," reflected Mr. Slocum, +pursuing his own line of thought. + +Margaret's cheeks were flushed and hot, and her eyes dulled with +disappointment, as she rose from the low rocking-chair and crossed +over to kiss her father good-night. Mr. Slocum drew the girl gently +towards him, and held her for a moment in silence. But Margaret, +detecting the subtile commiseration in his manner, resented it, and +released herself coldly. + +"He has been detained, papa." + +"Yes, something must have detained him!" + + + + +XXIII + + +When the down express arrived at Stillwater, that night, two +passengers stepped from the rear car to the platform: one was Richard +Shackford, and the other a commercial traveler, whose acquaintance +Richard had made the previous evening on the Fall River boat. + +There were no hacks in waiting at the station, and Richard found +his politeness put to a severe test when he saw himself obliged to +pilot his companion part of the way to the hotel, which lay--it +seemed almost maliciously--in a section of the town remote from the +Slocums'. Curbing his impatience, Richard led the stranger through +several crooked, unlighted streets, and finally left him at the +corner of the main thoroughfare, within pistol-shot of the red glass +lantern which hung over the door of the tavern. This cost Richard ten +good minutes. As he hurriedly turned into a cross-street on the left, +he fancied that he heard his name called several times from somewhere +in the darkness. A man came running towards him. It was Mr. Peters. + +"Can I say a word to you, Mr. Shackford?" + +"If it isn't a long one. I am rather pressed." + +"It is about Torrini, sir." + +"What of him?" + +"He's mighty bad, sir." + +"Oh, I can't stop to hear that," and Richard quickened his pace. + +"The doctor took off his hand last Wednesday," said Peters, +keeping alongside, "and he's been getting worse and worse." + +Richard halted. "Took off his hand?" + +"Didn't you know he was caught in the rolling-machine at Dana's? +Well, it was after you went away." + +"This is the first I've heard of it." + +"It was hard lines for him, sir, with the woman and the two +children, and nothing to eat in the house. The boys in the yard have +done what they could, but with the things from the drug-store, and so +on, we couldn't hold up our end. Mr. Dana paid the doctor's bill, +but if it hadn't been for Miss Slocum I don't know what would have +happened. I thought may be if I spoke to you, and told you how it +was"-- + +"Did Torrini send you?" + +"Lord, no! He's too proud to send to anybody. He's been so proud +since they took off his hand that there has been no doing anything +with him. If they was to take off his leg, he would turn into one +mass of pride. No, Mr. Shackford, I came of myself." + +"Where does Torrini live, now?" + +"In Mitchell's Alley." + +"I will go along with you," said Richard, with a dogged air. It +seemed as if the fates were determined to keep him from seeing +Margaret that night. Peters reached out a hand to take Richard's +leather bag. "No, thank you, I can carry it very well." In a small +morocco case in one of the pockets was a heavy plain gold ring for +Margaret, and not for anything in the world would Richard have +allowed any one else to carry the bag. + +After a brisk five minutes' walk the two emerged upon a broad +street crossing their path at right angles. All the shops were closed +except Stubbs the provision dealer's and Dundon's drug-store. In the +window of the apothecary a great purple jar, with a spray of gas jets +behind it, was flaring on the darkness like a Bengal light. Richard +stopped at the provision store and made some purchases; a little +further on he halted at a fruit stand, kept by an old crone, who had +supplemented the feeble flicker of the corner street lamp with a +pitch-pine torch, which cast a yellow bloom over her apples and +turned them all into oranges. She had real oranges, however, and +Richard selected half a dozen, with a confused idea of providing the +little Italians with some national fruit, though both children had +been born in Stillwater. + +Then the pair resumed their way, Peters acting as pioneer. They +soon passed beyond the region of sidewalks and curbstones, and began +picking their steps through a narrow, humid lane, where the water lay +in slimy pools, and the tenement houses on each side blotted out the +faint starlight. The night was sultry, and door and casement stood +wide, making pits of darkness. Few lights were visible, but a +continuous hum of voices issued from the human hives, and now and +then a transient red glow at an upper window showed that some one was +smoking a pipe. This was Mitchell's Alley. + +The shadows closed behind the two men as they moved forward, and +neither was aware of the figure which had been discreetly following +them for the last ten minutes. If Richard had suddenly wheeled and +gone back a dozen paces, he would have come face to face with the +commercial traveler. + +Mr. Peters paused in front of one of the tenement houses, and +motioned with his thumb over his shoulder for Richard to follow him +through a yawning doorway. The hall was as dark as a cave, and full +of stale, moldy odors. Peters shuffled cautiously along the bare +boards until he kicked his toe against the first step of the +staircase. + +"Keep close to the wall, Mr. Shackford, and feel your way up. +They've used the banisters for kindling, and the landlord says he +shan't put in any more. I went over here the other night," added Mr. +Peters reminiscentially. + +After fumbling several seconds for the latch, Mr. Peters pushed +open a door, and ushered Richard into a large, gloomy rear room. A +kerosene lamp was burning dimly on the mantel-shelf, over which hung +a coarsely-colored lithograph of the Virgin in a pine frame. Under +the picture stood a small black crucifix. There was little +furniture,--a cooking-stove, two or three stools, a broken table, and +a chest of drawers. On an iron bedstead in the corner lay Torrini, +muffled to the chin in a blanket, despite the hot midsummer night. +His right arm, as if it were wholly disconnected with his body, +rested in a splint on the outside of the covering. As the visitors +entered, a tall dusky woman with blurred eyes rose from a low bench +at the foot of the bed. + +"Is he awake?" asked Peters. + +The woman, comprehending the glance which accompanied the words, +though not the words themselves, nodded yes. + +"Here is Mr. Shackford come to see you, Torrini," Peters said. + +The man slowly unclosed his eyes; they were unnaturally brilliant +and dilated, and seemed to absorb the rest of his features. + +"I didn't want him." + +"Let by-gones be by-gones, Torrini," said Richard, approaching the +bedside. "I am sorry about this." + +"You are very good; I don't understand. I ask nothing of Slocum; +but the signorina comes every day, and I cannot help it. What would +you have? I'm a dead man," and he turned away his face. + +"It is not so bad as that," said Richard. + +Torrini looked up with a ghastly smile. "They have cut off the +hand that struck you, Mr. Shackford." + +"I suppose it was necessary. I am very sorry. In a little while +you will be on your feet again." + +"It is too late. They might have saved me by taking the arm, but I +would not allow them. I may last three or four days. The doctor says +it." + +Peters, standing in the shadow, jerked his head affirmatively. + +"I do not care for myself," the man continued,--"but she and the +little ones--That is what maddens me. They will starve." + +"They will not be let starve in Stillwater," said Richard. + +Torrini turned his eyes upon him wistfully and doubtfully. "You +will help them?" + +"Yes, I and others." + +"If they could be got to Italy," said Torrini, after meditating, +"it would be well. Her farther," giving a side look at the woman, "is +a fisherman of Capri." At the word Capri the woman lifted her head +quickly. "He is not rich, but he's not poor; he would take her." + +"You would wish her sent to Naples?" + +"Yes." + +"If you do not pull through, she and the children shall go there." + +"Brigida!" called Torrini; then he said something rapidly in +Italian to the woman, who buried her face in both hands, and did not +reply. + +"She has no words to thank you. See, she is tired to death, with +the children all day and me all night,--these many nights." + +"Tell her to go to bed in the other room," said Richard. "There's +another room, isn't there? I'll sit with you." + +"You?" + +"Your wife is fagged out,--that is plain. Send her to bed, and +don't talk any more. Peters, I wish you'd run and get a piece of ice +somewhere; there's no drinking-water here. Come, now, Torrini, I +can't speak Italian. Oh, I don't mind your scowling; I intend to +stay." + +Torrini slowly unknitted his brows, and an irresolute expression +stole across his face; then he called Brigida, and bade her go in +with the children. She bowed her head submissively, and fixing her +melting eyes on Richard for an instant passed into the adjoining +chamber. + +Peters shortly reappeared with the ice, and after setting a jug of +water on the table departed. Richard turned up the wick of the +kerosene lamp, which was sending forth a disagreeable odor, and +pinned an old newspaper around the chimney to screen the flame. He +had, by an odd chance, made his lampshade out of a copy of The +Stillwater Gazette containing the announcement of his cousin's death. +Richard gave a quick start as his eye caught the illuminated +head-lines,--Mysterious Murder of Lemuel Shackford! Perhaps a slight +exclamation escaped Richard's lips at the same time, for Torrini +turned and asked what was the matter. "Nothing at all," said Richard, +removing the paper, and placing another in its stead. Then he threw +open the blinds of the window looking on the back yard, and set his +hand-bag against the door to prevent it being blown to by the +draught. Torrini, without altering the rigid position of his head on +the pillow, followed every movement with a look of curious +insistence, like that of the eyes in a portrait. His preparations +completed for the night, Richard seated himself on a stool at the +foot of the bed. + +The obscurity and stillness of the room had their effect upon the +sick man, who presently dropped into a light sleep. Richard sat +thinking of Margaret, and began to be troubled because he had +neglected to send her word of his detention, which he might have done +by Peters. It was now too l ate. The town clock struck ten in the +midst of his self-reproaches. At the first clang of the bell, Torrini +awoke with a start, and asked for water. + +"If anybody comes," he said, glancing in a bewildered, anxious way +at the shadows huddled about the door, "you are not to leave me alone +with him." + +"Him? Whom? Are you expecting any one?" + +"No; but who knows? one might come. Then, you are not to go; you +are not to leave me for a second." + +"I've no thought of it," replied Richard; "you may rest easy.... +He's a trifle light in the head," was Richard's reflection. + +After that Torrini dozed rather than slumbered, rousing at brief +intervals; and whenever he awoke the feverish activity of his brain +incited him to talk,--now of Italy, and now of matters connected +with his experiences in this country. + +"Naples is a pleasant place!" he broke out in the hush of the +midnight, just as Richard was dropping off. "The band plays every +afternoon on the Chiaia. And then the _festas,_--every third day +a festa. The devil was in my body when I left there and dragged +little Brigida into all this misery. We used to walk of an evening +along the Marinella,--that's a strip of beach just beyond the Molo +Piccolo. You were never in Naples?" + +"Not I," said Richard. "Here, wet your lips, and try to go to +sleep again." + +"No, I can't sleep for thinking. When the Signorina came to see +me, the other day, her heart was pierced with pity. Like the blessed +Madonna's, her bosom bleeds for all! You will let her come +to-morrow?" + +"Yes, yes! If you will only keep quiet, Margaret shall come." + +"Margherita, we say. You are to wed her,--is it not so?" + +Richard turned down the wick of the lamp, which was blazing and +spluttering, and did not answer. Then Torrini lay silent a long +while, apparently listening to the hum of the telegraph wires +attached to one end of the roof. At odd intervals the freshening +breeze swept these wires, and awoke a low æolian murmur. The moon +rose in the mean time, and painted on the uncarpeted floor the shape +of the cherry bough that stretched across the window. It was two +o'clock; Richard sat with his head bent forward, in a drowse. + +"Now the cousin is dead, you are as rich as a prince,--are you +not?" inquired Torrini, who had lain for the last half hour with his +eyes wide open in the moonlight. + +Richard straightened himself with a jerk. + +"Torrini, I positively forbid you to talk any more!" + +"I remember you said that one day, somewhere. Where was it? Ah, in +the yard! 'You can't be allowed to speak here, you know.' And then I +struck at you,--with that hand they've taken away! See how I remember +it!" + +"Why do you bother your mind with such things? Think of just +nothing at all, and rest. Perhaps a wet cloth on your forehead will +refresh you. I wish you had a little of my genius for not keeping +awake." + +"You are tired, you?" + +"I have had two broken nights, traveling." + +"And I give you no peace?" + +"Well, no," returned Richard bluntly, hoping the admission would +induce Torrini to tranquilize himself, "you don't give me much." + +"Has any one been here?" demanded Torrini abruptly. + +"Not a soul. Good Heaven, man, do you know what time it is?" + +"I know,--I know. It's very late. I ought to keep quiet; but, the +devil! with this fever in my brain!... Mr. Shackford!" and +Torrini, in spite of his imprisoned limb, suddenly half raised +himself from the mattress. "I--I"-- + +Richard sprung to his feet. "What is it,--what do you want?" + +"Nothing," said Torrini, falling back on the pillow. + +Richard brought him a glass of water, which he refused. He lay +motionless, with his eyes shut, as if composing himself, and Richard +returned on tiptoe to his bench. A moment or two afterwards Torrini +stirred the blanket with his foot. + +"Mr. Shackford!" + +"Well?" + +"I am as grateful--as a dog." + +Torrini did not speak again. This expression of his gratitude +appeared to ease him. His respiration grew lighter and more regular, +and by and by he fell into a profound sleep. Richard watched awhile +expectantly, with his head resting against the rail of the bedstead; +then his eyelids drooped, and he too slumbered. But once or twice, +before he quite lost himself, he was conscious of Brigida's thin face +thrust like a silver wedge through the half-open door of the hall +bedroom. It was the last thing he remembered,--that sharp, pale face +peering out from the blackness of the inner chamber as his grasp +loosened on the world and he drifted off on the tide of a dream. A +narrow white hand, like a child's, seemed to be laid against his +breast. It was not Margaret's hand, and yet it was hers. No, it was +the plaster model he had made that idle summer afternoon, years and +years before he had ever thought of loving her. Strange for it to be +there! Then Richard began wondering how the gold ring would look in +the slender forefinger. He unfastened the leather bag and took out +the ring. He was vainly trying to pass it over the first joint of the +dead white finger, when the cast slipped from his hold and fell with +a crash to the floor. Richard gave a shudder, and opened his eyes. +Brigida was noiselessly approaching Torrini's bedside. Torrini still +slept. It was broad day. Through the uncurtained window Richard saw +the blue sky barred with crimson. + + + + +XXIV + + +"Richard did come home last night, after all," said Mr. Slocum, +with a flustered air, seating himself at the breakfast table. + +Margaret looked up quickly. + +"I just met Peters on the street, and he told me," added Mr. +Slocum. + +"Richard returned last night, and did not come to us!" + +"It seems that he watched with Torrini,--the man is going to die." + +"Oh," said Margaret, cooling instantly. "That was like Richard; he +never thinks of himself first. I would not have had him do +differently. Last evening you were filled with I don't know what +horrible suspicions, yet see how simply everything explains itself." + +"If I could speak candidly, Margaret, if I could express myself +without putting you into a passion, I would tell you that Richard's +passing the night with that man has given me two or three ugly +ideas." + +"Positively, papa, you are worse than Mr. Taggett." + +"I shall not say another word," replied Mr. Slocum. Then he +unfolded the newspaper lying beside him, and constructed a barrier +against further colloquy. + +An hour afterwards, when Richard threw open the door of his +private workshop, Margaret was standing in the middle of the room +waiting for him. She turned with a little cry of pleasure, and +allowed Richard to take her in his arms, and kept to the spirit and +the letter of the promise she had made to herself. If there was an +unwonted gravity in Margaret's manner, young Shackford was not keen +enough to perceive it. All that morning, wherever he went, he carried +with him a sense of Margaret's face resting for a moment against his +shoulder, and the happiness of it rendered him wholly oblivious to +the constrained and chilly demeanor of her father when they met. The +interview was purposely cut short by Mr. Slocum, who avoided Richard +the rest of the day with a persistency that must have ended in +forcing itself upon his notice, had he not been so engrossed by the +work which had accumulated during his absence. + +Mr. Slocum had let the correspondence go to the winds, and a +formidable collection of unanswered letters lay on Shackford's desk. +The forenoon was consumed in reducing the pile and settling the +questions that had risen in the shops, for Mr. Slocum had neglected +everything. Richard was speedily advised of Blake's dismissal from +the yard, but, not knowing what explanation had been offered, was +unable to satisfy Stevens' curiosity on the subject. "I must see +Slocum about that at once," reflected Richard; but the opportunity +did not occur, and he was too much pressed to make a special business +of it. + +Mr. Slocum, meanwhile, was in a wretched state of suspense and +apprehension. Justice Beemis's clerk had served some sort of legal +paper--presumably a subpoena--on Richard, who had coolly read it in +the yard under the gaze of all, and given no sign of discomposure +beyond a momentary lifting of the eyebrows. Then he had carelessly +thrust the paper into one of his pockets and continued his directions +to the men. Clearly he had as yet no suspicion of the mine that was +ready to be sprung under his feet. + +Shortly after this little incident, which Mr. Slocum had witnessed +from the window of the counting-room, Richard spoke a word or two to +Stevens, and quitted the yard. Mr. Slocum dropped into the carving +department. + +"Where is Mr. Shackford, Stevens?" + +"He has gone to Mitchell's Alley, sir. Said he'd be away an hour. +Am I to say he was wanted?" + +"No," replied Mr. Slocum, hastily; "any time will do. You needn't +mention that I inquired for him," and Mr. Slocum returned to the +counting-room. + +Before the hour expired he again distinguished Richard's voice in +the workshops, and the cheery tone of it was a positive affront to +Mr. Slocum. Looking back to the week prior to the tragedy in Welch's +Court, he recollected Richard's unaccountable dejection; he had had +the air of a person meditating some momentous step,--the pallor, the +set face, and the introspective eyes. Then came the murder, and +Richard's complete prostration. Mr. Slocum in his own excitement had +noted it superficially at the time, but now he recalled the young +man's inordinate sorrow, and it seemed rather like remorse. Was his +present immobile serenity the natural expression of a man whose heart +had suddenly ossified, and was no longer capable of throbbing with +its guilt? Richard Shackford was rapidly becoming an awful problem to +Mr. Slocum. + +Since the death of his cousin, Richard had not been so much like +his former self. He appeared to have taken up his cheerfulness at the +point where he had dropped it three weeks before. If there were any +weight resting on his mind, he bore it lightly, with a kind of +careless defiance. + +In his visit that forenoon to Mitchell's Alley he had arranged for +Mrs. Morganson, his cousin's old housekeeper, to watch with Torrini +the ensuing night. This left Richard at liberty to spend the evening +with Margaret, and finish his correspondence. Directly after tea he +repaired to the studio, and, lighting the German student-lamp, fell +to work on the letters. Margaret came in shortly with a magazine, and +seated herself near the round table at which he was writing. She had +dreaded this evening; it could scarcely pass without some mention of +Mr. Taggett, and she had resolved not to speak of him. If Richard +questioned her it would be very distressing. How could she tell +Richard that Mr. Taggett accused him of the murder of his cousin, and +that her own father half believed the accusation? No, she could never +acknowledge that. + +For nearly an hour the silence of the room was interrupted only by +the scratching of Richard's pen and the rustling of the magazine as +Margaret turned the leaf. Now and then he looked up and caught her +eye, and smiled, and went on with his task. It was a veritable return +of the old times. Margaret became absorbed in the story she was +reading and forgot her uneasiness. Her left hand rested on the pile +of answered letters, to which Richard added one at intervals, she +mechanically lifting her palm and replacing it on the fresh +manuscript. Presently Richard observed this movement and smiled in +secret at the slim white hand unconsciously making a paper-weight of +itself. He regarded it covertly for a moment, and then his disastrous +dream occurred to him. There should be no mistake this time. He drew +the small morocco case from his pocket, and leaning across the table +slipped the ring on Margaret's finger. + +Margaret gave a bewildered start, and then seeing what Richard had +done held out her hand to him with a gracious, impetuous little +gesture. + +"I meant to give it you this morning," he said, pressing his lip to +the ring, "but the daylight did not seem fine enough for it." + +"I thought you had forgotten," said Margaret, slowly turning the +band on her finger. + +"The first thing I did in New York was to go to a jeweler's for +this ring, and since then I have guarded it day and night as +dragonishly as if it had been the Koh-i-Noor diamond, or some +inestimable gem which hundreds of envious persons were lying in wait +to wrest from me. Walking the streets with this trinket in my +possession, I have actually had a sense of personal insecurity. I +seemed to invite general assault. That was being very sentimental, +was it not?" + +"Yes, perhaps." + +"That small piece of gold meant so much to me." + +"And to me," said Margaret. "Have you finished your letters?" + +"Not yet. I shall be through in ten minutes, and then we'll have +the evening to ourselves." + +Richard hurriedly resumed his writing and Margaret turned to her +novel again; but the interest had faded out of it; the figures had +grown threadbare and indistinct, like the figures in a piece of old +tapestry, and after a moment or two the magazine glided with an +unnoticed flutter into the girl's lap. She sat absently twirling the +gold loop on her finger. + +Richard added the address to the final envelope, dried it with the +blotter, and abruptly shut down the lid of the inkstand with an air +of as great satisfaction as if he had been the fisherman in the +Arabian story corking up the wicked afrite. With his finger still +pressing the leaden cover, as though he were afraid the imp of toil +would get out again, he was suddenly impressed by the fact that he +had seen very little of Mr. Slocum that day. + +"I have hardly spoken to him," he reflected. "Where is your +father, to-night?" + +"He has a headache," said Margaret. "He went to his room +immediately after supper." + +"It is nothing serious, of course." + +"I fancy not; papa is easily excited, and he had had a great deal +to trouble him lately,--the strike, and all that." + +"I wonder if Mr. Taggett has been bothering him." + +"I dare say Mr. Taggett has bothered him." + +"You knew of his being in the yard?" + +"Not while he was here. Papa told me yesterday. I think Mr. +Taggett was scarcely the person to render much assistance." + +"Then he has found nothing whatever?" + +"Nothing important." + +"But anything? Trifles are of importance in a matter like this. +Your father never wrote me a word about Taggett." + +"Mr. Taggett has made a failure of it, Richard." + +"If nothing new has transpired, then I do not understand the +summons I received to-day." + +"A summons!" + +"I've the paper somewhere. No, it is in the pocket of my other +coat. I take it there is to be a consultation of some kind at Justice +Beemis's office to-morrow." + +"I am very glad," said Margaret, with her face brightening. +To-morrow would lift the cloud which had spread itself over them all, +and was pressing down so heavily on one unconscious head. To-morrow +Richard's innocence should shine forth and confound Mr. Taggett. A +vague bitterness rose in Margaret's heart as she thought of her +father. "Let us talk of something else," she said, brusquely breaking +her pause; "let us talk of something pleasant." + +"Of ourselves, then," suggested Richard, banishing the shadow +which had gathered in his eyes at his first mention of Mr. Taggett's +name. + +"Of ourselves," repeated Margaret gayly. + +"Then you must give me your hand," stipulated Richard, drawing his +chair closer to hers. + +"There!" said Margaret. + +While this was passing, Mr. Slocum, in the solitude of his +chamber, was vainly attempting to solve the question whether he had +not disregarded all the dictates of duty and common sense in allowing +Margaret to spend the evening alone with Richard Shackford. Mr. +Slocum saw one thing with painful distinctness--that he could not +help himself. + + + + +XXV + + +The next morning Mr. Slocum did not make his appearance in the +marble yard. His half-simulated indisposition of the previous night +had turned into a genuine headache, of which he perhaps willingly +availed himself to remain in his room, for he had no desire to see +Richard Shackford that day. + +It was an hour before noon. Up to that moment Richard had been +engaged in reading and replying to the letters received by the +morning's mail, a duty which usually fell to Mr. Slocum. As Richard +stepped from the office into the yard a small boy thrust a note into +his hand, and then stood off a short distance tranquilly boring with +one toe in the loose gravel, and apparently waiting for an answer. +Shackford hastily ran his eye over the paper, and turning towards the +boy said, a little impatiently: + +"Tell him I will come at once." + +There was another person in Stillwater that forenoon whose +agitation was scarcely less than Mr. Slocum's, though it greatly +differed from it in quality. Mr. Slocum was alive to his finger-tips +with dismay; Lawyer Perkins was boiling over with indignation. It was +a complex indignation, in which astonishment and incredulity were +nicely blended with a cordial detestation of Mr. Taggett and vague +promptings to inflict some physical injury on Justice Beemis. That +he, Melanchthon Perkins, the confidential legal adviser and personal +friend of the late Lemuel Shackford, should have been kept for two +weeks in profound ignorance of proceedings so nearly touching his +lamented client! The explosion of the old lawyer's wrath was so +unexpected that Justice Beemis, who had dropped in to make the +disclosures and talk the matter over informally, clutched at his +broad-brimmed Panama hat and precipitately retreated from the office. +Mr. Perkins walked up and down the worn green drugget of his private +room for half an hour afterwards, collecting himself, and then +dispatched a hurried note to Richard Shackford, requesting an instant +interview with him at his, Lawyer Perkins's, chambers. + +When, some ten minutes subsequently, Richard entered the +low-studded square room, darkened with faded moreen curtains and +filled with a stale odor of law-calf, Mr. Perkins was seated at his +desk and engaged in transferring certain imposing red-sealed +documents to a green baize satchel which he held between his knees. +He had regained his equanimity; his features wore their usual +expression of judicial severity; nothing denoted his recent +discomposure, except perhaps an additional wantonness in the stringy +black hair falling over the high forehead,--that pallid high forehead +which always wore the look of being covered with cold perspiration. + +"Mr. Shackford," said Lawyer Perkins, suspending his operations a +second, as he saluted the young man, "I suppose I have done an +irregular thing in sending for you, but I did not see any other +course open to me. I have been your cousin's attorney for over +twenty-five years, and I've a great regard for you personally. That +must justify the step I am taking." + +"The regard is mutual, I am sure," returned Richard, rather +surprised by this friendly overture, for his acquaintance with the +lawyer had been of the slightest, though it had extended over many +years. "My cousin had very few friends, and I earnestly desire to +have them mine. If I were in any trouble, there is no one to whom I +would come as unhesitatingly as to you." + +"But you are in trouble." + +"Yes, my cousin's death was very distressing." + +"I do not mean that." Mr. Perkins paused a full moment. "The +district attorney has suddenly taken a deep interest in the case, and +there is to be a rigorous overhauling of the facts. I am afraid it is +going to be very unpleasant for you, Mr. Shackford." + +"How could it be otherwise?" asked Richard, tranquilly. + +Lawyer Perkins fixed his black eyes on him. "Then you fully +understand the situation, and can explain everything?" + +"I wish I could. Unfortunately, I can explain nothing. I don't +clearly see why I have been summoned to attend as a witness at the +investigation to be held to-day in Justice Beemis's office." + +"You are unacquainted with any special reason why your testimony +is wanted?" + +"I cannot conceive why it should be required. I gave my evidence +at the time of the inquest, and have nothing to add to it. Strictly +speaking, I have had of late years no relations with my cousin. +During the last eighteen months we have spoken together but once." + +"Have you had any conversation on this subject with Mr. Slocum +since your return from New York?" + +"No, I have had no opportunity. I was busy all day yesterday; he +was ill in the evening, and is still confined to his room." + +Mr. Perkins was manifestly embarrassed. + +"That is unfortunate," he said, laying the bag on the desk. "I +wish you had talked with Mr. Slocum. Of course you were taken into +the secret of Taggett's presence in the marble yard?" + +"Oh, yes; that was all arranged before I left home." + +"You don't know the results of that manoeuvre?" + +"There were no results." + +"On the contrary, Taggett claims to have made very important +discoveries." + +"Indeed! Why was I not told!" + +"I can't quite comprehend Mr. Slocum's silence." + +"What has Taggett discovered?" + +"Several things, upon which he builds the gravest suspicions." + +"Against whom?" + +"Against you." + +"Against me!" cried Richard, recoiling. The action was one +altogether of natural amazement, and convinced Mr. Perkins, who had +keenly watched the effect of his announcement, that young Shackford +was being very hardly used. + +Justice Beemis had given Mr. Perkins only a brief outline of the +facts, and had barely touched on details when the old lawyer's anger +had put an end to the conversation. His disgust at having been left +out in the cold, though he was in no professional way concerned in +the task of discovering the murderer of Lemuel Shackford, had caused +Lawyer Perkins instantly to repudiate Mr. Taggett's action. "Taggett +is a low, intriguing fellow," he had said to Justice Beemis; "Taggett +is a fraud." Young Shackford's ingenuous manner now confirmed Mr. +Perkins in that belief. + +Richard recovered himself in a second or two. "Why did not Mr. +Slocum mention these suspicions to me?" he demanded. + +"Perhaps he found it difficult to do so." + +"Why should he find it difficult?" + +"Suppose he believed them." + +"But he could not believe them, whatever they are." + +"Well, then, suppose he was not at liberty to speak." + +"It seems that you are, Mr. Perkins, and you owe it to me to be +explicit. What does Taggett suspect?" + +Lawyer Perkins brooded a while before replying. His practice was +of a miscellaneous sort, confined in the main to what is technically +termed office practice. Though he was frequently engaged in small +cases of assault and battery,--he could scarcely escape that in +Stillwater,--he had never conducted an important criminal case; but +when Lawyer Perkins looked up from his brief reverie, he had fully +resolved to undertake the defense of Richard Shackford. + +"I will tell you what Taggett suspects," he said slowly, "if you +will allow me to tell you in my own way. I must ask a number of +questions." + +Richard gave a half-impatient nod of assent. + +"Where were you on the night of the murder?" inquired Lawyer +Perkins, after a slight pause. + +"I spent the evening at the Slocums', until ten o'clock; then I +went home,--but not directly. It was moonlight, and I walked about, +perhaps for an hour." + +"Did you meet any one?" + +"Not that I recollect. I walked out of town, on the turnpike." + +"When you returned to your boarding-house, did you meet any one?" + +"No, I let myself in with a pass-key. The family had retired, with +the exception of Mr. Pinkham." + +"Then you saw him?" + +"No, but I heard him; he was playing on the flute at his chamber +window, or near it. He always plays on the flute when he can't +sleep." + +"What o'clock was that?" + +"It must have been after eleven." + +"Your stroll was confined to the end of the town most remote from +Welch's Court?" + +"Yes, I just cruised around on the outskirts." + +"I wish you had spoken with somebody that night." + +"The streets were deserted. I wasn't likely to meet persons on the +turnpike." + +"However, some one may have seen you without your knowing it?" + +"Yes," said Richard curtly. He was growing restive under these +interrogations, the drift of which was plain enough to be +disagreeable. Moreover, Mr. Perkins had insensibly assumed the tone +and air of a counsel cross-examining a witness on the other side. +This nocturnal cruise, whose direction and duration were known only +to young Shackford, struck Lawyer Perkins unpleasantly. He meditated +a moment before putting the next question. + +"Were you on good terms--I mean fairly good terms--with your +cousin?" + +"No," said Richard; "but the fault was not mine. He never liked +me. As a child I annoyed him, I suppose, and when I grew up I +offended him by running away to sea. My mortal offense, however, was +accepting a situation in Slocum's Yard. I have been in my cousin's +house only twice in three years." + +"When was the last time?" + +"A day or two previous to the strike." + +"As you were not in the habit of visiting the house, you must have +had some purpose in going there. What was the occasion?" + +Richard hung his head thoughtfully. "I went there to talk over +family matters,--to inform him of my intended marriage to Margaret +Slocum. I wanted his good-will and support. Mr. Slocum had offered to +take me into the business. I thought perhaps my cousin Lemuel, seeing +how prosperous I was, would be more friendly to me." + +"Did you wish him to lend you capital?" + +"I didn't expect or wish him to; but there was some question of +that." + +"And he refused?" + +"Rather brutally, if I may say so now." + +"Was there a quarrel?" + +Richard hesitated. + +"Of course I don't press you," said Mr. Perkins, with some +stiffness. "You are not on the witness stand." + +"I began to think I was--in the prisoner's dock," answered +Richard, smiling ruefully. "However, I have nothing to conceal. I +hesitated to reply to you because it was painful for me to reflect +that the last time I saw my cousin we parted in anger. He charge me +with attempting to overreach him, and I left the house in +indignation." + +"That was the last time you saw him?" + +"The last time I saw him alive." + +"Was there any communication between you two after that?" + +"No." + +"None whatever?" + +"None." + +"Are you quite positive?" + +"As positive as I can be that I live and have my senses." + +Lawyer Perkins pulled a black strand of hair over his forehead, +and remained silent for nearly a minute. + +"Mr. Shackford, are you sure that your cousin did not write a note +to you on the Monday preceding the night of his death?" + +"He may have written a dozen, for all I know. I only know that I +never received a note or a letter from him in the whole course of my +life." + +"Then how do you account for the letter which has been found in +your rooms in Lime Street,--a letter addressed to you by Lemuel +Shackford, and requesting you to call at his house on that fatal +Tuesday night?" + +"I--I know nothing about it," stammered Richard. "There is no such +paper!" + +"It was in this office less than one hour ago," said Lawyer +Perkins sternly. "It was brought here for me to identify Lemuel +Shackford's handwriting. Justice Beemis has that paper!" + +"Justice Beemis has it!" exclaimed Richard. + +"I have nothing more to say," observed Lawyer Perkins, reaching +out his hand towards the green bag, as a sign that the interview was +ended. "There were other points I wished to have some light thrown +on; but I have gone far enough to see that it is useless." + +"What more is there?" demanded Richard in a voice that seemed to +come through a fog. "I insist on knowing! You suspect me of my +cousin's murder?" + +"Mr. Taggett does." + +"And you?" + +"I am speaking of Mr. Taggett." + +"Well, go on, speak of him," said Richard desperately. "What else +has he discovered?" + +Mr. Perkins wheeled his chair round until he faced the young man. + +"He has discovered in your workshop a chisel with a peculiar break +in the edge,--a deep notch in the middle of the bevel. With that +chisel Lemuel Shackford was killed." + +Richard gave a perceptible start, and put his hand to his head, as +if a sudden confused memory had set the temples throbbing. + +"A full box of safety matches," continued Mr. Perkins, in a cold, +measured voice, as though he were demonstrating a mathematical +problem, "contains one hundred matches. Mr. Taggett has discovered a +box that contains only ninety-nine. The missing match was used that +night in Welch's Court." + +Richard stared at him blankly. "What can I say?" he gasped. + +"Say nothing to me," returned Lawyer Perkins, hastily thrusting a +handful of loose papers into the open throat of the green bag, which +he garroted an instant afterwards with a thick black cord. Then he +rose flurriedly from the chair. "I shall have to leave you," he said; +"I've an appointment at the surrogate's." + +And Lawyer Perkins passed stiffly from the apartment. + +Richard lingered a moment alone in the room with his chin resting +on his breast. + + + + +XXVI + + +There was a fire in Richard's temples as he reeled out of Lawyer +Perkins's office. It was now twelve o'clock, and the streets were +thronged with the motley population disgorged by the various mills +and workshops. Richard felt that every eye was upon him; he was +conscious of something wild in his aspect that must needs attract the +attention of the passers-by. At each step he half expected the +leveling of some accusing finger. The pitiless sunshine seemed to +single him out and stream upon him like a calcium light. It was +intolerable. He must get away from this jostling crowd, this babel of +voices. What should he do, where should he go? To return to the yard +and face the workmen was not to be thought of; if he went to his +lodgings he would be called to dinner, and have to listen to the +inane prattle of the school-master. That would be even more +intolerable than this garish daylight, and these careless squads of +men and women who paused in the midst of their laugh to turn and +stare. Was there no spot in Stillwater where a broken man could hide +himself long enough to collect his senses? + +With his hands thrust convulsively into the pockets of his +sack-coat, Richard turned down a narrow passage-way fringing the rear +of some warehouses. As he hurried along aimlessly his fingers +encountered something in one of his pockets. It was the key of a new +lock which had been put on the scullery door of the house in Welch's +Court. Richard's heart gave a quick throb. There at least was a +temporary refuge; he would go there and wait until it was time for +him to surrender himself to the officers. + +It appeared to Richard that he was nearly a year reaching the +little back yard of the lonely house. He slipped into the scullery +and locked the door, wondering if his movements had been observed +since he quitted the main street. Here he drew a long breath and +looked around him; then he began wandering restlessly through the +rooms, of which there were five or six on the ground-floor. The +furniture, the carpets, and all the sordid fixtures of the house were +just as Richard had known them in his childhood. Everything was +unchanged, even to the faded peacock-feather stuck over the parlor +looking-glass. As he regarded the familiar objects and breathed the +snuffy atmosphere peculiar to the place, the past rose so vividly +before him that he would scarcely have been startled if a lean, gray +old man had suddenly appeared in one of the doorways. On a peg in the +front hall hung his cousin's napless beaver hat, satirically ready to +be put on; in the kitchen closet a pair of ancient shoes, worn down +at the heel and with taps on the toe, had all the air of intending to +step forth. The shoes had been carefully blacked, but a thin skin of +mould had gathered over them. They looked like Lemuel Shackford. They +had taken a position habitual with him. Richard was struck by the +subtile irony which lay in these inanimate things. That a man's hat +should outlast the man, and have a jaunty expression of triumph! That +a dead man's shoes should mimic him! + +The tall eight-day clock on the landing had run down. It had +stopped at twelve, and it now stood with solemnly uplifted finger, as +if imposing silence on those small, unconsidered noises which +commonly creep out, like mice, only at midnight. The house was full +of such stealthy sounds. The stairs creaked at intervals, +mysteriously, as if under the weight of some heavy person ascending. +Now and then the woodwork stretched itself with a snap, as though it +had grown stiff in the joints with remaining so long in one position. +At times there were muffled reverberations of footfalls on the +flooring overhead. Richard had a curious consciousness of not being +alone, but of moving in the midst of an invisible throng of persons +who elbowed him softly and breathed in his face, and vaguely +impressed themselves upon him as being former occupants of the +premises. This populous solitude, this silence with its busy +interruptions, grew insupportable as he passed from room to room. + +One chamber he did not enter,--the chamber in which his cousin's +body was found that Wednesday morning. In Richard's imagination it +was still lying there, white and piteous, by the hearth. He paused at +the threshold and glanced in; then turned abruptly and mounted the +staircase. + +On gaining his old apartment in the gable, Richard seated himself +on the edge of the cot-bed. His shoulders sagged down and a stupefied +expression settled upon his face, but his brain was in a tumult. His +own identity was become a matter of doubt to him. Was he the same +Richard Shackford who had found life so sweet when he awoke that +morning? IT must have been some other person who had sat by a window +in the sunrise thinking of Margaret Slocum's love,--some Richard +Shackford with unstained hands! This one was accused of murdering his +kinsman; the weapon with which he had done it, the very match he had +used to light him in the deed, were known! The victim himself had +written out the accusation in black and white. Richard's brain reeled +as he tried to fix his thought on Lemuel Shackford's letter. That +letter!--where had it been all this while, and how did it come into +Taggett's possession? Only one thing was clear to Richard in his +inextricable confusion,--he was not going to be able to prove his +innocence; he was a doomed man, and within the hour his shame would +be published to the world. Rowland Slocum and Lawyer Perkins had +already condemned him, and Margaret would condemn him when she knew +all; for it was evident that up to last evening she had not been +told. How did it happen that these overwhelming proofs had rolled +themselves up against him? What malign influences were these at work, +hurrying him on to destruction, and not leaving a single loophole of +escape? Who would believe the story of his innocent ramble on the +turnpike that Tuesday night? Who could doubt that he had gone +directly from the Slocums' to Welch's Court, and then crept home +red-handed through the deserted streets? + +Richard heard the steam-whistles recalling the operatives to work, +and dimly understood it was one o'clock; but after that he paid no +attention to the lapse of time. It was an hour later, perhaps two +hours,--Richard could not tell,--when he roused himself from his +stupor, and descending the stairs passed through the kitchen into the +scullery. There he halted and leaned against the sink, irresolute, as +though his purpose, if he had had a purpose, were escaping him. He +stood with his eyes resting listlessly on a barrel in the further +corner of the apartment. It was a heavy-hooped wine-cask, in which +Lemuel Shackford had been wont to keep his winter's supply of salted +meat. Suddenly Richard started forward with an inarticulate cry, and +at the same instant there came a loud knocking at the door behind +him. The sound reverberated through the empty house, filling the +place with awful echoes,--like those knocks at the gate of Macbeth's +castle the night of Duncan's murder. Richard stood petrified for a +second; then he hastily turned the key in the lock, and Mr. Taggett +stepped into the scullery. + +The two men exchanged swift glances. The bewildered air of a +moment before had passed from Richard; the dullness had faded out of +his eyes, leaving them the clear, alert expression they ordinarily +wore. He was self-possessed, but the effort his self-possession cost +him was obvious. There was a something in his face--a dilation of the +nostril, a curve of the under lip--which put Mr. Taggett very much on +his guard. Mr. Taggett was the first to speak. + +"I've a disagreeable mission here," he said slowly, with his hand +remaining on the latch of the door, which he had closed on entering. +"I have a warrant for your arrest, Mr. Shackford." + +"Stop a moment!" said Richard, with a glow in his eyes. "I have +something to say." + +"I advise you not to make any statement." + +"I understand my position perfectly, Mr. Taggett, and I shall +disregard the advice. After you have answered me one or two +questions, I shall be quite at your service." + +"If you insist, then." + +"You were present at the examination of Thomas Blufton and William +Durgin, were you not?" + +"I was." + +"You recollect William Durgin's testimony?" + +"Most distinctly." + +"He stated that the stains on his clothes were from a certain +barrel, the head of which had been freshly painted red." + +"I remember." + +"Mr. Taggett, _the head of that barrel was painted blue!"_ + + + + +XXVII + + +Mr. Taggett, in spite of the excellent subjection under which he +held his nerves, caught his breath at these words, and a transient +pallor overspread his face as he followed the pointing of Richard's +finger. If William Durgin had testified falsely on that point, if he +had swerved a hair's-breadth from the truth in that matter, then +there was but one conclusion to be drawn from his perjury. A flash of +lightning is not swifter than was Mr. Taggett's thought in grasping +the situation. In an instant he saw all his carefully articulated +case fall to pieces in his hands. Richard crossed the narrow room, +and stood in front of him. + +"Mr. Taggett, do you know why William Durgin lied? He lied because +it was life or death with him! In a moment of confusion he had +committed one of those simple, fatal blunders which men in his +circumstances always commit. He had obliterated the spots on his +clothes with red paint, when he ought to have used blue!" + +"That is a very grave supposition." + +"It is not a supposition," cried Richard. "The daylight is not a +plainer fact." + +"You are assuming too much, Mr. Shackford." + +"I am assuming nothing. Durgin has convicted himself; he has +fallen into a trap of his own devising. I charge him with the murder +of Lemuel Shackford; I charge him with taking the chisel and the +matches from my workshop, to which he had free access; and I charge +him with replacing those articles in order to divert suspicion upon +me. My unfortunate relations with my cousin gave color to this +suspicion. The plan was an adroit plan, and has succeeded, it seems." + +Mr. Taggett did not reply at once, and then very coldly: "You will +pardon me for suggesting it, but it will be necessary to ascertain if +this is the cask which Durgin hoped, and also if the head has not +been repainted since." + +"I understand what your doubt implies. It is your duty to assure +yourself of these facts, and nothing can be easier. The person who +packed the meat--it was probably a provision dealer named +Stubbs--will of course be able to recognize his own work. The other +question you can settle with a scratch of your penknife. You see. +There has been only one thin coat of paint laid on,--the grain of the +wood is nearly distinguishable through it. The head is evidently new; +but the cask itself is an old one. It has stood here these ten +years." + +Mr. Taggett bent a penetrating look on Richard. "Why did you +refuse to answer the subpoena, Mr. Shackford?" + +"But I haven't refused. I was on my way to Justice Beemis's office +when you knocked. Perhaps I am a trifle late," added Richard, +catching Mr. Taggett's distrustful glance. + +"The summons said two o'clock," remarked Mr. Taggett, pressing the +spring of his watch. "It is now after three." + +"After three!" + +"How could you neglect it,--with evidence of such presumable +importance in your hands?" + +"It was only a moment ago that I discovered this. I had come here +from Mr. Perkins's office. Mr. Perkins had informed me of the +horrible charge which was to be laid at my door. The intelligence +fell upon me like a thunder-clap. I think it unsettled my reason for +a while. I was unable to put two ideas together. At first he didn't +believe I had killed my cousin, and presently he seemed to believe +it. When I got out in the street the sidewalk lurched under my feet +like the deck of a ship; everything swam before me. I don't know how +I managed to reach this house, and I don't know how long I had been +sitting in a room up-stairs when the recollection of the subpoena +occurred to me. I was standing here dazed with despair; I saw that I +was somehow caught in the toils, and that it was going to be +impossible to prove my innocence. If another man had been in my +position, I should have believed him guilty. I stood looking at the +cask in the corner there, scarcely conscious of it; then I noticed +the blue paint on the head, and then William Durgin's testimony +flashed across my mind. Where is he?" cried Richard, turning swiftly. +"That man should be arrested!" + +"I am afraid he is gone," said Mr. Taggett, biting his lip. + +"Do you mean he has fled?" + +"If you are correct--he has fled. He failed to answer the summons +to-day, and the constable sent to look him up has been unable to find +him. Durgin was in the bar-room of the tavern at eight o'clock last +night; he has not been seen since." + +"He was not in the yard this morning. You have let him slip +through your fingers." + +"So it appears, for the moment." + +"You still doubt me, Mr. Taggett?" + +"I don't let persons slip through my fingers." + +Richard curbed an impatient rejoinder, and said quietly, "William +Durgin had an accomplice." + +Mr. Taggett flushed, as if Richard had read his secret thought. +Durgin's flight, if he really had fled, had suggested a fresh +possibility to Mr. Taggett. What if Durgin were merely the pliant +instrument of the cleverer man who was now using him as a shield? +This reflection was precisely in Mr. Taggett's line. In absconding +Durgin had not only secured his own personal safety, but had +exonerated his accomplice. It was a desperate step to take, but it +was a skillful one. + +"He had an accomplice?" repeated Mr. Taggett, after a moment. "Who +was it?" + +"Torrini!" + +"The man who was hurt the other day?" + +"Yes." + +"You have grounds for your assertion?" + +"He and Durgin were intimate, and have been much together lately. +I sat up with Torrini the night before last; he acted and talked very +strangely; the man was out of his head part of the time, but now, as +I think it over, I am convinced that he had this matter on his mind, +and was hinting at it. I believe he would have made disclosures if I +had urged him a little. He was evidently in great dread of a visit +from some person, and that person was Durgin. Torrini ought to be +questioned without delay; he is very low, and may die at any moment. +He is lying in a house at the further end of the town. If it is not +imperative that I should report myself to Justice Beemis, we had +better go there at once." + +Mr. Taggett, who had been standing with his head half bowed, +lifted it quickly as he asked the question, "Why did you withhold +Lemuel Shackford's letter?" + +"It was never in my possession, Mr. Taggett," said Richard, +starting. "That paper is something I cannot explain at present. I can +hardly believe in its existence, though Mr. Perkins declares that he +has had it in his hands, and it would be impossible for him to make a +mistake in my cousin's writing." + +"The letter was found in your lodgings." + +"So I was told. I don't understand it." + +"That explanation will not satisfy the prosecuting attorney." + +"I have only one theory about it," said Richard slowly. + +"What is that?" + +"I prefer not to state it now. I wish to stop at my boarding-house +on the way to Torrini's; it will not be out of our course." + +Mr. Taggett gave silent acquiescence to this. Richard opened the +scullery door, and the two passed into the court. Neither spoke until +they reached Lime Street. Mrs. Spooner herself answered Richard's +ring, for he had purposely dispensed with the use of his pass-key. + +"I wanted to see you a moment, Mrs. Spooner," said Richard, making +no motion to enter the hall. "Thanks, we will not come in. I merely +desire to ask you a question. Were you at home all day on that Monday +immediately preceding my cousin's death?" + +"No," replied Mrs. Spooner wonderingly, with her hand still resting +on the knob. "I wasn't at home at all. I spent the day and part of the +night with my daughter Maria Ann at South Millville. It was a boy," +added Mrs. Spooner, quite irrelevantly, smoothing her ample apron with +the disengaged hand. + +"Then Janet was at home," said Richard. "Call Janet." + +A trim, intelligent-looking Nova Scotia girl was summoned from the +basement kitchen. + +"Janet," said Richard, "do you remember the day, about three weeks +ago, that Mrs. Spooner was absent at South Millville?" + +"Yes," replied the girl, without hesitation. "It was the day +before"--and then she stopped. + +"Exactly; it was the day before my cousin was killed. Now I want +you to recollect whether any letter or note or written message of any +description was left for me at this house on that day." + +Janet reflected. "I think there was, Mr. Richard,--a bit of paper +like." + +Mr. Taggett riveted his eyes on the girl. + +"Who brought the paper?" demanded Richard. + +"It was one of the Murphy boys, I think." + +"Did you hand it to me?" + +"No, Mr. Richard, you had gone out. It was just after breakfast." + +"You gave it to me when I came home to dinner, then?" + +"No," returned Janet, becoming confused with a dim perception that +something had gone wrong and she was committing herself. + +"I remember, I didn't come home. I dined at the Slocums'. What did +you do with that paper?" + +"I put it on the table in your room up-stairs." + +Mr. Taggett's eyes gleamed a little at this. + +"And that is all you can say about it?" inquired Richard, with a +fallen countenance. + +Janet reflected. She reflected a long while this time. "No, Mr. +Shackford: an hour or so afterwards, when I went up to do the +chamber-work, I saw that the wind had blow the paper off of the +table. I picked up the note and put it back; but the wind blew it off +again." + +"What then?" + +"Then I shut up the note in one of the big books, meaning to tell +you of it, and--and I forgot it! Oh, Mr. Richard, have I done +something dreadful?" + +"Dreadful!" cried Richard. "Janet, I could hug you!" + +"Oh, Mr. Richard," said Janet with a little coquettish movement +natural to every feminine thing, bird, flower, or human being, +"you've always such a pleasant way with you." + +Then there was a moment of dead silence. Mrs. Spooner saw that the +matter, whatever it was, was settled. + +"You needn't wait, Janet!" she said, with a severe, mystified air. + +"We are greatly obliged to you, Mrs. Spooner, not to mention +Janet," said Richard; "and if Mr. Taggett has no questions to ask we +will not detain you." + +Mrs. Spooner turned her small amiable orbs on Richard's companion. +That silent little man Mr. Taggett! "He doesn't look like much," was +the landlady's unuttered reflection; and indeed he did not present a +spirited appearance. Nevertheless Mrs. Spooner followed him down the +street with her curious gaze until he and Richard passed out of +sight. + +Neither Richard nor Mr. Taggett was disposed to converse as they +wended their way to Mitchell's Alley. Richard's ire was slowly +kindling at the shameful light in which he had been placed by Mr. +Taggett, and Mr. Taggett was striving with only partial success to +reconcile himself to the idea of young Shackford's innocence. Young +Shackford's innocence was a very awkward thing for Mr. Taggett, for +he had irretrievably committed himself at head-quarters. With +Richard's latent ire was mingled a feeling of profound gratitude. + +"The Lord was on my side," he said presently. + +"He was on your side, as you remark; and when the Lord is on a +man's side a detective necessarily comes out second best." + +"Really, Mr. Taggett," said Richard, smiling, "that is a handsome +admission on your part." + +"I mean, sir," replied the latter, slightly nettled, "that it +sometimes seems as if the Lord himself took charge of a case." + +"Certainly you are entitled to the credit of going to the bottom +of this one." + +"I have skillfully and laboriously damaged my reputation, Mr. +Shackford." + +Mr. Taggett said this with so heavy an air that Richard felt a +stir of sympathy in his bosom. + +"I am very sorry," he said good-naturedly. + +"No, I beg of you!" exclaimed Mr. Taggett. "Any expression of +friendliness from you would finish me! For nearly ten days I have +looked upon you as a most cruel and consummate villain." + +"I know," said Richard. "I must be quite a disappointment to you, +in a small way." + +Mr. Taggett laughed in spite of himself. "I hope I don't take a +morbid view of it," he said. A few steps further on he relaxed his +gait. "We have taken the Hennessey girl into custody. Do you imagine +she was concerned?" + +"Have you questioned her?" + +"Yes; she denies everything, except that she told Durgin you had +quarreled with the old gentleman." + +"I think Mary Hennessey an honest girl. She's little more than a +child. I doubt if she knew anything whatever. Durgin was much too +shrewd to trust her, I fancy." + +As the speakers struck into the principal street, through the +lower and busier end of which they were obliged to pass, Mr. Taggett +caused a sensation. The drivers of carts and the pedestrians on both +sidewalks stopped and looked at him. The part he had played in +Slocum's Yard was now an open secret, and had produced an excitement +that was not confined to the clientèle of Snelling's bar-room. It was +known that William Durgin had disappeared, and that the constables +were searching for him. The air was thick with flying projectures, +but none of them precisely hit the mark. One rumor there was which +seemed almost like a piece of poetical justice,--a whisper to the +effect that Rowland Slocum was suspected of being in some way mixed +up with the murder. The fact that Lawyer Perkins, with his green bag +streaming in the wind, so to speak, had been seen darting into Mr. +Slocum's private residence at two o'clock that afternoon was +sufficient to give birth to the horrible legend. + +"Mitchell's Alley," said Mr. Taggett, thrusting his arm through +Richard's, and hurrying on the escape the Stillwater gaze. "You went +there directly from the station the night you got home." + +"How did you know that?" + +"I was told by a fellow-traveler of yours,--and a friend of mine." + +"By Jove! Did it ever strike you, Mr. Taggett, that there is such +a thing as being too clever?" + +"It has occurred to me recently." + +"Here is the house." + +Two sallow-skinned children, with wide, wistful black eyes, who +were sitting on the stone step, shyly crowded themselves together +against the door-jamb to make passage-way for Richard and Mr. +Taggett. Then the two pairs of eyes veered round inquiringly, and +followed the strangers up the broken staircase and saw one of them +knock at the door which faced the building. + +Richard's hasty tap bringing no response, he lifted the latch +without further ceremony and stepped into the chamber, Mr. Taggett a +pace or two behind him. The figure of Father O'Meara slowly rising +from a kneeling posture at the bedside was the first object that met +their eyes; the second was Torrini's placid face, turned a little on +the pillow; the third was Brigida sitting at the foot of the bed, +motionless, with her arms wrapped in her apron. + +"He is dead," said the priest softly, advancing a step towards +Richard. "You are too late. He wanted to see you, Mr. Shackford, but +you were not to be found." + +Richard sent a swift glance over the priest's shoulder. "He wanted +to tell me what part he had played in my cousin's murder?" said +Richard. + +"God forbid! the wretched man had many a sin on his soul, but not +that." + +"Not that!" + +"No; he had no hand in it,--no more than you or I. His fault was +that he concealed his knowledge of the deed after it was done. He did +not even suspect who committed the crime until two days' afterwards, +when William Durgin"-- + +Richard's eyes lighted up as they encountered Mr. Taggett's. The +priest mistook the significance of the glances. + + +"No," said Father O'Meara, indicating Brigida with a quick motion +of his head, "the poor soul does not understand a word. But even if +she did, I should have to speak of these matters here and now, while +they are fresh in my mind. I am obeying the solemn injunctions of the +dead. Two days after the murder William Durgin came to Torrini and +confessed the deed, offering to share with him a large sum in gold +and notes if he would hide the money temporarily. Torrini agreed to +do so. Later Durgin confided to him his plan of turning suspicion +upon you, Mr. Shackford; indeed, of directly charging you with the +murder, if the worst came to the worst. Torrini agreed to that also, +because of some real or fancied injury at your hands. It seems that +the implement which Durgin had employed in forcing the scullery +door--the implement which he afterwards used so mercilessly--had been +stolen from your workshop. The next morning Durgin put the tool back +in its place, not knowing what other disposition to make of it, and +it was then that the idea of shouldering the crime upon you entered +his wicked heart. According to Torrini, Durgin did not intend to harm +the old gentleman, but simply to rob him. The unfortunate man was +awakened by the noise Durgin made in breaking open the safe, and +rushed in to his doom. Having then no fear of interruption, Durgin +leisurely ransacked the house. How he came across the will, and +destroyed it with the idea that he was putting the estate out of your +possession--this and other details I shall give you by and by." + +Father O'Meara paused a moment. "After the accident at the mill +and the conviction that he was not to recover, Torrini's conscience +began to prick him. When he reflected on Miss Slocum's kindness to +his family during the strike, when he now saw her saving his wife and +children from absolute starvation, he was nearly ready to break the +oath with which he had bound himself to William Durgin. Curiously +enough, this man, so reckless in many things, held his pledged word +sacred. Meanwhile his wavering condition became apparent to Durgin, +who grew alarmed, and demanded the stolen property. Torrini refused +to give it up; even his own bitter necessities had not tempted him to +touch a penny of it. For the last three days he was in deadly terror +lest Durgin should wrest the money from him by force. The poor woman, +here, knows nothing of all this. It was her presence, however, which +probably prevented Durgin from proceeding to extremities with +Torrini, who took care never to be left alone." + +"I recollect," said Richard, "the night I watched with him he was +constantly expecting some one. I supposed him to be wandering in his +mind." + +"He was expecting Durgin, though Torrini had every reason for +believing that he had fled." + +Mr. Taggett leaned forward, and asked, "When did he go,--and +where?" + +"He was too cunning to confide his plans to Torrini. Three nights +ago Durgin came here and begged for a portion of the bank-note; +previously he had reclaimed the whole sum; he said the place was +growing too warm for him, and that he had made up his mind to leave. +But Torrini held on to the money, having resolved that it should be +restored intact to you. He promised Durgin, however, to keep his +flight secret for three or four days, at the end of which time +Torrini meant to reveal all to me at confession. The night you sat +with him, Mr. Shackford, he was near breaking his promise; your +kindness was coals of fire on his head. His agony, lest he should die +or lose his senses before he could make known the full depth of +Durgin's villainy, must have been something terrible. This is the +substance of what the poor creature begged me to say to you with his +dying regrets. The money is hidden somewhere under the mattress, I +believe. A better man than Torrini would have spent some of it," +added Father O'Meara, waving a sort of benediction in the direction +of the bed. + +Richard did not speak for a moment or two. The wretchedness and +grimness of it all smote him to the heart. When he looked up Mr. +Taggett was gone, and the priest was gently drawing the coverlet over +Torrini's face. + +Richard approached Father O'Meara and said: "When the money is +found, please take charge of it, and see that every decent +arrangement is made. I mean, spare nothing. I am a Protestant, but I +believe in any man's prayers when they are not addressed to a heathen +image. I promised Torrini to send his wife and children to Italy. +This pitiful, miserable gold, which cost so dear and is worth so +little, shall be made to do that much good, at least." + +As Richard was speaking, a light footfall sounded on the staircase +outside; then the door, which stood ajar, was softly pushed open, and +Margaret paused on the threshold. At the rustle of her dress Richard +turned, and hastened towards her. + +"It is all over," he said softly, laying his finger on his lip. +Father O'Meara was again kneeling by the bedside. + +"Let us go now," whispered Richard to Margaret. It seemed fit that +they should leave the living and the dead to the murmured prayers and +solemn ministration of the kindly priest. Such later services as +Margaret could render to the bereaved woman were not to be wanting. + +At the foot of the stairs Richard Shackford halted abruptly, and, +oblivious of the two children who were softly chattering together in +the doorway, caught Margaret's hand in his. + +"Margaret, Torrini has made a confession that sets at rest all +question of my cousin's death." + +"Do you mean that he"--Margaret faltered, and left the sentence +unfinished. + +"No; it was William Durgin, God forgive him!" + +"William Durgin!" The young girl's fingers closed nervously on +Richard's as she echoed the name, and she began trembling. +"That--that is stranger yet!" + +"I will tell you everything when we get home; this is no time or +place; but one thing I must ask you now and here. When you sat with +me last night were you aware that Mr. Taggett firmly believed it was +I who had killed Lemuel Shackford?" + +"Yes," said Margaret. + +"That is all I care to know!" cried Richard; "that consoles me!" +and the two pairs of great inquisitive eyes looking up from the stone +step saw the signorina standing quite mute and colorless with the +strange gentleman's arms around her. And the signorina was smiling! + + + + +XXVIII + + +One June Morning, precisely a year from that morning when the +reader first saw the daylight breaking upon Stillwater, several +workmen with ladders and hammers were putting up a freshly painted +sign over the gate of the marble yard. Mr. Slocum and Richard stood +on the opposite curbstone, to which they had retired in order to take +in the general effect. The new sign read,--Slocum & Shackford. +Richard protested against the displacement of its weather-stained +predecessor; it seemed to him an act little short of vandalism; but +Mr. Slocum was obstinate, and would have it done. He was secretly +atoning for a deep injustice, into which Richard had been at once too +sensitive and too wise closely to inquire. If Mr. Slocum had harbored +a temporary doubt of him Richard did not care to know it; it was +quite enough to suspect the fact. His sufficient recompense was that +Margaret had not doubted. They had now been married six months. The +shadow of the tragedy in Welch's Court had long ceased to oppress +them; it had vanished with the hasty departure of Mr. Taggett. +Neither he nor William Durgin was ever seen again in the flesh in +Stillwater; but they both still led, and will probably continue for +years to lead, a sort of phantasmal, legendary life in Snelling's +bar-room. Durgin in his flight had left no traces. From time to time, +as the months rolled on, a misty rumor was blown to the town of his +having been seen in some remote foreign city,--now in one place, and +now in another, always on the point of departing, self-pursued like +the Wandering Jew; but nothing authentic. His after-fate was to be a +sealed book in Stillwater. + +"I really wish you had let the old sign stand," said Richard, as +the carpenters removed the ladders. "The yard can never be anything +but Slocum's Yard." + +"It looks remarkably well up there," replied Mr. Slocum, shading +his eyes critically with one hand. "You object to the change, but for +my part I don't object to changes. I trust I may live to see the day +when even this sign will have to be altered to--Slocum, Shackford & +Son. How would you like that?" + +"I can't say," returned Richard laughing, as they passed into the +yard together. "I should first have to talk it over--with the son!" + +The End + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Stillwater Tragedy, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STILLWATER TRAGEDY *** + +***** This file should be named 5435-8.txt or 5435-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/3/5435/ + +Produced by This eBook was created by Charles Aldarondo +(pg@aldarondo.net). + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Stillwater Tragedy + +Author: Thomas Bailey Aldrich + +Release Date: April, 2004 [EBook #5435] +Posting Date: July 11, 2010 +[This file last updated on July 21, 2010] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STILLWATER TRAGEDY *** + + + + +Produced by This eBook was created by Charles Aldarondo +(pg@aldarondo.net). + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1 align="center">The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Stillwater +Tragedy, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich</h1> + +<h2 align="center">(#8 in our series by Thomas Bailey +Aldrich)</h2> + +<h1>The Stillwater Tragedy</h1> + +<p>By Thomas Bailey Aldrich</p> + +<h2>I</h2> + +<p>It is close upon daybreak. The great wall of pines and +hemlocks that keep off the west wind from Stillwater stretches +black and indeterminate against the sky. At intervals a dull, +metallic sound, like the guttural twang of a violin string, rises +form the frog-invested swamp skirting the highway. Suddenly the +birds stir in their nests over there in the woodland, and break +into that wild jargoning chorus with which they herald the advent +of a new day. In the apple-orchards and among the plum-trees of +the few gardens in Stillwater, the wrens and the robins and the +blue-jays catch up the crystal crescendo, and what a melodious +racket they make of it with their fifes and flutes and +flageolets!</p> + +<p>The village lies in a trance like death. Possibly not a soul +hears this music, unless it is the watchers at the bedside of Mr. +Leonard Tappleton, the richest man in town, who has lain dying +these three days, and cannot last until sunrise. Or perhaps some +mother, drowsily hushing her wakeful baby, pauses a moment and +listens vacantly to the birds singing. But who else?</p> + +<p>The hubbub suddenly ceases,--ceases as suddenly as it +began,--and all is still again in the woodland. But it is not so +dark as before. A faint glow of white light is discernible behind +the ragged line of the tree-tops. The deluge of the darkness is +receding from the face of the earth, as the mighty waters receded +of old.</p> + +<p>The roofs and tall factory chimneys of Stillwater are slowly +taking shape in the gloom. Is that a cemetery coming into view +yonder, with its ghostly architecture of obelisks and broken +columns and huddled head-stones? No, that is only Slocum's Marble +Yard, with the finished and unfinished work heaped up like +snowdrifts,--a cemetery in embryo. Here and there in an outlying +farm a lantern glimmers in the barn-yard: the cattle are having +their fodder betimes. Scarlet-capped chanticleer gets himself on +the nearest rail-fence and lifts up his rancorous voice like some +irate old cardinal launching the curse of Rome. Something crawls +swiftly along the gray of the serpentine turnpike,--a cart, with +the driver lashing a jaded horse. A quick wind goes shivering by, +and is lost in the forest.</p> + +<p>Now a narrow strip of two-colored gold stretches along the +horizon.</p> + +<p>Stillwater is gradually coming to its senses. The sun has +begun to twinkle on the gilt cross of the Catholic chapel and +make itself known to the doves in the stone belfry of the South +Church. The patches of cobweb that here and there cling +tremulously to the coarse grass of the inundated meadows have +turned into silver nets, and the mill-pond--it will be steel-blue +later--is as smooth and white as if it had been paved with one +vast unbroken slab out of Slocum's Marble Yard. Through a row of +button-woods on the northern skirt of the village is seen a +square, lap-streaked building, painted a disagreeable brown, and +surrounded on three sides by a platform,--one of seven or eight +similar stations strung like Indian heads on a branch thread of +the Great Sagamore Railway.</p> + +<p>Listen! That is the jingle of the bells on the baker's cart as +it begins its rounds. From innumerable chimneys the curdled smoke +gives evidence that the thrifty housewife--or, what is rarer in +Stillwater, the hired girl--has lighted the kitchen fire.</p> + +<p>The chimney-stack of one house at the end of a small +court--the last house on the easterly edge of the village, and +standing quite alone--sends up no smoke. Yet the carefully +trained ivy over the porch, and the lemon verbena in a tub at the +foot of the steps, intimate that the place is not unoccupied. +Moreover, the little schooner which acts as weather-cock on one +of the gables, and is now heading due west, has a new top-sail. +It is a story-and-a-half cottage, with a large expanse of roof, +which, covered with porous, unpainted shingles, seems to repel +the sunshine that now strikes full upon it. The upper and lower +blinds on the main building, as well as those on the extensions, +are tightly closed. The sun appears to beat in vain at the +casements of this silent house, which has a curiously sullen and +defiant air, as if it had desperately and successfully barricaded +itself against the approach of morning; yet if one were standing +in the room that leads from the bed-chamber on the +ground-floor--the room with the latticed window--one would see a +ray of light thrust through a chink of the shutters, and pointing +like a human finger at an object which lies by the hearth.</p> + +<p>This finger, gleaming, motionless, and awful in its precision, +points to the body of old Mr. Lemuel Shackford, who lies there +dead in his night-dress, with a gash across his forehead.</p> + +<p>In the darkness of that summer night a deed darker than the +night itself had been done in Stillwater.</p> + +<h2>II</h2> + +<p>That morning, when Michael Hennessey's girl Mary--a girl +sixteen years old--carried the can of milk to the rear door of +the silent house, she was nearly a quarter of hour later than +usual, and looked forward to being soundly rated.</p> + +<p>"He's up and been waiting for it," she said to herself, +observing the scullery door ajar. "Won't I ketch it! It's him for +growling and snapping at a body, and it's me for always being +before or behind time, bad luck to me. There's no plazing +him."</p> + +<p>Mary pushed back the door and passed through the kitchen, +nerving herself all the while to meet the objurgations which she +supposed were lying in wait for her. The sunshine was blinding +without, but sifted through the green jalousies, it made a gray, +crepuscular light within. As the girl approached the table, on +which a plate with knife and fork had been laid for breakfast, +she noticed, somewhat indistinctly at first, a thin red line +running obliquely across the floor from the direction of the +sitting-room and ending near the stove, where it had formed a +small pool. Mary stopped short, scarcely conscious why, and +peered instinctively into the adjoining apartment. Then, with a +smothered cry, she let fall the milk-can, and a dozen white +rivulets, in strange contrast to that one dark red line which +first startled her, went meandering over the kitchen floor. With +her eyes riveted upon some object in the next room, the girl +retreated backward slowly and heavily dragging one foot after the +other, until she reached the gallery door; then she turned +swiftly, and plunged into the street.</p> + +<p>Twenty minutes later, every man, woman, and child in +Stillwater knew that old Mr. Shackford had been murdered.</p> + +<p>Mary Hennessey had to tell her story a hundred times during +the morning, for each minute brought to Michael's tenement a +fresh listener hungry for the details at first hand.</p> + +<p>"How was it, Molly? Tell a body, dear!"</p> + +<p>"Don't be asking me!" cried Molly, pressing her palms to her +eyes as if to shut out the sight, but taking all the while a +secret creepy satisfaction in living the scene over again. "It +was kinder dark in the other room, and there he was, laying in +his night-gownd, with his face turned towards me, so, looking +mighty severe-like, jest as if he was a-going to say, 'It's late +with the milk ye are, ye hussy!'--a way he had of spaking."</p> + +<p>"But he didn't spake, Molly darlin'?"</p> + +<p>"Niver a word. He was stone dead, don't you see. It was that +still you could hear me heart beat, saving there wasn't a drop of +beat in it. I let go the can, sure, and then I backed out, with +me eye on 'im all the while, afeard to death that he would up and +spake them words."</p> + +<p>"The pore child! for the likes of her to be wakin' up a +murthered man in the mornin'!"</p> + +<p>There was little or no work done that day in Stillwater +outside the mills, and they were not running full handed. A +number of men from the Miantowona Iron Works and Slocum's +Yard--Slocum employed some seventy or eighty hands--lounged about +the streets in their blouses, or stood in knots in front of the +tavern, smoking short clay pipes. Not an urchin put in an +appearance at the small red brick building on the turnpike. Mr. +Pinkham, the school-master, waited an hour for the recusants, +then turned the key in the lock and went home.</p> + +<p>Dragged-looking women, with dishcloth or dustpan in hand, +stood in door-ways or leaned from windows, talking in subdued +voices with neighbors on the curb-stone. In a hundred far-away +cities the news of the suburban tragedy had already been read and +forgotten; but here the horror stayed.</p> + +<p>There was a constantly changing crowd gathered in front of the +house in Welch's Court. An inquest was being held in the room +adjoining the kitchen. The court, which ended at the gate of the +cottage, was fringed for several yards on each side by rows of +squalid, wondering children, who understood it that Coroner +Whidden was literally to sit on the dead body,--Mr. Whidden, a +limp, inoffensive little man, who would not have dared to sit +down on a fly. He had passed, pallid and perspiring, to the scene +of his perfunctory duties.</p> + +<p>The result of the investigation was awaited with feverish +impatience by the people outside. Mr. Shackford had not been a +popular man; he had been a hard, avaricious, passionate man, +holding his own way remorselessly. He had been the reverse of +popular, but he had long been a prominent character in +Stillwater, because of his wealth, his endless lawsuits, and his +eccentricity, an illustration of which was his persistence in +living entirely alone in the isolated and dreary old house, that +was henceforth to be inhabited by his shadow. Not his shadow +alone, however, for it was now remembered that the premises were +already held in fee by another phantasmal tenant. At a period +long anterior to this, one Lydia Sloper, a widow, had died an +unexplained death under that same roof. The coincidence struck +deeply into the imaginative portion of Stillwater. "The Widow +Sloper and old Shackford have made a match of it," remarked a +local humorist, in a grimmer vein than customary. Two ghosts had +now set up housekeeping, as it were, in the stricken mansion, and +what might not be looked for in the way of spectral progeny!</p> + +<p>It appeared to the crowd in the lane that the jury were +unconscionably long in arriving at a decision, and when the +decision was at length reached it gave but moderate satisfaction. +After a spendthrift waste of judicial mind the jury had decided +that "the death of Lemuel Shackford was caused by a blow on the +left temple, inflicted with some instrument not discoverable, in +the hands of some person or persons unknown."</p> + +<p>"We knew that before," grumbled a voice in the crowd, when, to +relieve public suspense, Lawyer Perkins--a long, lank man, with +stringy black hair--announced the verdict from the doorstep.</p> + +<p>The theory of suicide had obtained momentary credence early in +the morning, and one or two still clung to it with the tenacity +that characterizes persons who entertain few ideas. To accept +this theory it was necessary to believe that Mr. Shackford had +ingeniously hidden the weapon after striking himself dead with a +single blow. No, it was not suicide. So far from intending to +take his own life, Mr. Shackford, it appeared, had made rather +careful preparations to live that day. The breakfast-table had +been laid over night, the coals left ready for kindling in the +Franklin stove, and a kettle, filled with water to be heated for +his tea or coffee, stood on the hearth.</p> + +<p>Two facts had sharply demonstrated themselves: first, that Mr. +Shackford had been murdered; and, second, that the spur to the +crime had been the possession of a sum of money, which the +deceased was supposed to keep in a strong-box in his bedroom. The +padlock had been wrenched open, and the less valuable contents of +the chest, chiefly papers, scattered over the carpet. A +memorandum among the papers seemed to specify the respective sums +in notes and gold that had been deposited in the box. A document +of some kind had been torn into minute pieces and thrown into the +waste-basket. On close scrutiny a word or two here and there +revealed the fact that the document was of a legal character. The +fragments were put into an envelope and given in charge of Mr. +Shackford's lawyer, who placed seals on that and on the drawers +of an escritoire which stood in the corner and contained other +manuscript.</p> + +<p>The instrument with which the fatal blow had been dealt--for +the autopsy showed that there had been but one blow--was not only +not discoverable, but the fashion of it defied conjecture. The +shape of the wound did not indicate the use of any implement +known to the jurors, several of whom were skilled machinists. The +wound was an inch and three quarters in length and very deep at +the extremities; in the middle it scarcely penetrated to the +cranium. So peculiar a cut could not have been produced with the +claw part of a hammer, because the claw is always curved, and the +incision was straight. A flat claw, such as is used in opening +packing-cases, was suggested. A collection of the several sizes +manufactured was procured, but none corresponded with the wound; +they were either too wide or too narrow. Moreover, the cut was as +thin as the blade of a case-knife.</p> + +<p>"That was never done by any tool in these parts," declared +Stevens, the foreman of the finishing shop at Slocum's.</p> + +<p>The assassin or assassins had entered by the scullery door, +the simple fastening of which, a hook and staple, had been +broken. There were footprints in the soft clay path leading from +the side gate to the stone step; but Mary Hennessey had so +confused and obliterated the outlines that now it was impossible +accurately to measure them. A half-burned match was found under +the sink,--evidently thrown there by the burglars. It was of a +kind known as the safety-match, which can be ignited only by +friction on a strip of chemically prepared paper glued to the +box. As no box of this description was discovered, and as all the +other matches in the house were of a different make, the charred +splinter was preserved. The most minute examination failed to +show more than this. The last time Mr. Shackford had been seen +alive was at six o'clock the previous evening.</p> + +<p>Who had done the deed?</p> + +<p>Tramps! answered Stillwater, with one voice, though Stillwater +lay somewhat out of the natural highway, and the tramp--that +bitter blossom of civilization whose seed was blown to us from +over seas--was not then so common by the New England roadsides as +he became five or six years later. But it was intolerable not to +have a theory; it was that or none, for conjecture turned to no +one in the village. To be sure, Mr. Shackford had been in +litigation with several of the corporations, and had had legal +quarrels with more than one of his neighbors; but Mr. Shackford +had never been victorious in any of these contests, and the +incentive of revenge was wanting to explain the crime. Besides, +it was so clearly robbery.</p> + +<p>Though the gathering around the Shackford house had reduced +itself to half a dozen idlers, and the less frequented streets +had resumed their normal aspect of dullness, there was a strange, +electric quality in the atmosphere. The community was in that +state of suppressed agitation and suspicion which no word +adequately describes. The slightest circumstance would have +swayed it to the belief in any man's guilt; and, indeed, there +were men in Stillwater quite capable of disposing of a +fellow-creature for a much smaller reward than Mr. Shackford had +held out. In spite of the tramp theory, a harmless tin-peddler, +who had not passed through the place for weeks, was dragged from +his glittering cart that afternoon, as he drove smilingly into +town, and would have been roughly handled if Mr. Richard +Shackford, a cousin of the deceased, had not interfered.</p> + +<p>As the day wore on, the excitement deepened in intensity, +though the expression of it became nearly reticent. It was +noticed that the lamps throughout the village were lighted an +hour earlier than usual. A sense of insecurity settled upon +Stillwater with the falling twilight,--that nameless apprehension +which is possibly more trying to the nerves than tangible danger. +When a man is smitten inexplicably, as if by a bodiless hand +stretched out of a cloud,--when the red slayer vanishes like a +mist and leaves no faintest trace of his identity,--the mystery +shrouding the deed presently becomes more appalling than the deed +itself. There is something paralyzing in the thought of an +invisible hand somewhere ready to strike at your life, or at some +life dearer than your own. Whose hand, and where is it? Perhaps +it passes you your coffee at breakfast; perhaps you have hired it +to shovel the snow off your sidewalk; perhaps it has brushed +against you in the crowd; or may be you have dropped a coin into +the fearful palm at a street corner. Ah, the terrible unseen hand +that stabs your imagination,--this immortal part of you which is +a hundred times more sensitive than your poor perishable +body!</p> + +<p>In the midst of situations the most solemn and tragic there +often falls a light purely farcical in its incongruity. Such a +gleam was unconsciously projected upon the present crisis by Mr. +Bodge, better known in the village as Father Bodge. Mr. Bodge was +stone deaf, naturally stupid, and had been nearly moribund for +thirty years with asthma. Just before night-fall he had crawled, +in his bewildered, wheezy fashion, down to the tavern, where he +found a somber crowd in the bar-room. Mr. Bodge ordered his mug +of beer, and sat sipping it, glancing meditatively from time to +time over the pewter rim at the mute assembly. Suddenly he broke +out: "S'pose you've heerd that old Shackford's ben murdered."</p> + +<p>So the sun went down on Stillwater. Again the great wall of +pines and hemlocks made a gloom against the sky. The moon rose +from behind the tree-tops, frosting their ragged edges, and then +sweeping up to the zenith hung serenely above the world, as if +there were never a crime, or a tear, or a heart-break in it +all.</p> + +<h2>III</h2> + +<p>On the afternoon of the following day Mr. Shackford was duly +buried. The funeral, under the direction of Mr. Richard +Shackford, who acted as chief mourner and was sole mourner by +right of kinship, took place in profound silence. The carpenters, +who had lost a day on Bishop's new stables, intermitted their +sawing and hammering while the services were in progress; the +steam was shut off in the iron-mills, and no clinking of the +chisel was heard in the marble yard for an hour, during which +many of the shops had their shutters up. Then, when all was over, +the imprisoned fiend in the boilers gave a piercing shriek; the +leather bands slipped on the revolving drums, the spindles leaped +into life again, and the old order of things was +reinstated,--outwardly, but not in effect.</p> + +<p>In general, when the grave closes over a man his career is +ended. But Mr. Shackford was never so much alive as after they +had buried him. Never before had he filled so large a place in +the public eye. Though invisible, he sat at every fireside. Until +the manner of his death had been made clear, his ubiquitous +presence was not to be exorcised. On the morning of the memorable +day a reward of one hundred dollars--afterwards increased to five +hundred, at the insistence of Mr. Shackford's cousin--had been +offered by the board of selectmen for the arrest and conviction +of the guilty party. Beyond this and the unsatisfactory inquest, +the authorities had done nothing, and were plainly not equal to +the situation.</p> + +<p>When it was stated, the night of the funeral, that a +professional person was coming to Stillwater to look into the +case, the announcement was received with a breath of relief.</p> + +<p>The person thus vaguely described appeared on the spot the +next morning. To mention the name of Edward Taggett is to mention +a name well known to the detective force of the great city lying +sixty miles southwest of Stillwater. Mr. Taggett's arrival sent +such a thrill of expectancy through the village that Mr. Leonard +Tappleton, whose obsequies occurred this day, made his exit +nearly unobserved. Yet there was little in Mr. Taggett's physical +aspect calculated to stir either expectation or enthusiasm: a +slender man of about twenty-six, but not looking it, with +overhanging brown mustache, sparse side-whiskers, eyes of no +definite color, and faintly accentuated eyebrows. He spoke +precisely, and with a certain unembarrassed hesitation, as +persons do who have two thoughts to one word,--if there are such +persons. You might have taken him for a physician, or a +journalist, or the secretary of an insurance company; but you +would never have supposed him the man who had disentangled the +complicated threads of the great Barnabee Bank defalcation.</p> + +<p>Stillwater's confidence, which had risen into the nineties, +fell to zero at sight of him. "Is <i>that</i> Taggett?" they +asked. That was Taggett; and presently his influence began to be +felt like a sea-turn. The three Dogberrys of the watch were +dispatched on secret missions, and within an hour it was ferreted +out that a man in a cart had been seen driving furiously up the +turnpike the morning after the murder. This was an agricultural +district, the road led to a market town, and teams going by in +the early dawn were the rule and not the exception; but on that +especial morning a furiously driven cart was significant. +Jonathan Beers, who farmed the Jenks land, had heard the wheels +and caught an indistinct glimpse of the vehicle as he was feeding +the cattle, but with a reticence purely rustic had not been moved +to mention the circumstance before.</p> + +<p>"Taggett has got a clew," said Stillwater under its +breath.</p> + +<p>By noon Taggett had got the man, cart and all. But it was only +Blufton's son Tom, of South Millville, who had started in hot +haste that particular morning to secure medical service for his +wife, of which she had sorely stood in need, as two tiny girls in +a willow cradle in South Millville now bore testimony.</p> + +<p>"I haven't been cutting down the population <i>much,"</i> said +Blufton, with his wholesome laugh.</p> + +<p>Thomas Blufton was well known and esteemed in Stillwater, but +if the crime had fastened itself upon him it would have given +something like popular satisfaction.</p> + +<p>In the course of the ensuing forty-eight hours four or five +tramps were overhauled as having been in the neighborhood at the +time of the tragedy; but they each had a clean story, and were +let go. Then one Durgin, a workman at Slocum's Yard, was called +upon to explain some half-washed-out red stains on his overalls, +which he did. He had tightened the hoops on a salt-pork barrel +for Mr. Shackford several days previous; the red paint on the +head of the barrel was fresh, and had come off on his clothes. +Dr. Weld examined the spots under a microscope, and pronounced +them paint. It was manifest that Mr. Taggett meant to go to the +bottom of things.</p> + +<p>The bar-room of the Stillwater hotel was a center of interest +these nights; not only the bar-room proper, but the adjoining +apartment, where the more exclusive guests took their +seltzer-water and looked over the metropolitan newspapers. Twice +a week a social club met here, having among its members Mr. +Craggie, the postmaster, who was supposed to have a great +political future, Mr. Pinkham, Lawyer Perkins, Mr. Whidden, and +other respectable persons. The room was at all times in some +sense private, with a separate entrance from the street, though +another door, which usually stood open, connected it with the +main salon. In this was a long mahogany counter, one section of +which was covered with a sheet of zinc perforated like a sieve, +and kept constantly bright by restless caravans of lager-beer +glasses. Directly behind that end of the counter stood a Gothic +brass-mounted beer-pump, at whose faucets Mr. Snelling, the +landlord, flooded you five or six mugs in the twinkling of an +eye, and raised the vague expectation that he was about to grind +out some popular operatic air. At the left of the pump stretched +a narrow mirror, reflecting he gaily-colored wine-glasses and +decanters which stood on each other's shoulders, and held up +lemons, and performed various acrobatic feats on a shelf in front +of it.</p> + +<p>The fourth night after the funeral of Mr. Shackford, a dismal +southeast storm caused an unusual influx of idlers in both rooms. +With the rain splashing against the casements and the wind +slamming the blinds, the respective groups sat discussing in a +desultory way the only topic which could be discussed at present. +There had been a general strike among the workmen a fortnight +before; but even that had grown cold as a topic.</p> + +<p>"That was hard on Tom Blufton," said Stevens, emptying the +ashes out of his long-stemmed clay pipe, and refilling the bowl +with cut cavendish from a jar on a shelf over his head.</p> + +<p>Michael Hennessey sat down his beer-mug with an air of +argumentative disgust, and drew one sleeve across his glistening +beard.</p> + +<p>"Stevens, you've as many minds as a weather-cock, jist! Didn't +ye say yerself it looked mighty black for the lad when he was +took?"</p> + +<p>"I might have said something of the sort," Stevens admitted +reluctantly, after a pause. "His driving round at daybreak with +an empty cart did have an ugly look at first."</p> + +<p>"Indade, then."</p> + +<p>"Not to anybody who knew Tom Blufton," interrupted Samuel +Piggott, Blufton's brother-in-law. "The boy hasn't a bad streak +in him. It was an outrage. Might as well have suspected Parson +Langly or Father O'Meara."</p> + +<p>"If this kind of thing goes on," remarked a man in the corner +with a patch over one eye, "both of them reverend gents will be +hauled up, I shouldn't wonder."</p> + +<p>"That's so, Mr. Peters," responded Durgin. "If my +respectability didn't save me, who's safe?"</p> + +<p>"Durgin is talking about his respectability! He's joking."</p> + +<p>"Look here, Dexter," said Durgin, turning quickly on the +speaker, "when I want to joke, I talk about your +intelligence."</p> + +<p>"What kind of man is Taggett, anyhow?" asked Piggott. "You saw +him, Durgin."</p> + +<p>"I believe he was at Justice Beemis's office the day Blufton +and I was there; but I didn't make him out in the crowd. +Shouldn't know him from Adam."</p> + +<p>"Stillwater's a healthy place for tramps jest about this +time," suggested somebody. "Three on 'em snaked in to-day."</p> + +<p>"I think, gentlemen, that Mr. Taggett is on the right track +there," observed Mr. Snelling, in the act of mixing another Old +Holland for Mr. Peters. "Not too sweet, you said? I feel it in my +bones that it was a tramp, and that Mr. Taggett will bring him +yet."</p> + +<p>"He won't find him on the highway yonder," said a tall, +swarthy man named Torrini, an Italian. Nationalities clash in +Stillwater. "That tramp is a thousand miles from here."</p> + +<p>"So he is if he has any brains under his hat," returned +Snelling. "But they're on the lookout for him. The minute he +pawns anything, he's gone."</p> + +<p>"Can't put up greenbacks or gold, can he? He didn't take +nothing else," interposed Bishop, the veterinary surgeon.</p> + +<p>"Now jewelry nor nothing?"</p> + +<p>"There wasn't none, as I understand it," said Bishop, "except +a silver watch. That was all snug under the old man's +piller."</p> + +<p>"Wanter know!" ejaculated Jonathan Beers.</p> + +<p>"I opine, Mr. Craggie," said the school-master, standing in +the inner room with a rolled-up file of the Daily Advertiser in +his hand, "that the person who--who removed our worthy townsman +will never be discovered."</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't like to go quite so far as that, sir," answered +Mr. Craggie, with that diplomatic suavity which leads to +postmasterships and seats in the General Court, and has even been +known to oil a dull fellow's way into Congress. "I cannot take +quite so hopeless a view of it. There are difficulties, but they +must be overcome, Mr. Pinkham, and I think they will be."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, I hope so," returned the school-master. "But there +are cases--are there not?--in which the--the problem, if I may so +designate it, has never been elucidated, and the persons who +undertook it have been obliged to go to the foot, so to +speak."</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes, there are such cases, certainly. There was the +Burdell mystery in New York, and, later, the Nathan affair--By +the way, I've satisfactory theories of my own touching both. The +police were baffled, and remain so. But, my <i>dear</i> sir, +observe for a moment the difference."</p> + +<p>Mr. Pinkham rested one finger on the edge of a little round +table, and leaned forward in a respectful attitude to observe the +difference.</p> + +<p>"Those crimes were committed in a vast metropolis affording a +thousand chances for escape, as well as offering a thousand +temptations to the lawless. But we are a limited community. We +have no professional murderers among us. The deed which has +stirred society to its utmost depths was plainly done by some +wayfaring amateur. Remorse has already arrived upon him, if the +police haven't. For the time being he escapes; but he is bound to +betray himself sooner or later. If the right steps are +taken,--and I have myself the greatest confidence in Mr. +Taggett,--the guilty party can scarcely fail to be brought to the +bar of justice, if he doesn't bring himself there."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, indeed, I hope so," repeated Mr. Pinkham.</p> + +<p>"The investigation is being carried on very closely."</p> + +<p>"Too closely," suggested the school-master.</p> + +<p>"Oh dear, no," murmured Mr. Craggie. "The strictest secrecy is +necessary in affairs of this delicate nature. If Tom, Dick, and +Harry were taken behind the scenes," he added, with the air of +one wishing to say too much, "the bottom would drop out of +everything."</p> + +<p>Mr. Pinkham shrunk from commenting on a disaster like that, +and relapsed into silence. Mr. Craggie, with his thumbs in the +arm-holes of his waistcoat, and his legs crossed in an easy, +senatorial fashion, leaned back in the chair and smiled +blandly.</p> + +<p>"I don't suppose there's nothing new, boys!" exclaimed a fat, +florid man, bustling in good-naturedly at the public entrance, +and leaving a straight wet trail on the sanded floor from the +threshold to the polished mahogany counter. Mr. Wilson was a +local humorist of the Falstaffian stripe, though not so much +witty in himself as the cause of wit in others.</p> + +<p>"No, Jimmy, there isn't anything new," responded Dexter.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you didn't hear that the ole man done somethin' +handsome for me in his last will and testyment."</p> + +<p>"No, Jemmy, I don't think he has made any provision whatever +for an almshouse."</p> + +<p>"Sorry to hear that, Dexter," said Willson, absorbedly chasing +a bit of lemon peel in his glass with the spoon handle, "for +there isn't room for us all up at the town-farm. How's your +grandmother? Finds it tol'rably comfortable?"</p> + +<p>They are a primitive, candid people in their hours of unlaced +social intercourse in Stillwater. This delicate <i>tu quoque</i> +was so far from wounding Dexter that he replied carelessly,--</p> + +<p>"Well, only so so. The old woman complains of too much +chicken-sallid, and hot-house grapes all the year round."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Shackford must have left a large property," observed Mr. +Ward, of the firm of Ward & Lock, glancing up from the columns of +the Stillwater Gazette. The remark was addressed to Lawyer +Perkins, who had just joined the group in the reading-room.</p> + +<p>"Fairly large," replied that gentleman crisply.</p> + +<p>"Any public bequests?"</p> + +<p>"None to speak of."</p> + +<p>Mr. Craggie smiled vaguely.</p> + +<p>"You see," said Lawyer Perkins, "there's a will and no +will,--that is to say, the fragments of what is supposed to be a +will were found, and we are trying to put the pieces together. It +is doubtful if we can do it; it is doubtful if we can decipher it +after we have done it; and if we decipher it it is a question +whether the document is valid or not."</p> + +<p>"That is a masterly exposition of the dilemma, Mr. Perkins," +said the school-master warmly.</p> + +<p>Mr. Perkins had spoken in his court-room tone of voice, with +one hand thrust into his frilled shirt-bosom. He removed this +hand for a second, as he gravely bowed to Mr. Pinkham.</p> + +<p>"Nothing could be clearer," said Mr. Ward. "In case the paper +is worthless, what then? I am not asking you in your professional +capacity," he added hastily; for Lawyer Perkins had been known to +send in a bill on as slight a provocation as Mr. Ward's.</p> + +<p>"That's a point. The next of kin has his claims."</p> + +<p>"My friend Shackford, of course," broke in Mr. Craggie. +"Admirable young man!--one of my warmest supporters."</p> + +<p>"He is the only heir at law so far as we know," said Mr. +Perkins.</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Mr. Craggie, reflecting. "The late Mr. Shackford +might have had a family in Timbuctoo or the Sandwich +Islands."</p> + +<p>"That's another point."</p> + +<p>"The fact would be a deuced unpleasant point for young +Shackford to run against," said Mr. Ward.</p> + +<p>"Exactly."</p> + +<p>"If Mr. Lemuel Shackford," remarked Coroner Whidden, softly +joining the conversation to which he had been listening in his +timorous, apologetic manner, "had chanced, in the course of his +early sea-faring days, to form any ties of an unhappy +complexion"--</p> + +<p>"Complexion is good," murmured Mr. Craggie. "Some Hawaiian +lady!"</p> + +<p>--"perhaps that would be a branch of the case worth +investigating in connection with the homicide. A discarded wife, +or a disowned son, burning with a sense of wrong"--</p> + +<p>"Really, Mr. Whidden!" interrupted Lawyer Perkins witheringly, +"it is bad enough for my client to lose his life, without having +his reputation filched away from him."</p> + +<p>"I--I will explain! I was merely supposing"--</p> + +<p>"The law never supposes, sir!"</p> + +<p>This threw Mr. Whidden into great mental confusion. As coroner +was he not an integral part of the law, and when, in his official +character, he supposed anything was not that a legal supposition? +But was he in his official character now, sitting with a glass of +lemonade at his elbow in the reading-room of the Stillwater +hotel? Was he, or was he not, a coroner all the time? Mr. Whidden +stroked an isolated tuft of hair growing low on the middle of his +forehead, and glared mildly at Mr. Perkins.</p> + +<p>"Young Shackford has gone to New York, I understand," said Mr. +Ward, breaking the silence.</p> + +<p>Mr. Perkins nodded. "Went this morning to look after the +real-estate interests there. It will probably keep him a couple +of weeks,--the longer the better. He was of no use here. Lemuel's +death was a great shock to him, or rather the manner of it +was."</p> + +<p>"That shocked every one. They were first cousin's weren't +they?" Mr. Ward was a comparatively new resident in +Stillwater.</p> + +<p>"First cousins," replied Lawyer Perkins; "but they were never +very intimate, you know."</p> + +<p>"I imagine nobody was ever very intimate with Mr. +Shackford."</p> + +<p>"My client was somewhat peculiar in his friendships."</p> + +<p>This was stating it charitably, for Mr. Perkins knew, and +every one present knew, that Lemuel Shackford had not had the +shadow of a friend in Stillwater, unless it was his cousin +Richard.</p> + +<p>A cloud of mist and rain was blown into the bar-room as the +street door stood open for a second to admit a dripping figure +from the outside darkness.</p> + +<p><i>"What's</i> blowed down?" asked Durgin, turning round on +his stool and sending up a ring of smoke which uncurled itself +with difficulty in the dense atmosphere.</p> + +<p>"It's only some of Jeff Stavers's nonsense."</p> + +<p>"No nonsense at all," said the new-comer, as he shook the +heavy beads of rain from his felt hat. "I was passing by Welch's +Court--it's as black as pitch out, fellows--when slap went +something against my shoulder; something like wet wings. Well, I +was scared. It's a bat, says I. But the thing didn't fly off; it +was still clawing at my shoulder. I put up my hand, and I'll be +shot if it wasn't the foremast, jib-sheet and all, of the old +weather-cock on the north gable of the Shackford house! Here you +are!" and the speaker tossed the broken mast, with the mimic +sails dangling from it, into Durgin's lap.</p> + +<p>A dead silence followed, for there was felt to be something +weirdly significant in the incident.</p> + +<p>"That's kinder omernous," said Mr. Peters, +interrogatively.</p> + +<p>"Ominous of what?" asked Durgin, lifting the wet mass from his +knees and dropping it on the floor.</p> + +<p>"Well, sorter queer, then."</p> + +<p>"Where does the queer come in?" inquired Stevens, gravelly. "I +don't know; but I'm hit by it."</p> + +<p>"Come, boys, don't crowd a feller," said Mr. Peters, getting +restive. "I don't take the contract to explain the thing. But it +does seem some way droll that the old schooner should be wrecked +so soon after what has happened to the old skipper. If you don't +see it, or sense it, I don't insist. What's yours, Denyven?"</p> + +<p>The person addressed as Denyven promptly replied, with a fine +sonorous English accent, "a mug of 'alf an' 'alf,--with a head on +it, Snelling."</p> + +<p>At the same moment Mr. Craggie, in the inner room was saying +to the school-master,--</p> + +<p>"I must really take issue with you there, Mr. Pinkham. I admit +there's a good deal in spiritualism which we haven't got at yet; +the science is in its infancy; it is still attached to the bosom +of speculation. It is a beautiful science, that of psychological +phenomena, and the spiritualists will yet become an influential +class of"--Mr. Craggie was going to say voters, but glided over +it--"persons. I believe in clairvoyance myself to a large extent. +Before my appointment to the post-office I had it very strong. +I've no doubt that in the far future this mysterious factor will +be made great use of in criminal cases; but at present I should +resort to it only in the last extremity,--the very last +extremity, Mr. Pinkham!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, of course," said the school-master deprecatingly. "I +threw it out only as the merest suggestion. I shouldn't think +of--of--you understand me?"</p> + +<p>"Is it beyond the dreams of probability," said Mr. Craggie, +appealing to Lawyer Perkins, "that clairvoyants may eventually be +introduced into cases in our courts?"</p> + +<p>"They are now," said Mr. Perkins, with a snort,--"the police +bring 'em it."</p> + +<p>Mr. Craggie finished the remainder of his glass of sherry in +silence, and presently rose to go. Coroner Whidden and Mr. Ward +had already gone. The guests in the public room were thinning +out; a gloom, indefinable and shapeless like the night, seemed to +have fallen upon the few that lingered. At a somewhat earlier +hour than usual the gas was shut off in the Stillwater +hotel.</p> + +<p>In the lonely house in Welch's Court a light was still +burning.</p> + +<h2>IV</h2> + +<p>A sorely perplexed man sat there, bending over his papers by +the lamp-light. Mr. Taggett had established himself at the +Shackford house on his arrival, preferring it to the hotel, where +he would have been subjected to the curiosity of the guests and +to endless annoyances. Up to this moment, perhaps not a dozen +persons in the place had had more than a passing glimpse of him. +He was a very busy man, working at his desk from morning until +night, and then taking only a brief walk, for exercise in some +unfrequented street. His meals were sent in from the hotel to the +Shackford house, where the constables reported to him, and where +he held protracted conferences with Justice Beemis, Coroner +Whidden, Lawyer Perkins, and a few others, and declined to be +interviewed by the local editor.</p> + +<p>To the outside eye that weather-stained, faded old house +appeared a throbbing seat of esoteric intelligence. It was as if +a hundred invisible magnetic threads converged to a focus under +that roof and incessantly clicked out the most startling +information,--information which was never by any chance allowed +to pass beyond the charmed circle. The pile of letters which the +mail brought to Mr. Taggett every morning--chiefly anonymous +suggestions, and offers of assistance from lunatics in remote +cities--was enough in itself to exasperate a community.</p> + +<p>Covertly at first, and then openly, Stillwater began seriously +to question Mr. Taggett's method of working up the case. The +Gazette, in a double-leaded leader, went so far as to compare him +to a bird with fine feathers and no song, and to suggest that +perhaps the bird might have sung if the inducement offered had +been more substantial. A singer of Mr. Taggett's plumage was not +to be taught by such chaff as five hundred dollars. Having killed +his man, the editor proceeded to remark that he would suspend +judgment until next week.</p> + +<p>As if to make perfect the bird comparison, Mr. Taggett, after +keeping the public in suspense for six days and nights, abruptly +flew away, with all the little shreds and straws of evidence he +had picked up, to build his speculative nest elsewhere.</p> + +<p>The defection of Mr. Taggett caused a mild panic among a +certain portion of the inhabitants, who were not reassured by the +statement in the Gazette that the case would now be placed in the +proper hands,--the hand so the county constabulary. "Within a few +days," said the editor in conclusion, "the matter will +undoubtedly be cleared up. At present we cannot say more;" and it +would have puzzled him very much to do so.</p> + +<p>A week passed, and no fresh light was thrown upon the +catastrophe, nor did anything occur to rattle the usual surface +of life in the village. A man--it was Torrini, the Italian--got +hurt in Dana's iron foundry; one of Blufton's twin girls died; +and Mr. Slocum took on a new hand from out of town. That was all. +Stillwater was the Stillwater of a year ago, with always the +exception of that shadow lying upon it, and the fact that small +boys who had kindling to get in were careful to get it in before +nightfall. It would appear that the late Mr. Shackford had +acquired a habit of lingering around wood-piles after dark, and +also of stealing into bed-chambers, where little children were +obliged to draw the sheets over their heads in order not to see +him.</p> + +<p>The action of the county constabulary had proved quite as +mysterious and quite as barren of result as Mr. Taggett's had +been. They had worn his mantle of secrecy, and arrested the +tramps over again.</p> + +<p>Another week dragged by, and the editorial prediction seemed +as far as ever from fulfillment. But on the afternoon which +closed that fortnight a very singular thing did happen. Mr. +Slocum was sitting alone in his office, which occupied the whole +of a small building at the right of the main gate to the marble +works. When the door behind him softly opened and a young man, +whose dress covered with stone-dust indicated his vocation, +appeared on the threshold. He hesitated a second, and then +stepped into the room. Mr. Slocum turned round with a swift, +apprehensive air.</p> + +<p>"You gave me a start! I believe I haven't any nerves left. +Well?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Slocum, I have found the man."</p> + +<p>The proprietor of the marble yard half rose from the desk in +his agitation.</p> + +<p>"Who is it?" he asked beneath his breath.</p> + +<p>The same doubt or irresolution which had checked the workman +at the threshold seemed again to have taken possession of him. It +was fully a moment before he gained the mastery over himself; but +the mastery was complete; for he leaned forward gravely, almost +coldly, and pronounced two words. A quick pallor overspread Mr. +Slocum's features.</p> + +<p>"Good God!" he exclaimed, sinking back into the chair. "Are +you mad?"</p> + +<h2>V</h2> + +<p>The humblest painter of real life, if he could have his +desire, would select a picturesque background for his figures; +but events have an inexorable fashion for choosing their own +landscape. In the present instance it is reluctantly conceded +that there are few uglier or more commonplace towns in New +England than Stillwater,--a straggling, overgrown village, with +whose rural aspects are curiously blended something of the +grimness and squalor of certain shabby city neighborhoods. Being +of comparatively recent date, the place has none of those +colonial associations which, like sprigs of lavender in an old +chest of drawers, are a saving grace to other quite as dreary +nooks and corners.</p> + +<p>Here and there at what is termed the West End is a neat brick +mansion with garden attached, where nature asserts herself in +dahlias and china-asters; but the houses are mostly frame houses +that have taken a prevailing dingy tint from the breath of the +tall chimneys which dominate the village. The sidewalks in the +more aristocratic quarter are covered with a thin, elastic paste +of asphalt, worn down to the gravel in patches, and emitting in +the heat of the day an astringent, bituminous odor. The +population is chiefly of the rougher sort, such as breeds in the +shadow of foundries and factories, and if the Protestant pastor +and the fatherly Catholic priest, whose respective lots are cast +there, have sometimes the sense of being missionaries dropped in +the midst of a purely savage community, the delusion is not +wholly unreasonable.</p> + +<p>The irregular heaps of scoria that have accumulated in the +vicinity of the iron works give the place an illusive air of +antiquity; bit it is neither ancient nor picturesque. The oldest +and most pictorial thing in Stillwater is probably the marble +yard, around three sides of which the village may be said to have +sprouted up rankly, bearing here and there an industrial blossom +in the shape of an iron-mill or a cardigan-jacket manufactory. +Rowland Slocum, a man of considerable refinement, great kindness +of heart, and no force, inherited the yard from his father, and at +the period this narrative opens (the summer of 187-) was its sole +proprietor and nominal manager, the actual manager being Richard +Shackford, a prospective partner in the business and the +betrothed of Mr. Slocum's daughter Margaret.</p> + +<p>Forty years ago every tenth person in Stillwater was either a +Shackford or a Slocum. Twenty years later both names were nearly +extinct there. That fatality which seems to attend certain New +England families had stripped every leaf but two from the +Shackford branch. These were Lemuel Shackford, then about +forty-six, and Richard Shackford, aged four. Lemuel Shackford had +laid up a competency as ship-master in the New York and Calcutta +trade, and in 1852 had returned to his native village, where he +found his name and stock represented only by little Dick, a very +cheerful orphan, who stared complacently with big blue eyes at +fate, and made mud-pies in the lane whenever he could elude the +vigilance of the kindly old woman who had taken him under her +roof. This atom of humanity, by some strange miscalculation of +nature, was his cousin.</p> + +<p>The strict devotion to his personal interests which had +enabled Mr. Shackford to acquire a fortune thus early caused him +to look askance at a penniless young kinsman with stockings down +at heel, and a straw hat three sizes too large for him set on the +back of his head. But Mr. Shackford was ashamed to leave little +Dick a burden upon the hands of a poor woman of no relationship +whatever to the child; so little Dick was transferred to that +dejected house which has already been described, and was then +known as the Sloper house.</p> + +<p>Here, for three of four years, Dick grew up, as neglected as a +weed, and every inch as happy. It should be mentioned that for +the first year or so a shock-headed Cicely from the town-farm had +apparently been hired not to take care of him. But Dick asked +nothing better than to be left to his own devices, which, +moreover, were innocent enough. He would sit all day in the lane +at the front gate pottering with a bit of twig or a case-knife in +the soft clay. From time to time passers-by observed that the +child was not making mud-pies, but tracing figures, comic or +grotesque as might happen, and always quite wonderful for their +lack of resemblance to anything human. That patch of +reddish-brown clay was his sole resource, his slate, his +drawing-book, and woe to anybody who chanced to walk over little +Dick's arabesques. Patient and gentle in his acceptance of the +world's rebuffs, this he would not endure. He was afraid of Mr. +Shackford, yet one day, when the preoccupied man happened to +trample on a newly executed hieroglyphic, the child rose to his +feet white with rage, his fingers clenched, and such a blue fire +flashing in the eyes that Mr. Shackford drew back aghast.</p> + +<p>"Why, it's a little devil!"</p> + +<p>While Shackford junior was amusing himself with his primitive +bas-reliefs, Shackford senior amused himself with his lawsuits. +From the hour when he returned to the town until the end of his +days Mr. Shackford was up to his neck in legal difficulties. Now +he resisted a betterment assessment, and fought the town; now he +secured an injunction on the Miantowona Iron Works, and fought +the corporation. He was understood to have a perpetual case in +equity before the Marine Court in New York, to which city he made +frequent and unannounced journeys. His immediate neighbors stood +in terror of him. He was like a duelist, on the alert to twist +the slightest thing into a <i>casus belli</i>. The law was his +rapier, his recreation, and he was willing to bleed for it.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile that fairy world of which every baby becomes a +Columbus so soon as it is able to walk remained an undiscovered +continent to little Dick. Grim life looked in upon him as he lay +in the cradle. The common joys of childhood were a sealed volume +to him. A single incident of those years lights up the whole +situation. A vague rumor had been blown to Dick of a practice of +hanging up stockings at Christmas. It struck his materialistic +mind as a rather senseless thing to do; but nevertheless he +resolved to try it one Christmas Eve. He lay awake a long while +in the frosty darkness, skeptically waiting for something +remarkable to happen; once he crawled out of the cot-bed and +groped his way to the chimney place. The next morning he was +scarcely disappointed at finding nothing in the piteous little +stocking, except the original holes.</p> + +<p>The years that stole silently over the heads of the old man +and the young child in Welch's Court brought a period of wild +prosperity to Stillwater. The breath of war blew the forges to a +white heat, and the baffling problem of the mediæval +alchemists was solved. The baser metals were transmuted into +gold. A disastrous, prosperous time, with the air rent +periodically by the cries of newsboys as battles were fought, and +by the roll of the drum in the busy streets as fresh recruits +were wanted. Glory and death to the Southward, and at the North +pale women in black.</p> + +<p>All which interested Dick mighty little. After he had learned +to read at the district school, he escaped into another world. +Two lights were now generally seen burning of a night in the +Shackford house: one on the ground-floor where Mr. Shackford sat +mouthing his contracts and mortgages, and weaving his webs like a +great, lean, gray spider; and the other in the north gable, where +Dick hung over a tattered copy of Robinson Crusoe by the flicker +of the candle-ends which he had captured during the day.</p> + +<p>Little Dick was little Dick no more: a tall, heavily built +blond boy, with a quiet, sweet disposition, that at first offered +temptations to the despots of the playground; but a sudden +flaring up once or twice of that unexpected spirit which had +broken out in his babyhood brought him immunity from serious +persecution.</p> + +<p>The boy's home life at this time would have seemed pathetic to +an observer,--the more pathetic, perhaps, in that Dick himself +was not aware of its exceptional barrenness. The holidays that +bring new brightness to the eyes of happier children were to him +simply days when he did not go to school, and was expected to +provide an extra quantity of kindling wood. He was housed, and +fed, and clothed, after a fashion, but not loved. Mr. Shackford +did not ill-treat the lad, in the sense of beating him; he merely +neglected him. Every year the man became more absorbed in his law +cases and his money, which accumulated magically. He dwelt in a +cloud of calculations. Though all his interests attached him to +the material world, his dry, attenuated body seemed scarcely a +part of it.</p> + +<p>"Shackford, what are you going to do with that scapegrace of +yours?"</p> + +<p>It was Mr. Leonard Tappleton who ventured the question. Few +persons dared to interrogate Mr. Shackford on his private +affairs.</p> + +<p>"I am going to make a lawyer of him," said Mr. Shackford, +crackling his finger-joints like stiff parchment.</p> + +<p>"You couldn't do better. You <i>ought</i> to have an attorney +in the family."</p> + +<p>"Just so," assented Mr. Shackford, dryly. "I could throw a bit +of business in his way now and then,--eh?"</p> + +<p>"You could make his fortune, Shackford. I don't see but you +might employ him all the time. When he was not fighting the +corporations, you might keep him at it suing you for his +fees."</p> + +<p>"Very good, very good indeed," responded Mr. Shackford, with a +smile in which his eyes took no share, it was merely a momentary +curling up of crisp wrinkles. He did not usually smile at other +people's pleasantries; but when a person worth three or four +hundred thousand dollars condescends to indulge a joke, it is not +to be passed over like that of a poor relation. "Yes, yes," +muttered the old man, as he stooped and picked up a pin, adding +it to a row of similarly acquired pins which gave the left lapel +of his threadbare coat the appearance of a miniature harp, "I +shall make a lawyer of him."</p> + +<p>It had long been settled in Mr. Shackford's mind that Richard, +so soon as he had finished his studies, should enter the +law-office of Blandmann & Sharpe, a firm of rather sinister +reputation in South Millville.</p> + +<p>At fourteen Richard's eyes had begun to open on the situation; +at fifteen he saw very clearly; and one day, without much +preliminary formulating of his plan, he decided on a step that +had been taken by every male Shackford as far back as tradition +preserves the record of his family.</p> + +<p>A friendship had sprung up between Richard and one William +Durgin, a school-mate. This Durgin was a sallow, brooding boy, a +year older than himself. The two lads were antipodal in +disposition, intelligence, and social standing; for though +Richard went poorly clad, the reflection of his cousin's wealth +gilded him. Durgin was the son of a washerwoman. An intimacy +between the two would perhaps have been unlikely but for one +fact: it was Durgin's mother who had given little Dick a shelter +at the period of his parents' death. Though the circumstance did +not lie within the pale of Richard's personal memory, he +acknowledged the debt by rather insisting on Durgin's friendship. +It was William Durgin, therefore, who was elected to wait upon +Mr. Shackford on a certain morning which found that gentleman +greatly disturbed by an unprecedented occurrence,--Richard had +slept out of the house the previous night.</p> + +<p>Durgin was the bearer of a note which Mr. Shackford received +in some astonishment, and read deliberately, blinking with weak +eyes behind the glasses. Having torn off the blank page and laid +it aside for his own more economical correspondence (the rascal +had actually used a whole sheet to write ten words!), Mr. +Shackford turned, and with the absorbed air of a naturalist +studying some abnormal bug gazed over the steel bow of his +spectacles at Durgin.</p> + +<p>"Skit!"</p> + +<p>Durgin hastily retreated.</p> + +<p>"There's a poor lawyer saved," muttered the old man, taking +down his overcoat from a peg behind the door, and snapping off a +shred of lint on the collar with his lean forefinger. Then his +face relaxed, and an odd grin diffused a kind of wintry glow over +it.</p> + +<p>Richard had run away to sea.</p> + +<h2>VI</h2> + +<p>After a lapse of four years, during which he had as completely +vanished out of the memory of Stillwater as if he had been lying +all the while in the crowded family tomb behind the South Church, +Richard Shackford reappeared one summer morning at the door of +his cousin's house in Welch's Court. Mr. Shackford was absent at +the moment, and Mrs. Morganson, an elderly deaf woman, who came +in for a few hours every day to do the house-work, was busy in +the extension. Without announcing himself, Richard stalked +up-stairs to the chamber in the gable, and went directly to a +little shelf in one corner, upon which lay the dog's-eared copy +of Robinson Crusoe just as he had left it, save the four years' +accumulation of dust. Richard took the book fiercely in both +hands, and with a single mighty tug tore it from top to bottom, +and threw the fragments into the fire-place.</p> + +<p>A moment later, on the way down-stairs, he encountered his +kinsman ascending.</p> + +<p>"Ah, you have come back!" was Mr. Shackford's grim greeting +after a moment's hesitation.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Richard, with embarrassment, though he had made up +his mind not to be embarrassed by his cousin.</p> + +<p>"I can't say I was looking for you. You might have dropped me +a line; you were politer when you left. Why do you come back, and +why did you go away?" demanded the old man, with abrupt +fierceness. The last four years had bleached him and bent him and +made him look very old.</p> + +<p>"I didn't like the idea of Blandmann & Sharpe, for one thing," +said Richard, "and I thought I liked the sea."</p> + +<p>"And did you?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir! I enjoyed seeing foreign parts, and all that."</p> + +<p>"Quite the young gentleman on his travels. But the sea didn't +agree with you, and now you like the idea of Blandmann & +Sharpe?"</p> + +<p>"Not the least in the world, I assure you!" cried Richard. "I +take to it as little as ever I did."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps that is fortunate. But it's going to be rather +difficult to suit your tastes. What <i>do</i> you like?"</p> + +<p>"I like you, cousin Lemuel; you have always been kind to +me--in your way," said poor Richard, yearning for a glimmer of +human warmth and sympathy, and forgetting all the dreariness of +his uncared-for childhood. He had been out in the world, and had +found it even harder-hearted than his own home, which now he +idealized in the first flush of returning to it. Again he saw +himself, a blond-headed little fellow with stocking down at heel, +climbing the steep staircase, or digging in the clay at the front +gate with the air full of the breath of lilacs. That same +penetrating perfume, blown through the open hall-door as he +spoke, nearly brought the tears to his eyes. He had looked +forward for years to this coming back to Stillwater. Many a time, +as he wandered along the streets of some foreign sea-port, the +rich architecture and the bright costumes had faded out before +him, and given place to the fat gray belfry and slim red chimneys +of the humble New England village where he was born. He had +learned to love it after losing it; and now he had struggled back +through countless trials and disasters to find no welcome.</p> + +<p>"Cousin Lemuel," said Richard gently, "only just us two are +left, and we ought to be good friends, at least."</p> + +<p>"We are good enough friends," mumbled Mr. Shackford, who could +not evade taking the hand which Richard had forlornly reached out +to him, "but that needn't prevent us understanding each other +like rational creatures. I don't care for a great deal of fine +sentiment in people who run away without so much as thank you."</p> + +<p>"I was all wrong!"</p> + +<p>"That's what folks always say, with the delusion that it makes +everything all right."</p> + +<p>"Surely it help,--to admit it."</p> + +<p>"That depends; it generally doesn't. What do you propose to +do?"</p> + +<p>"I hardly know at the moment; my plans are quite in the +air."</p> + +<p>"In the air!" repeated Mr. Shackford. "I fancy that describes +them. Your father's plans were always in the air, too, and he +never got any of them down."</p> + +<p>"I intend to get mine down."</p> + +<p>"Have you saved by anything?"</p> + +<p>"Not a cent."</p> + +<p>"I thought as much."</p> + +<p>"I had a couple of hundred dollars in my sea-chest; but I was +shipwrecked, and lost it. I barely saved myself. When Robinson +Crusoe"--</p> + +<p>"Damn Robinson Crusoe!" snapped Mr. Shackford.</p> + +<p>"That's what I say," returned Richard gravely. "When Robinson +Crusoe was cast on an uninhabited island, shrimps and soft-shell +crabs and all sorts of delicious mollusks--readily boiled, I've +no doubt--crawled up on the beach, and begged him to eat them; +but <i>I</i> nearly starved to death."</p> + +<p>"Of course. You will always be shipwrecked, and always be +starved to death; you are one of that kind. I don't believe you +are a Shackford at all. When they were not anything else they +were good sailors. If you only had a drop of <i>his</i> blood in +your veins!" and Mr. Shackford waved his head towards a faded +portrait of a youngish, florid gentleman with banged hair and +high coat-collar, which hung against the wall half-way up the +stair-case. This was the counterfeit presentment of Lemuel +Shackford's father seated with his back at an open window, +through which was seen a ship under full canvas with the +union-jack standing out straight in the wrong direction. "But +what are you going to do for yourself? You can't start a +subscription paper, and play with shipwrecked mariner, you +know."</p> + +<p>"No, I hardly care to do that," said Richard, with a +good-natured laugh, "though no poor devil ever had a better +outfit for the character."</p> + +<p>"What <i>are</i> you calculated for?"</p> + +<p>Richard was painfully conscious of his unfitness for many +things; but he felt there was nothing in life to which he was so +ill adapted as his present position. Yet, until he could look +about him, he must needs eat his kinsman's reluctant bread, or +starve. The world was younger and more unsophisticated when manna +dropped from the clouds.</p> + +<p>Mr. Shackford stood with his neck craned over the frayed edge +of his satin stock and one hand resting indecisively on the +banister, and Richard on the step above, leaning his back against +the blighted flowers of the wall-paper. From an oval window at +the head of the stairs the summer sunshine streamed upon them, +and illuminated the high-shouldered clock which, ensconced in an +alcove, seemed to be listening to the conversation.</p> + +<p>"There's no chance for you in the law," said Mr. Shackford, +after a long pause. "Sharpe's nephew has the berth. A while ago I +might have got you into the Miantowona Iron Works; but the +rascally directors are trying to ruin me now. There's the Union +Store, if they happen to want a clerk. I suppose you would be +about as handy behind a counter as a hippopotamus. I have no +business of my own to train you to. You are not good for the sea, +and the sea has probably spoiled you for anything else. A drop of +salt water just poisons a landsman. I am sure I don't know what +to do with you."</p> + +<p>"Don't bother yourself about it at all," said Richard, +cheerfully. "You are going back on the whole family, ancestors +and posterity, by suggesting that I can't make my own living. I +only want a little time to take breath, don't you see, and a +crust and a bed for a few days, such as you might give any +wayfarer. Meanwhile, I will look after things around the place. I +fancy I was never an idler here since the day I learnt to split +kindling."</p> + +<p>"There's your old bed in the north chamber," said Mr. +Shackford, wrinkling his forehead helplessly. "According to my +notion, it is not so good as a bunk, or a hammock slung in a tidy +forecastle, but it's at your service, and Mrs. Morganson, I dare +say, can lay an extra plate at table."</p> + +<p>With which gracious acceptance of Richard's proposition, Mr. +Shackford resumed his way upstairs, and the young man +thoughtfully descended to the hall-door and thence into the +street, to take a general survey of the commercial capabilities +of Stillwater.</p> + +<p>The outlook was not inspiring. A machinist, or a mechanic, or +a day laborer might have found a foot-hold. A man without +handicraft was not in request in Stillwater. "What is your +trade?" was the staggering question that met Richard at the +threshold. He went from workshop to workshop, confidently and +cheerfully at first, whistling softly between whiles; but at +every turn the question confronted him. In some places, where he +was recognized with thinly veiled surprise as that boy of +Shackford's, he was kindly put off; in others he received only a +stare or a brutal No.</p> + +<p>By noon he had exhausted the leading shops and offices in the +village, and was so disheartened that he began to dread the +thought of returning home to dinner. Clearly, he was a +superfluous person in Stillwater. A mortar-splashed hod-carrier, +who had seated himself on a pile of brick and was eating his +noonday rations from a tin can just brought to him by a +slatternly girl, gave Richard a spasm of envy. Here was a man who +had found his place, and was establishing--what Richard did not +seem able to establish in his own case--a right to exist.</p> + +<p>At supper Mr. Shackford refrained from examining Richard on +his day's employment, for which reserve, or indifference, the boy +was grateful. When the silent meal was over the old man went to +his papers, and Richard withdrew to his room in the gable. He had +neglected to provide himself with a candle. However, there was +nothing to read, for in destroying Robinson Crusoe he had +destroyed his entire library; so he sat and brooded in the +moonlight, casting a look of disgust now and then at the +mutilated volume on the hearth. That lying romance! It had been, +indirectly, the cause of all his woe, filling his boyish brain +with visions of picturesque adventure, and sending him off to +sea, where he had lost four precious years of his life.</p> + +<p>"If I had stuck to my studies," reflected Richard while +undressing, "I might have made something of myself. He's a great +friend, Robinson Crusoe."</p> + +<p>Richard fell asleep with as much bitterness in his bosom +against DeFoe's ingenious hero as if Robinson had been a living +person instead of a living fiction, and out of this animosity +grew a dream so fantastic and comical that Richard awoke himself +with a bewildered laugh just as the sunrise reddened the panes of +the chamber window. In this dream somebody came to Richard and +asked him if he had heard of that dreadful thing about young +Crusoe.</p> + +<p>"No, confound him!" said Richard, "what is it?"</p> + +<p>"It has been ascertained," said somebody, who seemed to +Richard at once an intimate friend and an utter stranger,--"it +has been ascertained beyond a doubt that the man Friday was not a +man Friday at all, but a light-minded young princess from one of +the neighboring islands who had fallen in love with Robinson. Her +real name was Saturday."</p> + +<p>"Why, that's scandalous!" cried Richard with heat. "Think of +the admiration and sympathy the world has been lavishing on this +precious pair; Robinson Crusoe and his girl Saturday! That puts a +different face on it."</p> + +<p>"Another great moral character exploded," murmured the shadowy +shape, mixing itself up with the motes of a sunbeam and drifting +out through the window. Then Richard fell to laughing in his +sleep, and so awoke. He was still confused with the dream as he +sat on the edge of his bed, pulling himself together in the broad +daylight.</p> + +<p>"Well," he muttered at length, "I shouldn't wonder! There's +nothing too bad to be believed of that man."</p> + +<h2>VII</h2> + +<p>Richard made an early start that morning in search of +employment, and duplicated the failure of the previous day. +Nobody wanted him. If nobody wanted him in the village where he +was born and bred, a village of counting-rooms and workshops, was +any other place likely to need him? He had only one hope, if it +could be called a hope; at any rate, he had treated it tenderly +as such and kept it for the last. He would apply to Rowland +Slocum. Long ago, when Richard was an urchin making pot-hooks in +the lane, the man used occasionally to pat him on the head and +give him pennies. This was not a foundation on which to rear a +very lofty castle; but this was all he had.</p> + +<p>It was noon when Richard approached the marble yard, and the +men were pouring out into the street through the wide gate in the +rough deal fence which inclosed the works,--heavy, brawny men, +covered with fine white dust, who shouldered each other like +cattle, and took the sidewalk to themselves. Richard stepped +aside to let them pass, eying them curiously as possible +comrades. Suddenly a slim dark fellow, who had retained his paper +cap and leather apron, halted and thrust forth a horny hand. The +others went on.</p> + +<p>"Hullo, Dick Shackford!"</p> + +<p>"What, is that you, Will? <i>You</i> here?"</p> + +<p>"Been here two years now. One of Slocum's apprentices," added +Durgin, with an air of easy grandeur.</p> + +<p>"Two years? How time flies--when it doesn't crawl! Do you like +it?"</p> + +<p>"My time will be out next--Oh, the work? Well, yes; it's not +bad, and there's a jolly set in the yard. But how about you? I +heard last night you'd got home. Been everywhere and come back +wealthy? The boys used to say you was off pirating."</p> + +<p>"No such luck," answered Richard, with a smile. "I didn't prey +on the high seas,--quite the contrary. The high sea captured my +kit and four years' savings. I will tell you about it some day. +If I have a limb to my name and a breath left to my body, it is +no thanks to the Indian Ocean. That is all I have got, Will, and +I am looking around for bread and butter,--literally bread and +butter."</p> + +<p>"No? and the old gentleman so rich!"</p> + +<p>Durgin said this with sincere indignation, and was perhaps +unconscious himself of experiencing that nameless, shadowy +satisfaction which Rochefoucauld says we find in the adversity of +our best friends. Certainly Richard looked very seedy in his suit +of slop-shop clothes.</p> + +<p>"I was on my way to Mr. Slocum's to see if I could do anything +with him," Richard continued.</p> + +<p>"To get a job, do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, to get work,--to learn <i>how</i> to work; to master a +trade, in short."</p> + +<p>"You can't be an apprentice, you know," said Durgin.</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"Slocum has two."</p> + +<p>"Suppose he should happen to want another? He might."</p> + +<p>"The Association wouldn't allow it."</p> + +<p>"What Association?"</p> + +<p>"The Marble Workers' Association, of course."</p> + +<p><i>"They</i> wouldn't allow it! How is that?"</p> + +<p>"This the way of it. Slocum is free to take on two apprentices +every year, but no more. That prevents workmen increasing too +fast, and so keeps up wages. The Marble Workers' Association is a +very neat thing, I can tell you."</p> + +<p>"But doesn't Mr. Slocum own the yard? I thought he did."</p> + +<p>"Yes, he owns the yard."</p> + +<p>"If he wished to extend the business, couldn't he employ more +hands?"</p> + +<p>"As many as he could get,--skilled workmen; but not +apprentices."</p> + +<p>"And Mr. Slocum agrees to that?" inquired Richard.</p> + +<p>"He does."</p> + +<p>"And likes it?"</p> + +<p>"Not he,--he hates it; but he can't help himself."</p> + +<p>"Upon my soul, I don't see what prevents him taking on as many +apprentices as he wants to."</p> + +<p>"Why, the Association, to be sure," returned Durgin, glancing +at the town clock, which marked seven minutes past the hour.</p> + +<p>"But how could they stop him?"</p> + +<p>"In plenty of ways. Suppose Slocum has a lot of unfinished +contracts on hand,--he always has fat contracts,--and the men was +to knock off work. That would be kind of awkward, wouldn't +it?"</p> + +<p>"For a day or two, yes. He could send out of town for hands," +suggested Richard.</p> + +<p>"And they wouldn't come, if the Association said 'Stay where +you are.' They are mostly in the ring. Some outsiders might come, +though."</p> + +<p>"Then what?"</p> + +<p>"Why, then the boys would make it pretty hot for them in +Stillwater. Don't you notice?"</p> + +<p>"I notice there is not much chance for me," said Richard, +despondingly. "Isn't that so?"</p> + +<p>"Can't say. Better talk with Slocum. But I must get along; I +have to be back sharp at one. I want to hear about your knocking +around the worst kind. Can't we meet somewhere tonight,--at the +tavern?"</p> + +<p>"The tavern? That didn't used to be a quiet place."</p> + +<p>"It isn't quiet now, but there's nowhere else to go of a +night. It's a comfortable den, and there's always some capital +fellows dropping in. A glass of lager with a mate is not a bad +thing after a hard day's work."</p> + +<p>"Both are good things when they are of the right sort."</p> + +<p>"That's like saying I'm not the right sort, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"I meant nothing of the kind. But I don't take to the tavern. +Not that I'm squeamish; I have lived four years among sailors, +and have been in rougher places than you ever dreamed of; but all +the same I am afraid of the tavern. I've seen many a brave fellow +wrecked on that reef."</p> + +<p>"You always was a bit stuck up," said Durgin candidly.</p> + +<p>"Not an inch. I never had much reason to be; and less now than +ever, when I can scarcely afford to drink water, let alone beer. +I will drop round to your mother's some evening--I hope she's +well,--and tell you of my ups and downs. That will be pleasanter +for all hands."</p> + +<p>"Oh, as you like."</p> + +<p>"Now for Mr. Slocum, though you have taken the wind out of +me."</p> + +<p>The two separated, Durgin with a half smile on his lip, and +Richard in a melancholy frame of mind. He passed from the +grass-fringed street into the deserted marble yard, where it +seemed as if the green summer had suddenly turned into white +winter, and threading his way between the huge drifts of snowy +stone, knocked at the door of Mr. Slocum's private office.</p> + +<p>William Durgin had summed up the case fairly enough as it +stood between the Marble Workers' Association and Rowland Slocum. +The system of this branch of the trades-union kept trained +workmen comparatively scarce, and enabled them to command regular +and even advanced prices at periods when other trades were +depressed. The older hands looked upon a fresh apprentice in the +yard with much the same favor as workingmen of the era of +Jacquard looked upon the introduction of a new piece of +machinery. Unless the apprentice had exceptional tact, he +underwent a rough novitiate. In any case he served a term of +social ostracism before he was admitted to full comradeship. Mr. +Slocum could easily have found openings each year for a dozen +learners, had the matter been under his control; but it was not. +"I am the master of each man individually," he declared, "but +collectively they are my master." So his business, instead of +naturally spreading and becoming a benefit to the many, was kept +carefully pruned down to the benefit of the few. He was often +forced to decline important contracts, the filling of which would +have resulted to the advantage of every person in the +village.</p> + +<p>Mr. Slocum recognized Richard at once, and listened kindly to +his story. It was Mr. Slocum's way to listen kindly to every one; +but he was impressed with Richard's intelligence and manner, and +became desirous, for several reasons, to assist him. In the first +place, there was room in the shops for another apprentice; +experienced hands were on jobs that could have been as well done +by beginners; and, in the second place, Mr. Slocum had an +intuition that Lemuel Shackford was not treating the lad fairly, +though Richard had said nothing to this effect. Now, Mr. Slocum +and Mr. Shackford were just then at swords' points.</p> + +<p>"I don't suppose I could annoy Shackford more," was Mr. +Slocum's reflection, "than by doing something for this boy, whom +he has always shamelessly neglected."</p> + +<p>The motive was not a high one; but Richard would have been +well satisfied with it, if he could have divined it. He did +divine that Mr. Slocum was favorably inclined towards him, and +stood watching that gentleman's face with hopeful anxiety.</p> + +<p>"I have my regulation number of young men, Richard," said Mr. +Slocum, "and there will be no vacancy until autumn. If you could +wait a few months."</p> + +<p>Richard's head drooped.</p> + +<p>"Can't do that? You write a good hand, you say. Perhaps you +could assist the book-keeper until there's a chance for you in +the yard."</p> + +<p>"I think I could, sir," said Richard eagerly.</p> + +<p>"If you were only a draughtsman, now, I could do something +much better for you. I intend to set up a shop for ornamental +carving, and I want some one to draw patterns. If you had a knack +at designing, if you could draw at all"--</p> + +<p>Richard's face lighted up.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you <i>have</i> a turn that way. I remember the queer +things you used to scratch in the mud in the court, when you were +a little shaver. Can you draw?"</p> + +<p>"Why, that is the one thing I can do!" cried Richard,--"in a +rough fashion, of course," he added, fearing he had overstated +it.</p> + +<p>"It is a rough fashion that will serve. You must let me see +some of your sketches."</p> + +<p>"I haven't any, sir. I had a hundred in my sea-chest, but that +was lost,--pencillings of old archways, cathedral spires, bits of +frieze, and such odds and ends as took my fancy in the ports we +touched at. I recollect one bit. I think I could do it for you +now. Shall I?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Slocum nodded assent, smiling at the young fellow's +enthusiasm, and only partially suspecting his necessity. Richard +picked up a pen and began scratching on a letter sheet which lay +on the desk. He was five or six minutes at the work, during which +the elder man watched him with an amused expression.</p> + +<p>"It's a section of cornice on the façade of the Hindoo +College at Calcutta," said Richard, handing him the paper,--"no, +it's the custom-house. I forget which; but it doesn't +matter."</p> + +<p>The amused look gradually passed out of Mr. Slocum's +countenance as he examined the sketch. It was roughly but clearly +drawn, and full of facility. "Why, that's very clever!" he said, +holding it at arms'-length; and then, with great gravity, "I hope +you are not a genius, Richard; that would be too much of a fine +thing. If you are not, you can be of service to me in my +plans."</p> + +<p>Richard laughingly made haste to declare that to the best of +his knowledge and belief he was not a genius, and it was decided +on the spot that Richard should assist Mr. Simms, the bookkeeper, +and presently try his hand at designing ornamental patterns for +the carvers, Mr. Slocum allowing him apprentice wages until the +quality of his work should be ascertained.</p> + +<p>"It is very little," said Mr. Slocum, "but it will pay your +board, if you do not live at home."</p> + +<p>"I shall not remain at my cousin's," Richard replied, "if you +call that home."</p> + +<p>"I can imagine it is not much of a home. Your cousin, not to +put too fine a point on it, is a wretch."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to hear you say that, sir; he's my only living +kinsman."</p> + +<p>"You are fortunate in having but one, then. However, I am +wrong to abuse him to you; but I cannot speak of him with +moderation, he has just played me such a despicable trick. Look +here."</p> + +<p>Mr. Slocum led Richard to the door, and pointing to a row of +new workshops which extended the entire length of one side of the +marble yard, said,--</p> + +<p>"I built these last spring. After the shingles were on we +discovered that the rear partition, for a distance of +seventy-five feet, overlapped two inches on Shackford's meadow. I +was ready to drop when I saw it, your cousin is such an +unmanageable old fiend. Of course I went to him immediately, and +what do you think? He demanded five hundred dollars for that +strip of land! Five hundred dollars for a few inches of swamp +meadow not worth ten dollars the acre! 'Then take your +disreputable old mill off my property!' says Shackford,--he +called it a disreputable old mill! I was hasty, perhaps, and I +told him to go to the devil. He said he would, and he did; for he +went to Blandmann. When the lawyers got hold of it, they bothered +the life out of me; so I just moved the building forward two +inches, at an expense of seven hundred dollars. Then what does +the demon do but board up all my windows opening on the meadow! +Richard, I make it a condition that you shall not lodge at +Shackford's."</p> + +<p>"Nothing could induce me to live another day in the same house +with him, sir," answered Richard, suppressing an inclination to +smile; and then seriously, "His bread is bitter."</p> + +<p>Richard went back with a light heart to Welch's Court. At the +gate of the marble yard he met William Durgin returning to work. +The steam-whistle had sounded the call, and there was no time for +exchange of words; so Richard gave his comrade a bright nod and +passed by. Durgin turned and stared after him.</p> + +<p>"Looks as if Slocum had taken him on; but it never can be as +apprentice; he wouldn't dare do it."</p> + +<p>Mr. Shackford had nearly finished his frugal dinner when +Richard entered. "If you can't hit it to be in at your meals," +said Mr. Shackford, helping himself absently to the remaining +chop, "perhaps you had better stop away altogether."</p> + +<p>"I can do that now, cousin," replied Richard sunnily. "I have +engaged with Slocum."</p> + +<p>The old man laid down his knife and fork.</p> + +<p>"With Slocum! A Shackford a miserable marble-chipper!"</p> + +<p>There was so little hint of the aristocrat in Lemuel +Shackford's sordid life and person that no one suspected him of +even self-esteem. He went as meanly dressed as a tramp, and as +careless of contemporary criticism; yet clear down in his liver, +or somewhere in his anatomy, he nourished an odd abstract pride +in the family Shackford. Heaven knows why! To be sure, it dated +far back; its women had always been virtuous, and its men, if not +always virtuous, had always been ship-captains. But beyond this +the family had never amounted to anything, and now there was so +very little left of it. For Richard as Richard Lemuel cared +nothing; for Richard as a Shackford he had a chaotic feeling that +defied analysis and had never before risen to the surface. It was +therefore with a disgust entirely apart from the hatred of Slocum +or regard for Richard that the old man exclaimed, "A Shackford a +miserable marble-chipper!"</p> + +<p>"That is better than hanging around the village with my hands +in my pockets. Isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know that anybody has demanded that you should hang +around the village."</p> + +<p>"I ought to go away, you mean? But I have found work here, and +I might not find it elsewhere."</p> + +<p>"Stillwater is not the place to begin life in. It's the place +to go away from, and come back to."</p> + +<p>"Well, I have come back."</p> + +<p>"And how? With one shirt and a lot of bad sailor habits."</p> + +<p>"My one shirt is my only very bad habit," said Richard, with a +laugh,--he could laugh now,--"and I mean to get rid of that."</p> + +<p>Mr. Shackford snapped his fingers disdainfully.</p> + +<p>"You ought to have stuck to the sea; that's respectable. In +ten years you might have risen to be master of a bark; that would +have been honorable. You might have gone down in a gale,--you +probably would,--and that would have been fortunate. But a +stone-cutter! You can understand," growled Mr. Shackford, +reaching out for his straw hat, which he put on and crushed over +his brows, "I don't keep a boarding-house for Slocum's +hands."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm far from asking it!" cried Richard. "I am thankful +for the two nights' shelter I have had."</p> + +<p>"That's some of your sarcasm, I suppose," said Mr. Shackford, +half turning, with his hands on the door-knob.</p> + +<p>"No, it is some of my sincerity. I am really obliged to you. +You weren't very cordial, to be sure, but I did not deserve +cordiality."</p> + +<p>"You have figured that out correctly."</p> + +<p>"I want to begin over again, you see, and start fair."</p> + +<p>"Then begin by dropping Slocum."</p> + +<p>"You have not given me a chance to tell you what the +arrangement is. However, it's irrevocable."</p> + +<p>"I don't want to hear. I don't care a curse, so long as it is +an arrangement," and Mr. Shackford hurried out of the room, +slamming the door behind him.</p> + +<p>Then Richard, quite undisturbed by his cousin's +unreasonableness, sat himself down to eat the last meal he was +ever to eat under that roof,--a feat which his cousin's appetite +had rendered comparatively easy.</p> + +<p>While engaged in this, Richard resolved in his mind several +questions as to his future abode. He could not reconcile his +thought to any of the workingmen's boarding-houses, of which +there were five or six in the slums of the village, where the +doorways were greasy, and women flitted about in the hottest +weather with thick woolen shawls over their heads. Yet his +finances did not permit him to aspire to lodgings much more +decent. If he could only secure a small room somewhere in a quiet +neighborhood. Possibly Mrs. Durgin would let him have a chamber +in her cottage. He was beginning life over again, and it struck +him as nearly an ideal plan to begin it on the identical spot +where he had, in a manner, made his first start. Besides, there +was William Durgin for company, when the long nights of the New +England winter set in. The idea smiled so pleasantly in Richard's +fancy that he pushed the plate away from him impatiently, and +picked up his hat which lay on the floor beside the chair.</p> + +<p>That evening he moved from the Shackford house to Mrs. +Durgin's cottage in Cross Street. It was not an imposing +ceremony. With a small brown-paper parcel under his arm, he +walked from one threshold to the other, and the thing was +done.</p> + +<h2>VIII</h2> + +<p>The six months which followed Richard's installment in the +office at Slocum's Yard were so crowded with novel experience +that he scarcely noted their flight. The room at the Durgins, as +will presently appear, turned out an unfortunate arrangement; but +everything else had prospered. Richard proved an efficient aid to +Mr. Simms, who quietly shifted the pay-roll to the younger man's +shoulders. This was a very complicated account to keep, involving +as it did a separate record of each employee's time and special +work. An ancient bookkeeper parts lightly with such trifles when +he has a capable assistant. It also fell to Richard's lot to pay +the hands on Saturdays. William Durgin blinked his surprise on +the first occasion, as he filed in with the others and saw +Richard posted at the desk, with the pay-roll in his hand and the +pile of greenbacks lying in front of him.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you'll be proprietor next," remarked Durgin, that +evening, at the supper table.</p> + +<p>"When I am, Will," answered Richard cheerily, "you will be on +the road to foreman of the finishing shop."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said Durgin, not too graciously. It grated on him +to play the part of foreman, even in imagination, with Dick +Shackford as proprietor. Durgin could not disconnect his friend +from that seedy, half-crestfallen figure to whom, a few months +earlier, he had given elementary instruction on the Marble +Workers' Association.</p> + +<p>Richard did not find his old schoolmate so companionable as +memory and anticipation had painted him. The two young men moved +on different levels. Richard's sea life, now that he had got at a +sufficient distance from it, was a perspective full of pleasant +color; he had a taste for reading, a thirst to know things, and +his world was not wholly shut in by the Stillwater horizon. It +was still a pitifully narrow world, but wide compared with +Durgin's, which extended no appreciable distance in any direction +from the Stillwater hotel. He spent his evenings chiefly there, +returning home late at night, and often in so noisy a mood as to +disturb Richard, who slept in an adjoining apartment. This was an +annoyance; and it was an annoyance to have Mrs. Durgin coming to +him with complaints of William. Other matters irritated Richard. +He had contrived to replenish his wardrobe, and the sunburn was +disappearing from his hands, which the nature of his occupation +left soft and unscarred. Durgin was disposed at times to be +sarcastic on these changes, but always stopped short of actual +offense; for he remembered that Shackford when a boy, amiable and +patient as he was, had had a tiger's temper at bottom. Durgin had +seen it roused once or twice, and even received a chance sweep of +the paw. Richard liked Durgin's rough wit as little as Durgin +relished Richard's good-natured bluntness. It was a mistake, that +trying to pick up the dropped thread of old acquaintance.</p> + +<p>As soon as the permanency of his position was assured, and his +means warranted the step, Richard transported himself and his +effects to a comfortable chamber in the same house with Mr. +Pinkham, the school-master, the perpetual falsetto of whose flute +was positively soothing after four months of William Durgin's +bass. Mr. Pinkham having but one lung, and that defective, played +on the flute.</p> + +<p>"You see what you've gone and done, William," remarked Mrs. +Durgin plaintively, "with your ways. There goes the quietest +young man in Stillwater, and four dollars a week!"</p> + +<p>"There goes a swell, you'd better say. He was always a proud +beggar; nobody was ever good enough for him."</p> + +<p>"You shouldn't say that, William. I could cry, to lose him and +his cheerfulness out of the house," and Mrs. Durgin began to +whimper.</p> + +<p>"Wait till he's out of luck again, and he'll come back to us +fast enough. That's when his kind remembers their friends. Blast +him! he can't even take a drop of beer with a chum at the +tavern."</p> + +<p>"And right, too. There's beer enough taken at the tavern +without him."</p> + +<p>"If you mean me, mother, I'll get drunk tonight."</p> + +<p>"No, no!" cried Mrs. Durgin, pleadingly, "I didn't mean you, +William, but Peters and that set."</p> + +<p>"I thought you couldn't mean me," said William, thrusting his +hands into the pockets of his monkey-jacket, and sauntering off +in the direction of the Stillwater hotel, where there was a +choice company gathered, it being Saturday night, and the monthly +meeting of the Union.</p> + +<p>Mr. Slocum had wasted no time in organizing a shop for his +experiment in ornamental carving. Five or six men, who had worked +elsewhere at this branch, were turned over to the new department, +with Stevens as foreman and Richard as designer. Very shortly +Richard had as much as he could do to furnish the patterns +required. These consisted mostly of scrolls, wreaths, and +mortuary dove-wings for head-stones. Fortunately for Richard he +had no genius, but plenty of a kind of talent just abreast with +Mr. Slocum's purpose. As the carvers became interested in their +work, they began to show Richard the respect and good-will which +at first had been withheld, for they had not quite liked being +under the supervision of one who had not served at the trade. His +youth had also told against him; but Richard's pleasant, off-hand +manner quickly won them. He had come in contact with rough men on +shipboard; he had studied their ways, and he knew that with all +their roughness there is no class so sensitive. This insight was +of great service to him. Stevens, who had perhaps been the least +disposed to accept Richard, was soon his warm ally.</p> + +<p>"See what a smooth fist the lad has!" he said one day holding +up a new drawing to the shop. "A man with a wreath of them acorns +on his head-stone oughter be perfectly happy, damn him!"</p> + +<p>It was, however, an anchor with a broken chain pendent--a +design for a monument to the late Captain Septimius Salter, who +had parted his cable at sea--which settled Richard's status with +Stevens.</p> + +<p>"Boys, that Shackford is what <i>I</i> call a born genei."</p> + +<p>After all, is not the one-eyed man who is king among the blind +the most fortunate of monarchs? Your little talent in a +provincial village looms a great deal taller than your mighty +genius in a city. Richard Shackford working for Rowland Slocum at +Stillwater was happier than Michaelangelo in Rome with Pope +Julius II. at his back. And Richard was the better paid, too!</p> + +<p>One day he picked up a useful hint from a celebrated sculptor, +who had come to the village in search of marble for the base of a +soldiers' monument. Richard was laboriously copying a spray of +fern, the delicacy of which eluded his pencil. The sculptor stood +a moment silently observing him.</p> + +<p>"Why do you spend an hour doing only passably well what you +could do perfectly in ten minutes?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose it is because I am stupid, sir," said Richard.</p> + +<p>"No stupid man ever suspected himself of being anything but +clever. You can draw capitally; but nature beats you out and out +at designing ferns. Just ask her to make you a fac-simile in +plaster, and see how handily she will lend herself to the job. Of +course you must help her a little."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am not above giving nature a lift," said Richard +modestly.</p> + +<p>"Lay a cloth on your table, place the fern on the cloth, and +pour a thin paste of plaster of Paris over the leaf,--do that +gently, so as not to disarrange the spray. When the plaster is +set, there's your mold; remove the leaf, oil the matrix, and +pour in fresh plaster. When that is set, cut away the mold +carefully, and there's your spray of fern, as graceful and +perfect as if nature had done it all by herself. You get the very +texture of the leaf by this process."</p> + +<p>After that, Richard made casts instead of drawings for the +carvers, and fancied he was doing a new thing, until he visited +some marble-works in the great city.</p> + +<p>At this period, whatever change subsequently took place in his +feeling, Richard was desirous of establishing friendly relations +with his cousin. The young fellow's sense of kinship was +singularly strong, and it was only after several repulses at the +door of the Shackford house and on the street that he +relinquished the hope of placating the sour old man. At times +Richard was moved almost to pity him. Every day Mr. Shackford +seemed to grow shabbier and more spectral. He was a grotesque +figure now, in his napless hat and broken-down stock. The metal +button-holes on his ancient waistcoat had worn their way through +the satin coverings, leaving here and there a sparse fringe +around the edges, and somehow suggesting little bald heads. +Looking at him, you felt that the inner man was as threadbare and +dilapidated as his outside; but in his lonely old age he asked +for no human sympathy or companionship, and, in fact, stood in no +need of either. With one devouring passion he set the world at +defiance. He loved his gold,--the metal itself, the weight and +color and touch of it. In his bedroom on the ground-floor Mr. +Shackford kept a small iron-clamped box filled to the lid with +bright yellow coins. Often, at the dead of night, with door +bolted and curtain down, he would spread out the glittering +pieces on the table, and bend over them with an amorous glow in +his faded eyes. These were his blond mistresses; he took a +fearful joy in listening to their rustling, muffle laughter as he +drew them towards him with eager hands. If at that instant a +blind chanced to slam, or a footfall to echo in the lonely court, +then the withered old sultan would hurry his slaves back into +their iron-bound seraglio, and extinguish the light. It would +have been a wasted tenderness to pity him. He was very happy in +his own way, that Lemuel Shackford.</p> + +<h2>IX</h2> + +<p>Towards the close of his second year with Mr. Slocum, Richard +was assigned a work-room by himself, and relieved of his +accountant's duties. His undivided energies were demanded by the +carving department, which had proved a lucrative success.</p> + +<p>The rear of the lot on which Mr. Slocum's house stood was shut +off from the marble yard by a high brick wall pierced with a +private door for Mr. Slocum's convenience. Over the kitchen in +the extension, which reached within a few feet of the wall, was a +disused chamber, approachable on the outside by a flight of steps +leading to a veranda. To this room Richard and his traps were +removed. With a round table standing in the center, with the +plaster models arranged on shelves and sketches in pencil and +crayon tacked against the whitewashed walls, the apartment was +transformed into a delightful atelier. An open fire-place, with a +brace of antiquated iron-dogs straddling the red brick hearth, +gave the finishing touch. The occupant was in easy communication +with the yard, from which the busy din of clinking chisels came +musically to his ear, and was still beyond the reach of +unnecessary interruption. Richard saw clearly all the advantages +of this transfer, but he was far form having any intimation that +he had made the most important move of his life.</p> + +<p>The room had two doors: one opened on the veranda, and the +other into a narrow hall connecting the extension with the main +building. Frequently, that first week after taking possession, +Richard detected the sweep of a broom and the rustle of drapery +in this passage-way, the sound sometimes hushing itself quite +close to the door, as if some one had paused a moment just +outside. He wondered whether it was the servant-maid or Margaret +Slocum, whom he knew very well by sight. It was, in fact, +Margaret, who was dying with the curiosity of fourteen to peep +into the studio, so carefully locked whenever the young man left +it,--dying with curiosity to see the workshop, and standing in +rather great awe of the workman.</p> + +<p>In the home circle her father had a habit of speaking with +deep respect of young Shackford's ability, and once she had seen +him at their table,--at a Thanksgiving. On this occasion Richard +had appalled her by the solemnity of his shyness,--poor Richard, +who was so unused to the amenities of a handsomely served dinner, +that the chill which came over him cooled the Thanksgiving turkey +on his palate.</p> + +<p>When it had been decided that he was to have the spare room +for his workshop, Margaret, with womanly officiousness, had swept +it and dusted it and demolished the cobwebs; but since then she +had not been able to obtain so much as a glimpse of the interior. +A ten minutes' sweeping had sufficed for the chamber, but the +passage-way seemed in quite an irreclaimable state, judging by +the number of times it was necessary to sweep it in the course of +a few days. Now Margaret was not an unusual mixture of timidity +and daring; so one morning, about a week after Richard was +settled, she walked with quaking heart up to the door of the +studio, and knocked as bold as brass.</p> + +<p>Richard opened the door, and smiled pleasantly at Margaret +standing on the threshold with an expression of demure defiance +in her face. Did Mr. Shackford want anything more in the way of +pans and pails for his plaster? No, Mr. Shackford had everything +he required of the kind. But would not Miss Margaret walk in? +Yes, she would step in for a moment, but with a good deal of +indifference, though, giving an air of chance to her settled +determination to examine that room from top to bottom.</p> + +<p>Richard showed her his drawings and casts, and enlightened her +on all the simple mysteries of the craft. Margaret, of whom he +was a trifle afraid at first, amused him with her candor and +sedateness, seeming now a mere child, and now an elderly person +gravely inspecting matters. The frankness and simplicity were +hers by nature, and the oldish ways--notably her self-possession, +so quick to assert itself after an instant's forgetfulness--came +perhaps of losing her mother in early childhood, and the +premature duties which that misfortune entailed. She amused him, +for she was only fourteen; but she impressed him also, for she +was Mr. Slocum's daughter. Yet it was not her lightness, but her +gravity, that made Richard smile to himself.</p> + +<p>"I am not interrupting you?" she asked presently.</p> + +<p>"Not in the least," said Richard. "I am waiting for these +molds to harden. I cannot do anything until then."</p> + +<p>"Papa says you are very clever," remarked Margaret, turning +her wide black eyes full upon him. <i>"Are</i> you?"</p> + +<p>"Far from it," replied Richard, laughing to veil his +confusion, "but I am glad your father thinks so."</p> + +<p>"You should not be glad to have him think so," returned +Margaret reprovingly, "if you are not clever. I suppose you are, +though. Tell the truth, now."</p> + +<p>"It is not fair to force a fellow into praising himself."</p> + +<p>"You are trying to creep out!"</p> + +<p>"Well, then, there are many cleverer persons than I in the +world, and a few not so clever."</p> + +<p>"That won't do," said Margaret positively.</p> + +<p>"I don't understand what you mean by cleverness, Miss +Margaret. There are a great many kinds and degrees. I can make +fairly honest patterns for the men to work by; but I am not an +artist, if you mean that."</p> + +<p>"You are not an artist?"</p> + +<p>"No; an artist creates, and I only copy, and that in a small +way. Any one can learn to prepare casts; but to create a bust or +a statue--that is to say, a fine one--a man must have +genius."</p> + +<p>"You have no genius?"</p> + +<p>"Not a grain."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to hear that," said Margaret, with a disappointed +look. "But perhaps it will come," she added encouragingly. "I +have read that nearly all great artists and poets are almost +always modest. They know better than anybody else how far they +fall short of what they intend, and so they don't put on airs. +You don't, either. I like that in you. May be you have genius +without knowing it, Mr. Shackford."</p> + +<p>"It is quite without knowing it, I assure you!" protested +Richard, with suppressed merriment. "What an odd girl!" he +thought. "She is actually talking to me like a mother!"</p> + +<p>The twinkling light in the young man's eyes, or something that +jarred in his manner, caused Margaret at once to withdraw into +herself. She went silently about the room, examining the tools +and patterns; then, nearing the door, suddenly dropped Richard a +quaint little courtesy, and was gone.</p> + +<p>This was the colorless beginning of a friendship that was +destined speedily to be full of tender lights and shadows, and to +flow on with unsuspected depth. For several days Richard saw +nothing more of Margaret, and scarcely thought of her. The +strangle little figure was fading out of his mind, when, one +afternoon, it again appeared at his door. This time Margaret had +left something of her sedateness behind; she struck Richard as +being both less ripe and less immature than he had fancied; she +interested rather than amused him. Perhaps he had been partially +insulated by his own shyness on the first occasion, and had +caught only a confused and inaccurate impression of Margaret's +personality. She remained half an hour in the workshop, and at +her departure omitted the formal courtesy.</p> + +<p>After this, Margaret seldom let a week slip without tapping +once or twice at the studio, at first with some pretext or other, +and then with no pretense whatever. When Margaret had disburdened +herself of excuses for dropping in to watch Richard mold his +leaves and flowers, she came oftener, and Richard insensibly +drifted into the habit of expecting her on certain days, and was +disappointed when she failed to appear. His industry had saved +him, until now, from discovering how solitary his life really +was; for his life was as solitary--as solitary as that of +Margaret, who lived in the great house with only her father, the +two servants, and an episodical aunt. The mother was long ago +dead; Margaret could not recollect when that gray headstone, with +blotches of rusty-green moss breaking out over the lettering, was +not in the churchyard; and there never had been any brothers or +sisters.</p> + +<p>To Margaret Richard's installation in the empty room, where as +a child she had always been afraid to go, was the single +important break she could remember in the monotony of her +existence; and now a vague yearning for companionship, the blind +sense of the plant reaching towards the sunshine, drew her there. +The tacitly prescribed half hour often lengthened to an hour. +Sometimes Margaret brought a book with her, or a piece of +embroidery, and the two spoke scarcely ten words, Richard giving +her a smile now and then, and she returning a sympathetic nod as +the cast came out successfully.</p> + +<p>Margaret at fifteen--she was fifteen now--was not a beauty. +There is the loveliness of the bud and the loveliness of the +full-blown flower; but Margaret as a blossom was not pretty. She +was awkward and angular, with prominent shoulder-blades, and no +soft curves anywhere in her slimness; only her black hair, +growing low on the forehead, and her eyes were fine. Her profile, +indeed, with the narrow forehead and the sensitive upper lip, +might fairly have suggested the mask of Clytie which Richard had +bought of an itinerant image-dealer, and fixed on a bracket over +the mantel-shelf. But her eyes were her specialty, if one may say +that. They were fringed with such heavy lashes that the girl +seemed always to be in half-mourning. Her smile was singularly +sweet and bright, perhaps because it broke through so much somber +coloring.</p> + +<p>If there was a latent spark of sentiment between Richard and +Margaret in those earlier days, neither was conscious of it; they +had seemingly begun where happy lovers generally end,--by being +dear comrades. He liked to have Margaret sitting there, with her +needle flashing in the sunlight, or her eyelashes making a rich +gloom above the book as she read aloud. It was so agreeable to +look up from his work, and not be alone. He had been alone so +much. And Margaret found nothing in the world pleasanter than to +sit there and watch Richard making his winter garden, as she +called it. By and by it became her custom to pass every Saturday +afternoon in that employment.</p> + +<p>Margaret was not content to be merely a visitor; she took a +housewifely care of the workshop, resolutely straightening out +its chronic disorder at unexpected moments, and fighting the +white dust that settled upon everything. The green-paper shade, +which did not roll up very well, at the west window was of her +devising. An empty camphor vial on Richard's desk had always a +clove pink, or a pansy, or a rose, stuck into it, according to +the season. She hid herself away and peeped out in a hundred +feminine things in the room. Sometimes she was a bit of +crochet-work left on a chair, and sometimes she was only a +hair-pin, which Richard gravely picked up and put on the +mantel-piece.</p> + +<p>Mr. Slocum threw no obstacles in the path of this idyllic +friendship; possibly he did not observe it. In his eyes Margaret +was still a child,--a point of view that necessarily excluded any +consideration of Richard. Perhaps, however, if Mr. Slocum could +have assisted invisibly at a pretty little scene which took place +in the studio, one day, some twelve or eighteen months after +Margaret's first visit to it, he might have found food for +reflection.</p> + +<p>It was a Saturday afternoon. Margaret had come into the +workshop with her sewing, as usual. The papers on the round table +had been neatly cleared away, and Richard was standing by the +window, indolently drumming on the glass with a +palette-knife.</p> + +<p>"Not at work this afternoon?"</p> + +<p>"I was waiting for you."</p> + +<p>"That is no excuse at all," said Margaret, sweeping across the +room with a curious air of self-consciousness, and arranging her +drapery with infinite pains as she seated herself.</p> + +<p>Richard looked puzzled for a moment, and then exclaimed, +"Margaret, you have got on a long dress!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Margaret, with dignity. "Do you like it,--the +train?"</p> + +<p>"That's a train?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Margaret, standing up and glancing over her left +shoulder at the soft folds of maroon-colored stuff, which, with a +mysterious feminine movement of the foot, she caused to untwist +itself and flow out gracefully behind her. There was really +something very pretty in the hesitating lines of the tall, +slender figure, as she leaned back that way. Certain unsuspected +points emphasized themselves so cunningly.</p> + +<p>"I never saw anything finer," declared Richard. "It was worth +waiting for."</p> + +<p>"But you shouldn't have waited," said Margaret, with a +gratified flush, settling herself into the chair again. "It was +understood that you were never to let me interfere with your +work."</p> + +<p>"You see you have, by being twenty minutes late. I've finished +that acorn border for Stevens's capitals, and there's nothing +more to do for the yard. I am going to make something for myself, +and I want you to lend me a hand."</p> + +<p>"How can I help you, Richard?" Margaret asked, promptly +stopping the needle in the hem.</p> + +<p>"I need a paper-weight to keep my sketches from being blown +about, and I wish you literally to lend me a hand,--a hand to +take a cast of."</p> + +<p>"Really?"</p> + +<p>"I think that little white claw would make a very neat +paper-weight," said Richard.</p> + +<p>Margaret gravely rolled up her sleeve to the elbow, and +contemplated the hand and wrist critically.</p> + +<p>"It is like a claw, isn't it. I think you can find something +better than that."</p> + +<p>"No; that is what I want, and nothing else. That, or no +paper-weight for me."</p> + +<p>"Very well, just as you choose. It will be a fright."</p> + +<p>"The other hand, please."</p> + +<p>"I gave you the left because I've a ring on this one."</p> + +<p>"You can take off the ring, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"Of course I can take it off."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, do."</p> + +<p>"Richard," said Margaret severely, "I hope you are not a +fidget."</p> + +<p>"A what?"</p> + +<p>"A fuss, then,--a person who always wants everything some +other way, and makes just twice as much trouble as anybody +else."</p> + +<p>"No, Margaret, I am not that. I prefer your right hand because +the left is next to the heart, and the evaporation of the water +in the plaster turns it as cold as snow. Your arm will be chilled +to the shoulder. We don't want to do anything to hurt the good +little heart, you know."</p> + +<p>"Certainly not," said Margaret. "There!" and she rested her +right arm on the table, while Richard placed the hand in the +desired position on a fresh napkin which he had folded for the +purpose.</p> + +<p>"Let your hand lie flexible, please. Hold it naturally. Why do +you stiffen the fingers so?"</p> + +<p>"I don't; they stiffen themselves, Richard. They know they are +going to have their photograph taken, and can't look natural. Who +ever does?"</p> + +<p>After a minute the fingers relaxed, and settled of their own +accord into an easy pose. Richard laid his hand softly on her +wrist.</p> + +<p>"Don't move now."</p> + +<p>"I'll be as quiet as a mouse," said Margaret giving a sudden +queer little glance at his face.</p> + +<p>Richard emptied a paper of white powder into a great yellow +bowl half filled with water and fell to stirring it vigorously, +like a pastry-cook beating eggs. When the plaster was of the +proper consistency he began building it up around the hand, +pouring on a spoonful at a time, here and there, carefully. In a +minute or two the inert white fingers were completely buried. +Margaret made a comical grimace.</p> + +<p>"Is it cold?"</p> + +<p>"Ice," said Margaret, shutting her eyes involuntarily.</p> + +<p>"If it is too disagreeable we can give it up," suggested +Richard.</p> + +<p>"No, don't touch it!" she cried, waving him back with her free +arm. "I don't mind; but it's as cold as so much snow. How +curious! What does it?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose a scientific fellow could explain the matter to you +easily enough. When the water evaporates a kind of congealing +process sets in,--a sort of atmospheric change, don't you know? +The sudden precipitation of the--the"--</p> + +<p>"You're as good as Tyndall on Heat," said Margaret +demurely.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Tyndall is well enough in his way," returned Richard, +"but of course he doesn't go into things so deeply as I do."</p> + +<p>"The idea of telling me that 'a congealing process set in,' +when I am nearly frozen to death!" cried Margaret, bowing her +head over the imprisoned arm.</p> + +<p>"Your unseemly levity, Margaret, makes it necessary for me to +defer my remarks on natural phenomena until some more fitting +occasion."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Richard, don't let an atmospherical change come over +<i>you!"</i></p> + +<p>"When you knocked at my door, months ago," said Richard, "I +didn't dream you were such a satirical little piece, or may be +you wouldn't have got in. You stood there as meek as Moses, with +your frock reaching only to the tops of your boots. You were a +deception, Margaret."</p> + +<p>"I was dreadfully afraid of you, Richard."</p> + +<p>"You are not afraid of me nowadays."</p> + +<p>"Not a bit."</p> + +<p>"You are showing your true colors. That long dress, too! I +believe the train has turned your head."</p> + +<p>"But just now you said you admired it."</p> + +<p>"So I did, and do. It makes you look quite like a woman, +though."</p> + +<p>"I want to be a woman. I would like to be as old--as old as +Mrs. Methuselah. Was there a Mrs. Methuselah?"</p> + +<p>"I really forget," replied Richard, considering. "But there +must have been. The old gentleman had time enough to have +several. I believe, however, that history is rather silent about +his domestic affairs."</p> + +<p>"Well, then," said Margaret, after thinking it over, "I would +like to be as old as the youngest Mrs. Methuselah."</p> + +<p>"That was probably the last one," remarked Richard, with great +profundity. "She was probably some giddy young thing of seventy +or eighty. Those old widowers never take a wife of their own age. +I shouldn't want you to be seventy, Margaret,--or even +eighty."</p> + +<p>"On the whole, perhaps, I shouldn't fancy it myself. Do you +approve of persons marrying twice?"</p> + +<p>"N--o, not at the same time."</p> + +<p>"Of course I didn't mean that," said Margaret, with asperity. +"How provoking you can be!"</p> + +<p>"But they used to,--in the olden time, don't you know?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't."</p> + +<p>Richard burst out laughing. "Imagine him," he cried,--"imagine +Methuselah in his eight or nine hundredth year, dressed in his +customary bridal suit, with a sprig of century-plant stuck in his +button-hole!"</p> + +<p>"Richard," said Margaret solemnly, "you shouldn't speak +jestingly of a scriptural character."</p> + +<p>At this Richard broke out again. "But gracious me!" he +exclaimed, suddenly checking himself. "I am forgetting you all +this while!"</p> + +<p>Richard hurriedly reversed the mass of plaster on the table, +and released Margaret's half-petrified fingers. They were +shriveled and colorless with the cold.</p> + +<p>"There isn't any feeling in it whatever," said Margaret, +holding up her hand helplessly, like a wounded wing.</p> + +<p>Richard took the fingers between his palms, and chafed them +smartly for a moment or two to restore the suspended +circulation.</p> + +<p>"There, that will do," said Margaret, withdrawing her +hand.</p> + +<p>"Are you all right now?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, thanks;" and then she added, smiling, "I suppose a +scientific fellow could explain why my fingers seem to be full of +hot pins and needles shooting in every direction."</p> + +<p>"Tyndall's your man--Tyndall on Heat," answered Richard, with +a laugh, turning to examine the result of his work. "The mold is +perfect, Margaret. You were a good girl to keep so still."</p> + +<p>Richard then proceeded to make the cast, which was soon placed +on the window-ledge to harden in the sun. When the plaster was +set, he cautiously chipped off the shell with a chisel, Margaret +leaning over his shoulder to watch the operation,--and there was +the little white claw, which ever after took such dainty care of +his papers, and ultimately became so precious to him as a part of +Margaret's very self that he would not have exchanged it for the +Venus of Milo.</p> + +<p>But as yet Richard was far enough from all that.</p> + +<h2>X</h2> + +<p>Three years glided by with Richard Shackford as swiftly as +those periods of time which are imagined to elapse between the +acts of a play. They were eventless, untroubled years, and have +no history. Nevertheless, certain changes had taken place. Little +by little Mr. Slocum had relinquished the supervision of the +workshops to Richard, until now the affairs of the yard rested +chiefly on his shoulders. It was like a dream to him when he +looked directly back to his humble beginning, though as he +reflected upon it, and retraced his progress step by step, he saw +there was nothing illogical or astonishing in his good fortune. +He had won it by downright hard work and the faithful exercise of +a sufficing talent.</p> + +<p>In his relations with Margaret, Richard's attitude had +undergone no appreciable change. Her chance visits to the studio +through the week and those pleasant, half-idle Saturday +afternoons had become to both Richard and Margaret a matter of +course, like the sunlight, or the air they breathed.</p> + +<p>To Richard, Margaret Slocum at nineteen was simply a charming, +frank girl,--a type of gracious young womanhood. He was conscious +of her influence; he was very fond of Margaret; but she had not +yet taken on for him that magic individuality which makes a woman +the one woman in the world to her lover. Though Richard had scant +experience in such matters, he was not wrong in accepting +Margaret as the type of a class of New England girls, which, +fortunately for New England, is not a small class. These young +women for the most part lead quiet and restricted lives so far as +the actualities are concerned, but very deep and full lives in +the world of books and imagination, to which they make early +escapes. They have the high instincts that come of good blood, +the physique that naturally fits fine manners; and when chance +takes one of these maidens from her island country home or from +some sleepy town on the sea-board, and sets her amid the +complications of city existence, she is an unabashed and +unassuming lady. If in Paris, she differs from the Parisiennes +only in the greater delicacy of her lithe beauty, her innocence +which is not ignorance, and her French pronunciation; if in +London, she differs from English girls only in the matter of rosy +cheeks and the rising inflection. Should none of these fortunate +transplantings befall her, she always merits them by adorning +with grace and industry and intelligence the narrower sphere to +which destiny has assigned her.</p> + +<p>Destiny had assigned Margaret Slocum to a very narrow sphere; +it had shut her up in an obscure New England manufacturing +village, with no society, strictly speaking, and no outlets +whatever to large experiences. To her father's affection, +Richard's friendship, and her household duties she was forced to +look for her happiness. If life held wider possibilities for her, +she had not dreamed of them. She looked up to Richard with +respect,--perhaps with a dash of sentiment in the respect; there +was something at once gentle and virile in his character which +she admired and leaned upon; in his presence the small +housekeeping troubles always slipped from her; but her heart, to +use a pretty French phrase, had not consciously spoken,--possibly +it had murmured a little, incoherently, to itself, but it had not +spoken out aloud, as perhaps it would have done long ago if an +impediment had been placed in the way of their intimacy. With all +her subtler intuitions, Margaret was as far as Richard from +suspecting the strength and direction of the current with which +they were drifting. Freedom, habit, and the nature of their +environment conspired to prolong this mutual lack of perception. +The hour had sounded, however, when these two were to see each +other in a different light.</p> + +<p>One Monday morning in March, at the close of the three years +in question, as Richard mounted the outside staircase leading to +his studio in the extension, the servant-maid beckoned to him +from the kitchen window.</p> + +<p>Margaret had failed to come to the studio the previous +Saturday afternoon. Richard had worked at cross-purposes and +returned to his boarding-house vaguely dissatisfied, as always +happened to him on those rare occasions when she missed the +appointment; but he had thought little of the circumstance. Nor +had he been disturbed on Sunday at seeing the Slocum pew vacant +during both services. The heavy snow-storm which had begun the +night before accounted for at least Margaret's absence.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Slocum told me to tell you that he shouldn't be in the +yard to-day," said the girl. "Miss Margaret is very ill."</p> + +<p>"Ill!" Richard repeated, and the smile with which he had +leaned over the rail towards the window went out instantly on his +lip.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Weld was up with her until five o'clock this morning," +said the girl, fingering the corner of her apron. "She's that +low."</p> + +<p>"What is the matter?"</p> + +<p>"It's a fever."</p> + +<p>"What kind of fever?"</p> + +<p>"I don't mind me what the doctor called it. He thinks it come +from something wrong with the drains."</p> + +<p>"He didn't say typhoid?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's the name of it."</p> + +<p>Richard ascended the stairs with a slow step, and a moment +afterwards stood stupidly in the middle of the workshop. +"Margaret is going to die," he said to himself, giving voice to +the dark foreboding that had instantly seized upon him, and in a +swift vision he saw the end of all that simple, fortunate +existence which he had lived without once reflecting it could +ever end. He mechanically picked up a tool from the table, and +laid it down again. Then he seated himself on the low bench +between the windows. It was Margaret's favorite place; it was not +four days since she sat there reading to him. Already it appeared +long ago,--years and years ago. He could hardly remember when he +did not have this heavy weight on his heart. His life of +yesterday abruptly presented itself to him as a reminiscence; he +saw now how happy that life had been, and how lightly he had +accepted it. It took to itself all that precious quality of +things irrevocably lost.</p> + +<p>The clamor of the bell in the South Church striking noon, and +the shrilling of the steam-whistle softened by the thick-falling +snow, roused Richard from his abstraction. He was surprised that +it was noon. He rose from the bench and went home through the +storm, scarcely heeding the sleet that snapped in his face like +whip-lashes. Margaret was going to die!</p> + +<p>For four or five weeks the world was nearly a blank to Richard +Shackford. The insidious fever that came and went, bringing +alternate despair and hope to the watchers in the hushed room, +was in his veins also. He passed the days between his lonely +lodgings in Lime Street and the studio, doing nothing, restless +and apathetic by turns, but with always a poignant sense of +anxiety. He ceased to take any distinct measurement of time +further than to note that an interval of months seemed to +separate Monday from Monday. Meanwhile, if new patterns had been +required by the men, the work in the carving departments would +have come to a dead lock.</p> + +<p>At length the shadow lifted, and there fell a day of soft May +weather when Margaret, muffled in shawls and as white as death, +was seated once more in her accustomed corner by the west window. +She had insisted on being brought there the first practicable +moment; nowhere else in the house was such sunshine, and Mr. +Slocum himself had brought her in his arms. She leaned back +against the pillows, smiling faintly. Her fingers lay locked on +her lap, and the sunlight showed through the narrow transparent +palace. It was as if her hands were full of blush-roses.</p> + +<p>Richard breathed again, but not with so free a heart as +before. What if she had died? He felt an immense pity for himself +when he thought of that, and he thought of it continually as the +days wore on.</p> + +<p>Either a great alteration had wrought itself in Margaret, or +Richard beheld her through a clearer medium during the weeks of +convalescence that followed. Was this the slight, sharp-faced +girl he used to know? The eyes and the hair were the same; but +the smile was deeper, and the pliant figure had lost its extreme +slimness without a sacrifice to its delicacy. The spring air was +filling her veins with abundant health, and mantling her cheeks +with a richer duskiness than they had ever worn. Margaret was +positively handsome. Her beauty had come all in a single morning, +like the crocuses. This beauty began to awe Richard; it had the +effect of seeming to remove her further and further from him. He +grew moody and restless when they were together, and was wretched +alone. His constraint did not escape Margaret. She watched him, +and wondered at his inexplicable depression when every one in the +household was rejoicing in her recovery. By and by this +depression wounded her, but she was too spirited to show the +hurt. She always brought a book with her now, in her visits to +the studio; it was less awkward to read than to sit silent and +unspoken to over a piece of needle-work.</p> + +<p>"How very odd you are!" said Margaret, one afternoon, closing +the volume which she had held mutely for several minutes, waiting +for Richard to grasp the fact that she was reading aloud.</p> + +<p>"I odd!" protested Richard, breaking with a jerk from one of +his long reveries. "In what way?"</p> + +<p>"As if I could explain--when you put the quotation suddenly, +like that."</p> + +<p>"I didn't intend to be abrupt. I was curious to know. And then +the charge itself was a trifle unexpected, if you will look at +it. But never mind," he added with a smile; "think it over, and +tell me to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"No, I will tell you now, since you are willing to wait."</p> + +<p>"I wasn't really willing to wait, but I knew if I didn't +pretend to be I should never get it out of you."</p> + +<p>"Very well, then; your duplicity is successful. Richard, I was +puzzled where to begin with your oddities."</p> + +<p>"Begin at the beginning."</p> + +<p>"No, I will take the nearest. When a young lady is affable +enough to read aloud to you, the least you can do is to listen to +her. That is a deference you owe to the author, when it happens +to be Hawthorne, to say nothing of the young lady."</p> + +<p>"But I <i>have</i> been listening, Margaret. Every word!"</p> + +<p>"Where did I leave off?"</p> + +<p>"It was where--where the"--and Richard knitted his brows in +the vain effort to remember--"where the young daguerreotypist, +what's-his-name, took up his residence in the House of the Seven +Gables."</p> + +<p>"No, sir! You stand convicted. It was ten pages further on. +The last words were,"--and Margaret read from the book,--</p> + +<p>"'Good-night, cousin,' said Phoebe, strangely affected by +Hepsibah's manner. 'If you being to love me, I am glad.'"</p> + +<p>"There, sir! what do you say to that?"</p> + +<p>Richard did not say anything, but he gave a guilty start, and +shot a rapid glance at Margaret coolly enjoying her triumph.</p> + +<p>"In the next place," she continued soberly, after a pause, "I +think it very odd in you not to reply to me,--oh, not now, for of +course you are without a word of justification; but at other +times. Frequently, when I speak to you, you look at me so," +making a vacant little face, "and then suddenly disappear,--I +don't mean bodily, but mentally."</p> + +<p>"I am no great talker at best," said Richard with a helpless +air. "I seldom speak unless I have something to say."</p> + +<p>"But other people do. I, for instance."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you, Margaret; that is different. When you talk I don't +much mind what you are talking about."</p> + +<p>"I like a neat, delicate compliment like that!"</p> + +<p>"What a perverse girl you are to-day!" cried Richard. "You +won't understand me. I mean that your words and your voice are so +pleasant they make anything interesting, whether it's important +or not."</p> + +<p>"If no one were to speak until he had something important to +communicate," observed Margaret, "conversation in this world +would come to a general stop." Then she added, with a little +ironical smile, "Even you, Richard, wouldn't be talking all the +time."</p> + +<p>Formerly Margaret's light sarcasms, even when they struck him +point-blank, used to amuse Richard, but now he winced at being +merely grazed.</p> + +<p>Margaret went on: "But it's not a bit necessary to be circular +or instructive--with me. I am interested in trivial matters,--in +the weather, in my spring hat, in what you are going to do next, +and the like. One must occupy one's self with something. But you, +Richard, nowadays you seem interested in nothing, and have +nothing whatever to say."</p> + +<p>Poor Richard! He had a great deal to say, but he did not know +how, nor if it were wise to breathe it. Just three little words, +murmured or whispered, and the whole conditions would be changed. +With those fateful words uttered, what would be Margaret's +probable attitude, and what Mr. Slocum's? Though the line which +formerly drew itself between employer and employee had grown +faint with time, it still existed in Richard's mind, and now came +to the surface with great distinctness, like a word written in +sympathetic ink. If he spoke, and Margaret was startled or +offended, then there was an end to their free, unembarrassed +intercourse,--perhaps an end to all intercourse. By keeping his +secret in his breast he at least secured the present. But that +was to risk everything. Any day somebody might come and carry +Margaret off under his very eyes. As he reflected on this, the +shadow of John Dana, the son of the rich iron-manufacturer, +etched itself sharply upon Richard's imagination. Within the week +young Dana had declared in the presence of Richard that "Margaret +Slocum was an awfully nice little thing," and the Othello in +Richard's blood had been set seething. Then his thought glanced +from John Dana to Mr. Pinkham and the Rev. Arthur Langly, both of +whom were assiduous visitors at the house. The former had lately +taken to accompanying Margaret on the piano with his dismal +little flute, and the latter was perpetually making a moth of +himself about her class at Sunday-school.</p> + +<p>Richard stood with the edge of his chisel resting idly upon +the plaster mold in front of him, pondering these things. +Presently he heard Margaret's voice, as if somewhere in the +distance, saying,--</p> + +<p>"I have not finished yet, Richard."</p> + +<p>"Go on," said Richard, falling to work again with a kind of +galvanic action. "Go on, please."</p> + +<p>"I have a serious grievance. Frankly, I am hurt by your +preoccupation and indifference, your want of openness or +cordiality,--I don't know how to name it. You are the only person +who seems to be unaware that I escaped a great danger a month +ago. I am obliged to remember all the agreeable hours I have +spent in the studio to keep off the impression that during my +illness you got used to not seeing me, and that now my presence +somehow obstructs your work and annoys you."</p> + +<p>Richard threw his chisel on the bench, and crossed over to the +window where Margaret was.</p> + +<p>"You are as wrong as you can be," he said, looking down on her +half-lifted face, from which a quick wave of color was subsiding; +for the abruptness of Richard's movement had startled her.</p> + +<p>"I am glad if I am wrong."</p> + +<p>"It is nearly an unforgivable thing to be as wide of the mark +as you are. Oh, Margaret, if you had died that time!"</p> + +<p>"You would have been very sorry?"</p> + +<p>"Sorry? No. That doesn't express it; one outlives mere sorrow. +If anything had happened to you, I should never have got over it. +You don't know what those five weeks were to me. It was a kind of +death to come to this room day after day, and not find you."</p> + +<p>Margaret rested her eyes thoughtfully on the space occupied by +Richard rather than on Richard himself, seeming to look through +and beyond him, as if he were incorporeal.</p> + +<p>"You missed me like that?" she said slowly.</p> + +<p>"I missed you like that."</p> + +<p>Margaret meditated a moment. "In the first days of my illness +I wondered if you didn't miss me a little; afterwards everything +was confused in my mind. When I tried to think, I seemed to be +somebody else,--I seemed to be <i>you</i> waiting for me here in +the studio. Wasn't that singular? But when I recovered, and +returned to my old place, I began to suspect I had been bearing +your anxiety,--that I had been distressed by the absence to which +you had grown accustomed."</p> + +<p>"I never got used to it, Margaret. It became more and more +unendurable. This workshop was full of--of your absence. There +wasn't a sketch or a cast or an object in the room that didn't +remind me of you, and seem to mock at me for having let the most +precious moments of my life slip away unheeded. That bit of +geranium in the glass yonder seemed to say with its dying breath, +'You have cared for neither of us as you ought to have cared; my +scent and her goodness have been all one to you,--things to take +or to leave. It was for no merit of yours that she was always +planning something to make life smoother and brighter for you. +What had you done to deserve it? How unselfish and generous and +good she has been to you for years and years! What would have +become of you without her? She left me here on purpose'--it's the +geranium leaf that is speaking all the while, Margaret--'to say +this to you, and to tell you that she was not half appreciated; +but now you have lost her.'"</p> + +<p>As she leaned forward listening, with her lips slightly +parted, Margaret gave an unconscious little approbative nod of +the head. Richard's fanciful accusation of himself caused her a +singular thrill of pleasure. He had never before spoken to her in +just this fashion; the subterfuge which his tenderness had +employed, the little detour it had made in order to get at her, +was a novel species of flattery. She recognized the ring of a +distinctly new note in his voice; but, strangely enough, the note +lost its unfamiliarity in an instant. Margaret recognized that +fact also, and as she swiftly speculated on the phenomenon her +pulse went one or two strokes faster.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you poor boy!" she said, looking up with a laugh, and a +flush so interfused that they seemed one, "that geranium took a +great deal upon itself. It went quite beyond its instructions, +which were simply to remind you of me now and then. One day, +while you were out,--the day before I was taken ill,--I placed +the flowers on the desk there, perhaps with a kind of premonition +that I was going away from you for a time."</p> + +<p>"What if you had never come back?"</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't think of that if I were you," said Margaret +softly.</p> + +<p>"But it haunts me,--that thought. Sometimes of a morning, +after I unlock the workshop door, I stand hesitating, with my +hand on the latch, as one might hesitate a few seconds before +stepping into a tomb. There were days last month, Margaret, when +this chamber did appear to me like a tomb. All that was happy in +my past seemed to lie buried here; it was something visible and +tangible; I used to steal in and look upon it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Richard!"</p> + +<p>"If you only knew what a life I led as a boy in my cousin's +house, and what a doleful existence for years afterwards, until I +found you, perhaps you would understand my despair when I saw +everything suddenly slipping away from me. Margaret! the day your +father brought you in here, I had all I could do not to kneel +down at your feet"--Richard stopped short. "I didn't mean to tell +you that," he added, turning towards the work-table. Then he +checked himself, and came and stood in front of her again. He had +gone too far not to go further. "While you were ill I made a +great discovery."</p> + +<p>"What was that, Richard?"</p> + +<p>"I discovered that I had been blind for two or three +years."</p> + +<p>"Blind?" repeated Margaret.</p> + +<p>"Stone-blind. I discovered it by suddenly seeing--by seeing +that I had loved you all the while, Margaret! Are you +offended?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Margaret, slowly; she was a moment finding her +voice to say it. "I--ought I to be offended?"</p> + +<p>"Not if you are not!" said Richard.</p> + +<p>"Then I am not. I--I've made little discoveries myself," +murmured Margaret, going into full mourning with her +eyelashes.</p> + +<p>But it was only for an instant. She refused to take her +happiness shyly or insincerely; it was something too sacred. She +was a trifle appalled by it, if the truth must be told. If +Richard had scattered his love-making through the month of her +convalescence, or if he had made his avowal in a different mood, +perhaps Margaret might have met him with some natural coquetry. +But Richard's tone and manner had been such as to suppress any +instinct of the kind. His declaration, moreover, had amazed her. +Margaret's own feelings had been more or less plain to her that +past month, and she had diligently disciplined herself to accept +Richard's friendship, since it seemed all he had to give. Indeed, +it had seemed at times as if he had not even that.</p> + +<p>When Margaret lifted her eyes to him, a second after her +confession, they were full of a sweet seriousness, and she had no +thought of withdrawing the hands which Richard had taken, and was +holding lightly, that she might withdraw them if she willed. She +felt no impulse to do so, though as Margaret looked up she saw +her father standing a few paces behind Richard.</p> + +<p>With an occult sense of another presence in the room, Richard, +turned at the same instant.</p> + +<p>Mr. Slocum had advanced two steps into the apartment, and had +been brought to a dead halt by the surprising tableau in the +embrasure of the window. He stood motionless, with an +account-book under his arm, while a dozen expressions chased each +other over his countenance.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Slocum," said Richard, who saw that only one course lay +open to him, "I love Margaret, and I have been telling her."</p> + +<p>At that the flitting shadows on Mr. Slocum's face settled into +one grave look. He did not reply immediately, but let his glance +wander from Margaret to Richard, and back again to Margaret, +slowly digesting the fact. It was evident he had not relished it. +Meanwhile the girl had risen from the chair and was moving +towards her father.</p> + +<p>"This strikes me as very extraordinary," he said at last. "You +have never given any intimation that such a feeling existed. How +long has this been going on?"</p> + +<p>"I have always been fond of Margaret, sir; but I was not aware +of the strength of the attachment until the time of her illness, +when I--that is, we--came near to losing her."</p> + +<p>"And you, Margaret?"</p> + +<p>As Mr. Slocum spoke he instinctively put one arm around +Margaret, who had crept closely to his side.</p> + +<p>"I don't know when I began to love Richard," said Margaret +simply.</p> + +<p>"You don't know!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it was while I was ill; perhaps it was long before +that; may be my liking for him commenced as far back as the time +he made the cast of my hand. How can I tell, papa? I don't +know."</p> + +<p>"There appears to be an amazing diffusion of ignorance +here!"</p> + +<p>Margaret bit her lip, and kept still. Her father was taking it +a great deal more seriously than she had expected. A long, +awkward silence ensued. Richard broke it at last by remarking +uneasily, "Nothing has been or was to be concealed from you. +Before going to sleep to-night, Margaret would have told you all +I've said to her."</p> + +<p>"You should have consulted with me before saying +anything."</p> + +<p>"I intended to do so, but my words got away from me. I hope +you will overlook it, sir, and not oppose my loving Margaret, +though I see as plainly as you do that I am not worthy of +her."</p> + +<p>"I have not said that. I base my disapproval on entirely +different ground. Margaret is too young. A girl of seventeen or +eighteen"--</p> + +<p>"Nineteen," said Margaret, parenthetically.</p> + +<p>"Of nineteen, then,--has no business to bother her head with +such matters. Only yesterday she was a child!"</p> + +<p>Richard glanced across at Margaret, and endeavored to recall +her as she impressed him that first afternoon, when she knocked +defiantly at the workshop door to inquire if he wanted any pans +and pails; but he was totally unable to reconstruct that crude +little figure with the glossy black head, all eyes and beak, like +a young hawk's.</p> + +<p>"My objection is impersonal," continued Mr. Slocum. "I object +to the idea. I wish this had not happened. I might not have +disliked it--years hence; I don't say; but I dislike it now."</p> + +<p>Richard's face brightened. "It will be years hence in a few +years!"</p> + +<p>Mr. Slocum replied with a slow, grave smile, "I am not going +to be unreasonable in a matter where I find Margaret's happiness +concerned; and yours, Richard, I care for that, too; but I'll +have no entanglements. You and she are to be good friends, and +nothing beyond. I prefer that Margaret should not come to the +studio so often; you shall see her whenever you like at our +fireside, of an evening. I don't think the conditions hard."</p> + +<p>Mr. Slocum had dictated terms, but it was virtually a +surrender. Margaret listened to him with her cheek resting +against his arm, and a warm light nestled down deep under her +eyelids.</p> + +<p>Mr. Slocum drew a half-pathetic sigh. "I presume I have not +done wisely. Every one bullies me. The Marble Workers' +Association ruins my yard for me, and now my daughter is taken +off my hands. By the way, Richard," he said, interrupting himself +brusquely, and with an air of dismissing the subject, "I forgot +what I came for. I've been thinking over Torrini's case, and have +concluded that you had better make up his account and discharge +him."</p> + +<p>"Certainly, sir," replied Richard, with a shadow of dissent in +his manner, "if you wish it."</p> + +<p>"He causes a deal of trouble in the yard."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid he does. Such a clean workman when he's +sober!"</p> + +<p>"But he is never sober."</p> + +<p>"He has been in a bad way lately, I admit."</p> + +<p>"His example demoralizes the men. I can see it day by +day."</p> + +<p>"I wish he were not so necessary at this moment," observed +Richard. "I don't know who else could be trusted with the frieze +for the Soldiers' Monument. I'd like to keep him on a week or ten +days longer. Suppose I have a plain talk with Torrini?"</p> + +<p>"Surely we have enough good hands to stand the loss of +one."</p> + +<p>"For a special kind of work there is nobody in the yard like +Torrini. That is one reason why I want to hold on to him for a +while, and there are other reasons."</p> + +<p>"Such as what?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I think it would not be wholly politic to break with +him just now."</p> + +<p>"Why not now as well as any time?"</p> + +<p>"He has lately been elected secretary of the Association."</p> + +<p>"What of that?"</p> + +<p>"He has a great deal of influence there."</p> + +<p>"If we put him out of the works it seems to me he would lose +his importance, if he really has any to speak of."</p> + +<p>"You are mistaken if you doubt it. His position gives him a +chance to do much mischief, and he would avail himself of it very +adroitly, if he had a personal grievance."</p> + +<p>"I believe you are actually afraid of the fellow."</p> + +<p>Richard smiled. "No, I am not afraid of him, but I don't +underrate him. The men look up to Torrini as a sort of leader; +he's an effective speaker, and knows very well how to fan a +dissatisfaction. Either he or some other disturbing element has +recently been at work among the men. There's considerable +grumbling in the yard."</p> + +<p>"They are always grumbling, aren't they?"</p> + +<p>"Most always, but this is more serious than usual; there +appears to be a general stir among the trades in the village. I +don't understand it clearly. The marble workers have been holding +secret meetings."</p> + +<p>"They mean business, you think?"</p> + +<p>"They mean increased wages, perhaps."</p> + +<p>"But we are now paying from five to ten per cent more than any +trade in the place. What are they after?"</p> + +<p>"So far as I can gather, sir, the finishers and the +slab-sawers want an advance,--I don't know how much. Then there's +some talk about having the yard closed an hour earlier on +Saturdays. All this is merely rumor; but I am sure there is +something in it."</p> + +<p>"Confound the whole lot! If we can't discharge a drunken hand +without raising the pay of all the rest, we had better turn over +the entire business to the Association. But do as you like, +Richard. You see how I am bullied, Margaret. He runs everything! +Come, dear."</p> + +<p>And Mr. Slocum quitted the workshop, taking Margaret with him. +Richard remained standing awhile by the table, in a deep study, +with his eyes fixed on the floor. He thought of his early days in +the sepulchral house in Welch's Court, of his wanderings abroad, +his long years of toil since then, and this sudden blissful love +that had come to him, and Mr. Slocum's generosity. Then he +thought of Torrini, and went down into the yard gently to +admonish the man, for Richard's heart that hour was full of +kindness for all the world.</p> + +<h2>XI</h2> + +<p>In spite of Mr. Slocum's stipulations respecting the frequency +of Margaret's visits to the studio, she was free to come and go +as she liked. It was easy for him to say, Be good friends, and +nothing beyond; but after that day in the workshop it was +impossible for Richard and Margaret to be anything but lovers. +The hollowness of pretending otherwise was clear even to Mr. +Slocum. In the love of a father for a daughter there is always a +vague jealousy which refuses to render a coherent explanation of +itself. Mr. Slocum did not escape this, but he managed, +nevertheless, to accept the inevitable with very fair grace, and +presently to confess to himself that the occurrence which had at +first taken him aback was the most natural in the world. That +Margaret and Richard, thrown together as they had been, should +end by falling in love with each other was not a result to +justify much surprise. Indeed, there was a special propriety in +their doing so. The Shackfords had always been reputable people +in the village,--down to Lemuel Shackford, who of course was an +old musk-rat. The family attributes of amiability and honesty had +skipped him, but they had reappeared in Richard. It was through +his foresight and personal energy that the most lucrative branch +of the trade had been established. His services entitled him to a +future interest in the business, and Mr. Slocum had intended he +should have it. Mr. Slocum had not dreamed of throwing in +Margaret also; but since that addition had suggested itself, it +seemed to him one of the happy features of the arrangement. +Richard would thus be doubly identified with the yard, to which, +in fact, he had become more necessary than Mr. Slocum +himself.</p> + +<p>"He has more backbone with the men than I have," acknowledged +Mr. Slocum. "He knows how to manage them, and I don't."</p> + +<p>As soft as Slocum was a Stillwater proverb. Richard certainly +had plenty of backbone; it was his only capital. In Mr. Slocum's +estimation it was sufficient capital. But Lemuel Shackford was a +very rich man, and Mr. Slocum could not avoid seeing that it +would be decent in Richard's only surviving relative if, at this +juncture, he were to display a little interest in the young +fellow's welfare.</p> + +<p>"If he would only offer to advance a few thousand dollars for +Richard," said Mr. Slocum, one evening, to Margaret, with whom he +had been talking over the future--"the property must all come to +him some time,--it would be a vast satisfaction to me to tell the +old man that we can get along without any of his ill-gotten +gains. He made the bulk of his fortune during the war, you know. +The old sea-serpent," continued Mr. Slocum, with hopeless +confusion of metaphor, "had a hand in fitting out more than one +blockade-runner. They used to talk of a ship that got away from +Charleston with a cargo of cotton that netted the share-holders +upwards of two hundred thousand dollars. He denies it now, but +everybody knows Shackford. He'd betray his country for fifty +cents in postage-stamps."</p> + +<p>"Oh, papa! you are too hard on him."</p> + +<p>In words dropped cursorily from time to time, Margaret +imparted to Richard the substance of her father's speech, and it +set Richard reflecting. It was not among the probabilities that +Lemuel Shackford would advance a dollar to establish Richard, but +if he could induce his cousin even to take the matter into +consideration, Richard felt that it would be a kind of moral +support to him circumstanced as he was. His pride revolted at the +idea of coming quite unbacked and disowned, as well as +empty-handed, to Mr. Slocum.</p> + +<p>For the last twelve months there had been a cessation of +ordinary courtesies between the two cousins. They now passed each +other on the street without recognition. A year previously Mr. +Shackford had fallen ill, and Richard, aware of the inefficient +domestic arrangements in Welch's Court, had gone to the house out +of sheer pity. The old man was in bed, and weak with fever, but +at seeing Richard he managed to raise himself on one elbow.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's you!" he exclaimed, mockingly. "When a rich man is +sick the anxious heirs crowd around him; but they're twice as +honestly anxious when he is perfectly well."</p> + +<p>"I came to see if I could do anything for you!" cried Richard, +with a ferocious glare, and in a tone that went curiously with +his words, and shook to the foundations his character of Good +Samaritan.</p> + +<p>"The only thing you can do for me is to go away."</p> + +<p>"I'll do that with pleasure," retorted Richard bitterly.</p> + +<p>And Richard went, vowing he would never set foot across the +threshold again. He could not help having ugly thoughts. Why +should all the efforts to bring about a reconciliation and all +the forbearance be on his side? Thenceforth the crabbed old man +might go to perdition if he wanted to.</p> + +<p>And now here was Richard meditating a visit to that same house +to beg a favor!</p> + +<p>Nothing but his love for Margaret could have dragged him to +such a banquet of humble-pie as he knew was spread for his +delectation, the morning he passed up the main street of +Stillwater and turned into Welch's Court.</p> + +<p>As Richard laid his hand on the latch of the gate, Mr. +Shackford, who was digging in the front garden, looked up and saw +him. Without paying any heed to Richard's amicable salutation, +the old man left the shovel sticking in the sod, and walked +stiffly into the house. At another moment this would have amused +Richard, but now he gravely followed his kinsman, and overtook +him at the foot of the staircase.</p> + +<p>"Cousin Shackford, can you spare me five or ten minutes?"</p> + +<p>"Don't know as I can," said Mr. Shackford, with one foot on +the lower stair. "Time is valuable. What do you want? You want +something."</p> + +<p>"Certainly, or I wouldn't think of trespassing on your +time."</p> + +<p>"Has Slocum thrown you over?" inquired the old man, turning +quickly. A straw which he held between his thin lips helped to +give him a singularly alert expression.</p> + +<p>"No; Mr. Slocum and I agree the best in the world. I want to +talk with you briefly on certain matters; I want to be on decent +terms with you, if you will let me."</p> + +<p>"Decent terms means money, doesn't it?" asked Mr. Shackford, +with a face as wary and lean as a shark's.</p> + +<p>"I do wish to talk about money, among other things," returned +Richard, whom this brutal directness disconcerted a +little,--"money on satisfactory security."</p> + +<p>"You can get it anywhere with that."</p> + +<p>"So I might, and be asking no favor; but I would rather get it +of you, and consider it an obligation."</p> + +<p>"I would rather you wouldn't."</p> + +<p>"Listen to me a moment."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm listening."</p> + +<p>Mr. Shackford stood in an attitude of attention, with his head +canted on one side, his eyes fixed on the ceiling, and the straw +between his teeth tilted up at an angle of forty degrees.</p> + +<p>"I have, as you know, worked my way in the marble yard to the +position of general manager," began Richard.</p> + +<p>"I didn't know," said Mr. Shackford, "but I understand. You're +a sort of head grave-stone maker."</p> + +<p>"That is taking a rather gloomy view of it," said Richard, +"but no matter. The point is, I hold a responsible position, and +I now have a chance to purchase a share in the works."</p> + +<p>"Slocum is willing to take you in, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Then the concern is hit."</p> + +<p>"Hit?"</p> + +<p>"Slocum is going into bankruptcy."</p> + +<p>"You are wrong there. The yard was never so prosperous; the +coming year we shall coin money like a mint."</p> + +<p>"You ought to know," said Mr. Shackford, ruminatively. "A +thing as good as a mint must be a good thing."</p> + +<p>"If I were a partner in the business, I could marry +Margaret."</p> + +<p>"Who's Margaret?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Slocum's daughter."</p> + +<p>"That's where the wind is! Now how much capital would it take +to do all that?" inquired Mr. Shackford, with an air of affable +speculation.</p> + +<p>"Three or four thousand dollars,--perhaps less."</p> + +<p>"Well, I wouldn't give three or four cents to have you marry +Slocum's daughter. Richard, you can't pull any chestnuts out of +the fire with my paw."</p> + +<p>Mr. Shackford's interrogation and his more than usual +conciliatory manner had lighted a hope which Richard had not +brought with him. Its sudden extinguishment was in consequence +doubly aggravating.</p> + +<p>"Slocum's daughter!" repeated Mr. Shackford. "I'd as soon you +would marry Crazy Nan up at the work-house."</p> + +<p>The association of Crazy Nan with Margaret sent a red flush +into Richard's cheek. He turned angrily towards the door, and +then halted, recollecting the resolve he had made not to lose his +temper, come what would. If the interview was to end there it had +better not have taken place.</p> + +<p>"I had no expectation that you would assist me pecuniarily," +said Richard, after a moment. "Let us drop the money question; it +shouldn't have come up between us. I want you to aid me, not by +lending me money, but by giving me your countenance as the head +of the family,--by showing a natural interest in my affairs, and +seeming disposed to promote them."</p> + +<p>"By just seeming?"</p> + +<p>"That is really all I desire. If you were to propose to put +capital into the concern, Mr. Slocum would refuse it."</p> + +<p>"Slocum would refuse it! Why in the devil should he refuse +it?"</p> + +<p>"Because"--Richard hesitated, finding himself unexpectedly on +delicate ground--"because he would not care to enter into +business relations with you, under the circumstances."</p> + +<p>Mr. Shackford removed the straw from his mouth, and holding it +between his thumb and forefinger peered steadily through his +half-closed eyelids at Richard.</p> + +<p>"I don't understand you."</p> + +<p>"The dispute you had long ago, over the piece of meadow land +behind the marble yard. Mr. Slocum felt that you bore on him +rather heavily in that matter, and has not quite forgiven you for +forcing him to rebuild the sheds."</p> + +<p>"Bother Slocum and his sheds! I understand him. What I don't +understand is <i>you</i>. I am to offer Slocum three or four +thousand dollars to set you up, and he is to decline to take it. +Is that it?"</p> + +<p>"That is not it at all," returned Richard. "My statement was +this: If you were to propose purchasing a share for me in the +works, Mr. Slocum would not entertain the proposition, +thinking--as I don't think--that he would mortify you by the +refusal of your money."</p> + +<p>"The only way Slocum could mortify me would be by getting hold +of it. But what are you driving at, anyhow? In one breath you +demand several thousand dollars, and in the next breath you tell +me that nobody expects it, or wants it, or could be induced to +have it on any terms. Perhaps you will inform me what you are +here for?"</p> + +<p>"That is what you will never discover!" cried Richard. "It is +not in you to comprehend the ties of sympathy that ought to hold +between two persons situated as we are. In most families this +sympathy binds closely at times,--at christenings, or burials, or +when some member is about to take an important step in life. +Generally speaking, blood is thicker than water; but your blood, +cousin Shackford, seems to be a good deal thinner. I came here to +consult with you as my sole remaining kinsman, as one authorized +by years and position to give me wise counsel and kindly +encouragement at the turning point in my fortune. I didn't wish +to go among those people like a tramp, with neither kith nor kin +to say a word for me. Of course you don't understand that. How +should you? A sentiment of that kind is something quite beyond +your conception."</p> + +<p>Richard's words went into one ear and out the other, without +seeming for an instant to arrest Mr. Shackford's attention. The +idea of Slocum not accepting money--anybody's money--presented +itself to Mr. Shackford in so facetious a light as nearly to +throw him into good humor. His foot was on the first step of the +staircase, which he now began slowly to mount, giving vent, as he +ascended, to a series of indescribable chuckles. At the top of +the landing he halted, and leaned over the rail.</p> + +<p>"To think of Slocum refusing,--that's a good one!"</p> + +<p>In the midst of his jocularity a sudden thought seemed to +strike Mr. Shackford; his features underwent a swift +transformation, and as he grasped the rail in front of him with +both hands a malicious cunning writhed and squirmed in every +wrinkle of his face.</p> + +<p>"Sir!" he shrieked, "it was a trap! Slocum would have taken +it! If I had been ass enough to make any such offer, he would +have jumped at it. What do you and Slocum take me for? You're a +pair of rascals!"</p> + +<p>Richard staggered back, bewildered and blinded, as if he had +received a blow in the eyes.</p> + +<p>"No," continued Mr. Shackford, with a gesture of intense +contempt, "you are less than rascals. You are fools. A rascal has +to have brains!"</p> + +<p>"You shameless old man!" cried Richard, as soon as he could +get his voice.</p> + +<p>To do Mr. Shackford justice, he was thoroughly convinced that +Richard had lent himself to a preposterous attempt to obtain +money from him. The absence of ordinary shrewdness in the method +stamped it at once as belonging to Slocum, of whose mental +calibre Mr. Shackford entertained no flattering estimate.</p> + +<p>"Slocum!" he muttered, grinding the word between his teeth. +"Family ties!" he cried, hurling the words scornfully over the +banister as he disappeared into one of the upper chambers.</p> + +<p>Richard stood with one hand on the newel-post, white at the +lip with rage. For a second he had a wild impulse to spring up +the staircase, but, controlling this, he turned and hurried out +of the house.</p> + +<p>At the gate he brushed roughly against a girl, who halted and +stared. It was a strange thing to see Mr. Richard Shackford, who +always had a pleasant word for a body, go by in that blind, +excited fashion, striking one fist into the palm of the other +hand, and talking to his own self! Mary Hennessey watched him +until he wheeled out of Welch's Court, and then picking up her +basket, which she had rested on the fence, went her way.</p> + +<h2>XII</h2> + +<p>At the main entrance to the marble works Richard nearly walked +over a man who was coming out, intently mopping his forehead with +a very dirty calico handkerchief. It was an English stone-dresser +named Denyven. Richard did not recognize him at first.</p> + +<p>"That you, Denyven!... what has happened!"</p> + +<p>"I've 'ad a bit of a scrimmage, sir."</p> + +<p>"A scrimmage in the yard, in work hours!"</p> + +<p>The man nodded.</p> + +<p>"With whom?"</p> + +<p>"Torrini, sir,--he's awful bad this day."</p> + +<p>"Torrini,--it is always Torrini! It seems odd that one man +should be everlastingly at the bottom of everything wrong. How +did it happen? Give it to me straight, Denyven; I don't want a +crooked story. This thing has got to stop in Slocum's Yard."</p> + +<p>"The way of it was this, sir: Torrini wasn't at the shop this +morning. He 'ad a day off."</p> + +<p>"I know."</p> + +<p>"But about one o'clock, sir, he come in the yard. He 'ad been +at the public 'ouse, sir, and he was hummin'. First he went among +the carvers, talking Hitalian to 'em and making 'em laugh, though +he was in a precious bad humor hisself. By and by he come over to +where me and my mates was, and began chaffin' us, which we didn't +mind it, seeing he was 'eavy in the 'ead. He was as clear as a +fog 'orn all the same. But when he took to banging the tools on +the blocks, I sings out, ''Ands off!' and then he fetched me a +clip. I was never looking for nothing less than that he'd hit me. +I was a smiling at the hinstant."</p> + +<p>"He must be drunker than usual."</p> + +<p>"Hevidently, sir. I went down between two slabs as soft as you +please. When I got on my pins, I was for choking him a bit, but +my mates hauled us apart. That's the 'ole of it, sir. They'll +tell you the same within."</p> + +<p>"Are you hurt, Denyven?"</p> + +<p>"Only a bit of a scratch over the heye, sir,--and the nose," +and the man began mopping his brow tenderly. "I'd like to 'ave +that Hitalian for about ten minutes, some day when he's sober, +over yonder on the green."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid he would make the ten minutes seem long to +you."</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, I'd willingly let him try his 'and."</p> + +<p>"How is it, Denyven," said Richard, "that you and sensible +workingmen like you, have permitted such a quarrelsome and +irresponsible fellow to become a leader in the Association? He's +secretary, or something, isn't he?"</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, he writes an uncommonly clean fist, and then he's +a born horator. He's up to all the parli'mentary dodges. Must +'ave 'ad no end of hexperience in them sort of things on the +other side."</p> + +<p>"No doubt,--and that accounts for him being over here."</p> + +<p>"As for horganizing a meeting, sir"--</p> + +<p>"I know. Torrini has a great deal of that kind of ability; +perhaps a trifle too much for his own good or anybody else's. +There was never any trouble to speak of among the trades in +Stillwater till he and two or three others came here with foreign +grievances. These men get three times the pay they ever received +in their own land, and are treated like human beings for the +first time in their lives. But what do they do? They squander a +quarter of their week's wages at the tavern,--no rich man could +afford to put a fourth of his income into drink,--and make windy +speeches at the Union. I don't say all of them, but too many of +them. The other night, I understand, Torrini compared Mr. Slocum +to Nero,--Mr. Slocum, the fairest and gentlest man that ever +breathed! What rubbish!"</p> + +<p>"It wasn't just that way, sir. His words was, and I 'eard +him,--'from Nero down to Slocum.'"</p> + +<p>"It amounts to the same thing, and is enough to make one +laugh, if he didn't make one want to swear. I hear that that was +a very lively meeting the other night. What was that nonsense +about 'the privileged class'?"</p> + +<p>"Well, there is a privileged class in the States."</p> + +<p>"So there is, but it's a large class, Denyven. Every soul of +us has the privilege of bettering out condition if we have the +brain and the industry to do it. Energy and intelligence come to +the front, and have the right to be there. A skillful workman +gets double the pay of a bungler, and deserves it. Of course +there will always be rich and poor, and sick and sound, and I +don't see how that can be changed. But no door is shut against +ability, black or white. Before the year 2400 we shall have a +chrome-yellow president and a black-and-tan secretary of the +treasury. But, seriously, Denyven, whoever talks about privileged +classes here does it to make mischief. There are certain small +politicians who reap their harvest in times of public confusion, +just as pickpockets do. Nobody can play the tyrant or the bully +in this country,--not even a workingman. Here's the Association +dead against an employer who, two years ago, ran his yard +full-handed for a twelvemonth at a loss, rather than shut down, +as every other mill and factory in Stillwater did. For years and +years the Association has prevented this employer from training +more than two apprentices annually. The result is, eighty hands +find work, instead of a hundred and eighty. Now, that can't +last."</p> + +<p>"It keeps wages fixed in Stillwater, sir."</p> + +<p>"It keeps out a hundred workmen. It sends away capital."</p> + +<p>"Torrini says, sir"--</p> + +<p>"Steer clear of Torrini and what he says. He's a dangerous +fellow--for his friends. It is handsome in you, Denyven, to speak +up for him--with that eye of yours."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't love the man, when it comes to that; but there's +no denying he's right smart," replied Denyven, who occasionally +marred his vernacular with Americanisms. "The Association +couldn't do without him."</p> + +<p>"But Slocum's Yard can," said Richard, irritated to observe +the influence Torrini exerted on even such men as Denyven.</p> + +<p>"That's between you and him, sir, of course, but"--</p> + +<p>"But what?"</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, I can't say hexactly; but if I was you I would +bide a bit."</p> + +<p>"No, I think Torrini's time has come."</p> + +<p>"I don't make bold to advise you, sir. I merely throws out the +hobservation."</p> + +<p>With that Denyven departed to apply to his bruises such herbs +and simples as a long experience had taught him to be +efficacious.</p> + +<p>He had gone only a few rods, however, when it occurred to him +that there were probabilities of a stormy scene in the yard; so +he turned on his tracks, and followed Richard Shackford.</p> + +<p>Torrini was a Neapolitan, who had come to the country seven or +eight years before. He was a man above the average intelligence +of his class; a marble worker by trade, but he had been a +fisherman, a mountain guide among the Abruzzi, a soldier in the +papal guard, and what not, and had contrived to pick up two or +three languages, among the rest English, which he spoke with +purity. His lingual gift was one of his misfortunes.</p> + +<p>Among the exotics in Stillwater, which even boasted a +featureless Celestial, who had unobtrusively extinguished himself +with a stove-pipe hat, Torrini was the only figure that +approached picturesqueness. With his swarthy complexion and +large, indolent eyes, in which a southern ferocity slept lightly, +he seemed to Richard a piece out of his own foreign experience. +To him Torrini was the crystallization of Italy, or so much of +that Italy as Richard had caught a glimpse of at Genoa. To the +town-folks Torrini perhaps vaguely suggested hand-organs and +eleemosynary pennies; but Richard never looked at the +straight-limbed, handsome fellow without recalling the +Phrygian-capped sailors of the Mediterranean. On this account, +and for other reasons, Richard had taken a great fancy to the +man. Torrini had worked in the ornamental department from the +first, and was a rapid and expert carver when he chose. He had +carried himself steadily enough in the beginning, but in these +later days, as Mr. Slocum had stated, he was scarcely ever sober. +Richard had stood between him and his discharge on several +occasions, partly because he was so skillful a workman, and +partly through pity for his wife and children, who were unable to +speak a word of English. But Torrini's influence on the men in +the yard,--especially on the younger hands, who needed quite +other influences,--and his intemperate speeches at the +trades-union, where he had recently gained a kind of ascendancy +by his daring, were producing the worst effects.</p> + +<p>At another hour Richard might have been inclined to condone +this last offense, as he had condoned others; but when he parted +from Denyven, Richard's heart was still hot with his cousin's +insult. As he turned into the yard, not with his usual swinging +gait, but with a quick, wide step, there was an unpleasant +dilation about young Shackford's nostrils.</p> + +<p>Torrini was seated on a block of granite in front of the upper +sheds, flourishing a small chisel in one hand and addressing the +men, a number of whom had stopped work to listen to him. At sight +of Richard they made a show of handling their tools, but it was +so clear something grave was going to happen that the pretense +fell through. They remained motionless, resting on their mallets, +with their eyes turned towards Richard. Torrini followed the +general glance, and pause din his harangue.</p> + +<p>"Talk of the devil!" he muttered, and then, apparently +continuing the thread of his discourse, broke into a strain of +noisy declamation.</p> + +<p>Richard walked up to him quietly.</p> + +<p>"Torrini," he said, "you can't be allowed to speak here, you +know."</p> + +<p>"I can speak where I like," replied Torrini gravely. He was +drunk, but the intoxication was not in his tongue. His head, as +Denyven had asserted, was as clear as a fog-horn.</p> + +<p>"When you are sober, you can come to the desk and get your pay +and your kit. You are discharged from the yard."</p> + +<p>Richard was standing within two paces of the man, who looked +up with an uncertain smile, as if he had not quite taken in the +sense of the words. Then, suddenly straightening himself, he +exclaimed,--</p> + +<p>"Slocum don't dare do it!"</p> + +<p>"But I do."</p> + +<p>"You!"</p> + +<p>"When I do a thing Mr. Slocum backs me."</p> + +<p>"But who backs Slocum,--the Association, may be?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly the Association ought to. I want you to leave the +yard now."</p> + +<p>"He backs Slocum," said Torrini, settling himself on the block +again, "and Slocum backs down," at which there was a laugh among +the men.</p> + +<p>Richard made a step forward.</p> + +<p>"Hands off!" cried a voice from under the sheds.</p> + +<p>"Who said that?" demanded Richard, wheeling around. No one +answered, but Richard had recognized Durgin's voice. "Torrini, if +you don't quit the yard in two minutes by the clock yonder, I +shall put you out by the neck. Do you understand?"</p> + +<p>Torrini glared about him confusedly for a moment, and broke +into voluble Italian; then, without a warning gesture, sprung to +his feet and struck at Richard. A straight red line, running +vertically the length of his cheek, showed where the chisel had +grazed him. The shops were instantly in a tumult, the men +dropping their tools and stumbling over the blocks, with cries of +"Keep them apart!" "Shame on you!" "Look out, Mr. Shackford!"</p> + +<p>"Is it mad ye are, Torrany!" cried Michael Hennessey, hurrying +from the saw-bench. Durgin held him back by the shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Let them alone," said Durgin.</p> + +<p>The flat steel flashed again in the sunlight, but fell +harmlessly, and before the blow could be repeated, Richard had +knitted his fingers in Torrini's neckerchief and twisted it so +tightly that the man gasped. Holding him by this, Richard dragged +Torrini across the yard, and let him drop on the sidewalk outside +the gate, where he lay in a heap, inert.</p> + +<p>"That was nate," said Michael Hennessey, sententiously.</p> + +<p>Richard stood leaning on the gate-post to recover he breath. +His face was colorless, and the crimson line defined itself +sharply against the pallor; but the rage was dead within him. It +had been one of his own kind of rages,--like lightning out of a +blue sky. As he stood there a smile was slowly gathering on his +lip.</p> + +<p>A score or two of the men had followed him, and now lounged in +a half-circle a few paces in the rear. When Richard was aware of +their presence, the glow came into his eyes again.</p> + +<p>"Who ordered you to knock off work?"</p> + +<p>"That was a foul blow of Torrini's, sir," said Stevens, +stepping forward, "and I for one come to see fair play."</p> + +<p>"Give us your 'and, mate!" cried Denyven; "there's a pair of +us."</p> + +<p>"Thanks," said Richard, softening at once, "but there's no +need. Every man can go to his job. Denyven may stay, if he +likes."</p> + +<p>The men lingered a moment, irresolute, and returned to the +sheds in silence.</p> + +<p>Presently Torrini stretched out one leg, then the other, and +slowly rose to his feet, giving a stupid glance at his empty +hands as he did so.</p> + +<p>"Here's your tool," said Richard, stirring the chisel with the +toe of his boot, "if that's what you're looking for."</p> + +<p>Torrini advanced a step as if to pick it up, then appeared to +alter his mind, hesitated perhaps a dozen seconds, and turning +abruptly on his heel walked down the street without a +stagger.</p> + +<p>"I think his legs is shut off from the rest of his body by +water-tight compartments," remarked Denyven, regarding Torrini's +steady gait with mingled amusement and envy. "Are you hurt, +sir?"</p> + +<p>"Only a bit of a scratch of the heye," replied Richard, with a +laugh.</p> + +<p>"As I hobserved just now to Mr. Stevens, sir, there's a pair +of us!"</p> + +<h2>XIII</h2> + +<p>After a turn through the shops to assure himself that order +was restored, Richard withdrew in the direction of his studio. +Margaret was standing at the head of the stairs, half hidden by +the scarlet creeper which draped that end of the veranda.</p> + +<p>"What are you doing there?" said Richard looking up with a +bright smile.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Richard, I saw it all!"</p> + +<p>"You didn't see anything worth having white cheeks about."</p> + +<p>"But he struck you ... with the knife, did he not?" said +Margaret, clinging to his arm anxiously.</p> + +<p>"He didn't have a knife, dear; only a small chisel, which +couldn't hurt any one. See for yourself; it is merely a +cat-scratch."</p> + +<p>Margaret satisfied herself that it was nothing more; but she +nevertheless insisted on leading Richard into the workshop, and +soothing the slight inflammation with her handkerchief dipped in +arnica and water. The elusive faint fragrance of Margaret's hair +as she busied herself about him would of itself have consoled +Richard for a deep wound. All this pretty solicitude and +ministration was new and sweet to him, and when the arnica turned +out to be cologne, and scorched his cheek, Margaret's remorse was +so delicious that Richard half wished the mixture had been +aquafortis.</p> + +<p>"You shouldn't have been looking into the yard," he said. "If +I had known that you were watching us it would have distracted +me. When I am thinking of you I cannot think of anything else, +and I had need of my wits for a moment."</p> + +<p>"I happened to be on the veranda, and was too frightened to go +away. Why did you quarrel?"</p> + +<p>In giving Margaret an account of the matter, Richard refrained +from any mention of his humiliating visit to Welch's Court that +morning. He could neither speak of it nor reflect upon it with +composure. The cloud which shadowed his features from time to +time was attributed by Margaret to the affair in the yard.</p> + +<p>"But this is the end of it, is it not?" she asked, with +troubled eyes. "You will not have any further words with +him?"</p> + +<p>"You needn't worry. If Torrini had not been drinking he would +never have lifted his hand against me. When he comes out of his +present state, he will be heartily ashamed of himself. His tongue +is the only malicious part of him. If he hadn't a taste for drink +and oratory,--if he was not 'a born horator,' as Denyven calls +him,--he would do well enough."</p> + +<p>"No, Richard, he's a dreadful man. I shall never forget his +face,--it was some wild animal's. And you, Richard," added +Margaret softly, "it grieved me to see you look like that."</p> + +<p>"I was wolfish for a moment, I suppose. Things had gone wrong +generally. But if you are going to scold me, Margaret, I would +rather have some more--arnica."</p> + +<p>"I am not going to scold; but while you stood there, so white +and terrible,--so unlike yourself,--I felt that I did not know +you, Richard. Of course you had to defend yourself when the man +attacked you, but I thought for an instant you would kill +him."</p> + +<p>"Not I," said Richard uneasily, dreading anything like a +rebuke from Margaret. "I am mortified that I gave up to my anger. +There was no occasion."</p> + +<p>"If an intoxicated person were to wander into the yard, papa +would send for a constable, and have the person removed."</p> + +<p>"Your father is an elderly man," returned Richard, not +relishing this oblique criticism of his own simpler method. "What +would be proper in his case would be considered cowardly in mine. +It was my duty to discharge the fellow, and not let him dispute +my authority. I ought to have been cooler, of course. But I +should have lost caste and influence with the men if I had shown +the least personal fear of Torrini,--if, for example, I had +summoned somebody else to do what I didn't dare do myself. I was +brought up in the yard, remember, and to a certain extent I have +to submit to being weighed in the yard's own scales."</p> + +<p>"But a thing cannot be weighed in a scale incapable of +containing it," answered Margaret. "The judgment of these rough, +uninstructed men is too narrow for such as you. They quarrel and +fight among themselves, and have their ideas of daring; but there +is a higher sort of bravery, the bravery of self-control, which I +fancy they do not understand very well; so their opinion of it is +not worth considering. However, you know better than I."</p> + +<p>"No, I do not," said Richard. "Your instinct is finer than my +reason. But you <i>are</i> scolding me, Margaret."</p> + +<p>"No, I am loving you," she said softly. "How can I do that +more faithfully than by being dissatisfied with anything but the +best in you?"</p> + +<p>"I wasn't at my best a while ago?"</p> + +<p>"No, Richard."</p> + +<p>"I can never hope to be worthy of you."</p> + +<p>But Margaret protested against that. Having forced him to look +at his action through her eyes, she outdid him in humility, and +then the conversation drifted off into half-breathed nothings, +which, though they were satisfactory enough for these two, would +have made a third person yawn.</p> + +<p>The occurrence at Slocum's Yard was hotly discussed that night +at the Stillwater hotel. Discussions in that long, low bar-room, +where the latest village scandal always came to receive the +finishing gloss, were apt to be hot. In their criticism of +outside men and measures, as well as in their mutual +vivisections, there was an unflinching directness among Mr. +Snelling's guests which is not to be found in more artificial +grades of society. The popular verdict on young Shackford's +conduct was as might not have been predicted, strongly in his +favor. He had displayed pluck, and pluck of the tougher fibre was +a quality held in so high esteem in Stillwater that any +manifestation of it commanded respect. And young Shackford had +shown a great deal; he had made short work of the most formidable +man in the yard, and given the rest to understand that he was not +to be tampered with. This had taken many by surprise, for +hitherto an imperturbable amiability had been the leading +characteristic of Slocum's manager.</p> + +<p>"I didn't think he had it in him," declared Dexter.</p> + +<p>"Well, ye might," replied Michael Hennessey. "Look at the +lad's eye, and the muscles of him. He stands on his own two legs +like a monumint, so he does."</p> + +<p>"Never saw a monument with two legs, Mike."</p> + +<p>"Didn't ye? Wait till ye're layin' at the foot of one. But +ye'll wait many a day, me boy. Ye'll be lucky if ye're supploid +with a head-stone made out of a dale-board."</p> + +<p>"Couldn't get a wooden head-stone short of Ireland, Mike." +Retorted Dexter, with a laugh. "You'd have to import it."</p> + +<p>"An' so I will; but it won't be got over in time, if ye go on +interruptin' gintlemen when they're discoorsin'. What was I +sayin', any way, when the blackguard chipped in?" continued Mr. +Hennessey, appealing to the company, as he emptied the ashes from +his pipe by knocking the bowl in the side of his chair.</p> + +<p>"You was talking of Dick Shackford's muscle," said Durgin, +"and you never talked wider of the mark. It doesn't take much +muscle, or much courage either, to knock a man about when he's in +liquor. The two wasn't fairly matched."</p> + +<p>"You are right there, Durgin," said Stevens, laying down his +newspaper. "They weren't fairly matched. Both men have the same +pounds and inches, but Torrini had a weapon and that mad strength +that comes to some folks with drink. If Shackford hadn't made a +neat twist on the neckerchief, he wouldn't have got off with a +scratch."</p> + +<p>"Shackford had no call to lay hands on him."</p> + +<p>"There you are wrong, Durgin," replied Stevens. "Torrini had +no call in the yard; he was making a nuisance of himself. +Shackford spoke to him, and told him to go, and when he didn't go +Shackford put him out; and he put him out handsomely,--'with +neatness and dispatch,' as Slocum's prospectuses has it."</p> + +<p>"He was right all the time," said Piggott. "He didn't strike +Torrini before or after he was down, and stood at the gate like a +gentleman, ready to give Torrini his chance if he wanted it."</p> + +<p>"Torrini didn't want it," observed Jemmy Willson. "Ther' isn't +nothing mean about Torrini."</p> + +<p>"But he 'ad a dozen minds about coming back," said +Denyven.</p> + +<p>"We ought to have got him out of the place quietly," said Jeff +Stavers; "that was our end of the mistake. He is not a bad +fellow, but he shouldn't drink."</p> + +<p>"He was crazy to come to the yard."</p> + +<p>"When a man 'as a day off," observed Denyven, "and the beer +isn't narsty, he 'ad better stick to the public 'ouse."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you!" exclaimed Durgin. "Your opinion don't weigh. You +took a black eye of him."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I took a black heye,--and I can give one, in a +hemergency. Yes, I gives and takes."</p> + +<p>"That's where we differ," returned Durgin. "I do a more +genteel business; I give, and don't take."</p> + +<p>"Unless you're uncommon careful," said Denyven, pulling away +at his pipe, "you'll find yourself some day henlarging your +business."</p> + +<p>Durgin pushed back his stool.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen! gentlemen!" interposed Mr. Snelling, appearing +from behind the bar with a lemon-squeezer in his hand, "we'll have +no black eyes here that wasn't born so. I am partial to them +myself when nature gives them; and I propose the health of Miss +Molly Hennessey," with a sly glance at Durgin, who colored, "to +be drank at the expense of the house. Name your taps, +gentlemen."</p> + +<p>"Snelling, me boy, ye'd win the bird from the bush with yer +beguilin' ways. Ye've brought proud tears to the eyes of an aged +parent, and I'll take a sup out of that high-showldered bottle +which you kape under the counter for the gentle-folk in the other +room."</p> + +<p>A general laugh greeted Mr. Hennessey's selection, and peace +was restored; but the majority of those present were workmen from +Slocum's, and the event of the afternoon remained the uppermost +theme.</p> + +<p>"Shackford is a different build from Slocum," said +Piggott.</p> + +<p>"I guess the yard will find that out when he gets to be +proprietor," rejoined Durgin, clicking his spoon against the +empty glass to attract Snelling's attention.</p> + +<p>"Going to be proprietor, is he?"</p> + +<p>"Some day or other," answered Durgin. "First he'll step into +the business, and then into the family. He's had his eye on +Slocum's girl these four or five years. Got a cast of her fist up +in his workshop. Leave Dick Shackford alone for lining his nest +and making it soft all round."</p> + +<p>"Why shouldn't he?" asked Stevens. "He deserves a good girl, +and there's none better. If sickness or any sort of trouble comes +to a poor man's door, she's never far off with her kind words and +them things the rich have when they are laid up."</p> + +<p>"Oh, the girl is well enough."</p> + +<p>"You couldn't say less. Before your mother died,"--Mrs. Durgin +had died the previous autumn,--"I see that angil going to your +house many a day with a little basket of comforts tucked under +her wing. But she's too good to be praised in such a place as +this," added Stevens. After a pause he inquired, "What makes you +down on Shackford? He has always been a friend to you."</p> + +<p>"One of those friends who walk over your head," replied +Durgin. "I was in the yard two years before him, and see where he +is."</p> + +<p>"Lord love you," said Stevens, leaning back in his chair and +contemplating Durgin thoughtfully, "there is marble and marble; +some is Carrara marble, and some isn't. The fine grain takes a +polish you can't get on to the other."</p> + +<p>"Of course, he is statuary marble, and I'm full of seams and +feldspar."</p> + +<p>"You are like the most of us,--not the kind that can be worked +up into anything very ornamental."</p> + +<p>"Thank you for nothing," said Durgin, turning away. "I came +from as good a quarry as ever Dick Shackford. Where's Torrini +to-night?"</p> + +<p>"Nobody has seen him since the difficulty," said Dexter, +"except Peters. Torrini sent for him after supper."</p> + +<p>As Dexter spoke, the door opened and Peters entered. He went +directly to the group composed chiefly of Slocum's men, and +without making any remark began to distribute among them certain +small blue tickets, which they pocketed in silence. Glancing +carelessly at his piece of card-board, Durgin said to +Peters,--</p> + +<p>"Then it's decided?"</p> + +<p>Peters nodded.</p> + +<p>"How's Torrini?"</p> + +<p>"He's all right."</p> + +<p>"What does he say?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing in perticular," responded Peters, "and nothing at all +about his little skylark with Shackford."</p> + +<p>"He's a cool one!" exclaimed Durgin.</p> + +<p>Though the slips of blue pasteboard had been delivered and +accepted without comment, it was known in a second through the +bar-room that a special meeting had been convened for the next +night by the officers of the Marble Workers' Association.</p> + +<h2>XIV</h2> + +<p>On the third morning after Torrini's expulsion from the yard, +Mr. Slocum walked into the studio with a printed slip in his +hand. A similar slip lay crumpled under a work-bench, where +Richard had tossed it. Mr. Slocum's kindly visage was full of +trouble and perplexity as he raised his eyes from the paper, +which he had been re-reading on the way up-stairs.</p> + +<p>"Look at that!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," remarked Richard, "I have been honored with one of +those documents."</p> + +<p>"What does it mean?"</p> + +<p>"It means business."</p> + +<p>The paper in question contained a series of resolutions +unanimously adopted at a meeting of the Marble Workers' +Association of Stillwater, held in Grimsey's Hall the previous +night. Dropping the preamble, these resolutions, which were +neatly printed with a type-writing machine on a half letter +sheet, ran as follows:--</p> + +<p><i>Resolved,</i> That on and after the First of June proximo, +the pay of carvers in Slocum's Marble Yard shall be $2.75 per +day, instead of $2.50 as heretofore.</p> + +<p><i>Resolved,</i> That on and after the same date, the rubbers +and polishers shall have $2.00 per day, instead of $1.75 as +heretofore.</p> + +<p><i>Resolved,</i> That on and after the same date the millmen +are to have $2.00 per day, instead of $1.75 as heretofore.</p> + +<p><i>Resolved,</i> That during the months of June, July, and +August the shops shall knock off work on Saturdays at five P.M., +instead of at six P.M.</p> + +<p><i>Resolved,</i> That a printed copy of these Resolutions be +laid before the Proprietor of Slocum's Marble Yard, and that his +immediate attention to them be respectfully requested. <i>Per +order of Committee M. W. A.</i></p> + +<p>"Torrini is at the bottom of that," said Mr. Slocum.</p> + +<p>"I hardly think so. This arrangement, as I told you the other +day before I had the trouble with him, has been in contemplation +several weeks. Undoubtedly Torrini used his influence to hasten +the movement already planned. The Association has too much +shrewdness to espouse the quarrel of an individual."</p> + +<p>"What are we to do?"</p> + +<p>"If you are in the same mind you were when we talked over the +possibility of an unreasonable demand like this, there is only +one thing to do."</p> + +<p>"Fight it?"</p> + +<p>"Fight it."</p> + +<p>"I have been resolute, and all that sort of thing, in times +past," observed Mr. Slocum, glancing out of the tail of his eye +at Richard, "and have always come off second best. The +Association has drawn up most of my rules for me, and had its own +way generally."</p> + +<p>"Since my time you have never been in so strong a position to +make a stand. We have got all the larger contracts out of the +way. Foreseeing what was likely to come, I have lately fought shy +of taking new ones. Here are heavy orders from Rafter & Son, the +Builders' Company, and others. We must decline them by to-night's +mail."</p> + +<p>"Is it really necessary?" asked Mr. Slocum, knitting his +forehead into what would have been a scowl if his mild pinkish +eyebrows had permitted it.</p> + +<p>"I think so."</p> + +<p>"I hate to do that."</p> + +<p>"Then we are at the mercy of the Association."</p> + +<p>"If we do not come to their terms, you seriously believe they +will strike?"</p> + +<p>"I do," replied Richard, "and we should be in a pretty +fix."</p> + +<p>"But these demands are ridiculous."</p> + +<p>"The men are not aware of our situation; they imagine we have +a lot of important jobs on hand, as usual at this season. +Formerly the foreman of a shop had access to the order-book, but +for the last year or two I have kept it in the safe here. The +other day Dexter came to me and wanted to see what work was set +down ahead in the blotter; but I had an inspiration and didn't +let him post himself."</p> + +<p>"Is not some kind of compromise possible?" suggested Mr. +Slocum, looking over the slip again. "Now this fourth clause, +about closing the yard an hour early on Saturdays, I don't +strongly object to that, though with eighty hands it means, every +week, eighty hours' work which the yard pays for and doesn't +get."</p> + +<p>"I should advise granting that request. Such concessions are +never wasted. But, Mr. Slocum, this is not going to satisfy them. +They have thrown in one reasonable demand merely to flavor the +rest. I happen to know that they are determined to stand by their +programme to the last letter."</p> + +<p>"You know that?"</p> + +<p>"I have a friend at court. Of course this is not to be +breathed, but Denyven, without being at all false to his +comrades, talks freely with me. He says they are resolved not to +give an inch."</p> + +<p>"Then we will close the works."</p> + +<p>"That is what I wanted you to say, sir!" cried Richard.</p> + +<p>"With this new scale of prices and plenty of work, we might +probably come out a little ahead the next six months; but it +wouldn't pay for the trouble and the capital invested. Then when +trade slackened, we should be running at a loss, and there'd be +another wrangle over a reduction. We had better lie idle."</p> + +<p>"Stick to that, sir, and may be it will not be necessary."</p> + +<p>"But if they strike"--</p> + +<p>"They won't all strike. At least," added Richard, "I hope not. +I have indirectly sounded several of the older hands, and they +have half promised to hold on; only half promised, for every man +of them at heart fears the trades-union more than No-bread--until +No-bread comes."</p> + +<p>"Whom have you spoken with?"</p> + +<p>"Lumley, Giles, Peterson, and some others,--your pensioners, I +call them."</p> + +<p>"Yes, they were in the yard in my father's time; they have not +been worth their salt these ten years. When the business was +turned over to me I didn't discharge any old hand who had given +his best days to the yard. Somehow I couldn't throw away the +squeezed lemons. An employer owes a good workman something beyond +the wages paid."</p> + +<p>"And a workman owes a good employer something beyond the work +done. You stood by these men after they outlived their +usefulness, and if they do not stand by you now, they're a shabby +set."</p> + +<p>"I fancy they will, Richard."</p> + +<p>"I think they had better, and I wish they would. We have +enough odds and ends to keep them busy awhile, and I shouldn't +like to have the clinking of chisels die out altogether under the +old sheds."</p> + +<p>"Nor I," returned Mr. Slocum, with a touch of sadness in his +intonation. "It has grown to be a kind of music to me," and he +paused to listen to the sounds of ringing steel that floated up +from the workshop.</p> + +<p>"Whatever happens, that music shall not cease in the yard +except on Sundays, if I have to take the mallet and go at a slab +all alone."</p> + +<p>"Slocum's Yard with a single workman in it would be a pleasing +spectacle," said Mr. Slocum, smiling ruefully.</p> + +<p>"It wouldn't be a bad time for <i>that</i> workman to strike," +returned Richard with a laugh.</p> + +<p>"He could dictate his own terms," returned Mr. Slocum, +soberly. "Well, I suppose you cannot help thinking about +Margaret; but don't think of her now. Tell me what answer you +propose to give the Association,--how you mean to put it; for I +leave the matter wholly to you. I shall have no hand in it, +further than to indorse your action."</p> + +<p>"To-morrow, then," said Richard, "for it is no use to hurry up +a crisis, I shall go to the workshops and inform them that their +request for short hours on Saturdays is granted, but that the +other changes they suggest are not to be considered. There will +never be a better opportunity, Mr. Slocum, to settle another +question which has been allowed to run too long."</p> + +<p>"What's that?"</p> + +<p>"The apprentice question."</p> + +<p>"Would it be wise to touch on that at present?"</p> + +<p>"While we are straightening out matters and putting things on +a solid basis, it seems to me essential to settle that. There was +never a greater imposition, or one more short-sighted, than this +rule which prevents the training of sufficient workmen. The +trades-union will discover their error some day when they have +succeeded in forcing manufacturers to import skilled labor by the +wholesale. I would like to tell the Marble Workers' Association +that Slocum's Yard has resolved to employ as many apprentices +each year as there is room for."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't dare risk it!"</p> + +<p>"It will have to be done, sooner or later. It would be a +capital flank movement now. They have laid themselves open to an +attack on that quarter."</p> + +<p>"I might as well close the gates for good and all."</p> + +<p>"So you will, if it comes to that. You can afford to close the +gates, and they can't afford to have you. In a week they'd be +back, asking you to open them. Then you could have your pick of +the live hands, and drop the dead wood. If Giles or Peterson or +Lumley or any of those desert us, they are not to be let on +again. I hope you will promise me that, sir."</p> + +<p>"If the occasion offers, you shall reorganize the shops in +your own way. I haven't the nerve for this kind of business, +though I have seen a great deal of it in the villages, first and +last. Strikes are terrible mistakes. Even when they succeed, what +pays for the lost time and the money squandered over the +tavern-bar? What makes up for the days or weeks when the fire was +out on the hearth and the children had no bread? That is what +happens, you know."</p> + +<p>"There is no remedy for such calamities," Richard answered. +"Yet I can imagine occasions when it would be better to let the +fire go out and the children want for bread."</p> + +<p>"You are not advocating strikes!" exclaimed Mr. Slocum.</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"I thought you were for fighting them."</p> + +<p>"So I am, in this instance; but the question has two sides. +Every man has the right to set a price on his own labor, and to +refuse to work for less; the wisdom of it is another matter. He +puts himself in the wrong only when he menaces the person or the +property of the man who has an equal right not to employ him. +That is the blunder strikers usually make in the end, and one by +which they lose public sympathy even when they are fighting an +injustice. Now, sometimes it <i>is</i> an injustice that is being +fought, and then it is right to fight it with the only weapon a +poor man has to wield against a power which possesses a hundred +weapons,--and that's a strike. For example, the smelters and +casters in the Miantowona Iron Works are meanly underpaid."</p> + +<p>"What, have they struck?"</p> + +<p>"There's a general strike threatened in the village; +foundry-men, spinners, and all."</p> + +<p>"So much the worse for everybody! I did not suppose it was as +bad as that. What has become of Torrini?"</p> + +<p>"The day after he left us he was taken on as forgeman at +Dana's."</p> + +<p>"I am glad Dana has got him!"</p> + +<p>"At the meeting, last night, Torrini gave in his resignation +as secretary of the Association; being no longer a marble worker, +he was not qualified to serve."</p> + +<p>"We unhorsed him, then?"</p> + +<p>"Rather. I am half sorry, too."</p> + +<p>"Richard," said Mr. Slocum, halting in one of his nervous +walks up and down the room, "you are the oddest composition of +hardness and softness I ever saw."</p> + +<p>"Am I?"</p> + +<p>"One moment you stand braced like a lion to fight the whole +yard, and the next moment you are pitying a miscreant who would +have laid your head open without the slightest compunction."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I forgive him," said Richard. "I was a trifle hasty +myself. Margaret thinks so too."</p> + +<p>"Much Margaret knows about it!"</p> + +<p>"I was inconsiderate, to say the least. When a man picks up a +tool by the wrong end he must expect to get cut."</p> + +<p>"You didn't have a choice."</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't have touched Torrini. After discharging him and +finding him disposed to resist my order to leave the yard, I +ought to have called in a constable. Usually it is very hard to +anger me; but three or four times in my life I have been carried +away by a devil of a temper which I couldn't control, it seized +me so unawares. That was one of the times."</p> + +<p>The mallets and chisels were executing a blithe staccato +movement in the yard below, and making the sparks dance. No one +walking among the diligent gangs, and observing the placid faces +of the men as they bent over their tasks, would have suspected +that they were awaiting the word that meant bread and meat and +home to them.</p> + +<p>As Richard passed through the shops, dropping a word to a +workman here and there, the man addressed looked up cheerfully +and made a furtive dab at the brown paper cap, and Richard +returned the salute smilingly; but he was sad within. "The +foolish fellows," he said to himself, "they are throwing away a +full loaf and are likely to get none at all." Giles and two or +three of the ancients were squaring a block of marble under a +shelter by themselves. Richard made it a point to cross over and +speak to them. In past days he had not been exacting with these +old boys, and they always had a welcome for him.</p> + +<p>Slocum's Yard seldom presented a serener air of contented +industry than it wore that morning; but in spite of all this +smooth outside it was a foregone conclusion with most of the men +that Slocum, with Shackford behind him, would never submit to the +new scale of wages. There were a few who had protested against +these resolutions and still disapproved of them, but were forced +to go with the Association, which had really been dragged into +the current by the other trades.</p> + +<p>The Dana Mills and the Miantowona Iron Works were paying +lighter wages than similar establishments nearer the great city. +The managers contended that they were paying as high if not +higher rates, taking into consideration the cheaper cost of +living in Stillwater. "But you get city prices for your wares," +retorted the union; "you don't pay city rents, and you shall pay +city wages." Meetings were held at Grimsey's Hall and the subject +was canvassed, at first calmly and then stormily. Among the +molders, and possibly the sheet-iron workers, there was cause for +dissatisfaction; but the dissatisfaction spread to where no +grievance existed; it seized upon the spinners, and finally upon +the marble workers. Torrini fanned the flame there. Taking for +his text the rentage question, he argued that Slocum was well +able to give a trifle more for labor than his city competitors. +"The annual rent of a yard like Slocum's would be four thousand +or five thousand dollars in the city. It doesn't cost Slocum two +hundred dollars. It is no more than just that the laborer should +have a share--he only asks a beggarly share--of the prosperity +which he has helped to build up." This was specious and taking. +Then there came down from the great city a glib person disguised +as The Workingman's Friend,--no workingman himself, mind you, but +a ghoul that lives upon subscriptions and sucks the senses out of +innocent human beings,--who managed to set the place by the ears. +The result of all which was that one May morning every shop, +mill, and factory in Stillwater was served with a notice from the +trades-union, and a general strike threatened.</p> + +<p>But our business at present is exclusively with Slocum's +Yard.</p> + +<h2>XV</h2> + +<p>"Since we are in for it," said Mr. Slocum the next morning, +"put the case to them squarely."</p> + +<p>Mr. Slocum's vertebræ had stiffened over night.</p> + +<p>"Leave that to me, sir," Richard replied. "I have been shaping +out in my mind a little speech which I flatter myself will cover +the points. They have brought this thing upon themselves, and we +are about to have the clearest of understandings. I never saw the +men quieter."</p> + +<p>"I don't altogether admire that. It looks as if they hadn't +any doubt as to the issue."</p> + +<p>"The clearest-headed have no doubt; they know as well as you +and I do the flimsiness of those resolutions. But the thick heads +are in a fog. Every man naturally likes his pay increased; if a +simple fellow is told five or six hundred times that his wages +ought to be raised, the idea is so agreeable and insidious that +by and by he begins to believe himself grossly underpaid, though +he may be getting twice what he is worth. He doesn't reason about +it; that's the last thing he'll do for you. In this mood he lets +himself be flown away by the breath of some loud-mouthed +demagogue, who has no interest in the matter beyond hearing his +own talk and passing round the hat after the meeting is over. +That is what has happened to our folks below. But they <i>are</i> +behaving handsomely."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I don't like it."</p> + +<p>Since seven o'clock the most unimpeachable decorum had reigned +in the workshops. It was now nine, and this brief dialogue had +occurred between Mr. Slocum and Richard on the veranda, just as +the latter was on the point of descending into the yard to have +his talk with the men.</p> + +<p>The workshops--or rather the shed in which the workshops were, +for it was one low structure eighteen or twenty feet wide and +open on the west side--ran the length of the yard, and with the +short extension at the southerly end formed the letter L. There +were no partitions, an imaginary line separating the different +gangs of workers. A person standing at the head of the building +could make himself heard more or less distinctly in the remotest +part.</p> + +<p>The grating lisp of the wet saws eating their way into the +marble boulder, and the irregular quick taps of the seventy or +eighty mallets were not suspended as Richard took his stand +beside a tall funereal urn at the head of the principal workshop. +After a second's faltering he rapped smartly on the lip of the +urn with the key of his studio-door.</p> + +<p>Instantly every arm appeared paralyzed, and the men stood +motionless, with the tools in their hands.</p> + +<p>Richard began in a clear but not loud voice, though it seemed +to ring on the sudden silence:--</p> + +<p>"Mr. Slocum has asked me to say a few words to you, this +morning, about those resolutions, and one or two other matters +that have occurred to him in this connection. I am no +speech-maker; I never learned that trade"--</p> + +<p>"Never learned any trade," muttered Durgin, inaudibly.</p> + +<p>--"but I think I can manage some plain, honest talk, for +straight-forward men."</p> + +<p>Richard's exordium was listened to with painful attention.</p> + +<p>"In the first place," he continued, "I want to remind you, +especially the newer men, that Slocum's Yard has always given +steady work and prompt pay to Stillwater hands. No hand has ever +been turned off without sufficient cause, or kept on through mere +favoritism. Favors have been shown, but they have been shown to +all alike. If anything has gone crooked, it has been straightened +out as soon as Mr. Slocum knew of it. That has been the course of +the yard in the past, and the Proprietor doesn't want you to run +away with the idea that that course is going to be changed. One +change, for the time being, is going to be made at our own +suggestion. From now, until the 1st of September, this yard will +close gates on Saturdays at five P.M. instead of six P.M."</p> + +<p>Several voices cried, "Good for Slocum!" "Where's Slocum?" +"Why don't Slocum speak for himself?" cried one voice.</p> + +<p>"It is Mr. Slocum's habit," answered Richard, "to give his +directions to me, I give them to the foremen, and the foremen to +the shops. Mr. Slocum follows that custom on this occasion. With +regard to the new scale of wages which the Association has +submitted to him, the Proprietor refuses to accept it, or any +modification of it."</p> + +<p>A low murmur ran through the workshops.</p> + +<p>"What's a modificashun, sir?" asked Jemmy Willson, stepping +forward, and scratching his left ear diffidently.</p> + +<p>"A modification," replied Richard, considerably embarrassed to +give an instant definition, "is a--a"--</p> + +<p>"A splitting of the difference, by--!" shouted somebody in the +third shop.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said Richard, glancing in the direction of his +impromptu Webster's Unabridged. "Mr. Slocum does not propose to +split the difference. The wages in every department are to be +just what they are,--neither more nor less. If anybody wishes to +make a remark," he added, observing a restlessness in several of +the men, "I beg he will hold on until I get through. I shall not +detain you much longer, as the parson says before he has reached +the middle of his sermon.</p> + +<p>"What I say now, I was charged to make particularly clear to +you. It is this: In future Mr. Slocum intends to run Slocum's +Yard himself. Neither you, nor I, nor the Association will be +allowed to run it for him. [Sensation.] Until now the Association +has tied him down to two apprentices a year. From this hour, out, +Mr. Slocum will take on, not two, or twenty, but two hundred +apprentices if the business warrants it."</p> + +<p>The words were not clearly off Richard's lips when the foreman +of the shop in which he was speaking picked up a couple of small +drills, and knocked them together with a sharp click. In an +instant the men laid aside their aprons, bundled up their tools, +and marched out of the shed two by two, in dead silence. That +same click was repeated almost simultaneously in the second shop, +and the same evolution took place. Then click, click, click! went +the drills, sounding fainter and fainter in the distant +departments; and in less than three minutes there was not a soul +left in Slocum's Yard except the Orator of the Day.</p> + +<p>Richard had anticipated some demonstration, either noisy or +violent, perhaps both; but this solemn, orderly desertion dashed +him.</p> + +<p>He stepped into the middle of the yard, and glancing up beheld +Margaret and Mr. Slocum standing on the veranda. Even at that +distance he could perceive the pallor on one face, and the +consternation written all over the other.</p> + +<p>Hanging his head with sadness, Richard crossed the yard, which +gave out mournful echoes to his footfalls, and swung to the large +gate, nearly catching old Giles by the heel as he did so. Looking +through the slats, he saw Lumley and Peterson hobbling arm in arm +down the street,--after more than twenty-five years of kindly +treatment.</p> + +<p>"Move number one," said Richard, lifting the heavy cross-piece +into its place and fastening it with a wooden pin. "Now I must go +and prop up Mr. Slocum."</p> + +<h2>XVI</h2> + +<p>There is no solitude which comes so near being tangible as +that of a vast empty workshop, crowded a moment since. The busy, +intense life that has gone from it mysteriously leaves behind +enough of itself to make the stillness poignant. One might +imagine the invisible ghost of doomed Toil wandering from bench +to bench, and noiselessly fingering the dropped tools, still warm +from the workman's palm. Perhaps this impalpable presence is the +artisan's anxious thought, stolen back to brood over the +uncompleted task.</p> + +<p>Though Mr. Slocum had spoken lightly of Slocum's Yard with +only one workman in it, when he came to contemplate the actual +fact he was struck by the pathos of it, and the resolution with +which he awoke that morning began to desert him.</p> + +<p>"The worst is over," exclaimed Richard, joining his two +friends on the veranda, "and everything went smoother than I +expected."</p> + +<p>"Everything went, sure enough," said Mr. Slocum, gloomily; +"they all went,--old Giles, and Lumley, and everybody."</p> + +<p>"We somewhat expected that, you know."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I expected it, and wasn't prepared for it."</p> + +<p>"It was very bad," said Richard, shaking his head.</p> + +<p>The desertion of Giles and his superannuated mates especially +touched Mr. Slocum.</p> + +<p>"Bad is no word; it was damnable."</p> + +<p>"Oh, papa!"</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, dear; I couldn't help it. When a man's pensioners +throw him over, he must be pretty far gone!"</p> + +<p>"The undertow was too strong for them, sir, and they were +swept away with the rest. And they all but promised to stay. They +will be the very first to come back."</p> + +<p>"Of course we shall have to take the old fellows on again," +said Mr. Slocum, relenting characteristically.</p> + +<p>"Never!" cried Richard.</p> + +<p>"I wish I had some of your grit."</p> + +<p>"I have none to spare. To tell the truth, when I stood up +there to speak, with every eye working on me, like a half-inch +drill, I would have sold myself at a low figure."</p> + +<p>"But you were a perfect what's-his-name,--Demosthenes," said +Mr. Slocum, with a faint smile. "We could hear you."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe Demosthenes ever moved an audience as I did +mine!" cried Richard gaily. "If his orations produced a like +effect, I am certain that the Grecian lecture-bureau never sent +him twice to the same place."</p> + +<p>"I don't think, Richard, I would engage you over again."</p> + +<p>"I am sure Richard spoke very well," interrupted Margaret. +"His speech was short"--</p> + +<p>"Say shortened, Margaret, for I hadn't got through when they +left."</p> + +<p>"No, I will not jest about it. It is too serious for jesting. +What is to become of the families of all these men suddenly +thrown out of employment?"</p> + +<p>"They threw themselves out, Mag," said her father.</p> + +<p>"That does not mend the matter, papa. There will be great +destitution and suffering in the village with every mill closed; +and they are all going to close, Bridget says. Thank Heaven that +this did not happen in the winter!"</p> + +<p>"They always pick their weather," observed Mr. Slocum.</p> + +<p>"It will not be for long," said Richard encouragingly. "Our +own hands and the spinners, who had no ground for complaint, will +return to work shortly, and the managers of the iron mills will +have to yield a point or two. In a week at the outside everything +will be running smoothly, and on a sounder foundation than +before. I believe the strike will be an actual benefit to +everybody in the end."</p> + +<p>By dint of such arguments and his own sanguine temperament, +Richard succeeded in reassuring Mr. Slocum for the time being, +though Richard did not hide from himself the gravity of the +situation. There was a general strike in the village. Eight +hundred men were without work. That meant, or would mean in a few +days, two or three thousand women and children without bread. It +does not take the wolf long to reach a poor man's door when it is +left ajar.</p> + +<p>The trades-union had a fund for emergencies of this sort, and +some outside aid might be looked for; but such supplies are in +their nature precarious and soon exhausted. It is a noticeable +feature of strikes that the moment the workman's pay stops his +living expenses increase. Even the more economical becomes +improvident. If he has money, the tobacco shop and the tavern are +likely to get more of it than the butcher's cart. The prolonged +strain is too great to be endured without stimulant.</p> + +<h2>XVII</h2> + +<p>During the first and second days of the strike, Stillwater +presented an animated and even a festive appearance. Throngs of +operatives in their Sunday clothes strolled through the streets, +or lounged at the corners chatting with other groups; some +wandered into the suburbs, and lay in the long grass under the +elms. Others again, though these were few, took to the turnpike +or the railroad track, and tramped across country.</p> + +<p>It is needless to say that the bar-room of the tavern was +crowded from early morning down to the hour when the law +compelled Mr. Snelling to shut off his gas. After which, John +Brown's "soul" could be heard "marching on" in the darkness, +through various crooked lanes and alleys, until nearly +daybreak.</p> + +<p>Among the earliest to scent trouble in the air was Han-Lin, +the Chinaman before mentioned. He kept a small laundry in Mud +Lane, where his name was painted perpendicularly on a light of +glass in the basement window of a tenement house. Han-Lin +intended to be buried some day in a sky-blue coffin in his own +land, and have a dozen packs of firecrackers decorously exploded +over his remains. In order to reserve himself for this and other +ceremonies involving the burning of a great quantity of gilt +paper, he quietly departed for Boston at the first sign of +popular discontent. As Dexter described it, "Han-Lin coiled up +his pig-tail, put forty grains of rice in a yallar bag,--enough +to last him a month!--and toddled off in his two-story wooden +shoes." He could scarcely have done a wiser thing, for poor +Han-Lin's laundry was turned wrong side out within thirty-six +hours afterwards.</p> + +<p>The strike was popular. The spirit of it spread, as fire and +fever and all elemental forces spread. The two apprentices in +Brackett's bakery had a dozen minds about striking that first +morning. The younger lad, Joe Wiggin, plucked up courage to ask +Brackett for a day off, and was lucky enough to dodge a piece of +dough weighing nearly four pounds.</p> + +<p>Brackett was making bread while the sun shone. He knew that +before the week was over there would be no cash customers, and he +purposed then to shut up shop.</p> + +<p>On the third and fourth days there was no perceptible fall in +the barometer. Trade was brisk with Snelling, and a brass band +was playing national airs on a staging erected on the green in +front of the post-office. Nightly meetings took place at +Grimsey's Hall, and the audiences were good-humored and orderly. +Torrini advanced some Utopian theories touching a universal +distribution of wealth, which were listened to attentively, but +failed to produce deep impression.</p> + +<p>"That's a healthy idea of Torrini's about dervidin' up +property," said Jemmy Willson. "I've heerd it afore; but it's +sing'ler I never knowd a feller with any property to have that +idea."</p> + +<p>"Ther' 's a great dale in it, I can tell ye," replied Michael +Hennessey, with a well-blackened Woodstock pipe between his teeth +and his hands tucked under his coat-tails. "Isn't ther', Misther +Stavens?"</p> + +<p>When Michael had on his bottle-green swallow-tailed coat with +the brass buttons, he invariably assumed a certain lofty air of +ceremony in addressing his companions.</p> + +<p>"It is sorter pleasant to look at," returned Stevens, "but it +don't seem to me an idea that would work. Suppose that, after all +the property was divided, a fresh shipload of your friends was to +land at New York or Boston; would there be a new deal?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir! by no means!" exclaimed Michael excitedly. "The +furreners is counted out!"</p> + +<p>"But you're a foreigner yourself, Mike."</p> + +<p>"Am I, then? Bedad, I'm not! I'm a rale American Know +Nothing."</p> + +<p>"Well, Mike," said Stevens maliciously, "when it comes to a +reg'lar division of lands and greenbacks in the United States, I +go in for the Chinese having their share."</p> + +<p>"The Chinese!" shouted Michael. "Oh, murther, Misther Stevens! +Ye wouldn't be fur dividin' with thim blatherskites!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, with them,--as well as the rest," returned Stevens, +dryly.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the directors and stockholders of the various mills +took counsel in a room at the rear of the National Bank. Mr. +Slocum, following Richard's advice, declined to attend the +meeting in person, or to allow his name to figure on the list of +vice-presidents.</p> + +<p>"Why should we hitch our good cause to their doubtful one?" +reflected Richard. "We have no concessions or proposals to make. +When our men are ready to come back to us, they will receive just +wages and fair treatment. They know that. We do not want to fight +the molders. Let the iron-mills do their own fighting;" and +Richard stolidly employed himself in taking an account of stock, +and forwarding by express to their destination the ten or twelve +carved mantel-pieces that happily completed the last +contract.</p> + +<p>Then his responsibilities shrunk to winding up the office +clock and keeping Mr. Slocum firmly on his legs. The latter was +by far the more onerous duty, for Mr. Slocum ran down two or +three times in the course of every twenty-four hours, while the +clock once wound was fixed for the day.</p> + +<p>"If I could only have a good set of Waltham works put into +your father," said Richard to Margaret, after one of Mr. Slocum's +relapses, "he would go better."</p> + +<p>"Poor papa! he is not a fighter, like you."</p> + +<p>"Your father is what I call a belligerent non-combatant."</p> + +<p>Richard was seeing a great deal of Margaret these days. Mr. +Slocum had invited him to sleep in the studio until the +excitement was past. Margaret was afraid to have him take that +long walk between the yard and his lodgings in Lime Street, and +then her father was an old man to be without any protection in +the house in such untoward times.</p> + +<p>So Richard slept in the studio, and had his plate at table, +like one of the family. This arrangement was favorable to many a +stolen five minutes with Margaret, in the hall or on the +staircase. In these fortuitous moments he breathed an atmosphere +that sustained him in his task of dispelling Mr. Slocum's +recurrent fits of despondency. Margaret had her duties, too, at +this period, and the forenoons were sacred to them.</p> + +<p>One morning as she passed down the street with a small wicker +basket on her arm, Richard said to Mr. Slocum,--</p> + +<p>"Margaret has joined the strikers."</p> + +<p>The time had already come to Stillwater when many a +sharp-faced little urchin--as dear to the warm, deep bosom that +had nursed it as though it were a crown prince--would not have +had a crust to gnaw if Margaret Slocum had not joined the +strikers. Sometimes her heart drooped on the way home from these +errands, upon seeing how little of the misery she could ward off. +On her rounds there was one cottage in a squalid lane where the +children asked for bread in Italian. She never omitted to halt at +that door.</p> + +<p>"Is it quite prudent for Margaret to be going about so?" +queried Mr. Slocum.</p> + +<p>"She is perfectly safe," said Richard,--"as safe as a Sister +of Charity, which she is."</p> + +<p>Indeed, Margaret might then have gone loaded with diamonds +through the streets at midnight. There was not a rough man in +Stillwater who would not have reached forth an arm to shield +her.</p> + +<p>"It is costing me nearly as much as it would to carry on the +yard," said Mr. Slocum, "but I never put out any stamps more +willingly."</p> + +<p>"You never took a better contract, sir, than when you agreed +to keep Margaret's basket filled. It is an investment in real +estate--hereafter."</p> + +<p>"I hope so," answered Mr. Slocum, "and I know it's a good +thing now."</p> + +<p>Of the morals of Stillwater at this time, or at any time, the +less said the better. But out of the slime and ooze below sprang +the white flower of charity.</p> + +<p>The fifth day fell on a Sabbath, and the churches were +crowded. The Rev. Arthur Langly selected his text from St. +Matthew, chap. xxii, v. 21: "Render therefore unto Cæsar +the things which are Cæsar's." But as he did not make it +quite plain which was Cæsar,--the trades-union or the +Miantowona Iron Works,--the sermon went for nothing, unless it +could be regarded as a hint to those persons who had stolen a +large piece of belting from the Dana Mills. On the other hand, +Father O'Meara that morning bravely told his children to conduct +themselves in an orderly manner while they were out of work, or +they would catch it in this world and in the next.</p> + +<p>On the sixth day a keen observer might have detected a change +in the atmosphere. The streets were thronged as usual, and the +idlers still wore their Sunday clothes, but the holiday buoyancy +of the earlier part of the week had evaporated. A turn-out on the +part of one of the trades, though it was accompanied by music and +a banner with a lively inscription, failed to arouse general +enthusiasm. A serious and even a sullen face was not rare among +the crowds that wandered aimlessly up and down the village.</p> + +<p>On the seventh day it required no penetration to see the +change. There was decidedly less good-natured chaffing and more +drunkenness, though Snelling had invoked popular contumely and +decimated his bar-room by refusing to trust for drinks. Bracket +had let his ovens cool, and his shutters were up. The treasury of +the trades-union was nearly drained, and there were growlings +that too much had been fooled away on banners and a brass band +for the iron men's parade the previous forenoon. It was when +Brackett's eye sighted the banner with "Bread or Blood" on it, +that he had put up his shutters.</p> + +<p>Torrini was now making violent harangues at Grimsey's Hall to +largely augmented listeners, whom his words irritated without +convincing. Shut off from the tavern, the men flocked to hear him +and the other speakers, for born orators were just then as thick +as unripe whortleberries. There was nowhere else to go. At home +were reproaches that maddened, and darkness, for the kerosene had +given out.</p> + +<p>Though all the trades had been swept into the movement, it is +not to be understood that every workman was losing his head. +There were men who owned their cottages and had small sums laid +by in the savings-bank; who had always sent their children to the +district school, and listened themselves to at least one of Mr. +Langly's sermons or one of Father O'Meara's discourses every +Sunday. These were anchored to good order; they neither +frequented the bar-room nor attended the conclaves at Grimsey's +Hall, but deplored as deeply as any one the spirit that was +manifesting itself. They would have returned to work now--if they +had dared. To this class belonged Stevens.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you come up to the hall, nights?" asked Durgin, +accosting him on the street, one afternoon. "You'd run a chance +of hearing me hold forth some of these evenings."</p> + +<p>"You've answered your own question, William. I shouldn't like +to see you making an idiot of yourself."</p> + +<p>"This is a square fight between labor and capital," returned +Durgin with dignity, "and every man ought to take a hand in +it."</p> + +<p>"William," said Stevens meditatively, "do you know about the +Siamese twins?"</p> + +<p>"What about 'em,--they're dead, ain't they?" replied Durgin, +with surprise.</p> + +<p>"I believe so; but when they was alive, if you was to pinch +one of those fellows, the other fellow would sing out. If you was +to black the eye of the left-hand chap, the right-hand chap +wouldn't have been able to see for a week. When either of 'em +fetched the other a clip, he knocked himself down. Labor and +capital is jined just as those two was. When you've got this fact +well into your skull, William, I shall be pleased to listen to +your ideas at Grimsey's Hall or anywhere else."</p> + +<p>Such conservatism as Stevens's, however, was necessarily swept +out of sight for the moment. The wealthier citizens were in a +state bordering on panic,--all but Mr. Lemuel Shackford. In his +flapping linen duster, for the weather was very sultry now, Mr. +Shackford was seen darting excitedly from street to street and +hovering about the feverish crowds, like the stormy petrel +wheeling on the edges of a gale. Usually as chary of his +sympathies as of his gold, he astonished every one by evincing an +abnormal interest in the strikers. The old man declined to put +down anything on the subscription paper then circulating; but he +put down his sympathies to any amount. He held no stock in the +concerns involved; he hated Slocum, and he hated the directors of +the Miantowona Iron Works. The least he hoped was that Rowland +Slocum would be laid out.</p> + +<p>So far the strikers had committed no overt act of note, unless +it was the demolition of Han-Lin's laundry. Stubbs, the provision +dealer, had been taught the rashness of exposing samples of +potatoes in his door-way, and the "Tonsorial Emporium" of +Professor Brown, a colored citizen, had been invaded by two +humorists, who, after having their hair curled, refused to pay +for it, and the professor had been too agitated to insist. The +story transpiring, ten or twelve of the boys had dropped in +during the morning, and got shaved on the same terms. "By golly, +gen'l'men!" expostulated the professor, "ef dis yah thing goes +on, dis darkey will be cleaned cl'ar out fo de week's done." No +act of real violence had been perpetrated as yet; but with bands +of lawless men roaming over the village at all hours of the day +and night, the situation was critical.</p> + +<p>The wheel of what small social life there was in Stillwater +had ceased to revolve. With the single exception of Lemuel +Shackford, the more respectable inhabitants kept in-doors as much +as practicable. From the first neither Mr. Craggie nor Lawyer +Perkins had gone to the hotel to consult the papers in the +reading-room, and Mr. Pinkham did not dare to play on his flute +of an evening. The Rev. Arthur Langly found it politic to do but +little visiting in the parish. His was not the pinion to buffet +with a wind like this, and indeed he was not explicitly called +upon to do so. He sat sorrowfully in his study day by day, +preparing the weekly sermon,--a gentle, pensive person, inclined +in the best of weather to melancholia. If Mr. Langly had gone +into arboriculture instead of into the ministry, he would have +planted nothing but weeping-willows.</p> + +<p>In the mean time the mill directors continued their +deliberations in the bank building, and had made several abortive +attempts to effect an arrangement with the leaders of the union. +This seemed every hour less possible and more necessary.</p> + +<p>On the afternoon of the seventh day of the strike a crowd +gathered in front of the residence of Mr. Alexander, the +superintendent of the Miantowona Iron Works, and began groaning +and hooting. Mr. Alexander sought out Mr. Craggie, and urged him, +as a man of local weight and one accustomed to addressing the +populace, to speak a few words to the mob. That was setting Mr. +Craggie on the horns of a cruel dilemma. He was afraid to +disoblige the representative of so powerful a corporation as the +Miantowona Iron Works, but he equally dreaded to risk his +popularity with seven or eight hundred voters; so, like the +crafty chancellor in Tennyson's poem, he dallied with his golden +chain, and, smiling, put the question by.</p> + +<p>"Drat the man!" muttered Mr. Craggie, "does he want to blast +my whole political career! <i>I</i> can't pitch into our adopted +countrymen."</p> + +<p>There was a blot on the escutcheon of Mr. Craggie which he was +very anxious not to have uncovered by any chance in these latter +days,--his ancient affiliation with the deceased native American +party.</p> + +<p>The mob dispersed without doing damage, but the fact that it +had collected and had shown an ugly temper sent a thrill of +apprehension through the village. Mr. Slocum came in a great +flurry to Richard.</p> + +<p>"This thing ought to be stopped," said Mr. Slocum.</p> + +<p>"I agree to that," replied Richard, bracing himself not to +agree to anything else.</p> + +<p>"If we were to drop that stipulation as to the increase of +apprentices, no doubt many of the men would give over insisting +on an advance."</p> + +<p>"Our only salvation is to stick to our right to train as many +workmen as we choose. The question of wages is of no account +compared with that; the rate of wages will adjust itself."</p> + +<p>"If we could manage it somehow with the marble workers," +suggested Mr. Slocum, "that would demoralize the other trades, +and they'd be obliged to fall in."</p> + +<p>"I don't see that they lack demoralization."</p> + +<p>"If something isn't done, they'll end up by knocking in our +front doors or burning us all up."</p> + +<p>"Let them."</p> + +<p>"It's very well to say let them," exclaimed Mr. Slocum, +petulantly, "when you haven't any front door to be knocked +in!"</p> + +<p>"But I have you and Margaret to consider, if there were actual +danger. When anything like violence threatens, there's an honest +shoulder for every one of the hundred and fifty muskets in the +armory."</p> + +<p>"Those muskets might get on the wrong shoulders."</p> + +<p>"That isn't likely. You do not seem to know, sir, that there +is a strong guard at the armory day and night."</p> + +<p>"I was not aware of that."</p> + +<p>"It is a fact all the same," said Richard; and Mr. Slocum went +away easier in his mind, and remained so--two or three hours.</p> + +<p>On the eighth, ninth, and tenth days the clouds lay very black +along the horizon. The marble workers, who began to see their +mistake, were reproaching the foundry men with enticing them into +a coalition, and the spinners were hot in their denunciations of +the molders. Ancient personal antagonisms that had been +slumbering started to their feet. Torrini fell out of favor, and +in the midst of one of his finest perorations uncomplimentary +missiles, selected from the animal kingdom, had been thrown at +him. The grand torchlight procession on the night of the ninth +culminated in a disturbance, in which many men got injured, +several badly, and the windows of Brackett's bakery were stove +in. A point of light had pierced the darkness,--the trades were +quarreling among themselves!</p> + +<p>The selectmen had sworn in special constables among the +citizens, and some of the more retired streets were now patrolled +after dark, for there had been threats of incendiarism.</p> + +<p>Bishop's stables burst into flames one midnight,--whether +fired intentionally or accidentally was not known; but the giant +bellows at Dana's Mills was slit and two belts were cut at the +Miantowona Iron Works that same night.</p> + +<p>At this juncture a report that out-of-town hands were coming +to replace the strikers acted on the public mind like petroleum +on fire. A large body of workmen assembled near the railway +station,--to welcome them. There was another rumor which caused +the marble workers to stare at each other aghast. It was to the +effect that Mr. Slocum, having long meditated retiring from +business, had now decided to do so, and was consulting with +Wyndham, the keeper of the green-house, about removing the +division wall and turning the marble yard into a peach garden. +This was an unlooked-for solution of the difficulty. Stillwater +without any Slocum's Marble Yard was chaos come again.</p> + +<p>"Good Lord, boys!" cried Piggott, "if Slocum should do +that!"</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Snelling's bar had been suppressed by the +authorities, and a posse of policemen, borrowed from South +Millville, occupied the premises. Knots of beetle-browed men, no +longer in holiday gear, but chiefly in their shirt-sleeves, +collected from time to time at the head of the main street, and +glowered threateningly at the single policeman pacing the porch +of the tavern. The Stillwater Grays were under arms in the armory +over Dundon's drugstore. The thoroughfare had ceased to be safe +for any one, and Margaret's merciful errands were necessarily +brought to an end. How the poor creatures who had depended on her +bounty now continued to exist was a sorrowful problem.</p> + +<p>Matters were at this point, when on the morning of the +thirteenth day Richard noticed the cadaverous face of a man +peering into the yard through the slats of the main gate. Richard +sauntered down there, with his hands in his pockets. The man was +old Giles, and with him stood Lumley and Peterson, gazing +thoughtfully at the sign outside,--</p> + +<center>NO ADMITTANCE EXCEPT ON BUSINESS.</center> + +<p>The roughly lettered clapboard, which they had heedlessly +passed a thousand times, seemed to have taken a novel +significance to them.</p> + +<p><i>Richard</i>. What's wanted there?</p> + +<p><i>Giles. [Very affably.]</i> We was lookin' round for a job, +Mr. Shackford.</p> + +<p><i>Richard</i>. We are not taking on any hands at present.</p> + +<p><i>Giles</i>. Didn't know but you was. Somebody said you +was.</p> + +<p><i>Richard</i>. Somebody is mistaken.</p> + +<p><i>Giles</i>. P'rhaps to-morrow, or nex' day?</p> + +<p><i>Richard</i>. Rather doubtful, Giles.</p> + +<p><i>Giles. [Uneasily.]</i> Mr. Slocum ain't goin' to give up +business, is he?</p> + +<p><i>Richard</i>. Why shouldn't he, if it doesn't pay? The +business is carried on for his amusement and profit; when the +profit stops it won't be amusing any longer. Mr. Slocum is not +going to run the yard for the sake of the Marble Workers' +Association. He would rather drive a junk-cart. He might be +allowed to steer that himself.</p> + +<p><i>Giles</i>. Oh!</p> + +<p><i>Richard</i>. Good-morning, Giles.</p> + +<p><i>Gikles</i>. 'Mornin', Mr. Shackford.</p> + +<p>Richard rushed back to Mr. Slocum.</p> + +<p>"The strike is broken, sir!"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"The thing has collapsed! The tide is turning, <i>and has +washed in a lot of dead wood!"</i></p> + +<p>"Thank God!" cried Mr. Slocum.</p> + +<p>An hour or so later a deputation of four, consisting of +Stevens, Denyven, Durgin, and Piggott, waited upon Mr. Slocum in +his private office, and offered, on behalf of all the +departments, to resume work at the old rates.</p> + +<p>Mr. Slocum replied that he had not objected to the old rates, +but the new, and that he accepted their offer--conditionally.</p> + +<p>"You have overlooked one point, Mr. Stevens."</p> + +<p>"Which one, sir?"</p> + +<p>"The apprentices."</p> + +<p>"We thought you might not insist there, sir."</p> + +<p>"I insist on conducting my own business in my own way."</p> + +<p>The voice was the voice of Slocum, but the backbone was +Richard's.</p> + +<p>"Then, sir, the Association don't object to a reasonable +number of apprentices."</p> + +<p>"How many is that?"</p> + +<p>"As many as you want, I expect, sir," said Stevens, shuffling +his feet.</p> + +<p>"Very well, Stevens. Go round to the front gate and Mr. +Shackford will let you in."</p> + +<p>There were two doors to the office, one leading into the yard, +and the other, by which the deputation had entered and was now +making its exit, opened upon the street.</p> + +<p>Richard heaved a vast sigh of relief as he took down the beam +securing the principal entrance.</p> + +<p>"Good-morning, boys," he chirped, with a smile as bright as +newly minted gold. "I hope you enjoyed yourselves."</p> + +<p>The quartet ducked their heads bashfully, and Stevens replied, +"Can't speak for the others, Mr. Shackford, but I never enjoyed +myself worse."</p> + +<p>Piggott lingered a moment behind the rest, and looking back +over his shoulder said, "That peach garden was what fetched +us!"</p> + +<p>Richard gave a loud laugh, for the peach garden had been a +horticultural invention of his own.</p> + +<p>In the course of the forenoon the majority of the hands +presented themselves at the office, dropping into the yard in +gangs of five or six, and nearly all were taken on. To dispose +definitely of Lumley, Giles, and Peterson, they were not taken on +at Slocum's Yard, though they continued to be, directly or +indirectly, Slocum's pensioners, even after they were retired to +the town farm.</p> + +<p>Once more the chisels sounded merrily under the long shed. +That same morning the spinners went back to the mules, but the +molders held out until nightfall, when it was signified to them +that their demands would be complied with.</p> + +<p>The next day the steam-whistles of the Miantowona Iron Works +and Dana's Mills sent the echoes flying beyond that undulating +line of pines and hemlocks which half encircles Stillwater, and +falls away loosely on either side, like an unclasped girdle.</p> + +<p>A calm, as if from out the cloudless blue sky that arched it +day after day, seemed to drift down upon the village. Han-Lin, +with no more facial expression than an orange, suddenly +reappeared on the streets, and went about repairing his laundry, +unmolested. The children were playing in the sunny lanes again, +unafraid, and mothers sat on doorsteps in the summer twilights, +singing softly to the baby in arm. There was meat on the table, +and the tea-kettle hummed comfortably at the back of the stove. +The very winds that rustled through the fragrant pines, and +wandered fitfully across the vivid green of the salt marshes, +breathed peace and repose.</p> + +<p>Then, one morning, this blissful tranquility was rudely +shattered. Old Mr. Lemuel Shackford had been found murdered in +his own house in Welch's Court.</p> + +<h2>XVIII</h2> + +<p>The general effect on Stillwater of Mr. Shackford's death and +the peculiar circumstances attending the tragedy have been set +forth in the earlier chapters of this narrative. The influence +which that event exerted upon several persons then but +imperfectly known to the reader is now to occupy us.</p> + +<p>On the conclusion of the strike, Richard had returned, in the +highest spirits, to his own rooms in Lime Street; but the quiet +week that followed found him singularly depressed. His nerves had +been strung to their utmost tension during those thirteen days of +suspense; he had assumed no light responsibility in the matter of +closing the yard, and there had been moments when the task of +sustaining Mr. Slocum had appeared almost hopeless. Now that the +strain was removed a reaction set in, and Richard felt himself +unnerved by the fleeing shadow of the trouble which had not +caused him to flinch so long as it faced him.</p> + +<p>On the morning and at the moment when Mary Hennessey was +pushing open the scullery door of the house in Welch's Court, and +was about to come upon the body of the forlorn old man lying +there in his night-dress, Richard sat eating his breakfast in a +silent and preoccupied mood. He had retired very late the +previous night, and his lack-lustre eyes showed the effect of +insufficient sleep. His single fellow-boarder, Mr. Pinkham, had +not returned from his customary early walk, and only Richard and +Mrs. Spooner, the landlady, were at table. The former was in the +act of lifting the coffee-cup to his lips, when the school-master +burst excitedly into the room.</p> + +<p>"Old Mr. Shackford is dead!" he exclaimed, dropping into a +chair near the door. "There's a report down in the village that +he has been murdered. I don't know if it is true.... God +forgive my abruptness! I didn't think!" and Mr. Pinkham turned an +apologetic face towards Richard, who sat there deathly pale, +holding the cup rigidly within an inch or two of his lip, and +staring blankly into space like a statue.</p> + +<p>"I--I ought to have reflected," murmured the school-master, +covered with confusion at his maladroitness. "It was very +reprehensible in Craggie to make such an announcement to me so +suddenly, on a street corner. I--I was quite upset by it."</p> + +<p>Richard pushed back his chair without replying, and passed +into the hall, where he encountered a messenger from Mr. Slocum, +confirming Mr. Pinkham's intelligence, but supplementing it with +the rumor that Lemuel Shackford had committed suicide.</p> + +<p>Richard caught up his hat from a table, and hurried to Welch's +Court. Before reaching the house he had somewhat recovered his +outward composure; but he was still pale and internally much +agitated, for he had received a great shock, as Lawyer Perkins +afterwards observed to Mr. Ward in the reading-room of the +tavern. Both these gentlemen were present when Richard arrived, +as were also several of the immediate neighbors and two +constables. The latter were guarding the door against the crowd, +which had already begun to collect in the front yard.</p> + +<p>A knot of carpenters, with their tool-boxes on their +shoulders, had halted at the garden gate on their way to Bishop's +new stables, and were glancing curiously at the unpainted +façade of the house, which seemed to have taken on a +remote, bewildered expression, as if it had an inarticulate sense +of the horror within. The men ceased their whispered conversation +as Richard approached, and respectfully moved aside to let him +pass.</p> + +<p>Nothing had been changed in the cheerless room on the ground +floor, with its veneered mahogany furniture and its yellowish +leprous wall-paper, peeling off at the seams here and there. A +cane-seated chair, overturned near the table, had been left +untouched, and the body was still lying in the position in which +the Hennessey girl had discovered it. A strange chill--something +unlike any atmospherical sharpness, a chill that seemed to exhale +from the thin, pinched nostrils--permeated the apartment. The +orioles were singing madly outside, their vermilion bosoms +glowing like live coals against the tender green of the foliage, +and appearing to break into flame as they took sudden flights +hither and thither; but within all was still. On entering the +chamber Richard was smitten by the silence,--that silence which +shrouds the dead, and is like no other. Lemuel Shackford had not +been kind or cousinly; he had blighted Richard's childhood with +harshness and neglect, and had lately heaped cruel insult upon +him; but as he stood there alone, and gazed for a moment at the +firmly shut lips, upon which the mysterious white dust of death +had already settled,--the lips that were never to utter any more +bitter things,--the tears gathered in Richard's eyes and ran +slowly down his cheeks. After all said and done, Lemuel Shackford +was his kinsman, and blood is thicker than water!</p> + +<p>Coroner Whidden shortly appeared on the scene, accompanied by +a number of persons; a jury was impaneled, and then began that +inquest which resulted in shedding so very little light on the +catastrophe.</p> + +<p>The investigation completed, there were endless details to +attend to,--papers to be hurriedly examined and sealed, and +arrangements made for the funeral on the succeeding day. These +matters occupied Richard until late in the afternoon, when he +retired to his lodgings, looking in on Margaret for a few minutes +on his way home.</p> + +<p>"This is too dreadful!" said Margaret, clinging to his hand, +with fingers nearly as icy as his own.</p> + +<p>"It is unspeakably sad," answered Richard,--"the saddest thing +I ever knew."</p> + +<p>"Who--who could have been so cruel?"</p> + +<p>Richard shook his head.</p> + +<p>"No one knows."</p> + +<p>The funeral took place on Thursday, and on Friday morning, as +has been stated, Mr. Taggett arrived in Stillwater, and installed +himself in Welch's Court, to the wonder of many in the village, +who would not have slept a night in that house, with only a +servant in the north gable, for half the universe. Mr. Taggett +was a person who did not allow himself to be swayed by his +imagination.</p> + +<p>Here, then, he began his probing of a case which, on the +surface, promised to be a very simple one. The man who had been +seen driving rapidly along the turnpike sometime near daybreak, +on Wednesday, was presumably the man who could tell him all about +it. But it did not prove so. Neither Thomas Blufton, nor William +Durgin, nor any of the tramps subsequently obliged to drop into +autobiography could be connected with the affair.</p> + +<p>These first failures served to stimulate Mr. Taggett; it +required a complex case to stir his ingenuity and sagacity. That +the present was not a complex case he was still convinced, after +four days' futile labor upon it. Mr. Shackford had been +killed--either with malice prepense or on the spur of the +moment--for his money. The killing had likely enough not been +premeditated; the old man had probably opposed the robbery. Now, +among the exceptionally rough population of the town there were +possibly fifty men who would not have hesitated to strike down +Mr. Shackford if he had caught them <i>flagrante delicto</i> and +resisted them, or attempted to call for succor. That the crime +was committed by some one in Stillwater or in the neighborhood +Mr. Taggett had never doubted since the day of his arrival. The +clumsy manner in which the staple had been wrenched from the +scullery door showed the absence of a professional hand. Then the +fact that the deceased was in the habit of keeping money in his +bedchamber was a fact well known in the village, and not likely +to be known outside of it, though of course it might have been. +It was clearly necessary for Mr. Taggett to carry his +investigation into the workshops and among the haunts of the +class which was indubitably to furnish him with the individual he +wanted. Above all, it was necessary that the investigation should +be secret. An obstacle obtruded itself here: everybody in +Stillwater knew everybody, and a stranger appearing on the +streets or dropping frequently into the tavern would not escape +comment.</p> + +<p>The man with the greatest facility for making the requisite +searches would of course be some workman. But a workman was the +very agent not to be employed under the circumstances. How many +times, and by what strange fatality, had a guilty party been +selected to shadow his own movements, or those of an accomplice! +No, Mr. Taggett must rely only on himself, and his plan forthwith +matured. Its execution, however, was delayed several days, the +cooperation of Mr. Slocum and Mr. Richard Shackford being +indispensable.</p> + +<p>At this stage Richard went to New York, where his cousin had +made extensive investments in real estate. For a careful man, the +late Mr. Shackford had allowed his affairs there to become +strangely tangled. The business would detain Richard a +fortnight.</p> + +<p>Three days after his departure Mr. Taggett himself left +Stillwater, having apparently given up the case; a proceeding +which was severely criticized, not only in the columns of The +Stillwater Gazette, but by the townsfolks at large, who +immediately relapsed into a state of apprehension approximating +that of the morning when the crime was discovered. Mr. Pinkham, +who was taking tea that evening at the Danas', threw the family +into a panic by asserting his belief that this was merely the +first of a series of artistic assassinations in the manner of +those Memorable Murders recorded by De Quincey. Mr. Pinkham may +have said this to impress the four Dana girls with the variety of +his reading, but the recollection of De Quincey's harrowing paper +had the effect of so unhinging the young school-master that when +he found himself, an hour or two afterwards, in the lonely, +unlighted street he flitted home like a belated ghost, and was +ready to drop at every tree-box.</p> + +<p>The next forenoon a new hand was taken on at Slocum's Yard. +The new hand, who had come on foot from South Millville, at which +town he had been set down by the seven o'clock express that +morning, was placed in the apprentice department,--there were +five or six apprentices now. Though all this was part of an +understood arrangement, Mr. Slocum nearly doubted the fidelity of +his own eyes when Mr. Taggett, a smooth-faced young fellow of one +and twenty, if so old, with all the traits of an ordinary workman +down to the neglected fingernails, stepped up to the desk to have +the name of Blake entered on the pay-roll. Either by chance or by +design, Mr. Taggett had appeared but seldom on the streets of +Stillwater; the few persons who had had anything like familiar +intercourse with him in his professional capacity were precisely +the persons with whom his present movements were not likely to +bring him into juxtaposition, and he ran slight risk of +recognition by others. With his hair closely cropped, and the +overhanging brown mustache removed, the man was not so much +disguised as transformed. "I shouldn't have known him!" muttered +Mr. Slocum, as he watched Mr. Taggett passing from the office +with his hat in his hand. During the ensuing ten or twelve days +Mr. Slocum never wholly succeeded in extricating himself from the +foggy uncertainty generated by that one brief interview. From the +moment Mr. Taggett was assigned a bench under the sheds, Mr. +Slocum saw little or nothing of him.</p> + +<p>Mr. Taggett took lodging in a room in one of the most crowded +of the low boarding-houses,--a room accommodating two beds +besides his own: the first occupied by a brother neophyte in +marble-cutting, and the second by a morose middle-aged man with +one eyebrow a trifle higher than the other, as if it had been +wrenched out of line by the strain of habitual intoxication. This +man's name was Wollaston, and he worked at Dana's.</p> + +<p>Mr. Taggett's initial move was to make himself popular in the +marble yard, and especially at the tavern, where he spent money +freely, though not so freely as to excite any remark except that +the lad was running through pretty much all his small pay,--a +recklessness which was charitably condoned in Snelling's +bar-room. He formed multifarious friendships, and had so many +sensible views on the labor problem, advocating the general +extinguishment of capitalists, and so on, that his admittance to +the Marble Workers' Association resolved itself into merely a +question of time. The old prejudice against apprentices was +already wearing off. The quiet, evasive man of few words was now +a loquacious talker, holding his own with the hardest hitters, +and very skillful in giving offense to no one. "Whoever picks up +Blake for a fool," Dexter remarked one night, "will put him down +again." Not a shadow of suspicion followed Mr. Taggett in his +various comings and goings. He seemed merely a good-natured, +intelligent devil; perhaps a little less devilish and a trifle +more intelligent than the rest, but not otherwise different. +Denyven, Peters, Dexter, Willson, and others in and out of the +Slocum clique were Blake's sworn friends. In brief, Mr. Taggett +had the amplest opportunities to prosecute his studies. Only for +a pained look which sometimes latterly shot into his eyes, as he +worked at the bench, or as he walked alone in the street, one +would have imagined that he was thoroughly enjoying the +half-vagabond existence.</p> + +<p>The supposition would have been erroneous, for in the progress +of those fourteen days' apprenticeship Mr. Taggett had received a +wound in the most sensitive part of his nature: he had been +forced to give up what no man ever relinquishes without a +wrench,--his own idea.</p> + +<p>With the exception of an accident in Dana's Mill, by which +Torrini's hand had been so badly mangled that amputation was +deemed necessary, the two weeks had been eventless outside of Mr. +Taggett's personal experience. What that experience was will +transpire in its proper place. Margaret was getting daily notes +from Richard, and Mr. Slocum, overburdened with the secret of Mr. +Taggett's presence in the yard,--a secret confined exclusively to +Mr. Slocum, Richard, and Justice Beemis,--was restlessly awaiting +developments.</p> + +<p>The developments came that afternoon when Mr. Taggett walked +into the office and startled Mr. Slocum, sitting at the desk. The +two words which Mr. Taggett then gravely and coldly whispered in +Mr. Slocum's ear were,--</p> + +<p>"RICHARD SHACKFORD."</p> + +<h2>XIX</h2> + +<p>Mr. Slocum, who had partly risen from the chair, sank back +into his seat. "Good God!" he said, turning very pale. "Are you +mad?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Taggett realized the cruel shock which the pronouncing of +that name must have caused Mr. Slocum. Mr. Taggett had meditated +his line of action, and had decided that the most merciful course +was brusquely to charge young Shackford with the crime, and allow +Mr. Slocum to sustain himself for a while with the indignant +disbelief which would be natural to him, situated as he was. He +would then in a manner be prepared for the revelations which, if +suddenly presented, would crush him.</p> + +<p>If Mr. Taggett was without imagination, as he claimed, he was +not without a certain feminine quickness of sympathy often found +in persons engaged in professions calculated to blunt the finer +sensibilities. In his intercourse with Mr. Slocum at the +Shackford house, Mr. Taggett had been won by the singular +gentleness and simplicity of the man, and was touched by his +misfortune.</p> + +<p>After his exclamation, Mr. Slocum did not speak for a moment +or two, but with his elbows resting on the edge of the desk sat +motionless, like a person stunned. Then he slowly lifted his +face, to which the color had returned, and making a movement with +his right hand as if he were sweeping away cobwebs in front of +him rose from the chair.</p> + +<p>"You are simply mad," he said, looking Mr. Taggett squarely +and calmly in the eyes. "Are you aware of Mr. Richard Shackford's +character and his position here?"</p> + +<p>"Precisely."</p> + +<p>"Do you know that he is to marry my daughter?"</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry for you, sir."</p> + +<p>"You may spare me that. It is quite unnecessary. You have +fallen into some horrible delusion. I hope you will be able to +explain it."</p> + +<p>"I am prepared to do so, sir."</p> + +<p>"Are you serious?"</p> + +<p>"Very serious, Mr. Slocum."</p> + +<p>"You actually imagine that Richard Shackford--Pshaw! It's +simply impossible!"</p> + +<p>"I am too young a man to wish even to seem wiser than you, but +my experience has taught me that nothing is impossible."</p> + +<p>"I begin to believe so myself. I suppose you have grounds, or +something you consider grounds, for your monstrous suspicion. +What are they? I demand to be fully informed of what you have +been doing in the yard, before you bring disgrace upon me and my +family by inconsiderately acting on some wild theory which +perhaps ten words can refute."</p> + +<p>"I should be in the highest degree criminal, Mr. Slocum, if I +were to make so fearful an accusation against any man unless I +had the most incontestable evidence in my hands."</p> + +<p>Mr. Taggett spoke with such cold-blooded conviction that a +chill crept over Mr. Slocum, in spite of him.</p> + +<p>"What is the nature of this evidence?"</p> + +<p>"Up to the present stage, purely circumstantial."</p> + +<p>"I can imagine that," said Mr. Slocum, with a slight +smile.</p> + +<p>"But so conclusive as to require no collateral evidence. The +testimony of an eye-witness of the crime could scarcely add to my +knowledge of what occurred that Tuesday night in Lemuel +Shackford's house."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, it is all so clear! But of course a few eye-witnesses +will turn up eventually," said Mr. Slocum, whose whiteness about +the lips discounted the assurance of his sarcasm.</p> + +<p>"That is not improbable," returned Mr. Taggett.</p> + +<p>"And meanwhile what are the facts?"</p> + +<p>"They are not easily stated. I have kept a record of my work +day by day, since the morning I entered the yard. The memoranda +are necessarily confused, the important and the unimportant being +jumbled together; but the record as it stands will answer your +question more fully than I could, even if I had the time--which I +have not--to go over the case with you. I can leave these notes +in your hands, if you desire it. When I return from New +York"--</p> + +<p>"You are going to New York!" exclaimed Mr. Slocum, with a +start. "When?"</p> + +<p>"This evening."</p> + +<p>"If you lay a finger on Richard Shackford, you will make the +mistake of your life, Mr. Taggett!"</p> + +<p>"I have other business there. Mr. Shackford will be in +Stillwater to-morrow night. He engaged a state-room on the Fall +River boat this morning."</p> + +<p>"How can you know that?"</p> + +<p>"Since last Tuesday none of his movements have been unknown to +me."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to say that you have set your miserable spies +upon him?" cried Mr. Slocum.</p> + +<p>"I should not state the fact in just those words," Mr. Taggett +answered. "The fact remains."</p> + +<p>"Pardon me," said Mr. Slocum. "I am not quite myself. Can you +wonder at it?"</p> + +<p>"I do not wonder."</p> + +<p>"Give me those papers you speak of, Mr. Taggett. I would like +to look through them. I see that you are a very obstinate person +when you have once got a notion into your head. Perhaps I can +help you out of your error before it is irreparable." Then, after +hesitating a second, Mr. Slocum added, "I may speak of this to my +daughter? Indeed, I could scarcely keep it from her."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it is better she should be informed."</p> + +<p>"And Mr. Shackford, when he returns to-morrow?"</p> + +<p>"If he broaches the subject of his cousin's death, I advise +you to avoid it."</p> + +<p>"Why should I?"</p> + +<p>"It might save you or Miss Slocum some awkwardness,--but you +must use your own discretion. As the matter stands it makes no +difference whether Mr. Shackford knows his position to-day or +to-morrow. It is too late for him to avail himself of the +knowledge. Otherwise, of course, I should not have given myself +away in this fashion."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said Mr. Slocum, with an impatient movement of +his shoulders; "neither I nor my daughter will open our lips on +this topic. In the mean while you are to take no further steps +without advising me. That is understood?"</p> + +<p>"That is perfectly understood," returned Mr. Taggett, drawing +a narrow red note-book from the inner pocket of his workman's +blouse, and producing at the same time a small nickel-plated +door-key. "This is the key of Mr. Shackford's private workshop in +the extension. I have not been able to replace it on the +mantel-shelf of his sitting-room in Lime Street. Will you have +the kindness to see that it is done at once?"</p> + +<p>A moment later Mr. Slocum stood alone in the office, with Mr. +Taggett's diary in his hand. It was one of those costly little +volumes--gilt-edged and bound in fragrant crushed Levant +morocco--with which city officials are annually supplied by a +community of grateful taxpayers.</p> + +<p>The dark crimson of the flexible covers, as soft and slippery +to the touch as a snake's skin, was perhaps the fitting symbol of +the darker story that lay coiled within. With a gesture of +repulsion, as if some such fancy had flitted through his mind, +Mr. Slocum tossed the note-book on the desk in front of him, and +stood a few minutes moodily watching the <i>reflets</i> of the +crinkled leather as the afternoon sunshine struck across it. +Beneath his amazement and indignation he had been chilled to the +bone by Mr. Taggett's brutal confidence. It was enough to chill +one, surely; and in spite of himself Mr. Slocum began to feel a +certain indefinable dread of that little crimson-bound book.</p> + +<p>Whatever it contained, the reading of those pages was to be a +repellent task to him; it was a task to which he could not bring +himself at the moment; to-night, in the privacy of his own +chamber, he would sift Mr. Taggett's baleful fancies. Thus +temporizing, Mr. Slocum dropped the volume into his pocket, +locked the office door behind him, and wandered down to Dundon's +drug-store to kill the intervening hour before supper-time. +Dundon's was the aristocratic lounging place of the village,--the +place where the only genuine Havana cigars in Stillwater were to +be had, and where the favored few, the initiated, could get a +dash of hochheimer or cognac with their soda-water.</p> + +<p>At supper, that evening, Mr. Slocum addressed scarcely a word +to Margaret, and Margaret was also silent. The days were dragging +heavily with her; she was missing Richard. Her own daring travels +had never extended beyond Boston or Providence; and New York, +with Richard in it, seemed drearily far away. Mr. Slocum withdrew +to his chamber shortly after nine o'clock, and, lighting the pair +of candles on the dressing-table, began his examination of Mr. +Taggett's memoranda.</p> + +<p>At midnight the watchman on his lonely beat saw those two +candles still burning.</p> + +<h2>XX</h2> + +<p>Mr. Taggett's diary was precisely a diary,--disjoined, full of +curt, obscure phrases and irrelevant reflections,--for which +reason it will not be reproduced here. Though Mr. Slocum pondered +every syllable, and now and then turned back painfully to +reconsider some doubtful passage, it is not presumed that the +reader will care to do so. An abstract of the journal, with +occasional quotation where the writer's words seem to demand it, +will be sufficient for the narrative.</p> + +<p>In the opening pages Mr. Taggett described his novel +surroundings with a minuteness which contrasted oddly with the +brief, hurried entries further on. He found himself, as he had +anticipated, in a society composed of some of the most +heterogeneous elements. Stillwater, viewed from a certain point, +was a sort of microcosm, a little international rag-fair to which +nearly every country on earth had contributed one of its shabby +human products. "I am moving," wrote Mr. Taggett, "in an +atmosphere in which any crime is possible. I give myself seven +days at the outside to light upon the traces of Shackford's +murder. I feel him in the air." The writer's theory was that the +man would betray his identity in one of two ways: either by +talking unguardedly, or by indulging in expenditures not +warranted by his means and position. If several persons had been +concerned in the crime, nothing was more likely than a +disagreement over the spoil, and consequent treachery on the part +of one of them. Or, again, some of the confederates might become +alarmed, and attempt to save themselves by giving away their +comrades. Mr. Taggett, however, leaned to the belief that the +assassin had had no accomplices.</p> + +<p>The sum taken from Mr. Shackford's safe was a comparatively +large one,--five hundred dollars in gold and nearly double that +amount in bank-notes. Neither the gold nor the paper bore any +known mark by which it could be recognized; the burglar had +doubtless assured himself of this, and would not hesitate to +disburse the money. That was even a safer course, judiciously +worked, than to secrete it. The point was, Would he have +sufficient self-control to get rid of it by degrees? The chances, +Mr. Taggett argued, were ten to one he would not.</p> + +<p>A few pages further on Mr. Taggett compliments the Unknown on +the adroit manner in which he is conducting himself. He has +neither let slip a suspicious word, nor made an incautious +display of his booty. Snelling's bar was doing an unusually light +business. No one appeared to have any money. Many of the men had +run deeply into debt during the late strike, and were now +drinking moderately. In the paragraph which closes the week's +record Mr. Taggett's chagrin is evident. He confesses that he is +at fault. "My invisible friend does not <i>materialize</i> so +successfully as I expected," is Mr. Taggett's comment.</p> + +<p>His faith in the correctness of his theory had not abated; but +he continued his observation in a less sanguine spirit. These +observations were not limited to the bar-room or the workshop; he +informed himself of the domestic surroundings of his comrades. +Where his own scrutiny could not penetrate, he employed the aid +of correspondents. He knew what workmen had money in the local +savings-bank, and the amount of each deposit. In the course of +his explorations of the shady side of Stillwater life, Mr. +Taggett unearthed many amusing and many pathetic histories, but +nothing that served his end. Finally, he began to be +discouraged.</p> + +<p>Returning home from the tavern, one night, in a rather +desponding mood, he found the man Wollaston smoking his pipe in +bed. Wollaston was a taciturn man generally, but this night he +was conversational, and Mr. Taggett, too restless to sleep, fell +to chatting with him. Did he know much about the late Mr. +Shackford? Yes, he had known him well enough, in an off way,--not +to speak of him; everybody knew him in Stillwater; he was a sort +of miser, hated everybody, and bullied everybody. It was a wonder +somebody didn't knock the old silvertop on the head years +ago.</p> + +<p>Thus Mr. Wollaston grimly, with his pores stopped up with +iron-fillings,--a person to whom it would come quite easy to +knock any one on the head for a slight difference of opinion. He +amused Mr. Taggett in his present humor.</p> + +<p>No, he wasn't aware that Shackford had had trouble with any +particular individual; believed he did have a difficulty once +with Slocum, the marble man; but he was always fetching suits +against the town and shying lawyers at the mill directors,--a +disagreeable old cuss altogether. Adopted his cousin, one time, +but made the house so hot for him that the lad ran off to sea, +and since then had had nothing to do with the old bilk.</p> + +<p>Indeed! What sort of fellow was young Shackford? Mr. Wollaston +could not say of his own knowledge; thought him a plucky chap; he +had put a big Italian named Torrini out of the yard, one day, for +talking back. Who was Torrini? The man that got hurt last week in +the Dana Mill. Who were Richard Shackford's intimates? Couldn't +say; had seen him with Mr. Pinkham, the school-master, and Mr. +Craggie,--went with the upper crust generally. Was going to be +partner in the marble yard and marry Slocum's daughter. Will +Durgin knew him. They lived together one time. He, Wollaston, was +going to turn in now.</p> + +<p>Several of these facts were not new to Mr. Taggett, but Mr. +Wollaston's presentation of them threw Mr. Taggett into a +reverie.</p> + +<p>The next evening he got Durgin alone in a corner of the +bar-room. With two or three potations Durgin became +autobiographical. Was he acquainted with Mr. Shackford outside +the yard? Rather. Dick Shackford? His (Durgin's) mother had kept +Dick from starving when he was a baby,--and no thanks for it. +Went to school with him, and knew all about his running off to +sea. Was near going with him. Old man Shackford never liked Dick, +who was a proud beggar; they couldn't pull together, down to the +last,--both of a piece. They had a jolly rumpus a little while +before the old man was fixed.</p> + +<p>Mr. Taggett pricked up his ears at this.</p> + +<p>A rumpus? How did Durgin know that? A girl told him. What +girl? A girl he was sweet on. What was her name? Well, he didn't +mind telling her name; it was Molly Hennessey. She was going +through Welch's Court one forenoon,--may be it was three days +before the strike,--and saw Dick Shackford bolt out of the house, +swinging his arms and swearing to himself at an awful rate. Was +Durgin certain that Molly Hennessey had told him this? Yes, he +was ready to take his oath on it.</p> + +<p>Here, at last, was something that looked like a glimmer of +daylight.</p> + +<p>It was possible that Durgin or the girl had lied; but the +story had an air of truth to it. If it were a fact that there had +recently been a quarrel between these cousins, whose uncousinly +attitude towards each other was fast becoming clear to Mr. +Taggett, then here was a conceivable key to an enigma which had +puzzled him.</p> + +<p>The conjecture that Lemuel Shackford had himself torn up the +will--if it was a will, for this still remained in dispute--had +never been satisfactory to Mr. Taggett. He had accepted it +because he was unable to imagine an ordinary burglar pausing in +the midst of his work to destroy a paper in which he could have +no concern. But Richard Shackford would have the liveliest +possible interest in the destruction of a document that placed a +vast estate beyond his reach. Here was a motive on a level with +the crime. That money had been taken, and that the fragments of +the will had been carelessly thrown into a waste-paper basket, +just as if the old man himself had thrown them there, was a +stroke of art which Mr. Taggett admired more and more as he +reflected upon it.</p> + +<p>He did not, however, allow himself to lay too much stress on +these points; for the paper might turn out to be merely an +expired lease, and the girl might have been quizzing Durgin. Mr. +Taggett would have given one of his eye-teeth just then for ten +minutes with Mary Hennessey. But an interview with her at this +stage was neither prudent nor easily compassed.</p> + +<p>"If I have not struck a trail," writes Mr. Taggett, "I have +come upon what strongly resembles one; the least I can do is to +follow it. My first move must be to inspect that private workshop +in the rear of Mr. Slocum's house. How shall I accomplish it? I +cannot apply to him for permission, for that would provoke +questions which I am not ready to answer. Moreover, I have yet to +assure myself that Mr. Slocum is not implicated. There seems to +have been also a hostile feeling existing between him and the +deceased. Why didn't some one tell me these things at the start! +If young Shackford is the person, there is a tangled story to be +unraveled. <i>Mem:</i> Young Shackford is Miss Slocum's +lover."</p> + +<p>Mr. Slocum read this passage twice without drawing breath, and +then laid down the book an instant to wipe the sudden +perspiration from his forehead.</p> + +<p>In the note which followed, Mr. Taggett described the +difficulty he met with in procuring a key to fit the wall-door at +the rear of the marble yard, and gave an account of his failure +to effect an entrance into the studio. He had hoped to find a +window unfastened; but the window, as well as the door opening +upon the veranda, was locked, and in the midst of his operations, +which were conducted at noon-time, the approach of a servant had +obliged him to retreat.</p> + +<p>Forced to lay aside, at least temporarily, his designs on the +workshop, he turned his attention to Richard's lodgings in Lime +Street. Here Mr. Taggett was more successful. On the pretext that +he had been sent for certain drawings which were to be found on +the table or in a writing-desk, he was permitted by Mrs. Spooner +to ascend to the bedroom, where she obligingly insisted on +helping him search for the apocryphal plans, and seriously +interfered with his purpose, which was to find the key of the +studio. While Mr. Taggett was turning over the pages of a large +dictionary, in order to gain time, and was wondering how he could +rid himself of the old lady's importunities, he came upon a +half-folded note-sheet, at the bottom of which his eye caught the +name of Lemuel Shackford. It was in the handwriting of the dead +man. Mr. Taggett was very familiar with that handwriting. He +secured the paper at a venture, and put it in his pocket without +examination.</p> + +<p>A few minutes later, it being impossible to prolong the +pretended quest for the drawings, Mr. Taggett was obliged to +follow Mrs. Spooner from the apartment. As he did so he noticed a +bright object lying on the corner of the mantel-shelf,--a small +nickel-plated key. In order to take it he had only to reach out +his hand in passing. It was, as Mr. Taggett had instantly +surmised, the key of Richard's workshop.</p> + +<p>If it had been gold, instead of brass or iron, that bit of +metal would have taken no additional value in Mr. Taggett's eyes. +On leaving Mrs. Spooner's he held it tightly clasped in his +fingers until he reached an unfrequented street, where he halted +a moment in the shadow of a building to inspect the paper, which +he had half forgotten in his satisfaction at having obtained the +key. A stifled cry rose to Mr. Taggett's lips as he glanced over +the crumpled note-sheet.</p> + +<p>It contained three lines, hastily scrawled in lead-pencil, +requesting Richard Shackford to call at the house in Welch's +Court at eight o'clock on a certain Tuesday night. The note had +been written, as the date showed, on the day preceding the +Tuesday night in question--the night of the murder!</p> + +<p>For a second or two Mr. Taggett stood paralyzed. Ten minutes +afterwards a message in cipher was pulsing along the wires to New +York, and before the sun went down that evening Richard Shackford +was under the surveillance of the police.</p> + +<p>The doubtful, unknown ground upon which Mr. Taggett had been +floundering was now firm under his feet,--unexpected ground, but +solid. Meeting Mary Hennessey in the street, on his way to the +marble yard, Mr. Taggett no longer hesitated to accost her, and +question her as to the story she had told William Durgin. The +girl's story was undoubtedly true, and as a piece of +circumstantial evidence was only less important than the elder +Shackford's note. The two cousins had been for years on the worst +of terms. At every step Mr. Taggett had found corroboration of +Wollaston's statement to that effect.</p> + +<p>"Where were Coroner Whidden's eyes and ears," wrote Mr. +Taggett,--the words were dashed down impatiently on the page, as +if he had sworn a little internally while writing them,--"when he +conducted that inquest! In all my experience there was never a +thing so stupidly managed."</p> + +<p>A thorough and immediate examination of Richard Shackford's +private workshop was now so imperative that Mr. Taggett resolved +to make it even if he had to do so under the authority of a +search-warrant. But he desired as yet to avoid publicity.</p> + +<p>A secret visit to the studio seemed equally difficult by day +and night. In the former case he was nearly certain to be +deranged by the servants, and in the latter a light in the +unoccupied room would alarm any of the household who might chance +to awaken. From the watchman no danger was to be apprehended, as +the windows of the extension were not visible from the +street.</p> + +<p>Mr. Taggett finally decided on the night as the more +propitious time for his attempt,--a decision which his success +justified. A brilliant moon favored the in-door part of the +enterprise, though it exposed him to observation in his approach +from the marble yard to the veranda.</p> + +<p>With the dense moonlight streaming outside against the +window-shades, he could safely have used a candle in the studio +instead of the screened lantern which he had provided. Mr. +Taggett passed three hours in the workshop,--the last hour in +waiting for the moon to go down. Then he stole through the marble +yard into the silent street, and hurried home, carrying two small +articles concealed under his blouse. The first was a chisel with +a triangular piece broken out of the centre of the bevel, and the +other was a box of safety-matches. The peculiarity of this box of +matches was--that just one match had been used from it.</p> + +<p>Mr. Taggett's work was done.</p> + +<p>The last seven pages of the diary were devoted to a review of +the case, every detail of which was held up in various lights, +and examined with the conscientious pains of a lapidary deciding +on the value of a rare stone. The concluding entries ran as +follow:--</p> + +<p><i>"Tuesday Night</i>. Here the case passes into other hands. +I have been fortunate rather than skillful in unmasking the chief +actor in one of the most singular crimes that ever came under my +investigation. By destroying three objects, very easily +destroyed, Richard Shackford would have put himself beyond the +dream of suspicion. He neglected to remove these dumb witnesses, +and now the dumb witnesses speak! If it could be shown that he +was a hundred miles from Stillwater at the time of the murder, +instead of in the village, as he was, he must still be held, in +the face of the proofs against him, accessory to the deed. These +proofs, roughly summarized, are:--</p> + +<p><i>"First</i>. The fact that he had had an altercation with +his cousin a short time previous to the date of the murder,--a +murder which may be regarded not as the result of a chance +disagreement, but of long years of bitter enmity between the two +men.</p> + +<p><i>"Secondly</i>. The fact that Richard Shackford had had an +appointment with his cousin on the night the crime was committed, +and had concealed that fact from the authorities at the time of +the coroner's inquest.</p> + +<p><i>"Thirdly</i>. That the broken chisel found in the private +workshop of the accused explains the peculiar shape of the wound +which caused Lemuel Shackford's death, and corresponds in every +particular with the plaster impression taken of that wound.</p> + +<p><i>"Fourthly</i>. That the partially consumed match found on +the scullery floor when the body was discovered (a style of match +not used in the house in Welch's Court) completes the complement +of a box of safety-matches belonging to Richard Shackford, and +hidden in a closet in his workshop.</p> + +<p>"Whether Shackford had an accomplice or not is yet to be +ascertained. There is nothing whatever to implicate Mr. Rowland +Slocum. I make the statement because his intimate association +with one party and his deep dislike of the other invited inquiry, +and at first raised an unjust suspicion in my mind."</p> + +<p>The little red book slipped from Mr. Slocum's grasp and fell +at his feet. As he rose from the chair, the reflection which he +caught of himself in the dressing-table mirror was that of a +wrinkled, white old man.</p> + +<p>Mr. Slocum did not believe, and no human evidence could have +convinced him, that Richard had deliberately killed Lemuel +Shackford; but as Mr. Slocum reached the final pages of the +diary, a horrible probability insinuated itself in his mind. +Could Richard have done it accidentally? Could he--in an instant +of passion, stung to sudden madness by that venomous old +man--have struck him involuntarily, and killed him? A certain +speech which Richard had made in Mr. Slocum's presence not long +before came back to him now with fearful emphasis:--</p> + +<p><i>"Three or four times in my life I have been carried away by +a devil of a temper which I couldn't control, it seized me so +unawares."</i></p> + +<p>"It seized me so unawares!" repeated Mr. Slocum, half aloud; +and then with a swift, unconscious gesture, he pressed his hands +over his ears, as if to shut out the words.</p> + +<h2>XXI</h2> + +<p>Margaret must be told. It would be like stabbing her to tell +her all this. Mr. Slocum had lain awake long after midnight, +appalled by the calamity that was about to engulf them. At +moments, as his thought reverted to Margaret's illness early in +the spring, he felt that perhaps it would have been a mercy if +she had died then. He had left the candles burning; it was not +until the wicks sunk down in the sockets and went softly out that +slumber fell upon him.</p> + +<p>He was now sitting at the breakfast-table, absently crumbling +bits of bread beside his plate and leaving his coffee untouched. +Margaret glanced at him wistfully from time to time, and detected +the restless night in the deepened lines of his face.</p> + +<p>The house had not been the same since Lemuel Shackford's +death; he had never crossed its threshold; Margaret had scarcely +known him by sight, and Mr. Slocum had not spoken to him for +years; but Richard's connection with the unfortunate old man had +brought the tragic event very close to Margaret and her father. +Mr. Slocum was a person easily depressed, but his depression this +morning was so greatly in excess of the presumable cause that +Margaret began to be troubled.</p> + +<p>"Papa, has anything happened?"</p> + +<p>"No, nothing new has happened; but I am dreadfully disturbed +by some things which Mr. Taggett has been doing here in the +village."</p> + +<p>"I thought Mr. Taggett had gone."</p> + +<p>"He did go; but he came back very quietly without anybody's +knowledge. I knew it, of course; but no one else, to speak +of."</p> + +<p>"What has he done to disturb you?"</p> + +<p>"I want you to be a brave girl, Margaret,--will you promise +that?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes," said Margaret, with an anxious look. "You frighten +me with your mysteriousness."</p> + +<p>"I do not mean to be mysterious, but I don't quite know how to +tell you about Mr. Taggett. He has been working underground in +this matter of poor Shackford's death,--boring in the dark like a +mole,--and thinks he has discovered some strange things."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean he thinks he has found out who killed Mr. +Shackford?"</p> + +<p>"He believes he has fallen upon clews which will lead to that. +The strange things I alluded to are things which Richard will +have to explain."</p> + +<p>"Richard? What has he to do with it?"</p> + +<p>"Not much, I hope; but there are several matters which he will +be obliged to clear up in order to save himself from very great +annoyance. Mr. Taggett seems to think that--that"--</p> + +<p>"Good heavens, papa! What does he think?"</p> + +<p>"Margaret, he thinks that Richard knew something about the +murder, and has not told it."</p> + +<p>"What could he know? Is that all?"</p> + +<p>"No, that is not all. I am keeping the full truth from you, +and it is useless to do so. You must face it like a brave girl. +Mr. Taggett suspects Richard of being concerned, directly or +indirectly, with the crime."</p> + +<p>The color went from Margaret's cheek for an instant. The +statement was too horrible and sudden not to startle her, but it +was also too absurd to have more than an instant's effect. Her +quick recovery of herself reassured Mr. Slocum. Would she meet +Mr. Taggett's specific charges with the like fortitude? Mr. +Slocum himself had been prostrated by them; he prayed to Heaven +that Margaret might have more strength than he, as indeed she +had.</p> + +<p>"The man has got together a lot of circumstantial evidence," +continued Mr. Slocum cautiously; "some of it amounts to nothing, +being mere conjecture; but some of it will look badly for +Richard, to outsiders."</p> + +<p>"Of course it is all a mistake," said Margaret, in nearly her +natural voice. "It ought to be easy to convince Mr. Taggett of +that."</p> + +<p>"I have not been able to convince him."</p> + +<p>"But you will. What has possessed him to fall into such a +ridiculous error?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Taggett has written out everything at length in this +memorandum-book, and you must read it for yourself. There are +expressions and statements in these pages, Margaret, that will +necessarily shock you very much; but you should remember, as I +tried to while reading them, that Mr. Taggett has a heart of +steel; without it he would be unable to do his distressing work. +The cold impartiality with which he sifts and heaps up +circumstances involving the doom of a fellow-creature appears +almost inhuman; but it is his business. No, don't look at it +here!" said Mr. Slocum, recoiling; he had given the book to +Margaret. "Take it into the other room, and read it carefully by +yourself. When you have finished, come back and tell me what you +think."</p> + +<p>"But, papa, surely you"--</p> + +<p>"I don't believe anything, Margaret! I don't know the true +from the false any more! I want you to help me out of my +confusion, and you cannot do it until you have read that +book."</p> + +<p>Margaret made no response, but passed into the parlor and +closed the folding-doors behind her.</p> + +<p>After an absence of half an hour she reentered the breakfast +room, and laid Mr. Taggett's diary on the table beside her +father, who had not moved from his place during the interval. +Margaret's manner was collected, but it was evident, by the dark +circles under her eyes, and the set, colorless lips, that that +half hour had been a cruel thirty minutes to her. In Margaret's +self-possession Mr. Slocum recognized, not for the first time, +the cropping out of an ancestral trait which had somehow managed +to avoid him in its wayward descent.</p> + +<p>"Well?" he questioned, looking earnestly at Margaret, and +catching a kind of comfort from her confident bearing.</p> + +<p>"It is Mr. Taggett's trade to find somebody guilty," said +Margaret, "and he has been very ingenious and very merciless. He +was plainly at his wits' ends to sustain his reputation, and +would not have hesitated to sacrifice any one rather than wholly +fail."</p> + +<p>"But you have been crying, Margaret."</p> + +<p>"How could I see Richard dragged down in the dust in this +fashion, and not be mortified and indignant?"</p> + +<p>"You don't believe anything at all of this?"</p> + +<p>"Do <i>you?"</i> asked Margaret, looking through and through +him.</p> + +<p>"I confess I am troubled."</p> + +<p>"If you doubt Richard for a second," said Margaret, with a +slight quiver of her lip, "that will be the bitterest part of it +to me."</p> + +<p>"I don't give any more credit to Mr. Taggett's general charges +than you do, Margaret; but I understand their gravity better. A +perfectly guiltless man, one able with a single word to establish +his innocence, is necessarily crushed at first by an accusation +of this kind. Now, can Richard set these matters right with a +single word? I am afraid he has a world of difficulty before +him."</p> + +<p>"When he returns he will explain everything. How can you +question it?"</p> + +<p>"I do not wish to; but there are two things in Mr. Taggett's +story which stagger me. The motive for the destruction of +Shackford's papers,--that's not plain; the box of matches is a +puerility unworthy of a clever man like Mr. Taggett, and as to +the chisel he found, why, there are a hundred broken chisels in +the village, and probably a score of them broken in precisely the +same manner; but, Margaret, did Richard ever breathe a word to +you of that quarrel with his cousin?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"He never mentioned it to me either. As matters stood between +you and him, nothing was more natural than that he should have +spoken of it to you,--so natural that his silence is positively +strange."</p> + +<p>"He may have considered it too unimportant. Mr. Shackford +always abused Richard; it was nothing new. Then, again, Richard +is very proud, and perhaps he did not care to come to us just at +that time with family grievances. Besides, how do we know they +quarreled? The village is full of gossip."</p> + +<p>"I am certain there was a quarrel; it was only necessary for +those two to meet to insure that. I distinctly remember the +forenoon when Richard went to Welch's Court; it was the day he +discharged Torrini."</p> + +<p>A little cloud passed over Margaret's countenance.</p> + +<p>"They undoubtedly had angry words together," continued Mr. +Slocum, "and we are forced to accept the Hennessey girl's +statement. The reason you suggest for Richard's not saying +anything on the subject may suffice for us, but it will scarcely +satisfy disinterested persons, and doesn't at all cover another +circumstance which must be taken in the same connection."</p> + +<p>"What circumstance?"</p> + +<p>"His silence in regard to Lemuel Shackford's note,--a note +written the day before the murder, and making an appointment for +the very night of it."</p> + +<p>The girl looked steadily at her father.</p> + +<p>"Margaret!" exclaimed Mr. Slocum, his face illuminated with a +flickering hope as he met her untroubled gaze, "did Richard tell +<i>you?"</i></p> + +<p>"No," replied Margaret.</p> + +<p>"Then he told no one," said Mr. Slocum, with the light fading +out of his features again. "It was madness in him to conceal the +fact. He should not have lost a moment, after the death of his +cousin, in making that letter public. It ought instantly to have +been placed in Coroner Whidden's hands. Richard's action is +inconceivable, unless--unless"--</p> + +<p>"Do not say it!" cried Margaret. "I should never forgive +you!"</p> + +<p>In recapitulating the points of Mr. Taggett's accusation, Mr. +Slocum had treated most of them as trivial; but he had not been +sincere. He knew that that broken chisel had no duplicate in +Stillwater, and that the finding of it in Richard's closet was a +black fact. Mr. Slocum had also glossed over the quarrel; but +that letter!--the likelihood that Richard kept the appointment, +and his absolute silence concerning it,--here was a grim thing +which no sophistry could dispose of. It would be wronging +Margaret to deceive her as to the vital seriousness of Richard's +position.</p> + +<p>"Why, why did he hide it!" Mr. Slocum persisted.</p> + +<p>"I do not see that he really hid it, papa. He shut the note in +a book lying openly on the table,--a dictionary, to which any one +in the household was likely to go. You think Mr. Taggett a person +of great acuteness."</p> + +<p>"He is a very intelligent person, Margaret."</p> + +<p>"He appears to me very short-sighted. If Richard were the +dreadful man Mr. Taggett supposes, that paper would have been +burnt, and not left for the first comer to pick up. I scorn +myself for stooping to the suggestion!"</p> + +<p>"There is something in the idea," said Mr. Slocum slowly. "But +why did Richard never mention the note,--to you, or to me, or to +anybody?"</p> + +<p>"He had a sufficient reason, you may be sure. Oh, papa, how +ready you are to believe evil of him!"</p> + +<p>"I am not, God knows!"</p> + +<p>"How you cling to this story of the letter! Suppose it turns +out to be some old letter, written two or three years ago? You +could never look Richard in the face again."</p> + +<p>"Unfortunately, Shackford dated it. It is useless for us to +blindfold ourselves, Margaret. Richard has managed in some way to +get himself into a very perilous situation, and we cannot help +him by shutting our eyes. You misconceive me if you imagine I +think him capable of coolly plotting his cousin's death; but it +is not outside the limits of the possible that what has happened +a thousand times may have happened once more. Men less impulsive +than Richard"--</p> + +<p>"I will not listen to it!" interrupted Margaret, drawing +herself up. "When Richard returns he will explain the matter to +you,--not to me. If I required a word of denial from him, I +should care very little whether he was innocent or not."</p> + +<p>Mr. Slocum threw a terrified glance at his daughter. Her lofty +faith sent a chill to his heart. What would be the result of a +fall from such a height? He almost wished Margaret had something +less of that ancestral confidence and obstinacy the lack of which +in his own composition he had so often deplored.</p> + +<p>"We are not to speak of this to Richard," he said, after a +protracted pause; "at least not until Mr. Taggett considers it +best. I have pledged myself to something like that."</p> + +<p>"Has Richard been informed of Mr. Taggett's singular +proceeding?" asked Margaret, freezingly.</p> + +<p>"Not yet; nothing is to be done until Mr. Taggett returns from +New York, and then Richard will at once have an opportunity of +clearing himself."</p> + +<p>"It would have spared us all much pain and misunderstanding if +he had been sent for in the first instance. Did he know that this +person was here in the yard?"</p> + +<p>"The plan was talked over before Richard left; the details +were arranged afterwards. He heartily approved of the plan."</p> + +<p>A leisurely and not altogether saint-like smile crept into the +corners of Margaret's mouth.</p> + +<p>"Yes, he approved of the plan," repeated Mr. Slocum. "Perhaps +he"--Here Mr. Slocum checked himself, and left the sentence +flying at loose ends. Perhaps Richard had looked with favor upon +a method of inquiry which was so likely to lead to no result. But +Mr. Slocum did not venture to finish the suggestion. He had never +seen Margaret so imperious and intractable; it was impossible to +reason or to talk frankly with her. He remained silent, sitting +with one arm thrown dejectedly across the back of the chair.</p> + +<p>Presently his abject attitude and expression began to touch +Margaret; there was something that appealed to her in the thin +gray hair fallowing over his forehead. Her eyes softened as they +rested upon him, and a pitying little tremor came to her under +lip.</p> + +<p>"Papa," she said, stooping to his side, with a sudden rosy +bloom in her cheeks, "I have all the proof I want that Richard +knew nothing of this dreadful business."</p> + +<p>"You have proof!" exclaimed Mr. Slocum, starting from his +seat.</p> + +<p>"Yes. The morning Richard went to New York"--Margaret +hesitated.</p> + +<p>"Well!"</p> + +<p>"He put his arm around me and kissed me."</p> + +<p>"Well!"</p> + +<p>"Well?" repeated Margaret. "Could Richard have done +that,--could he have so much as laid his hand upon +me--if--if"--</p> + +<p>Mr. Slocum sunk back in the chair with a kind of groan.</p> + +<p>"Papa, you do not know him!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Margaret, I am afraid that that is not the kind of +evidence to clear Richard in Mr. Taggett's eyes."</p> + +<p>"Then Richard's word must do it," she said haughtily. "He will +be home to-night."</p> + +<p>"Yes, he is to return to-night," said Mr. Slocum, looking away +from her.</p> + +<h2>XXII</h2> + +<p>During the rest of the day the name of Richard Shackford was +not mentioned again by either Margaret or her father. It was a +day of suspense to both, and long before night-fall Margaret's +impatience for Richard to come had resolved itself into a pain as +keen as that with which Mr. Slocum contemplated the coming; for +every hour augmented his dread of the events that would +necessarily follow the reappearance of young Shackford in +Stillwater.</p> + +<p>On reaching his office, after the conversation with Margaret, +Mr. Slocum found Lawyer Perkins waiting for him. Lawyer Perkins, +who was as yet in ignorance of the late developments, had brought +information of his own. The mutilated document which had so +grimly clung to its secret was at last deciphered. It proved to +be a recently executed will, in which the greater part of Lemuel +Shackford's estate, real and personal, was left unconditionally +to his cousin.</p> + +<p>"That disposes of one of Mr. Taggett's theories," was Mr. +Slocum's unspoken reflection. Certainly Richard had not destroyed +the will; the old man himself had destroyed it, probably in some +fit of pique. Yet, after all, the vital question was in no way +affected by this fact; the motive for the crime remained, and the +fearful evidence against Richard still held.</p> + +<p>After the departure of Lawyer Perkins, who had been struck by +the singular perturbation of his old friend, Mr. Slocum drew +forth Mt. Taggett's journal, and re-read it from beginning to +end. Margaret's unquestioning faith in Richard, her prompt and +indignant rejection of the whole story, had shaken her father at +moments that morning; but now his paralyzing doubts returned. +This second perusal of the diary impressed him even more strongly +than the first. Richard had killed Lemuel Shackford,--in +self-defense, may be, or perhaps accidentally; but he had killed +him! As Mr. Slocum passed from page to page, following the dark +thread of narrative that darkened at each remove, he lapsed into +that illogical frame of mind when one looks half expectantly for +some providential interposition to avert the calamity against +which human means are impotent. If Richard were to drop dead in +the street! If he were to fall overboard off Point Judith in the +night! If only anything would happen to prevent his coming back! +Thus the ultimate disgrace might be spared them. But the ill +thing is the sure thing; the letter with the black seal never +miscarries, and Richard was bound to come! "There is no escape +for him or for us," murmured Mr. Slocum, closing his finger in +the book.</p> + +<p>It was in a different mood that Margaret said to herself, "It +is nearly four o'clock; he will be here at eight!" As she stood +at the parlor window and watched the waning afternoon light +making its farewells to the flower-beds in the little square +front-gardens of the houses opposite, Margaret's heart was filled +with the tenderness of the greeting she intended to give Richard. +She had never been cold or shy in her demeanor with him, nor had +she ever been quite demonstrative; but now she meant to put her +arms around his neck in a wifely fashion, and recompense him so +far as she could for all the injustice he was to suffer. When he +came to learn of the hateful slander that had lifted its head +during his absence, he should already be in possession of the +assurance of her faith.</p> + +<p>In the mean while the hands in Slocum's Yard were much +exercised over the unaccountable disappearance of Blake. Stevens +reported the matter to Mr. Slocum.</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes," said Mr. Slocum, who had not provided himself with +an explanation, and was puzzled to improvise one. "I discharged +him,--that is to say, I let him go. I forgot to mention it. He +didn't take to the trade."</p> + +<p>"But he showed a good fist for a beginner," said Stevens. "He +was head and shoulders the best of the new lot. Shall I put +Stebbins in his place?"</p> + +<p>"You needn't do anything until Mr. Shackford gets back."</p> + +<p>"When will that be, sir?"</p> + +<p>"To-night, probably."</p> + +<p>The unceremonious departure of Blake formed the theme of +endless speculation at the tavern that evening, and for the +moment obscured the general interest in old Shackford's +murder.</p> + +<p>"Never to let on he was goin'!" said one.</p> + +<p>"Didn't say good-by to nobody," remarked a second.</p> + +<p>"It was devilish uncivil," added a third.</p> + +<p>"It is kind of mysterious," said Mr. Peters.</p> + +<p>"Some girl," suggested Mr. Willson, with an air of tender +sentiment, which he attempted further to emphasize by a +capricious wink.</p> + +<p>"No," observed Dexter. "When a man vanishes in that sudden way +his body is generally found in a clump of blackberry bushes, +months afterwards, or left somewhere on the flats by an ebb +tide."</p> + +<p>"Two murders in Stillwater in one month would be rather +crowding it, wouldn't it?" inquired Piggott.</p> + +<p>"Bosh!" said Durgin. "There was always something shady about +Blake. We didn't know where he hailed from, and we don't know +where he's gone to. He'll take care of himself; that kind of +fellow never lets anybody play any points on him." With this +Durgin threw away the stump of his cigar, and lounged out at the +street door.</p> + +<p>"I couldn't get anything out of the proprietor," said Stevens; +"but he never talks. May be Shackford when he"--Stevens stopped +short to listen to a low, rumbling sound like distant thunder, +followed almost instantly by two quick faint whistles. "He's +aboard the train to-night."</p> + +<p>Mr. Peters quietly rose from his seat and left the +bar-room.</p> + +<p>The evening express, due at eight, was only a few seconds +behind time. As the screech of the approaching engine rung out +from the dark wood-land, Margaret and her father exchanged rapid +glances. It would take Richard ten minutes to walk from the +railway station to the house,--for of course he would come there +directly after sending his valise to Lime Street.</p> + +<p>The ten minutes went by, and then twenty. Margaret bent +steadily over her work, listening with covert intentness for the +click of the street gate. Likely enough Richard had been unable +to find any one to take charge of his hand-baggage. Presently Mr. +Slocum could not resist the impulse to look at his watch. It was +half past eight. He nervously unfolded The Stillwater Gazette, +and sat with his eyes fastened on the paper.</p> + +<p>After a seemingly interminable period the heavy bell of the +South Church sounded nine, and then tolled for a few minutes, as +the dismal custom is in New England country towns.</p> + +<p>A long silence followed, unrelieved by any word between father +and daughter,--a silence so profound that the heart of the +old-fashioned time-piece, throbbing monotonously in its dusky +case at the foot of the stairs, made itself audible through the +room. Mr. Slocum's gaze continued fixed on the newspaper which he +was not reading. Margaret's hands lay crossed over the work on +her lap.</p> + +<p>Ten o'clock.</p> + +<p>"What can have kept him?" murmured Margaret.</p> + +<p>"There was only that way out of it," reflected Mr. Slocum, +pursuing his own line of thought.</p> + +<p>Margaret's cheeks were flushed and hot, and her eyes dulled +with disappointment, as she rose from the low rocking-chair and +crossed over to kiss her father good-night. Mr. Slocum drew the +girl gently towards him, and held her for a moment in silence. +But Margaret, detecting the subtile commiseration in his manner, +resented it, and released herself coldly.</p> + +<p>"He has been detained, papa."</p> + +<p>"Yes, something must have detained him!"</p> + +<h2>XXIII</h2> + +<p>When the down express arrived at Stillwater, that night, two +passengers stepped from the rear car to the platform: one was +Richard Shackford, and the other a commercial traveler, whose +acquaintance Richard had made the previous evening on the Fall +River boat.</p> + +<p>There were no hacks in waiting at the station, and Richard +found his politeness put to a severe test when he saw himself +obliged to pilot his companion part of the way to the hotel, +which lay--it seemed almost maliciously--in a section of the town +remote from the Slocums'. Curbing his impatience, Richard led the +stranger through several crooked, unlighted streets, and finally +left him at the corner of the main thoroughfare, within +pistol-shot of the red glass lantern which hung over the door of +the tavern. This cost Richard ten good minutes. As he hurriedly +turned into a cross-street on the left, he fancied that he heard +his name called several times from somewhere in the darkness. A +man came running towards him. It was Mr. Peters.</p> + +<p>"Can I say a word to you, Mr. Shackford?"</p> + +<p>"If it isn't a long one. I am rather pressed."</p> + +<p>"It is about Torrini, sir."</p> + +<p>"What of him?"</p> + +<p>"He's mighty bad, sir."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I can't stop to hear that," and Richard quickened his +pace.</p> + +<p>"The doctor took off his hand last Wednesday," said Peters, +keeping alongside, "and he's been getting worse and worse."</p> + +<p>Richard halted. "Took off his hand?"</p> + +<p>"Didn't you know he was caught in the rolling-machine at +Dana's? Well, it was after you went away."</p> + +<p>"This is the first I've heard of it."</p> + +<p>"It was hard lines for him, sir, with the woman and the two +children, and nothing to eat in the house. The boys in the yard +have done what they could, but with the things from the +drug-store, and so on, we couldn't hold up our end. Mr. Dana paid +the doctor's bill, but if it hadn't been for Miss Slocum I don't +know what would have happened. I thought may be if I spoke to +you, and told you how it was"--</p> + +<p>"Did Torrini send you?"</p> + +<p>"Lord, no! He's too proud to send to anybody. He's been so +proud since they took off his hand that there has been no doing +anything with him. If they was to take off his leg, he would turn +into one mass of pride. No, Mr. Shackford, I came of myself."</p> + +<p>"Where does Torrini live, now?"</p> + +<p>"In Mitchell's Alley."</p> + +<p>"I will go along with you," said Richard, with a dogged air. +It seemed as if the fates were determined to keep him from seeing +Margaret that night. Peters reached out a hand to take Richard's +leather bag. "No, thank you, I can carry it very well." In a +small morocco case in one of the pockets was a heavy plain gold +ring for Margaret, and not for anything in the world would +Richard have allowed any one else to carry the bag.</p> + +<p>After a brisk five minutes' walk the two emerged upon a broad +street crossing their path at right angles. All the shops were +closed except Stubbs the provision dealer's and Dundon's +drug-store. In the window of the apothecary a great purple jar, +with a spray of gas jets behind it, was flaring on the darkness +like a Bengal light. Richard stopped at the provision store and +made some purchases; a little further on he halted at a fruit +stand, kept by an old crone, who had supplemented the feeble +flicker of the corner street lamp with a pitch-pine torch, which +cast a yellow bloom over her apples and turned them all into +oranges. She had real oranges, however, and Richard selected half +a dozen, with a confused idea of providing the little Italians +with some national fruit, though both children had been born in +Stillwater.</p> + +<p>Then the pair resumed their way, Peters acting as pioneer. +They soon passed beyond the region of sidewalks and curbstones, +and began picking their steps through a narrow, humid lane, where +the water lay in slimy pools, and the tenement houses on each +side blotted out the faint starlight. The night was sultry, and +door and casement stood wide, making pits of darkness. Few lights +were visible, but a continuous hum of voices issued from the +human hives, and now and then a transient red glow at an upper +window showed that some one was smoking a pipe. This was +Mitchell's Alley.</p> + +<p>The shadows closed behind the two men as they moved forward, +and neither was aware of the figure which had been discreetly +following them for the last ten minutes. If Richard had suddenly +wheeled and gone back a dozen paces, he would have come face to +face with the commercial traveler.</p> + +<p>Mr. Peters paused in front of one of the tenement houses, and +motioned with his thumb over his shoulder for Richard to follow +him through a yawning doorway. The hall was as dark as a cave, +and full of stale, moldy odors. Peters shuffled cautiously along +the bare boards until he kicked his toe against the first step of +the staircase.</p> + +<p>"Keep close to the wall, Mr. Shackford, and feel your way up. +They've used the banisters for kindling, and the landlord says he +shan't put in any more. I went over here the other night," added +Mr. Peters reminiscentially.</p> + +<p>After fumbling several seconds for the latch, Mr. Peters +pushed open a door, and ushered Richard into a large, gloomy rear +room. A kerosene lamp was burning dimly on the mantel-shelf, over +which hung a coarsely-colored lithograph of the Virgin in a pine +frame. Under the picture stood a small black crucifix. There was +little furniture,--a cooking-stove, two or three stools, a broken +table, and a chest of drawers. On an iron bedstead in the corner +lay Torrini, muffled to the chin in a blanket, despite the hot +midsummer night. His right arm, as if it were wholly disconnected +with his body, rested in a splint on the outside of the covering. +As the visitors entered, a tall dusky woman with blurred eyes +rose from a low bench at the foot of the bed.</p> + +<p>"Is he awake?" asked Peters.</p> + +<p>The woman, comprehending the glance which accompanied the +words, though not the words themselves, nodded yes.</p> + +<p>"Here is Mr. Shackford come to see you, Torrini," Peters +said.</p> + +<p>The man slowly unclosed his eyes; they were unnaturally +brilliant and dilated, and seemed to absorb the rest of his +features.</p> + +<p>"I didn't want him."</p> + +<p>"Let by-gones be by-gones, Torrini," said Richard, approaching +the bedside. "I am sorry about this."</p> + +<p>"You are very good; I don't understand. I ask nothing of +Slocum; but the signorina comes every day, and I cannot help it. +What would you have? I'm a dead man," and he turned away his +face.</p> + +<p>"It is not so bad as that," said Richard.</p> + +<p>Torrini looked up with a ghastly smile. "They have cut off the +hand that struck you, Mr. Shackford."</p> + +<p>"I suppose it was necessary. I am very sorry. In a little +while you will be on your feet again."</p> + +<p>"It is too late. They might have saved me by taking the arm, +but I would not allow them. I may last three or four days. The +doctor says it."</p> + +<p>Peters, standing in the shadow, jerked his head +affirmatively.</p> + +<p>"I do not care for myself," the man continued,--"but she and +the little ones--That is what maddens me. They will starve."</p> + +<p>"They will not be let starve in Stillwater," said Richard.</p> + +<p>Torrini turned his eyes upon him wistfully and doubtfully. +"You will help them?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I and others."</p> + +<p>"If they could be got to Italy," said Torrini, after +meditating, "it would be well. Her farther," giving a side look +at the woman, "is a fisherman of Capri." At the word Capri the +woman lifted her head quickly. "He is not rich, but he's not +poor; he would take her."</p> + +<p>"You would wish her sent to Naples?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"If you do not pull through, she and the children shall go +there."</p> + +<p>"Brigida!" called Torrini; then he said something rapidly in +Italian to the woman, who buried her face in both hands, and did +not reply.</p> + +<p>"She has no words to thank you. See, she is tired to death, +with the children all day and me all night,--these many +nights."</p> + +<p>"Tell her to go to bed in the other room," said Richard. +"There's another room, isn't there? I'll sit with you."</p> + +<p>"You?"</p> + +<p>"Your wife is fagged out,--that is plain. Send her to bed, and +don't talk any more. Peters, I wish you'd run and get a piece of +ice somewhere; there's no drinking-water here. Come, now, +Torrini, I can't speak Italian. Oh, I don't mind your scowling; I +intend to stay."</p> + +<p>Torrini slowly unknitted his brows, and an irresolute +expression stole across his face; then he called Brigida, and +bade her go in with the children. She bowed her head +submissively, and fixing her melting eyes on Richard for an +instant passed into the adjoining chamber.</p> + +<p>Peters shortly reappeared with the ice, and after setting a +jug of water on the table departed. Richard turned up the wick of +the kerosene lamp, which was sending forth a disagreeable odor, +and pinned an old newspaper around the chimney to screen the +flame. He had, by an odd chance, made his lampshade out of a copy +of The Stillwater Gazette containing the announcement of his +cousin's death. Richard gave a quick start as his eye caught the +illuminated head-lines,--Mysterious Murder of Lemuel Shackford! +Perhaps a slight exclamation escaped Richard's lips at the same +time, for Torrini turned and asked what was the matter. "Nothing +at all," said Richard, removing the paper, and placing another in +its stead. Then he threw open the blinds of the window looking on +the back yard, and set his hand-bag against the door to prevent +it being blown to by the draught. Torrini, without altering the +rigid position of his head on the pillow, followed every movement +with a look of curious insistence, like that of the eyes in a +portrait. His preparations completed for the night, Richard +seated himself on a stool at the foot of the bed.</p> + +<p>The obscurity and stillness of the room had their effect upon +the sick man, who presently dropped into a light sleep. Richard +sat thinking of Margaret, and began to be troubled because he had +neglected to send her word of his detention, which he might have +done by Peters. It was now too l ate. The town clock struck ten +in the midst of his self-reproaches. At the first clang of the +bell, Torrini awoke with a start, and asked for water.</p> + +<p>"If anybody comes," he said, glancing in a bewildered, anxious +way at the shadows huddled about the door, "you are not to leave +me alone with him."</p> + +<p>"Him? Whom? Are you expecting any one?"</p> + +<p>"No; but who knows? one might come. Then, you are not to go; +you are not to leave me for a second."</p> + +<p>"I've no thought of it," replied Richard; "you may rest +easy.... He's a trifle light in the head," was Richard's +reflection.</p> + +<p>After that Torrini dozed rather than slumbered, rousing at +brief intervals; and whenever he awoke the feverish activity of +his brain incited him to talk,--now of Italy, and now of matters +connected with his experiences in this country.</p> + +<p>"Naples is a pleasant place!" he broke out in the hush of the +midnight, just as Richard was dropping off. "The band plays every +afternoon on the Chiaia. And then the <i>festas,</i>--every third +day a festa. The devil was in my body when I left there and +dragged little Brigida into all this misery. We used to walk of +an evening along the Marinella,--that's a strip of beach just +beyond the Molo Piccolo. You were never in Naples?"</p> + +<p>"Not I," said Richard. "Here, wet your lips, and try to go to +sleep again."</p> + +<p>"No, I can't sleep for thinking. When the Signorina came to +see me, the other day, her heart was pierced with pity. Like the +blessed Madonna's, her bosom bleeds for all! You will let her +come to-morrow?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes! If you will only keep quiet, Margaret shall +come."</p> + +<p>"Margherita, we say. You are to wed her,--is it not so?"</p> + +<p>Richard turned down the wick of the lamp, which was blazing +and spluttering, and did not answer. Then Torrini lay silent a +long while, apparently listening to the hum of the telegraph +wires attached to one end of the roof. At odd intervals the +freshening breeze swept these wires, and awoke a low æolian +murmur. The moon rose in the mean time, and painted on the +uncarpeted floor the shape of the cherry bough that stretched +across the window. It was two o'clock; Richard sat with his head +bent forward, in a drowse.</p> + +<p>"Now the cousin is dead, you are as rich as a prince,--are you +not?" inquired Torrini, who had lain for the last half hour with +his eyes wide open in the moonlight.</p> + +<p>Richard straightened himself with a jerk.</p> + +<p>"Torrini, I positively forbid you to talk any more!"</p> + +<p>"I remember you said that one day, somewhere. Where was it? +Ah, in the yard! 'You can't be allowed to speak here, you know.' +And then I struck at you,--with that hand they've taken away! See +how I remember it!"</p> + +<p>"Why do you bother your mind with such things? Think of just +nothing at all, and rest. Perhaps a wet cloth on your forehead +will refresh you. I wish you had a little of my genius for not +keeping awake."</p> + +<p>"You are tired, you?"</p> + +<p>"I have had two broken nights, traveling."</p> + +<p>"And I give you no peace?"</p> + +<p>"Well, no," returned Richard bluntly, hoping the admission +would induce Torrini to tranquilize himself, "you don't give me +much."</p> + +<p>"Has any one been here?" demanded Torrini abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Not a soul. Good Heaven, man, do you know what time it +is?"</p> + +<p>"I know,--I know. It's very late. I ought to keep quiet; but, +the devil! with this fever in my brain!... Mr. Shackford!" +and Torrini, in spite of his imprisoned limb, suddenly half +raised himself from the mattress. "I--I"--</p> + +<p>Richard sprung to his feet. "What is it,--what do you +want?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing," said Torrini, falling back on the pillow.</p> + +<p>Richard brought him a glass of water, which he refused. He lay +motionless, with his eyes shut, as if composing himself, and +Richard returned on tiptoe to his bench. A moment or two +afterwards Torrini stirred the blanket with his foot.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Shackford!"</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"I am as grateful--as a dog."</p> + +<p>Torrini did not speak again. This expression of his gratitude +appeared to ease him. His respiration grew lighter and more +regular, and by and by he fell into a profound sleep. Richard +watched awhile expectantly, with his head resting against the +rail of the bedstead; then his eyelids drooped, and he too +slumbered. But once or twice, before he quite lost himself, he +was conscious of Brigida's thin face thrust like a silver wedge +through the half-open door of the hall bedroom. It was the last +thing he remembered,--that sharp, pale face peering out from the +blackness of the inner chamber as his grasp loosened on the world +and he drifted off on the tide of a dream. A narrow white hand, +like a child's, seemed to be laid against his breast. It was not +Margaret's hand, and yet it was hers. No, it was the plaster +model he had made that idle summer afternoon, years and years +before he had ever thought of loving her. Strange for it to be +there! Then Richard began wondering how the gold ring would look +in the slender forefinger. He unfastened the leather bag and took +out the ring. He was vainly trying to pass it over the first +joint of the dead white finger, when the cast slipped from his +hold and fell with a crash to the floor. Richard gave a shudder, +and opened his eyes. Brigida was noiselessly approaching +Torrini's bedside. Torrini still slept. It was broad day. Through +the uncurtained window Richard saw the blue sky barred with +crimson.</p> + +<h2>XXIV</h2> + +<p>"Richard did come home last night, after all," said Mr. +Slocum, with a flustered air, seating himself at the breakfast +table.</p> + +<p>Margaret looked up quickly.</p> + +<p>"I just met Peters on the street, and he told me," added Mr. +Slocum.</p> + +<p>"Richard returned last night, and did not come to us!"</p> + +<p>"It seems that he watched with Torrini,--the man is going to +die."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Margaret, cooling instantly. "That was like +Richard; he never thinks of himself first. I would not have had +him do differently. Last evening you were filled with I don't +know what horrible suspicions, yet see how simply everything +explains itself."</p> + +<p>"If I could speak candidly, Margaret, if I could express +myself without putting you into a passion, I would tell you that +Richard's passing the night with that man has given me two or +three ugly ideas."</p> + +<p>"Positively, papa, you are worse than Mr. Taggett."</p> + +<p>"I shall not say another word," replied Mr. Slocum. Then he +unfolded the newspaper lying beside him, and constructed a +barrier against further colloquy.</p> + +<p>An hour afterwards, when Richard threw open the door of his +private workshop, Margaret was standing in the middle of the room +waiting for him. She turned with a little cry of pleasure, and +allowed Richard to take her in his arms, and kept to the spirit +and the letter of the promise she had made to herself. If there +was an unwonted gravity in Margaret's manner, young Shackford was +not keen enough to perceive it. All that morning, wherever he +went, he carried with him a sense of Margaret's face resting for +a moment against his shoulder, and the happiness of it rendered +him wholly oblivious to the constrained and chilly demeanor of +her father when they met. The interview was purposely cut short +by Mr. Slocum, who avoided Richard the rest of the day with a +persistency that must have ended in forcing itself upon his +notice, had he not been so engrossed by the work which had +accumulated during his absence.</p> + +<p>Mr. Slocum had let the correspondence go to the winds, and a +formidable collection of unanswered letters lay on Shackford's +desk. The forenoon was consumed in reducing the pile and settling +the questions that had risen in the shops, for Mr. Slocum had +neglected everything. Richard was speedily advised of Blake's +dismissal from the yard, but, not knowing what explanation had +been offered, was unable to satisfy Stevens' curiosity on the +subject. "I must see Slocum about that at once," reflected +Richard; but the opportunity did not occur, and he was too much +pressed to make a special business of it.</p> + +<p>Mr. Slocum, meanwhile, was in a wretched state of suspense and +apprehension. Justice Beemis's clerk had served some sort of +legal paper--presumably a subpoena--on Richard, who had coolly +read it in the yard under the gaze of all, and given no sign of +discomposure beyond a momentary lifting of the eyebrows. Then he +had carelessly thrust the paper into one of his pockets and +continued his directions to the men. Clearly he had as yet no +suspicion of the mine that was ready to be sprung under his +feet.</p> + +<p>Shortly after this little incident, which Mr. Slocum had +witnessed from the window of the counting-room, Richard spoke a +word or two to Stevens, and quitted the yard. Mr. Slocum dropped +into the carving department.</p> + +<p>"Where is Mr. Shackford, Stevens?"</p> + +<p>"He has gone to Mitchell's Alley, sir. Said he'd be away an +hour. Am I to say he was wanted?"</p> + +<p>"No," replied Mr. Slocum, hastily; "any time will do. You +needn't mention that I inquired for him," and Mr. Slocum returned +to the counting-room.</p> + +<p>Before the hour expired he again distinguished Richard's voice +in the workshops, and the cheery tone of it was a positive +affront to Mr. Slocum. Looking back to the week prior to the +tragedy in Welch's Court, he recollected Richard's unaccountable +dejection; he had had the air of a person meditating some +momentous step,--the pallor, the set face, and the introspective +eyes. Then came the murder, and Richard's complete prostration. +Mr. Slocum in his own excitement had noted it superficially at +the time, but now he recalled the young man's inordinate sorrow, +and it seemed rather like remorse. Was his present immobile +serenity the natural expression of a man whose heart had suddenly +ossified, and was no longer capable of throbbing with its guilt? +Richard Shackford was rapidly becoming an awful problem to Mr. +Slocum.</p> + +<p>Since the death of his cousin, Richard had not been so much +like his former self. He appeared to have taken up his +cheerfulness at the point where he had dropped it three weeks +before. If there were any weight resting on his mind, he bore it +lightly, with a kind of careless defiance.</p> + +<p>In his visit that forenoon to Mitchell's Alley he had arranged +for Mrs. Morganson, his cousin's old housekeeper, to watch with +Torrini the ensuing night. This left Richard at liberty to spend +the evening with Margaret, and finish his correspondence. +Directly after tea he repaired to the studio, and, lighting the +German student-lamp, fell to work on the letters. Margaret came +in shortly with a magazine, and seated herself near the round +table at which he was writing. She had dreaded this evening; it +could scarcely pass without some mention of Mr. Taggett, and she +had resolved not to speak of him. If Richard questioned her it +would be very distressing. How could she tell Richard that Mr. +Taggett accused him of the murder of his cousin, and that her own +father half believed the accusation? No, she could never +acknowledge that.</p> + +<p>For nearly an hour the silence of the room was interrupted +only by the scratching of Richard's pen and the rustling of the +magazine as Margaret turned the leaf. Now and then he looked up +and caught her eye, and smiled, and went on with his task. It was +a veritable return of the old times. Margaret became absorbed in +the story she was reading and forgot her uneasiness. Her left +hand rested on the pile of answered letters, to which Richard +added one at intervals, she mechanically lifting her palm and +replacing it on the fresh manuscript. Presently Richard observed +this movement and smiled in secret at the slim white hand +unconsciously making a paper-weight of itself. He regarded it +covertly for a moment, and then his disastrous dream occurred to +him. There should be no mistake this time. He drew the small +morocco case from his pocket, and leaning across the table +slipped the ring on Margaret's finger.</p> + +<p>Margaret gave a bewildered start, and then seeing what Richard +had done held out her hand to him with a gracious, impetuous +little gesture.</p> + +<p>"I meant to give it you this morning," he said, pressing his +lip to the ring, "but the daylight did not seem fine enough for +it."</p> + +<p>"I thought you had forgotten," said Margaret, slowly turning +the band on her finger.</p> + +<p>"The first thing I did in New York was to go to a jeweler's +for this ring, and since then I have guarded it day and night as +dragonishly as if it had been the Koh-i-Noor diamond, or some +inestimable gem which hundreds of envious persons were lying in +wait to wrest from me. Walking the streets with this trinket in +my possession, I have actually had a sense of personal +insecurity. I seemed to invite general assault. That was being +very sentimental, was it not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, perhaps."</p> + +<p>"That small piece of gold meant so much to me."</p> + +<p>"And to me," said Margaret. "Have you finished your +letters?"</p> + +<p>"Not yet. I shall be through in ten minutes, and then we'll +have the evening to ourselves."</p> + +<p>Richard hurriedly resumed his writing and Margaret turned to +her novel again; but the interest had faded out of it; the +figures had grown threadbare and indistinct, like the figures in +a piece of old tapestry, and after a moment or two the magazine +glided with an unnoticed flutter into the girl's lap. She sat +absently twirling the gold loop on her finger.</p> + +<p>Richard added the address to the final envelope, dried it with +the blotter, and abruptly shut down the lid of the inkstand with +an air of as great satisfaction as if he had been the fisherman +in the Arabian story corking up the wicked afrite. With his +finger still pressing the leaden cover, as though he were afraid +the imp of toil would get out again, he was suddenly impressed by +the fact that he had seen very little of Mr. Slocum that day.</p> + +<p>"I have hardly spoken to him," he reflected. "Where is your +father, to-night?"</p> + +<p>"He has a headache," said Margaret. "He went to his room +immediately after supper."</p> + +<p>"It is nothing serious, of course."</p> + +<p>"I fancy not; papa is easily excited, and he had had a great +deal to trouble him lately,--the strike, and all that."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if Mr. Taggett has been bothering him."</p> + +<p>"I dare say Mr. Taggett has bothered him."</p> + +<p>"You knew of his being in the yard?"</p> + +<p>"Not while he was here. Papa told me yesterday. I think Mr. +Taggett was scarcely the person to render much assistance."</p> + +<p>"Then he has found nothing whatever?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing important."</p> + +<p>"But anything? Trifles are of importance in a matter like +this. Your father never wrote me a word about Taggett."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Taggett has made a failure of it, Richard."</p> + +<p>"If nothing new has transpired, then I do not understand the +summons I received to-day."</p> + +<p>"A summons!"</p> + +<p>"I've the paper somewhere. No, it is in the pocket of my other +coat. I take it there is to be a consultation of some kind at +Justice Beemis's office to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"I am very glad," said Margaret, with her face brightening. +To-morrow would lift the cloud which had spread itself over them +all, and was pressing down so heavily on one unconscious head. +To-morrow Richard's innocence should shine forth and confound Mr. +Taggett. A vague bitterness rose in Margaret's heart as she +thought of her father. "Let us talk of something else," she said, +brusquely breaking her pause; "let us talk of something +pleasant."</p> + +<p>"Of ourselves, then," suggested Richard, banishing the shadow +which had gathered in his eyes at his first mention of Mr. +Taggett's name.</p> + +<p>"Of ourselves," repeated Margaret gayly.</p> + +<p>"Then you must give me your hand," stipulated Richard, drawing +his chair closer to hers.</p> + +<p>"There!" said Margaret.</p> + +<p>While this was passing, Mr. Slocum, in the solitude of his +chamber, was vainly attempting to solve the question whether he +had not disregarded all the dictates of duty and common sense in +allowing Margaret to spend the evening alone with Richard +Shackford. Mr. Slocum saw one thing with painful +distinctness--that he could not help himself.</p> + +<h2>XXV</h2> + +<p>The next morning Mr. Slocum did not make his appearance in the +marble yard. His half-simulated indisposition of the previous +night had turned into a genuine headache, of which he perhaps +willingly availed himself to remain in his room, for he had no +desire to see Richard Shackford that day.</p> + +<p>It was an hour before noon. Up to that moment Richard had been +engaged in reading and replying to the letters received by the +morning's mail, a duty which usually fell to Mr. Slocum. As +Richard stepped from the office into the yard a small boy thrust +a note into his hand, and then stood off a short distance +tranquilly boring with one toe in the loose gravel, and +apparently waiting for an answer. Shackford hastily ran his eye +over the paper, and turning towards the boy said, a little +impatiently:</p> + +<p>"Tell him I will come at once."</p> + +<p>There was another person in Stillwater that forenoon whose +agitation was scarcely less than Mr. Slocum's, though it greatly +differed from it in quality. Mr. Slocum was alive to his +finger-tips with dismay; Lawyer Perkins was boiling over with +indignation. It was a complex indignation, in which astonishment +and incredulity were nicely blended with a cordial detestation of +Mr. Taggett and vague promptings to inflict some physical injury +on Justice Beemis. That he, Melanchthon Perkins, the confidential +legal adviser and personal friend of the late Lemuel Shackford, +should have been kept for two weeks in profound ignorance of +proceedings so nearly touching his lamented client! The explosion +of the old lawyer's wrath was so unexpected that Justice Beemis, +who had dropped in to make the disclosures and talk the matter +over informally, clutched at his broad-brimmed Panama hat and +precipitately retreated from the office. Mr. Perkins walked up +and down the worn green drugget of his private room for half an +hour afterwards, collecting himself, and then dispatched a +hurried note to Richard Shackford, requesting an instant +interview with him at his, Lawyer Perkins's, chambers.</p> + +<p>When, some ten minutes subsequently, Richard entered the +low-studded square room, darkened with faded moreen curtains and +filled with a stale odor of law-calf, Mr. Perkins was seated at +his desk and engaged in transferring certain imposing red-sealed +documents to a green baize satchel which he held between his +knees. He had regained his equanimity; his features wore their +usual expression of judicial severity; nothing denoted his recent +discomposure, except perhaps an additional wantonness in the +stringy black hair falling over the high forehead,--that pallid +high forehead which always wore the look of being covered with +cold perspiration.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Shackford," said Lawyer Perkins, suspending his +operations a second, as he saluted the young man, "I suppose I +have done an irregular thing in sending for you, but I did not +see any other course open to me. I have been your cousin's +attorney for over twenty-five years, and I've a great regard for +you personally. That must justify the step I am taking."</p> + +<p>"The regard is mutual, I am sure," returned Richard, rather +surprised by this friendly overture, for his acquaintance with +the lawyer had been of the slightest, though it had extended over +many years. "My cousin had very few friends, and I earnestly +desire to have them mine. If I were in any trouble, there is no +one to whom I would come as unhesitatingly as to you."</p> + +<p>"But you are in trouble."</p> + +<p>"Yes, my cousin's death was very distressing."</p> + +<p>"I do not mean that." Mr. Perkins paused a full moment. "The +district attorney has suddenly taken a deep interest in the case, +and there is to be a rigorous overhauling of the facts. I am +afraid it is going to be very unpleasant for you, Mr. +Shackford."</p> + +<p>"How could it be otherwise?" asked Richard, tranquilly.</p> + +<p>Lawyer Perkins fixed his black eyes on him. "Then you fully +understand the situation, and can explain everything?"</p> + +<p>"I wish I could. Unfortunately, I can explain nothing. I don't +clearly see why I have been summoned to attend as a witness at +the investigation to be held to-day in Justice Beemis's +office."</p> + +<p>"You are unacquainted with any special reason why your +testimony is wanted?"</p> + +<p>"I cannot conceive why it should be required. I gave my +evidence at the time of the inquest, and have nothing to add to +it. Strictly speaking, I have had of late years no relations with +my cousin. During the last eighteen months we have spoken +together but once."</p> + +<p>"Have you had any conversation on this subject with Mr. Slocum +since your return from New York?"</p> + +<p>"No, I have had no opportunity. I was busy all day yesterday; +he was ill in the evening, and is still confined to his +room."</p> + +<p>Mr. Perkins was manifestly embarrassed.</p> + +<p>"That is unfortunate," he said, laying the bag on the desk. "I +wish you had talked with Mr. Slocum. Of course you were taken +into the secret of Taggett's presence in the marble yard?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; that was all arranged before I left home."</p> + +<p>"You don't know the results of that manoeuvre?"</p> + +<p>"There were no results."</p> + +<p>"On the contrary, Taggett claims to have made very important +discoveries."</p> + +<p>"Indeed! Why was I not told!"</p> + +<p>"I can't quite comprehend Mr. Slocum's silence."</p> + +<p>"What has Taggett discovered?"</p> + +<p>"Several things, upon which he builds the gravest +suspicions."</p> + +<p>"Against whom?"</p> + +<p>"Against you."</p> + +<p>"Against me!" cried Richard, recoiling. The action was one +altogether of natural amazement, and convinced Mr. Perkins, who +had keenly watched the effect of his announcement, that young +Shackford was being very hardly used.</p> + +<p>Justice Beemis had given Mr. Perkins only a brief outline of +the facts, and had barely touched on details when the old +lawyer's anger had put an end to the conversation. His disgust at +having been left out in the cold, though he was in no +professional way concerned in the task of discovering the +murderer of Lemuel Shackford, had caused Lawyer Perkins instantly +to repudiate Mr. Taggett's action. "Taggett is a low, intriguing +fellow," he had said to Justice Beemis; "Taggett is a fraud." +Young Shackford's ingenuous manner now confirmed Mr. Perkins in +that belief.</p> + +<p>Richard recovered himself in a second or two. "Why did not Mr. +Slocum mention these suspicions to me?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps he found it difficult to do so."</p> + +<p>"Why should he find it difficult?"</p> + +<p>"Suppose he believed them."</p> + +<p>"But he could not believe them, whatever they are."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, suppose he was not at liberty to speak."</p> + +<p>"It seems that you are, Mr. Perkins, and you owe it to me to +be explicit. What does Taggett suspect?"</p> + +<p>Lawyer Perkins brooded a while before replying. His practice +was of a miscellaneous sort, confined in the main to what is +technically termed office practice. Though he was frequently +engaged in small cases of assault and battery,--he could scarcely +escape that in Stillwater,--he had never conducted an important +criminal case; but when Lawyer Perkins looked up from his brief +reverie, he had fully resolved to undertake the defense of +Richard Shackford.</p> + +<p>"I will tell you what Taggett suspects," he said slowly, "if +you will allow me to tell you in my own way. I must ask a number +of questions."</p> + +<p>Richard gave a half-impatient nod of assent.</p> + +<p>"Where were you on the night of the murder?" inquired Lawyer +Perkins, after a slight pause.</p> + +<p>"I spent the evening at the Slocums', until ten o'clock; then +I went home,--but not directly. It was moonlight, and I walked +about, perhaps for an hour."</p> + +<p>"Did you meet any one?"</p> + +<p>"Not that I recollect. I walked out of town, on the +turnpike."</p> + +<p>"When you returned to your boarding-house, did you meet any +one?"</p> + +<p>"No, I let myself in with a pass-key. The family had retired, +with the exception of Mr. Pinkham."</p> + +<p>"Then you saw him?"</p> + +<p>"No, but I heard him; he was playing on the flute at his +chamber window, or near it. He always plays on the flute when he +can't sleep."</p> + +<p>"What o'clock was that?"</p> + +<p>"It must have been after eleven."</p> + +<p>"Your stroll was confined to the end of the town most remote +from Welch's Court?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I just cruised around on the outskirts."</p> + +<p>"I wish you had spoken with somebody that night."</p> + +<p>"The streets were deserted. I wasn't likely to meet persons on +the turnpike."</p> + +<p>"However, some one may have seen you without your knowing +it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Richard curtly. He was growing restive under these +interrogations, the drift of which was plain enough to be +disagreeable. Moreover, Mr. Perkins had insensibly assumed the +tone and air of a counsel cross-examining a witness on the other +side. This nocturnal cruise, whose direction and duration were +known only to young Shackford, struck Lawyer Perkins +unpleasantly. He meditated a moment before putting the next +question.</p> + +<p>"Were you on good terms--I mean fairly good terms--with your +cousin?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Richard; "but the fault was not mine. He never +liked me. As a child I annoyed him, I suppose, and when I grew up +I offended him by running away to sea. My mortal offense, +however, was accepting a situation in Slocum's Yard. I have been +in my cousin's house only twice in three years."</p> + +<p>"When was the last time?"</p> + +<p>"A day or two previous to the strike."</p> + +<p>"As you were not in the habit of visiting the house, you must +have had some purpose in going there. What was the occasion?"</p> + +<p>Richard hung his head thoughtfully. "I went there to talk over +family matters,--to inform him of my intended marriage to +Margaret Slocum. I wanted his good-will and support. Mr. Slocum +had offered to take me into the business. I thought perhaps my +cousin Lemuel, seeing how prosperous I was, would be more +friendly to me."</p> + +<p>"Did you wish him to lend you capital?"</p> + +<p>"I didn't expect or wish him to; but there was some question +of that."</p> + +<p>"And he refused?"</p> + +<p>"Rather brutally, if I may say so now."</p> + +<p>"Was there a quarrel?"</p> + +<p>Richard hesitated.</p> + +<p>"Of course I don't press you," said Mr. Perkins, with some +stiffness. "You are not on the witness stand."</p> + +<p>"I began to think I was--in the prisoner's dock," answered +Richard, smiling ruefully. "However, I have nothing to conceal. I +hesitated to reply to you because it was painful for me to +reflect that the last time I saw my cousin we parted in anger. He +charge me with attempting to overreach him, and I left the house +in indignation."</p> + +<p>"That was the last time you saw him?"</p> + +<p>"The last time I saw him alive."</p> + +<p>"Was there any communication between you two after that?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"None whatever?"</p> + +<p>"None."</p> + +<p>"Are you quite positive?"</p> + +<p>"As positive as I can be that I live and have my senses."</p> + +<p>Lawyer Perkins pulled a black strand of hair over his +forehead, and remained silent for nearly a minute.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Shackford, are you sure that your cousin did not write a +note to you on the Monday preceding the night of his death?"</p> + +<p>"He may have written a dozen, for all I know. I only know that +I never received a note or a letter from him in the whole course +of my life."</p> + +<p>"Then how do you account for the letter which has been found +in your rooms in Lime Street,--a letter addressed to you by +Lemuel Shackford, and requesting you to call at his house on that +fatal Tuesday night?"</p> + +<p>"I--I know nothing about it," stammered Richard. "There is no +such paper!"</p> + +<p>"It was in this office less than one hour ago," said Lawyer +Perkins sternly. "It was brought here for me to identify Lemuel +Shackford's handwriting. Justice Beemis has that paper!"</p> + +<p>"Justice Beemis has it!" exclaimed Richard.</p> + +<p>"I have nothing more to say," observed Lawyer Perkins, +reaching out his hand towards the green bag, as a sign that the +interview was ended. "There were other points I wished to have +some light thrown on; but I have gone far enough to see that it +is useless."</p> + +<p>"What more is there?" demanded Richard in a voice that seemed +to come through a fog. "I insist on knowing! You suspect me of my +cousin's murder?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Taggett does."</p> + +<p>"And you?"</p> + +<p>"I am speaking of Mr. Taggett."</p> + +<p>"Well, go on, speak of him," said Richard desperately. "What +else has he discovered?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Perkins wheeled his chair round until he faced the young +man.</p> + +<p>"He has discovered in your workshop a chisel with a peculiar +break in the edge,--a deep notch in the middle of the bevel. With +that chisel Lemuel Shackford was killed."</p> + +<p>Richard gave a perceptible start, and put his hand to his +head, as if a sudden confused memory had set the temples +throbbing.</p> + +<p>"A full box of safety matches," continued Mr. Perkins, in a +cold, measured voice, as though he were demonstrating a +mathematical problem, "contains one hundred matches. Mr. Taggett +has discovered a box that contains only ninety-nine. The missing +match was used that night in Welch's Court."</p> + +<p>Richard stared at him blankly. "What can I say?" he +gasped.</p> + +<p>"Say nothing to me," returned Lawyer Perkins, hastily +thrusting a handful of loose papers into the open throat of the +green bag, which he garroted an instant afterwards with a thick +black cord. Then he rose flurriedly from the chair. "I shall have +to leave you," he said; "I've an appointment at the +surrogate's."</p> + +<p>And Lawyer Perkins passed stiffly from the apartment.</p> + +<p>Richard lingered a moment alone in the room with his chin +resting on his breast.</p> + +<h2>XXVI</h2> + +<p>There was a fire in Richard's temples as he reeled out of +Lawyer Perkins's office. It was now twelve o'clock, and the +streets were thronged with the motley population disgorged by the +various mills and workshops. Richard felt that every eye was upon +him; he was conscious of something wild in his aspect that must +needs attract the attention of the passers-by. At each step he +half expected the leveling of some accusing finger. The pitiless +sunshine seemed to single him out and stream upon him like a +calcium light. It was intolerable. He must get away from this +jostling crowd, this babel of voices. What should he do, where +should he go? To return to the yard and face the workmen was not +to be thought of; if he went to his lodgings he would be called +to dinner, and have to listen to the inane prattle of the +school-master. That would be even more intolerable than this +garish daylight, and these careless squads of men and women who +paused in the midst of their laugh to turn and stare. Was there +no spot in Stillwater where a broken man could hide himself long +enough to collect his senses?</p> + +<p>With his hands thrust convulsively into the pockets of his +sack-coat, Richard turned down a narrow passage-way fringing the +rear of some warehouses. As he hurried along aimlessly his +fingers encountered something in one of his pockets. It was the +key of a new lock which had been put on the scullery door of the +house in Welch's Court. Richard's heart gave a quick throb. There +at least was a temporary refuge; he would go there and wait until +it was time for him to surrender himself to the officers.</p> + +<p>It appeared to Richard that he was nearly a year reaching the +little back yard of the lonely house. He slipped into the +scullery and locked the door, wondering if his movements had been +observed since he quitted the main street. Here he drew a long +breath and looked around him; then he began wandering restlessly +through the rooms, of which there were five or six on the +ground-floor. The furniture, the carpets, and all the sordid +fixtures of the house were just as Richard had known them in his +childhood. Everything was unchanged, even to the faded +peacock-feather stuck over the parlor looking-glass. As he +regarded the familiar objects and breathed the snuffy atmosphere +peculiar to the place, the past rose so vividly before him that +he would scarcely have been startled if a lean, gray old man had +suddenly appeared in one of the doorways. On a peg in the front +hall hung his cousin's napless beaver hat, satirically ready to +be put on; in the kitchen closet a pair of ancient shoes, worn +down at the heel and with taps on the toe, had all the air of +intending to step forth. The shoes had been carefully blacked, +but a thin skin of mould had gathered over them. They looked like +Lemuel Shackford. They had taken a position habitual with him. +Richard was struck by the subtile irony which lay in these +inanimate things. That a man's hat should outlast the man, and +have a jaunty expression of triumph! That a dead man's shoes +should mimic him!</p> + +<p>The tall eight-day clock on the landing had run down. It had +stopped at twelve, and it now stood with solemnly uplifted +finger, as if imposing silence on those small, unconsidered +noises which commonly creep out, like mice, only at midnight. The +house was full of such stealthy sounds. The stairs creaked at +intervals, mysteriously, as if under the weight of some heavy +person ascending. Now and then the woodwork stretched itself with +a snap, as though it had grown stiff in the joints with remaining +so long in one position. At times there were muffled +reverberations of footfalls on the flooring overhead. Richard had +a curious consciousness of not being alone, but of moving in the +midst of an invisible throng of persons who elbowed him softly +and breathed in his face, and vaguely impressed themselves upon +him as being former occupants of the premises. This populous +solitude, this silence with its busy interruptions, grew +insupportable as he passed from room to room.</p> + +<p>One chamber he did not enter,--the chamber in which his +cousin's body was found that Wednesday morning. In Richard's +imagination it was still lying there, white and piteous, by the +hearth. He paused at the threshold and glanced in; then turned +abruptly and mounted the staircase.</p> + +<p>On gaining his old apartment in the gable, Richard seated +himself on the edge of the cot-bed. His shoulders sagged down and +a stupefied expression settled upon his face, but his brain was +in a tumult. His own identity was become a matter of doubt to +him. Was he the same Richard Shackford who had found life so +sweet when he awoke that morning? IT must have been some other +person who had sat by a window in the sunrise thinking of +Margaret Slocum's love,--some Richard Shackford with unstained +hands! This one was accused of murdering his kinsman; the weapon +with which he had done it, the very match he had used to light +him in the deed, were known! The victim himself had written out +the accusation in black and white. Richard's brain reeled as he +tried to fix his thought on Lemuel Shackford's letter. That +letter!--where had it been all this while, and how did it come +into Taggett's possession? Only one thing was clear to Richard in +his inextricable confusion,--he was not going to be able to prove +his innocence; he was a doomed man, and within the hour his shame +would be published to the world. Rowland Slocum and Lawyer +Perkins had already condemned him, and Margaret would condemn him +when she knew all; for it was evident that up to last evening she +had not been told. How did it happen that these overwhelming +proofs had rolled themselves up against him? What malign +influences were these at work, hurrying him on to destruction, +and not leaving a single loophole of escape? Who would believe +the story of his innocent ramble on the turnpike that Tuesday +night? Who could doubt that he had gone directly from the +Slocums' to Welch's Court, and then crept home red-handed through +the deserted streets?</p> + +<p>Richard heard the steam-whistles recalling the operatives to +work, and dimly understood it was one o'clock; but after that he +paid no attention to the lapse of time. It was an hour later, +perhaps two hours,--Richard could not tell,--when he roused +himself from his stupor, and descending the stairs passed through +the kitchen into the scullery. There he halted and leaned against +the sink, irresolute, as though his purpose, if he had had a +purpose, were escaping him. He stood with his eyes resting +listlessly on a barrel in the further corner of the apartment. It +was a heavy-hooped wine-cask, in which Lemuel Shackford had been +wont to keep his winter's supply of salted meat. Suddenly Richard +started forward with an inarticulate cry, and at the same instant +there came a loud knocking at the door behind him. The sound +reverberated through the empty house, filling the place with +awful echoes,--like those knocks at the gate of Macbeth's castle +the night of Duncan's murder. Richard stood petrified for a +second; then he hastily turned the key in the lock, and Mr. +Taggett stepped into the scullery.</p> + +<p>The two men exchanged swift glances. The bewildered air of a +moment before had passed from Richard; the dullness had faded out +of his eyes, leaving them the clear, alert expression they +ordinarily wore. He was self-possessed, but the effort his +self-possession cost him was obvious. There was a something in +his face--a dilation of the nostril, a curve of the under +lip--which put Mr. Taggett very much on his guard. Mr. Taggett +was the first to speak.</p> + +<p>"I've a disagreeable mission here," he said slowly, with his +hand remaining on the latch of the door, which he had closed on +entering. "I have a warrant for your arrest, Mr. Shackford."</p> + +<p>"Stop a moment!" said Richard, with a glow in his eyes. "I +have something to say."</p> + +<p>"I advise you not to make any statement."</p> + +<p>"I understand my position perfectly, Mr. Taggett, and I shall +disregard the advice. After you have answered me one or two +questions, I shall be quite at your service."</p> + +<p>"If you insist, then."</p> + +<p>"You were present at the examination of Thomas Blufton and +William Durgin, were you not?"</p> + +<p>"I was."</p> + +<p>"You recollect William Durgin's testimony?"</p> + +<p>"Most distinctly."</p> + +<p>"He stated that the stains on his clothes were from a certain +barrel, the head of which had been freshly painted red."</p> + +<p>"I remember."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Taggett, <i>the head of that barrel was painted +blue!"</i></p> + +<h2>XXVII</h2> + +<p>Mr. Taggett, in spite of the excellent subjection under which +he held his nerves, caught his breath at these words, and a +transient pallor overspread his face as he followed the pointing +of Richard's finger. If William Durgin had testified falsely on +that point, if he had swerved a hair's-breadth from the truth in +that matter, then there was but one conclusion to be drawn from +his perjury. A flash of lightning is not swifter than was Mr. +Taggett's thought in grasping the situation. In an instant he saw +all his carefully articulated case fall to pieces in his hands. +Richard crossed the narrow room, and stood in front of him.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Taggett, do you know why William Durgin lied? He lied +because it was life or death with him! In a moment of confusion +he had committed one of those simple, fatal blunders which men in +his circumstances always commit. He had obliterated the spots on +his clothes with red paint, when he ought to have used blue!"</p> + +<p>"That is a very grave supposition."</p> + +<p>"It is not a supposition," cried Richard. "The daylight is not +a plainer fact."</p> + +<p>"You are assuming too much, Mr. Shackford."</p> + +<p>"I am assuming nothing. Durgin has convicted himself; he has +fallen into a trap of his own devising. I charge him with the +murder of Lemuel Shackford; I charge him with taking the chisel +and the matches from my workshop, to which he had free access; +and I charge him with replacing those articles in order to divert +suspicion upon me. My unfortunate relations with my cousin gave +color to this suspicion. The plan was an adroit plan, and has +succeeded, it seems."</p> + +<p>Mr. Taggett did not reply at once, and then very coldly: "You +will pardon me for suggesting it, but it will be necessary to +ascertain if this is the cask which Durgin hoped, and also if the +head has not been repainted since."</p> + +<p>"I understand what your doubt implies. It is your duty to +assure yourself of these facts, and nothing can be easier. The +person who packed the meat--it was probably a provision dealer +named Stubbs--will of course be able to recognize his own work. +The other question you can settle with a scratch of your +penknife. You see. There has been only one thin coat of paint +laid on,--the grain of the wood is nearly distinguishable through +it. The head is evidently new; but the cask itself is an old one. +It has stood here these ten years."</p> + +<p>Mr. Taggett bent a penetrating look on Richard. "Why did you +refuse to answer the subpoena, Mr. Shackford?"</p> + +<p>"But I haven't refused. I was on my way to Justice Beemis's +office when you knocked. Perhaps I am a trifle late," added +Richard, catching Mr. Taggett's distrustful glance.</p> + +<p>"The summons said two o'clock," remarked Mr. Taggett, pressing +the spring of his watch. "It is now after three."</p> + +<p>"After three!"</p> + +<p>"How could you neglect it,--with evidence of such presumable +importance in your hands?"</p> + +<p>"It was only a moment ago that I discovered this. I had come +here from Mr. Perkins's office. Mr. Perkins had informed me of +the horrible charge which was to be laid at my door. The +intelligence fell upon me like a thunder-clap. I think it +unsettled my reason for a while. I was unable to put two ideas +together. At first he didn't believe I had killed my cousin, and +presently he seemed to believe it. When I got out in the street +the sidewalk lurched under my feet like the deck of a ship; +everything swam before me. I don't know how I managed to reach +this house, and I don't know how long I had been sitting in a +room up-stairs when the recollection of the subpoena occurred to +me. I was standing here dazed with despair; I saw that I was +somehow caught in the toils, and that it was going to be +impossible to prove my innocence. If another man had been in my +position, I should have believed him guilty. I stood looking at +the cask in the corner there, scarcely conscious of it; then I +noticed the blue paint on the head, and then William Durgin's +testimony flashed across my mind. Where is he?" cried Richard, +turning swiftly. "That man should be arrested!"</p> + +<p>"I am afraid he is gone," said Mr. Taggett, biting his +lip.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean he has fled?"</p> + +<p>"If you are correct--he has fled. He failed to answer the +summons to-day, and the constable sent to look him up has been +unable to find him. Durgin was in the bar-room of the tavern at +eight o'clock last night; he has not been seen since."</p> + +<p>"He was not in the yard this morning. You have let him slip +through your fingers."</p> + +<p>"So it appears, for the moment."</p> + +<p>"You still doubt me, Mr. Taggett?"</p> + +<p>"I don't let persons slip through my fingers."</p> + +<p>Richard curbed an impatient rejoinder, and said quietly, +"William Durgin had an accomplice."</p> + +<p>Mr. Taggett flushed, as if Richard had read his secret +thought. Durgin's flight, if he really had fled, had suggested a +fresh possibility to Mr. Taggett. What if Durgin were merely the +pliant instrument of the cleverer man who was now using him as a +shield? This reflection was precisely in Mr. Taggett's line. In +absconding Durgin had not only secured his own personal safety, +but had exonerated his accomplice. It was a desperate step to +take, but it was a skillful one.</p> + +<p>"He had an accomplice?" repeated Mr. Taggett, after a moment. +"Who was it?"</p> + +<p>"Torrini!"</p> + +<p>"The man who was hurt the other day?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"You have grounds for your assertion?"</p> + +<p>"He and Durgin were intimate, and have been much together +lately. I sat up with Torrini the night before last; he acted and +talked very strangely; the man was out of his head part of the +time, but now, as I think it over, I am convinced that he had +this matter on his mind, and was hinting at it. I believe he +would have made disclosures if I had urged him a little. He was +evidently in great dread of a visit from some person, and that +person was Durgin. Torrini ought to be questioned without delay; +he is very low, and may die at any moment. He is lying in a house +at the further end of the town. If it is not imperative that I +should report myself to Justice Beemis, we had better go there at +once."</p> + +<p>Mr. Taggett, who had been standing with his head half bowed, +lifted it quickly as he asked the question, "Why did you withhold +Lemuel Shackford's letter?"</p> + +<p>"It was never in my possession, Mr. Taggett," said Richard, +starting. "That paper is something I cannot explain at present. I +can hardly believe in its existence, though Mr. Perkins declares +that he has had it in his hands, and it would be impossible for +him to make a mistake in my cousin's writing."</p> + +<p>"The letter was found in your lodgings."</p> + +<p>"So I was told. I don't understand it."</p> + +<p>"That explanation will not satisfy the prosecuting +attorney."</p> + +<p>"I have only one theory about it," said Richard slowly.</p> + +<p>"What is that?"</p> + +<p>"I prefer not to state it now. I wish to stop at my +boarding-house on the way to Torrini's; it will not be out of our +course."</p> + +<p>Mr. Taggett gave silent acquiescence to this. Richard opened +the scullery door, and the two passed into the court. Neither +spoke until they reached Lime Street. Mrs. Spooner herself +answered Richard's ring, for he had purposely dispensed with the +use of his pass-key.</p> + +<p>"I wanted to see you a moment, Mrs. Spooner," said Richard, +making no motion to enter the hall. "Thanks, we will not come in. +I merely desire to ask you a question. Were you at home all day +on that Monday immediately preceding my cousin's death?"</p> + +<p>"No," replied Mrs. Spooner wonderingly, with her hand still +resting on the knob. "I wasn't at home at all. I spent the day +and part of the night with my daughter Maria Ann at South +Millville. It was a boy," added Mrs. Spooner, quite irrelevantly, +smoothing her ample apron with the disengaged hand.</p> + +<p>"Then Janet was at home," said Richard. "Call Janet."</p> + +<p>A trim, intelligent-looking Nova Scotia girl was summoned from +the basement kitchen.</p> + +<p>"Janet," said Richard, "do you remember the day, about three +weeks ago, that Mrs. Spooner was absent at South Millville?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied the girl, without hesitation. "It was the day +before"--and then she stopped.</p> + +<p>"Exactly; it was the day before my cousin was killed. Now I +want you to recollect whether any letter or note or written +message of any description was left for me at this house on that +day."</p> + +<p>Janet reflected. "I think there was, Mr. Richard,--a bit of +paper like."</p> + +<p>Mr. Taggett riveted his eyes on the girl.</p> + +<p>"Who brought the paper?" demanded Richard.</p> + +<p>"It was one of the Murphy boys, I think."</p> + +<p>"Did you hand it to me?"</p> + +<p>"No, Mr. Richard, you had gone out. It was just after +breakfast."</p> + +<p>"You gave it to me when I came home to dinner, then?"</p> + +<p>"No," returned Janet, becoming confused with a dim perception +that something had gone wrong and she was committing herself.</p> + +<p>"I remember, I didn't come home. I dined at the Slocums'. What +did you do with that paper?"</p> + +<p>"I put it on the table in your room up-stairs."</p> + +<p>Mr. Taggett's eyes gleamed a little at this.</p> + +<p>"And that is all you can say about it?" inquired Richard, with +a fallen countenance.</p> + +<p>Janet reflected. She reflected a long while this time. "No, +Mr. Shackford: an hour or so afterwards, when I went up to do the +chamber-work, I saw that the wind had blow the paper off of the +table. I picked up the note and put it back; but the wind blew it +off again."</p> + +<p>"What then?"</p> + +<p>"Then I shut up the note in one of the big books, meaning to +tell you of it, and--and I forgot it! Oh, Mr. Richard, have I +done something dreadful?"</p> + +<p>"Dreadful!" cried Richard. "Janet, I could hug you!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Richard," said Janet with a little coquettish +movement natural to every feminine thing, bird, flower, or human +being, "you've always such a pleasant way with you."</p> + +<p>Then there was a moment of dead silence. Mrs. Spooner saw that +the matter, whatever it was, was settled.</p> + +<p>"You needn't wait, Janet!" she said, with a severe, mystified +air.</p> + +<p>"We are greatly obliged to you, Mrs. Spooner, not to mention +Janet," said Richard; "and if Mr. Taggett has no questions to ask +we will not detain you."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Spooner turned her small amiable orbs on Richard's +companion. That silent little man Mr. Taggett! "He doesn't look +like much," was the landlady's unuttered reflection; and indeed +he did not present a spirited appearance. Nevertheless Mrs. +Spooner followed him down the street with her curious gaze until +he and Richard passed out of sight.</p> + +<p>Neither Richard nor Mr. Taggett was disposed to converse as +they wended their way to Mitchell's Alley. Richard's ire was +slowly kindling at the shameful light in which he had been placed +by Mr. Taggett, and Mr. Taggett was striving with only partial +success to reconcile himself to the idea of young Shackford's +innocence. Young Shackford's innocence was a very awkward thing +for Mr. Taggett, for he had irretrievably committed himself at +head-quarters. With Richard's latent ire was mingled a feeling of +profound gratitude.</p> + +<p>"The Lord was on my side," he said presently.</p> + +<p>"He was on your side, as you remark; and when the Lord is on a +man's side a detective necessarily comes out second best."</p> + +<p>"Really, Mr. Taggett," said Richard, smiling, "that is a +handsome admission on your part."</p> + +<p>"I mean, sir," replied the latter, slightly nettled, "that it +sometimes seems as if the Lord himself took charge of a +case."</p> + +<p>"Certainly you are entitled to the credit of going to the +bottom of this one."</p> + +<p>"I have skillfully and laboriously damaged my reputation, Mr. +Shackford."</p> + +<p>Mr. Taggett said this with so heavy an air that Richard felt a +stir of sympathy in his bosom.</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry," he said good-naturedly.</p> + +<p>"No, I beg of you!" exclaimed Mr. Taggett. "Any expression of +friendliness from you would finish me! For nearly ten days I have +looked upon you as a most cruel and consummate villain."</p> + +<p>"I know," said Richard. "I must be quite a disappointment to +you, in a small way."</p> + +<p>Mr. Taggett laughed in spite of himself. "I hope I don't take +a morbid view of it," he said. A few steps further on he relaxed +his gait. "We have taken the Hennessey girl into custody. Do you +imagine she was concerned?"</p> + +<p>"Have you questioned her?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; she denies everything, except that she told Durgin you +had quarreled with the old gentleman."</p> + +<p>"I think Mary Hennessey an honest girl. She's little more than +a child. I doubt if she knew anything whatever. Durgin was much +too shrewd to trust her, I fancy."</p> + +<p>As the speakers struck into the principal street, through the +lower and busier end of which they were obliged to pass, Mr. +Taggett caused a sensation. The drivers of carts and the +pedestrians on both sidewalks stopped and looked at him. The part +he had played in Slocum's Yard was now an open secret, and had +produced an excitement that was not confined to the +clientèle of Snelling's bar-room. It was known that +William Durgin had disappeared, and that the constables were +searching for him. The air was thick with flying projectures, but +none of them precisely hit the mark. One rumor there was which +seemed almost like a piece of poetical justice,--a whisper to the +effect that Rowland Slocum was suspected of being in some way +mixed up with the murder. The fact that Lawyer Perkins, with his +green bag streaming in the wind, so to speak, had been seen +darting into Mr. Slocum's private residence at two o'clock that +afternoon was sufficient to give birth to the horrible +legend.</p> + +<p>"Mitchell's Alley," said Mr. Taggett, thrusting his arm +through Richard's, and hurrying on the escape the Stillwater +gaze. "You went there directly from the station the night you got +home."</p> + +<p>"How did you know that?"</p> + +<p>"I was told by a fellow-traveler of yours,--and a friend of +mine."</p> + +<p>"By Jove! Did it ever strike you, Mr. Taggett, that there is +such a thing as being too clever?"</p> + +<p>"It has occurred to me recently."</p> + +<p>"Here is the house."</p> + +<p>Two sallow-skinned children, with wide, wistful black eyes, +who were sitting on the stone step, shyly crowded themselves +together against the door-jamb to make passage-way for Richard +and Mr. Taggett. Then the two pairs of eyes veered round +inquiringly, and followed the strangers up the broken staircase +and saw one of them knock at the door which faced the +building.</p> + +<p>Richard's hasty tap bringing no response, he lifted the latch +without further ceremony and stepped into the chamber, Mr. +Taggett a pace or two behind him. The figure of Father O'Meara +slowly rising from a kneeling posture at the bedside was the +first object that met their eyes; the second was Torrini's placid +face, turned a little on the pillow; the third was Brigida +sitting at the foot of the bed, motionless, with her arms wrapped +in her apron.</p> + +<p>"He is dead," said the priest softly, advancing a step towards +Richard. "You are too late. He wanted to see you, Mr. Shackford, +but you were not to be found."</p> + +<p>Richard sent a swift glance over the priest's shoulder. "He +wanted to tell me what part he had played in my cousin's murder?" +said Richard.</p> + +<p>"God forbid! the wretched man had many a sin on his soul, but +not that."</p> + +<p>"Not that!"</p> + +<p>"No; he had no hand in it,--no more than you or I. His fault +was that he concealed his knowledge of the deed after it was +done. He did not even suspect who committed the crime until two +days' afterwards, when William Durgin"--</p> + +<p>Richard's eyes lighted up as they encountered Mr. Taggett's. +The priest mistook the significance of the glances.</p> + +<p>"No," said Father O'Meara, indicating Brigida with a quick +motion of his head, "the poor soul does not understand a word. +But even if she did, I should have to speak of these matters here +and now, while they are fresh in my mind. I am obeying the solemn +injunctions of the dead. Two days after the murder William Durgin +came to Torrini and confessed the deed, offering to share with +him a large sum in gold and notes if he would hide the money +temporarily. Torrini agreed to do so. Later Durgin confided to +him his plan of turning suspicion upon you, Mr. Shackford; +indeed, of directly charging you with the murder, if the worst +came to the worst. Torrini agreed to that also, because of some +real or fancied injury at your hands. It seems that the implement +which Durgin had employed in forcing the scullery door--the +implement which he afterwards used so mercilessly--had been +stolen from your workshop. The next morning Durgin put the tool +back in its place, not knowing what other disposition to make of +it, and it was then that the idea of shouldering the crime upon +you entered his wicked heart. According to Torrini, Durgin did +not intend to harm the old gentleman, but simply to rob him. The +unfortunate man was awakened by the noise Durgin made in breaking +open the safe, and rushed in to his doom. Having then no fear of +interruption, Durgin leisurely ransacked the house. How he came +across the will, and destroyed it with the idea that he was +putting the estate out of your possession--this and other details +I shall give you by and by."</p> + +<p>Father O'Meara paused a moment. "After the accident at the +mill and the conviction that he was not to recover, Torrini's +conscience began to prick him. When he reflected on Miss Slocum's +kindness to his family during the strike, when he now saw her +saving his wife and children from absolute starvation, he was +nearly ready to break the oath with which he had bound himself to +William Durgin. Curiously enough, this man, so reckless in many +things, held his pledged word sacred. Meanwhile his wavering +condition became apparent to Durgin, who grew alarmed, and +demanded the stolen property. Torrini refused to give it up; even +his own bitter necessities had not tempted him to touch a penny +of it. For the last three days he was in deadly terror lest +Durgin should wrest the money from him by force. The poor woman, +here, knows nothing of all this. It was her presence, however, +which probably prevented Durgin from proceeding to extremities +with Torrini, who took care never to be left alone."</p> + +<p>"I recollect," said Richard, "the night I watched with him he +was constantly expecting some one. I supposed him to be wandering +in his mind."</p> + +<p>"He was expecting Durgin, though Torrini had every reason for +believing that he had fled."</p> + +<p>Mr. Taggett leaned forward, and asked, "When did he go,--and +where?"</p> + +<p>"He was too cunning to confide his plans to Torrini. Three +nights ago Durgin came here and begged for a portion of the +bank-note; previously he had reclaimed the whole sum; he said the +place was growing too warm for him, and that he had made up his +mind to leave. But Torrini held on to the money, having resolved +that it should be restored intact to you. He promised Durgin, +however, to keep his flight secret for three or four days, at the +end of which time Torrini meant to reveal all to me at +confession. The night you sat with him, Mr. Shackford, he was +near breaking his promise; your kindness was coals of fire on his +head. His agony, lest he should die or lose his senses before he +could make known the full depth of Durgin's villainy, must have +been something terrible. This is the substance of what the poor +creature begged me to say to you with his dying regrets. The +money is hidden somewhere under the mattress, I believe. A better +man than Torrini would have spent some of it," added Father +O'Meara, waving a sort of benediction in the direction of the +bed.</p> + +<p>Richard did not speak for a moment or two. The wretchedness +and grimness of it all smote him to the heart. When he looked up +Mr. Taggett was gone, and the priest was gently drawing the +coverlet over Torrini's face.</p> + +<p>Richard approached Father O'Meara and said: "When the money is +found, please take charge of it, and see that every decent +arrangement is made. I mean, spare nothing. I am a Protestant, +but I believe in any man's prayers when they are not addressed to +a heathen image. I promised Torrini to send his wife and children +to Italy. This pitiful, miserable gold, which cost so dear and is +worth so little, shall be made to do that much good, at +least."</p> + +<p>As Richard was speaking, a light footfall sounded on the +staircase outside; then the door, which stood ajar, was softly +pushed open, and Margaret paused on the threshold. At the rustle +of her dress Richard turned, and hastened towards her.</p> + +<p>"It is all over," he said softly, laying his finger on his +lip. Father O'Meara was again kneeling by the bedside.</p> + +<p>"Let us go now," whispered Richard to Margaret. It seemed fit +that they should leave the living and the dead to the murmured +prayers and solemn ministration of the kindly priest. Such later +services as Margaret could render to the bereaved woman were not +to be wanting.</p> + +<p>At the foot of the stairs Richard Shackford halted abruptly, +and, oblivious of the two children who were softly chattering +together in the doorway, caught Margaret's hand in his.</p> + +<p>"Margaret, Torrini has made a confession that sets at rest all +question of my cousin's death."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that he"--Margaret faltered, and left the +sentence unfinished.</p> + +<p>"No; it was William Durgin, God forgive him!"</p> + +<p>"William Durgin!" The young girl's fingers closed nervously on +Richard's as she echoed the name, and she began trembling. +"That--that is stranger yet!"</p> + +<p>"I will tell you everything when we get home; this is no time +or place; but one thing I must ask you now and here. When you sat +with me last night were you aware that Mr. Taggett firmly +believed it was I who had killed Lemuel Shackford?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Margaret.</p> + +<p>"That is all I care to know!" cried Richard; "that consoles +me!" and the two pairs of great inquisitive eyes looking up from +the stone step saw the signorina standing quite mute and +colorless with the strange gentleman's arms around her. And the +signorina was smiling!</p> + +<h2>XXVIII</h2> + +<p>One June Morning, precisely a year from that morning when the +reader first saw the daylight breaking upon Stillwater, several +workmen with ladders and hammers were putting up a freshly +painted sign over the gate of the marble yard. Mr. Slocum and +Richard stood on the opposite curbstone, to which they had +retired in order to take in the general effect. The new sign +read,--Slocum & Shackford. Richard protested against the +displacement of its weather-stained predecessor; it seemed to him +an act little short of vandalism; but Mr. Slocum was obstinate, +and would have it done. He was secretly atoning for a deep +injustice, into which Richard had been at once too sensitive and +too wise closely to inquire. If Mr. Slocum had harbored a +temporary doubt of him Richard did not care to know it; it was +quite enough to suspect the fact. His sufficient recompense was +that Margaret had not doubted. They had now been married six +months. The shadow of the tragedy in Welch's Court had long +ceased to oppress them; it had vanished with the hasty departure +of Mr. Taggett. Neither he nor William Durgin was ever seen again +in the flesh in Stillwater; but they both still led, and will +probably continue for years to lead, a sort of phantasmal, +legendary life in Snelling's bar-room. Durgin in his flight had +left no traces. From time to time, as the months rolled on, a +misty rumor was blown to the town of his having been seen in some +remote foreign city,--now in one place, and now in another, +always on the point of departing, self-pursued like the Wandering +Jew; but nothing authentic. His after-fate was to be a sealed +book in Stillwater.</p> + +<p>"I really wish you had let the old sign stand," said Richard, +as the carpenters removed the ladders. "The yard can never be +anything but Slocum's Yard."</p> + +<p>"It looks remarkably well up there," replied Mr. Slocum, +shading his eyes critically with one hand. "You object to the +change, but for my part I don't object to changes. I trust I may +live to see the day when even this sign will have to be altered +to--Slocum, Shackford & Son. How would you like that?"</p> + +<p>"I can't say," returned Richard laughing, as they passed into +the yard together. "I should first have to talk it over--with the +son!"</p> + +<center> +<h3>The End</h3> +</center> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Stillwater Tragedy, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STILLWATER TRAGEDY *** + +***** This file should be named 5435-h.htm or 5435-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/3/5435/ + +Produced by This eBook was created by Charles Aldarondo +(pg@aldarondo.net). + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Stillwater Tragedy + +Author: Thomas Bailey Aldrich + +Release Date: April, 2004 [EBook #5435] +Posting Date: July 11, 2010 +[This file last updated on July 21, 2010] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STILLWATER TRAGEDY *** + + + + +Produced by This eBook was created by Charles Aldarondo +(pg@aldarondo.net). + + + + + + + + + +The Stillwater Tragedy + +By Thomas Bailey Aldrich + + + + +I + + +It is close upon daybreak. The great wall of pines and hemlocks +that keep off the west wind from Stillwater stretches black and +indeterminate against the sky. At intervals a dull, metallic sound, +like the guttural twang of a violin string, rises form the +frog-invested swamp skirting the highway. Suddenly the birds stir in +their nests over there in the woodland, and break into that wild +jargoning chorus with which they herald the advent of a new day. In +the apple-orchards and among the plum-trees of the few gardens in +Stillwater, the wrens and the robins and the blue-jays catch up the +crystal crescendo, and what a melodious racket they make of it with +their fifes and flutes and flageolets! + +The village lies in a trance like death. Possibly not a soul hears +this music, unless it is the watchers at the bedside of Mr. Leonard +Tappleton, the richest man in town, who has lain dying these three +days, and cannot last until sunrise. Or perhaps some mother, drowsily +hushing her wakeful baby, pauses a moment and listens vacantly to the +birds singing. But who else? + +The hubbub suddenly ceases,--ceases as suddenly as it began,--and +all is still again in the woodland. But it is not so dark as before. +A faint glow of white light is discernible behind the ragged line of +the tree-tops. The deluge of the darkness is receding from the face +of the earth, as the mighty waters receded of old. + +The roofs and tall factory chimneys of Stillwater are slowly +taking shape in the gloom. Is that a cemetery coming into view +yonder, with its ghostly architecture of obelisks and broken columns +and huddled head-stones? No, that is only Slocum's Marble Yard, with +the finished and unfinished work heaped up like snowdrifts,--a +cemetery in embryo. Here and there in an outlying farm a lantern +glimmers in the barn-yard: the cattle are having their fodder +betimes. Scarlet-capped chanticleer gets himself on the nearest +rail-fence and lifts up his rancorous voice like some irate old +cardinal launching the curse of Rome. Something crawls swiftly along +the gray of the serpentine turnpike,--a cart, with the driver lashing +a jaded horse. A quick wind goes shivering by, and is lost in the +forest. + +Now a narrow strip of two-colored gold stretches along the +horizon. + +Stillwater is gradually coming to its senses. The sun has begun to +twinkle on the gilt cross of the Catholic chapel and make itself +known to the doves in the stone belfry of the South Church. The +patches of cobweb that here and there cling tremulously to the coarse +grass of the inundated meadows have turned into silver nets, and the +mill-pond--it will be steel-blue later--is as smooth and white as if +it had been paved with one vast unbroken slab out of Slocum's Marble +Yard. Through a row of button-woods on the northern skirt of the +village is seen a square, lap-streaked building, painted a +disagreeable brown, and surrounded on three sides by a platform,--one +of seven or eight similar stations strung like Indian heads on a +branch thread of the Great Sagamore Railway. + +Listen! That is the jingle of the bells on the baker's cart as it +begins its rounds. From innumerable chimneys the curdled smoke gives +evidence that the thrifty housewife--or, what is rarer in Stillwater, +the hired girl--has lighted the kitchen fire. + +The chimney-stack of one house at the end of a small court--the +last house on the easterly edge of the village, and standing quite +alone--sends up no smoke. Yet the carefully trained ivy over the +porch, and the lemon verbena in a tub at the foot of the steps, +intimate that the place is not unoccupied. Moreover, the little +schooner which acts as weather-cock on one of the gables, and is now +heading due west, has a new top-sail. It is a story-and-a-half +cottage, with a large expanse of roof, which, covered with porous, +unpainted shingles, seems to repel the sunshine that now strikes full +upon it. The upper and lower blinds on the main building, as well as +those on the extensions, are tightly closed. The sun appears to beat +in vain at the casements of this silent house, which has a curiously +sullen and defiant air, as if it had desperately and successfully +barricaded itself against the approach of morning; yet if one were +standing in the room that leads from the bed-chamber on the +ground-floor--the room with the latticed window--one would see a ray +of light thrust through a chink of the shutters, and pointing like a +human finger at an object which lies by the hearth. + +This finger, gleaming, motionless, and awful in its precision, +points to the body of old Mr. Lemuel Shackford, who lies there dead +in his night-dress, with a gash across his forehead. + +In the darkness of that summer night a deed darker than the night +itself had been done in Stillwater. + + + + +II + + +That morning, when Michael Hennessey's girl Mary--a girl sixteen +years old--carried the can of milk to the rear door of the silent +house, she was nearly a quarter of hour later than usual, and looked +forward to being soundly rated. + +"He's up and been waiting for it," she said to herself, observing +the scullery door ajar. "Won't I ketch it! It's him for growling and +snapping at a body, and it's me for always being before or behind +time, bad luck to me. There's no plazing him." + +Mary pushed back the door and passed through the kitchen, nerving +herself all the while to meet the objurgations which she supposed +were lying in wait for her. The sunshine was blinding without, but +sifted through the green jalousies, it made a gray, crepuscular light +within. As the girl approached the table, on which a plate with knife +and fork had been laid for breakfast, she noticed, somewhat +indistinctly at first, a thin red line running obliquely across the +floor from the direction of the sitting-room and ending near the +stove, where it had formed a small pool. Mary stopped short, scarcely +conscious why, and peered instinctively into the adjoining apartment. +Then, with a smothered cry, she let fall the milk-can, and a dozen +white rivulets, in strange contrast to that one dark red line which +first startled her, went meandering over the kitchen floor. With her +eyes riveted upon some object in the next room, the girl retreated +backward slowly and heavily dragging one foot after the other, until +she reached the gallery door; then she turned swiftly, and plunged +into the street. + +Twenty minutes later, every man, woman, and child in Stillwater +knew that old Mr. Shackford had been murdered. + +Mary Hennessey had to tell her story a hundred times during the +morning, for each minute brought to Michael's tenement a fresh +listener hungry for the details at first hand. + +"How was it, Molly? Tell a body, dear!" + +"Don't be asking me!" cried Molly, pressing her palms to her eyes +as if to shut out the sight, but taking all the while a secret creepy +satisfaction in living the scene over again. "It was kinder dark in +the other room, and there he was, laying in his night-gownd, with his +face turned towards me, so, looking mighty severe-like, jest as if he +was a-going to say, 'It's late with the milk ye are, ye hussy!'--a +way he had of spaking." + +"But he didn't spake, Molly darlin'?" + +"Niver a word. He was stone dead, don't you see. It was that still +you could hear me heart beat, saving there wasn't a drop of beat in +it. I let go the can, sure, and then I backed out, with me eye on 'im +all the while, afeard to death that he would up and spake them +words." + +"The pore child! for the likes of her to be wakin' up a murthered +man in the mornin'!" + +There was little or no work done that day in Stillwater outside +the mills, and they were not running full handed. A number of men +from the Miantowona Iron Works and Slocum's Yard--Slocum employed +some seventy or eighty hands--lounged about the streets in their +blouses, or stood in knots in front of the tavern, smoking short clay +pipes. Not an urchin put in an appearance at the small red brick +building on the turnpike. Mr. Pinkham, the school-master, waited an +hour for the recusants, then turned the key in the lock and went +home. + +Dragged-looking women, with dishcloth or dustpan in hand, stood in +door-ways or leaned from windows, talking in subdued voices with +neighbors on the curb-stone. In a hundred far-away cities the news of +the suburban tragedy had already been read and forgotten; but here +the horror stayed. + +There was a constantly changing crowd gathered in front of the +house in Welch's Court. An inquest was being held in the room +adjoining the kitchen. The court, which ended at the gate of the +cottage, was fringed for several yards on each side by rows of +squalid, wondering children, who understood it that Coroner Whidden +was literally to sit on the dead body,--Mr. Whidden, a limp, +inoffensive little man, who would not have dared to sit down on a +fly. He had passed, pallid and perspiring, to the scene of his +perfunctory duties. + +The result of the investigation was awaited with feverish +impatience by the people outside. Mr. Shackford had not been a +popular man; he had been a hard, avaricious, passionate man, holding +his own way remorselessly. He had been the reverse of popular, but he +had long been a prominent character in Stillwater, because of his +wealth, his endless lawsuits, and his eccentricity, an illustration +of which was his persistence in living entirely alone in the isolated +and dreary old house, that was henceforth to be inhabited by his +shadow. Not his shadow alone, however, for it was now remembered that +the premises were already held in fee by another phantasmal tenant. +At a period long anterior to this, one Lydia Sloper, a widow, had +died an unexplained death under that same roof. The coincidence +struck deeply into the imaginative portion of Stillwater. "The Widow +Sloper and old Shackford have made a match of it," remarked a local +humorist, in a grimmer vein than customary. Two ghosts had now set up +housekeeping, as it were, in the stricken mansion, and what might not +be looked for in the way of spectral progeny! + +It appeared to the crowd in the lane that the jury were +unconscionably long in arriving at a decision, and when the decision +was at length reached it gave but moderate satisfaction. After a +spendthrift waste of judicial mind the jury had decided that "the +death of Lemuel Shackford was caused by a blow on the left temple, +inflicted with some instrument not discoverable, in the hands of some +person or persons unknown." + +"We knew that before," grumbled a voice in the crowd, when, to +relieve public suspense, Lawyer Perkins--a long, lank man, with +stringy black hair--announced the verdict from the doorstep. + +The theory of suicide had obtained momentary credence early in the +morning, and one or two still clung to it with the tenacity that +characterizes persons who entertain few ideas. To accept this theory +it was necessary to believe that Mr. Shackford had ingeniously hidden +the weapon after striking himself dead with a single blow. No, it was +not suicide. So far from intending to take his own life, Mr. +Shackford, it appeared, had made rather careful preparations to live +that day. The breakfast-table had been laid over night, the coals +left ready for kindling in the Franklin stove, and a kettle, filled +with water to be heated for his tea or coffee, stood on the hearth. + +Two facts had sharply demonstrated themselves: first, that Mr. +Shackford had been murdered; and, second, that the spur to the crime +had been the possession of a sum of money, which the deceased was +supposed to keep in a strong-box in his bedroom. The padlock had been +wrenched open, and the less valuable contents of the chest, chiefly +papers, scattered over the carpet. A memorandum among the papers +seemed to specify the respective sums in notes and gold that had been +deposited in the box. A document of some kind had been torn into +minute pieces and thrown into the waste-basket. On close scrutiny a +word or two here and there revealed the fact that the document was of +a legal character. The fragments were put into an envelope and given +in charge of Mr. Shackford's lawyer, who placed seals on that and on +the drawers of an escritoire which stood in the corner and contained +other manuscript. + +The instrument with which the fatal blow had been dealt--for the +autopsy showed that there had been but one blow--was not only not +discoverable, but the fashion of it defied conjecture. The shape of +the wound did not indicate the use of any implement known to the +jurors, several of whom were skilled machinists. The wound was an +inch and three quarters in length and very deep at the extremities; +in the middle it scarcely penetrated to the cranium. So peculiar a +cut could not have been produced with the claw part of a hammer, +because the claw is always curved, and the incision was straight. A +flat claw, such as is used in opening packing-cases, was suggested. A +collection of the several sizes manufactured was procured, but none +corresponded with the wound; they were either too wide or too narrow. +Moreover, the cut was as thin as the blade of a case-knife. + +"That was never done by any tool in these parts," declared +Stevens, the foreman of the finishing shop at Slocum's. + +The assassin or assassins had entered by the scullery door, the +simple fastening of which, a hook and staple, had been broken. There +were footprints in the soft clay path leading from the side gate to +the stone step; but Mary Hennessey had so confused and obliterated +the outlines that now it was impossible accurately to measure them. A +half-burned match was found under the sink,--evidently thrown there +by the burglars. It was of a kind known as the safety-match, which +can be ignited only by friction on a strip of chemically prepared +paper glued to the box. As no box of this description was discovered, +and as all the other matches in the house were of a different make, +the charred splinter was preserved. The most minute examination +failed to show more than this. The last time Mr. Shackford had been +seen alive was at six o'clock the previous evening. + +Who had done the deed? + +Tramps! answered Stillwater, with one voice, though Stillwater lay +somewhat out of the natural highway, and the tramp--that bitter +blossom of civilization whose seed was blown to us from over +seas--was not then so common by the New England roadsides as he +became five or six years later. But it was intolerable not to have a +theory; it was that or none, for conjecture turned to no one in the +village. To be sure, Mr. Shackford had been in litigation with +several of the corporations, and had had legal quarrels with more +than one of his neighbors; but Mr. Shackford had never been +victorious in any of these contests, and the incentive of revenge was +wanting to explain the crime. Besides, it was so clearly robbery. + +Though the gathering around the Shackford house had reduced itself +to half a dozen idlers, and the less frequented streets had resumed +their normal aspect of dullness, there was a strange, electric +quality in the atmosphere. The community was in that state of +suppressed agitation and suspicion which no word adequately +describes. The slightest circumstance would have swayed it to the +belief in any man's guilt; and, indeed, there were men in Stillwater +quite capable of disposing of a fellow-creature for a much smaller +reward than Mr. Shackford had held out. In spite of the tramp theory, +a harmless tin-peddler, who had not passed through the place for +weeks, was dragged from his glittering cart that afternoon, as he +drove smilingly into town, and would have been roughly handled if Mr. +Richard Shackford, a cousin of the deceased, had not interfered. + +As the day wore on, the excitement deepened in intensity, though +the expression of it became nearly reticent. It was noticed that the +lamps throughout the village were lighted an hour earlier than usual. +A sense of insecurity settled upon Stillwater with the falling +twilight,--that nameless apprehension which is possibly more trying +to the nerves than tangible danger. When a man is smitten +inexplicably, as if by a bodiless hand stretched out of a +cloud,--when the red slayer vanishes like a mist and leaves no +faintest trace of his identity,--the mystery shrouding the deed +presently becomes more appalling than the deed itself. There is +something paralyzing in the thought of an invisible hand somewhere +ready to strike at your life, or at some life dearer than your own. +Whose hand, and where is it? Perhaps it passes you your coffee at +breakfast; perhaps you have hired it to shovel the snow off your +sidewalk; perhaps it has brushed against you in the crowd; or may be +you have dropped a coin into the fearful palm at a street corner. Ah, +the terrible unseen hand that stabs your imagination,--this immortal +part of you which is a hundred times more sensitive than your poor +perishable body! + +In the midst of situations the most solemn and tragic there often +falls a light purely farcical in its incongruity. Such a gleam was +unconsciously projected upon the present crisis by Mr. Bodge, better +known in the village as Father Bodge. Mr. Bodge was stone deaf, +naturally stupid, and had been nearly moribund for thirty years with +asthma. Just before night-fall he had crawled, in his bewildered, +wheezy fashion, down to the tavern, where he found a somber crowd in +the bar-room. Mr. Bodge ordered his mug of beer, and sat sipping it, +glancing meditatively from time to time over the pewter rim at the +mute assembly. Suddenly he broke out: "S'pose you've heerd that old +Shackford's ben murdered." + +So the sun went down on Stillwater. Again the great wall of pines +and hemlocks made a gloom against the sky. The moon rose from behind +the tree-tops, frosting their ragged edges, and then sweeping up to +the zenith hung serenely above the world, as if there were never a +crime, or a tear, or a heart-break in it all. + + + + +III + + +On the afternoon of the following day Mr. Shackford was duly +buried. The funeral, under the direction of Mr. Richard Shackford, +who acted as chief mourner and was sole mourner by right of kinship, +took place in profound silence. The carpenters, who had lost a day on +Bishop's new stables, intermitted their sawing and hammering while +the services were in progress; the steam was shut off in the +iron-mills, and no clinking of the chisel was heard in the marble +yard for an hour, during which many of the shops had their shutters +up. Then, when all was over, the imprisoned fiend in the boilers gave +a piercing shriek; the leather bands slipped on the revolving drums, +the spindles leaped into life again, and the old order of things was +reinstated,--outwardly, but not in effect. + +In general, when the grave closes over a man his career is ended. +But Mr. Shackford was never so much alive as after they had buried +him. Never before had he filled so large a place in the public eye. +Though invisible, he sat at every fireside. Until the manner of his +death had been made clear, his ubiquitous presence was not to be +exorcised. On the morning of the memorable day a reward of one +hundred dollars--afterwards increased to five hundred, at the +insistence of Mr. Shackford's cousin--had been offered by the board +of selectmen for the arrest and conviction of the guilty party. +Beyond this and the unsatisfactory inquest, the authorities had done +nothing, and were plainly not equal to the situation. + +When it was stated, the night of the funeral, that a professional +person was coming to Stillwater to look into the case, the +announcement was received with a breath of relief. + +The person thus vaguely described appeared on the spot the next +morning. To mention the name of Edward Taggett is to mention a name +well known to the detective force of the great city lying sixty miles +southwest of Stillwater. Mr. Taggett's arrival sent such a thrill of +expectancy through the village that Mr. Leonard Tappleton, whose +obsequies occurred this day, made his exit nearly unobserved. Yet +there was little in Mr. Taggett's physical aspect calculated to stir +either expectation or enthusiasm: a slender man of about twenty-six, +but not looking it, with overhanging brown mustache, sparse +side-whiskers, eyes of no definite color, and faintly accentuated +eyebrows. He spoke precisely, and with a certain unembarrassed +hesitation, as persons do who have two thoughts to one word,--if +there are such persons. You might have taken him for a physician, or +a journalist, or the secretary of an insurance company; but you would +never have supposed him the man who had disentangled the complicated +threads of the great Barnabee Bank defalcation. + +Stillwater's confidence, which had risen into the nineties, fell +to zero at sight of him. "Is _that_ Taggett?" they asked. That +was Taggett; and presently his influence began to be felt like a +sea-turn. The three Dogberrys of the watch were dispatched on secret +missions, and within an hour it was ferreted out that a man in a cart +had been seen driving furiously up the turnpike the morning after the +murder. This was an agricultural district, the road led to a market +town, and teams going by in the early dawn were the rule and not the +exception; but on that especial morning a furiously driven cart was +significant. Jonathan Beers, who farmed the Jenks land, had heard the +wheels and caught an indistinct glimpse of the vehicle as he was +feeding the cattle, but with a reticence purely rustic had not been +moved to mention the circumstance before. + +"Taggett has got a clew," said Stillwater under its breath. + +By noon Taggett had got the man, cart and all. But it was only +Blufton's son Tom, of South Millville, who had started in hot haste +that particular morning to secure medical service for his wife, of +which she had sorely stood in need, as two tiny girls in a willow +cradle in South Millville now bore testimony. + +"I haven't been cutting down the population _much,"_ said +Blufton, with his wholesome laugh. + +Thomas Blufton was well known and esteemed in Stillwater, but if +the crime had fastened itself upon him it would have given something +like popular satisfaction. + +In the course of the ensuing forty-eight hours four or five tramps +were overhauled as having been in the neighborhood at the time of the +tragedy; but they each had a clean story, and were let go. Then one +Durgin, a workman at Slocum's Yard, was called upon to explain some +half-washed-out red stains on his overalls, which he did. He had +tightened the hoops on a salt-pork barrel for Mr. Shackford several +days previous; the red paint on the head of the barrel was fresh, and +had come off on his clothes. Dr. Weld examined the spots under a +microscope, and pronounced them paint. It was manifest that Mr. +Taggett meant to go to the bottom of things. + +The bar-room of the Stillwater hotel was a center of interest +these nights; not only the bar-room proper, but the adjoining +apartment, where the more exclusive guests took their seltzer-water +and looked over the metropolitan newspapers. Twice a week a social +club met here, having among its members Mr. Craggie, the postmaster, +who was supposed to have a great political future, Mr. Pinkham, +Lawyer Perkins, Mr. Whidden, and other respectable persons. The room +was at all times in some sense private, with a separate entrance from +the street, though another door, which usually stood open, connected +it with the main salon. In this was a long mahogany counter, one +section of which was covered with a sheet of zinc perforated like a +sieve, and kept constantly bright by restless caravans of lager-beer +glasses. Directly behind that end of the counter stood a Gothic +brass-mounted beer-pump, at whose faucets Mr. Snelling, the landlord, +flooded you five or six mugs in the twinkling of an eye, and raised +the vague expectation that he was about to grind out some popular +operatic air. At the left of the pump stretched a narrow mirror, +reflecting he gaily-colored wine-glasses and decanters which stood on +each other's shoulders, and held up lemons, and performed various +acrobatic feats on a shelf in front of it. + +The fourth night after the funeral of Mr. Shackford, a dismal +southeast storm caused an unusual influx of idlers in both rooms. +With the rain splashing against the casements and the wind slamming +the blinds, the respective groups sat discussing in a desultory way +the only topic which could be discussed at present. There had been a +general strike among the workmen a fortnight before; but even that +had grown cold as a topic. + +"That was hard on Tom Blufton," said Stevens, emptying the ashes +out of his long-stemmed clay pipe, and refilling the bowl with cut +cavendish from a jar on a shelf over his head. + +Michael Hennessey sat down his beer-mug with an air of +argumentative disgust, and drew one sleeve across his glistening +beard. + +"Stevens, you've as many minds as a weather-cock, jist! Didn't ye +say yerself it looked mighty black for the lad when he was took?" + +"I might have said something of the sort," Stevens admitted +reluctantly, after a pause. "His driving round at daybreak with an +empty cart did have an ugly look at first." + +"Indade, then." + +"Not to anybody who knew Tom Blufton," interrupted Samuel Piggott, +Blufton's brother-in-law. "The boy hasn't a bad streak in him. It was +an outrage. Might as well have suspected Parson Langly or Father +O'Meara." + +"If this kind of thing goes on," remarked a man in the corner with +a patch over one eye, "both of them reverend gents will be hauled up, +I shouldn't wonder." + +"That's so, Mr. Peters," responded Durgin. "If my respectability +didn't save me, who's safe?" + +"Durgin is talking about his respectability! He's joking." + +"Look here, Dexter," said Durgin, turning quickly on the speaker, +"when I want to joke, I talk about your intelligence." + +"What kind of man is Taggett, anyhow?" asked Piggott. "You saw +him, Durgin." + +"I believe he was at Justice Beemis's office the day Blufton and I +was there; but I didn't make him out in the crowd. Shouldn't know him +from Adam." + +"Stillwater's a healthy place for tramps jest about this time," +suggested somebody. "Three on 'em snaked in to-day." + +"I think, gentlemen, that Mr. Taggett is on the right track +there," observed Mr. Snelling, in the act of mixing another Old +Holland for Mr. Peters. "Not too sweet, you said? I feel it in my +bones that it was a tramp, and that Mr. Taggett will bring him yet." + +"He won't find him on the highway yonder," said a tall, swarthy +man named Torrini, an Italian. Nationalities clash in Stillwater. +"That tramp is a thousand miles from here." + +"So he is if he has any brains under his hat," returned Snelling. +"But they're on the lookout for him. The minute he pawns anything, +he's gone." + +"Can't put up greenbacks or gold, can he? He didn't take nothing +else," interposed Bishop, the veterinary surgeon. + +"Now jewelry nor nothing?" + +"There wasn't none, as I understand it," said Bishop, "except a +silver watch. That was all snug under the old man's piller." + +"Wanter know!" ejaculated Jonathan Beers. + +"I opine, Mr. Craggie," said the school-master, standing in the +inner room with a rolled-up file of the Daily Advertiser in his hand, +"that the person who--who removed our worthy townsman will never be +discovered." + +"I shouldn't like to go quite so far as that, sir," answered Mr. +Craggie, with that diplomatic suavity which leads to postmasterships +and seats in the General Court, and has even been known to oil a dull +fellow's way into Congress. "I cannot take quite so hopeless a view +of it. There are difficulties, but they must be overcome, Mr. +Pinkham, and I think they will be." + +"Indeed, I hope so," returned the school-master. "But there are +cases--are there not?--in which the--the problem, if I may so +designate it, has never been elucidated, and the persons who +undertook it have been obliged to go to the foot, so to speak." + +"Ah, yes, there are such cases, certainly. There was the Burdell +mystery in New York, and, later, the Nathan affair--By the way, I've +satisfactory theories of my own touching both. The police were +baffled, and remain so. But, my _dear_ sir, observe for a moment +the difference." + +Mr. Pinkham rested one finger on the edge of a little round table, +and leaned forward in a respectful attitude to observe the +difference. + +"Those crimes were committed in a vast metropolis affording a +thousand chances for escape, as well as offering a thousand +temptations to the lawless. But we are a limited community. We have +no professional murderers among us. The deed which has stirred +society to its utmost depths was plainly done by some wayfaring +amateur. Remorse has already arrived upon him, if the police haven't. +For the time being he escapes; but he is bound to betray himself +sooner or later. If the right steps are taken,--and I have myself the +greatest confidence in Mr. Taggett,--the guilty party can scarcely +fail to be brought to the bar of justice, if he doesn't bring himself +there." + +"Indeed, indeed, I hope so," repeated Mr. Pinkham. + +"The investigation is being carried on very closely." + +"Too closely," suggested the school-master. + +"Oh dear, no," murmured Mr. Craggie. "The strictest secrecy is +necessary in affairs of this delicate nature. If Tom, Dick, and Harry +were taken behind the scenes," he added, with the air of one wishing +to say too much, "the bottom would drop out of everything." + +Mr. Pinkham shrunk from commenting on a disaster like that, and +relapsed into silence. Mr. Craggie, with his thumbs in the arm-holes +of his waistcoat, and his legs crossed in an easy, senatorial +fashion, leaned back in the chair and smiled blandly. + +"I don't suppose there's nothing new, boys!" exclaimed a fat, +florid man, bustling in good-naturedly at the public entrance, and +leaving a straight wet trail on the sanded floor from the threshold +to the polished mahogany counter. Mr. Wilson was a local humorist of +the Falstaffian stripe, though not so much witty in himself as the +cause of wit in others. + +"No, Jimmy, there isn't anything new," responded Dexter. + +"I suppose you didn't hear that the ole man done somethin' +handsome for me in his last will and testyment." + +"No, Jemmy, I don't think he has made any provision whatever for +an almshouse." + +"Sorry to hear that, Dexter," said Willson, absorbedly chasing a +bit of lemon peel in his glass with the spoon handle, "for there +isn't room for us all up at the town-farm. How's your grandmother? +Finds it tol'rably comfortable?" + +They are a primitive, candid people in their hours of unlaced +social intercourse in Stillwater. This delicate _tu quoque_ was +so far from wounding Dexter that he replied carelessly,-- + +"Well, only so so. The old woman complains of too much +chicken-sallid, and hot-house grapes all the year round." + +"Mr. Shackford must have left a large property," observed Mr. +Ward, of the firm of Ward & Lock, glancing up from the columns of the +Stillwater Gazette. The remark was addressed to Lawyer Perkins, who +had just joined the group in the reading-room. + +"Fairly large," replied that gentleman crisply. + +"Any public bequests?" + +"None to speak of." + +Mr. Craggie smiled vaguely. + +"You see," said Lawyer Perkins, "there's a will and no will,--that +is to say, the fragments of what is supposed to be a will were found, +and we are trying to put the pieces together. It is doubtful if we +can do it; it is doubtful if we can decipher it after we have done +it; and if we decipher it it is a question whether the document is +valid or not." + +"That is a masterly exposition of the dilemma, Mr. Perkins," said +the school-master warmly. + +Mr. Perkins had spoken in his court-room tone of voice, with one +hand thrust into his frilled shirt-bosom. He removed this hand for a +second, as he gravely bowed to Mr. Pinkham. + +"Nothing could be clearer," said Mr. Ward. "In case the paper is +worthless, what then? I am not asking you in your professional +capacity," he added hastily; for Lawyer Perkins had been known to +send in a bill on as slight a provocation as Mr. Ward's. + +"That's a point. The next of kin has his claims." + +"My friend Shackford, of course," broke in Mr. Craggie. "Admirable +young man!--one of my warmest supporters." + +"He is the only heir at law so far as we know," said Mr. Perkins. + +"Oh," said Mr. Craggie, reflecting. "The late Mr. Shackford might +have had a family in Timbuctoo or the Sandwich Islands." + +"That's another point." + +"The fact would be a deuced unpleasant point for young Shackford +to run against," said Mr. Ward. + +"Exactly." + +"If Mr. Lemuel Shackford," remarked Coroner Whidden, softly +joining the conversation to which he had been listening in his +timorous, apologetic manner, "had chanced, in the course of his early +sea-faring days, to form any ties of an unhappy complexion"-- + +"Complexion is good," murmured Mr. Craggie. "Some Hawaiian lady!" + +--"perhaps that would be a branch of the case worth investigating +in connection with the homicide. A discarded wife, or a disowned son, +burning with a sense of wrong"-- + +"Really, Mr. Whidden!" interrupted Lawyer Perkins witheringly, "it +is bad enough for my client to lose his life, without having his +reputation filched away from him." + +"I--I will explain! I was merely supposing"-- + +"The law never supposes, sir!" + +This threw Mr. Whidden into great mental confusion. As coroner was +he not an integral part of the law, and when, in his official +character, he supposed anything was not that a legal supposition? But +was he in his official character now, sitting with a glass of +lemonade at his elbow in the reading-room of the Stillwater hotel? +Was he, or was he not, a coroner all the time? Mr. Whidden stroked an +isolated tuft of hair growing low on the middle of his forehead, and +glared mildly at Mr. Perkins. + +"Young Shackford has gone to New York, I understand," said Mr. +Ward, breaking the silence. + +Mr. Perkins nodded. "Went this morning to look after the +real-estate interests there. It will probably keep him a couple of +weeks,--the longer the better. He was of no use here. Lemuel's death +was a great shock to him, or rather the manner of it was." + +"That shocked every one. They were first cousin's weren't they?" +Mr. Ward was a comparatively new resident in Stillwater. + +"First cousins," replied Lawyer Perkins; "but they were never very +intimate, you know." + +"I imagine nobody was ever very intimate with Mr. Shackford." + +"My client was somewhat peculiar in his friendships." + +This was stating it charitably, for Mr. Perkins knew, and every +one present knew, that Lemuel Shackford had not had the shadow of a +friend in Stillwater, unless it was his cousin Richard. + +A cloud of mist and rain was blown into the bar-room as the street +door stood open for a second to admit a dripping figure from the +outside darkness. + + _"What's_ blowed down?" asked Durgin, turning round on his +stool and sending up a ring of smoke which uncurled itself with +difficulty in the dense atmosphere. + +"It's only some of Jeff Stavers's nonsense." + +"No nonsense at all," said the new-comer, as he shook the heavy +beads of rain from his felt hat. "I was passing by Welch's +Court--it's as black as pitch out, fellows--when slap went something +against my shoulder; something like wet wings. Well, I was scared. +It's a bat, says I. But the thing didn't fly off; it was still +clawing at my shoulder. I put up my hand, and I'll be shot if it +wasn't the foremast, jib-sheet and all, of the old weather-cock on +the north gable of the Shackford house! Here you are!" and the +speaker tossed the broken mast, with the mimic sails dangling from +it, into Durgin's lap. + +A dead silence followed, for there was felt to be something weirdly +significant in the incident. + +"That's kinder omernous," said Mr. Peters, interrogatively. + +"Ominous of what?" asked Durgin, lifting the wet mass from his +knees and dropping it on the floor. + +"Well, sorter queer, then." + +"Where does the queer come in?" inquired Stevens, gravelly. "I +don't know; but I'm hit by it." + +"Come, boys, don't crowd a feller," said Mr. Peters, getting +restive. "I don't take the contract to explain the thing. But it does +seem some way droll that the old schooner should be wrecked so soon +after what has happened to the old skipper. If you don't see it, or +sense it, I don't insist. What's yours, Denyven?" + +The person addressed as Denyven promptly replied, with a fine +sonorous English accent, "a mug of 'alf an' 'alf,--with a head on it, +Snelling." + +At the same moment Mr. Craggie, in the inner room was saying to +the school-master,-- + +"I must really take issue with you there, Mr. Pinkham. I admit +there's a good deal in spiritualism which we haven't got at yet; the +science is in its infancy; it is still attached to the bosom of +speculation. It is a beautiful science, that of psychological +phenomena, and the spiritualists will yet become an influential class +of"--Mr. Craggie was going to say voters, but glided over +it--"persons. I believe in clairvoyance myself to a large extent. +Before my appointment to the post-office I had it very strong. I've +no doubt that in the far future this mysterious factor will be made +great use of in criminal cases; but at present I should resort to it +only in the last extremity,--the very last extremity, Mr. Pinkham!" + +"Oh, of course," said the school-master deprecatingly. "I threw it +out only as the merest suggestion. I shouldn't think of--of--you +understand me?" + +"Is it beyond the dreams of probability," said Mr. Craggie, +appealing to Lawyer Perkins, "that clairvoyants may eventually be +introduced into cases in our courts?" + +"They are now," said Mr. Perkins, with a snort,--"the police bring +'em it." + +Mr. Craggie finished the remainder of his glass of sherry in +silence, and presently rose to go. Coroner Whidden and Mr. Ward had +already gone. The guests in the public room were thinning out; a +gloom, indefinable and shapeless like the night, seemed to have +fallen upon the few that lingered. At a somewhat earlier hour than +usual the gas was shut off in the Stillwater hotel. + +In the lonely house in Welch's Court a light was still burning. + + + + +IV + + +A sorely perplexed man sat there, bending over his papers by the +lamp-light. Mr. Taggett had established himself at the Shackford +house on his arrival, preferring it to the hotel, where he would have +been subjected to the curiosity of the guests and to endless +annoyances. Up to this moment, perhaps not a dozen persons in the +place had had more than a passing glimpse of him. He was a very busy +man, working at his desk from morning until night, and then taking +only a brief walk, for exercise in some unfrequented street. His +meals were sent in from the hotel to the Shackford house, where the +constables reported to him, and where he held protracted conferences +with Justice Beemis, Coroner Whidden, Lawyer Perkins, and a few +others, and declined to be interviewed by the local editor. + +To the outside eye that weather-stained, faded old house appeared +a throbbing seat of esoteric intelligence. It was as if a hundred +invisible magnetic threads converged to a focus under that roof and +incessantly clicked out the most startling information,--information +which was never by any chance allowed to pass beyond the charmed +circle. The pile of letters which the mail brought to Mr. Taggett +every morning--chiefly anonymous suggestions, and offers of +assistance from lunatics in remote cities--was enough in itself to +exasperate a community. + +Covertly at first, and then openly, Stillwater began seriously to +question Mr. Taggett's method of working up the case. The Gazette, in +a double-leaded leader, went so far as to compare him to a bird with +fine feathers and no song, and to suggest that perhaps the bird might +have sung if the inducement offered had been more substantial. A +singer of Mr. Taggett's plumage was not to be taught by such chaff as +five hundred dollars. Having killed his man, the editor proceeded to +remark that he would suspend judgment until next week. + +As if to make perfect the bird comparison, Mr. Taggett, after +keeping the public in suspense for six days and nights, abruptly flew +away, with all the little shreds and straws of evidence he had picked +up, to build his speculative nest elsewhere. + +The defection of Mr. Taggett caused a mild panic among a certain +portion of the inhabitants, who were not reassured by the statement +in the Gazette that the case would now be placed in the proper +hands,--the hand so the county constabulary. "Within a few days," +said the editor in conclusion, "the matter will undoubtedly be +cleared up. At present we cannot say more;" and it would have puzzled +him very much to do so. + +A week passed, and no fresh light was thrown upon the catastrophe, +nor did anything occur to rattle the usual surface of life in the +village. A man--it was Torrini, the Italian--got hurt in Dana's iron +foundry; one of Blufton's twin girls died; and Mr. Slocum took on a +new hand from out of town. That was all. Stillwater was the +Stillwater of a year ago, with always the exception of that shadow +lying upon it, and the fact that small boys who had kindling to get +in were careful to get it in before nightfall. It would appear that +the late Mr. Shackford had acquired a habit of lingering around +wood-piles after dark, and also of stealing into bed-chambers, where +little children were obliged to draw the sheets over their heads in +order not to see him. + +The action of the county constabulary had proved quite as +mysterious and quite as barren of result as Mr. Taggett's had been. +They had worn his mantle of secrecy, and arrested the tramps over +again. + +Another week dragged by, and the editorial prediction seemed as +far as ever from fulfillment. But on the afternoon which closed that +fortnight a very singular thing did happen. Mr. Slocum was sitting +alone in his office, which occupied the whole of a small building at +the right of the main gate to the marble works. When the door behind +him softly opened and a young man, whose dress covered with +stone-dust indicated his vocation, appeared on the threshold. He +hesitated a second, and then stepped into the room. Mr. Slocum turned +round with a swift, apprehensive air. + +"You gave me a start! I believe I haven't any nerves left. Well?" + +"Mr. Slocum, I have found the man." + +The proprietor of the marble yard half rose from the desk in his +agitation. + +"Who is it?" he asked beneath his breath. + +The same doubt or irresolution which had checked the workman at +the threshold seemed again to have taken possession of him. It was +fully a moment before he gained the mastery over himself; but the +mastery was complete; for he leaned forward gravely, almost coldly, +and pronounced two words. A quick pallor overspread Mr. Slocum's +features. + +"Good God!" he exclaimed, sinking back into the chair. "Are you +mad?" + + + + +V + + +The humblest painter of real life, if he could have his desire, +would select a picturesque background for his figures; but events +have an inexorable fashion for choosing their own landscape. In the +present instance it is reluctantly conceded that there are few uglier +or more commonplace towns in New England than Stillwater,--a +straggling, overgrown village, with whose rural aspects are curiously +blended something of the grimness and squalor of certain shabby city +neighborhoods. Being of comparatively recent date, the place has none +of those colonial associations which, like sprigs of lavender in an +old chest of drawers, are a saving grace to other quite as dreary +nooks and corners. + +Here and there at what is termed the West End is a neat brick +mansion with garden attached, where nature asserts herself in dahlias +and china-asters; but the houses are mostly frame houses that have +taken a prevailing dingy tint from the breath of the tall chimneys +which dominate the village. The sidewalks in the more aristocratic +quarter are covered with a thin, elastic paste of asphalt, worn down +to the gravel in patches, and emitting in the heat of the day an +astringent, bituminous odor. The population is chiefly of the rougher +sort, such as breeds in the shadow of foundries and factories, and if +the Protestant pastor and the fatherly Catholic priest, whose +respective lots are cast there, have sometimes the sense of being +missionaries dropped in the midst of a purely savage community, the +delusion is not wholly unreasonable. + +The irregular heaps of scoria that have accumulated in the +vicinity of the iron works give the place an illusive air of +antiquity; bit it is neither ancient nor picturesque. The oldest and +most pictorial thing in Stillwater is probably the marble yard, +around three sides of which the village may be said to have sprouted +up rankly, bearing here and there an industrial blossom in the shape +of an iron-mill or a cardigan-jacket manufactory. Rowland Slocum, a +man of considerable refinement, great kindness of heart, and no +force, inherited the yard from his father, and at the period this +narrative opens (the summer of 187-) was its sole proprietor and +nominal manager, the actual manager being Richard Shackford, a +prospective partner in the business and the betrothed of Mr. Slocum's +daughter Margaret. + +Forty years ago every tenth person in Stillwater was either a +Shackford or a Slocum. Twenty years later both names were nearly +extinct there. That fatality which seems to attend certain New +England families had stripped every leaf but two from the Shackford +branch. These were Lemuel Shackford, then about forty-six, and +Richard Shackford, aged four. Lemuel Shackford had laid up a +competency as ship-master in the New York and Calcutta trade, and in +1852 had returned to his native village, where he found his name and +stock represented only by little Dick, a very cheerful orphan, who +stared complacently with big blue eyes at fate, and made mud-pies in +the lane whenever he could elude the vigilance of the kindly old +woman who had taken him under her roof. This atom of humanity, by +some strange miscalculation of nature, was his cousin. + +The strict devotion to his personal interests which had enabled +Mr. Shackford to acquire a fortune thus early caused him to look +askance at a penniless young kinsman with stockings down at heel, and +a straw hat three sizes too large for him set on the back of his +head. But Mr. Shackford was ashamed to leave little Dick a burden +upon the hands of a poor woman of no relationship whatever to the +child; so little Dick was transferred to that dejected house which +has already been described, and was then known as the Sloper house. + + Here, for three of four years, Dick grew up, as neglected as a +weed, and every inch as happy. It should be mentioned that for the +first year or so a shock-headed Cicely from the town-farm had +apparently been hired not to take care of him. But Dick asked nothing +better than to be left to his own devices, which, moreover, were +innocent enough. He would sit all day in the lane at the front gate +pottering with a bit of twig or a case-knife in the soft clay. From +time to time passers-by observed that the child was not making +mud-pies, but tracing figures, comic or grotesque as might happen, +and always quite wonderful for their lack of resemblance to anything +human. That patch of reddish-brown clay was his sole resource, his +slate, his drawing-book, and woe to anybody who chanced to walk over +little Dick's arabesques. Patient and gentle in his acceptance of the +world's rebuffs, this he would not endure. He was afraid of Mr. +Shackford, yet one day, when the preoccupied man happened to trample +on a newly executed hieroglyphic, the child rose to his feet white +with rage, his fingers clenched, and such a blue fire flashing in the +eyes that Mr. Shackford drew back aghast. + +"Why, it's a little devil!" + +While Shackford junior was amusing himself with his primitive +bas-reliefs, Shackford senior amused himself with his lawsuits. From +the hour when he returned to the town until the end of his days Mr. +Shackford was up to his neck in legal difficulties. Now he resisted a +betterment assessment, and fought the town; now he secured an +injunction on the Miantowona Iron Works, and fought the corporation. +He was understood to have a perpetual case in equity before the +Marine Court in New York, to which city he made frequent and +unannounced journeys. His immediate neighbors stood in terror of him. +He was like a duelist, on the alert to twist the slightest thing into +a _casus belli_. The law was his rapier, his recreation, and he +was willing to bleed for it. + +Meanwhile that fairy world of which every baby becomes a Columbus +so soon as it is able to walk remained an undiscovered continent to +little Dick. Grim life looked in upon him as he lay in the cradle. +The common joys of childhood were a sealed volume to him. A single +incident of those years lights up the whole situation. A vague rumor +had been blown to Dick of a practice of hanging up stockings at +Christmas. It struck his materialistic mind as a rather senseless +thing to do; but nevertheless he resolved to try it one Christmas +Eve. He lay awake a long while in the frosty darkness, skeptically +waiting for something remarkable to happen; once he crawled out of +the cot-bed and groped his way to the chimney place. The next morning +he was scarcely disappointed at finding nothing in the piteous little +stocking, except the original holes. + +The years that stole silently over the heads of the old man and +the young child in Welch's Court brought a period of wild prosperity +to Stillwater. The breath of war blew the forges to a white heat, and +the baffling problem of the mediaeval alchemists was solved. The baser +metals were transmuted into gold. A disastrous, prosperous time, with +the air rent periodically by the cries of newsboys as battles were +fought, and by the roll of the drum in the busy streets as fresh +recruits were wanted. Glory and death to the Southward, and at the +North pale women in black. + +All which interested Dick mighty little. After he had learned to +read at the district school, he escaped into another world. Two +lights were now generally seen burning of a night in the Shackford +house: one on the ground-floor where Mr. Shackford sat mouthing his +contracts and mortgages, and weaving his webs like a great, lean, +gray spider; and the other in the north gable, where Dick hung over a +tattered copy of Robinson Crusoe by the flicker of the candle-ends +which he had captured during the day. + +Little Dick was little Dick no more: a tall, heavily built blond +boy, with a quiet, sweet disposition, that at first offered +temptations to the despots of the playground; but a sudden flaring up +once or twice of that unexpected spirit which had broken out in his +babyhood brought him immunity from serious persecution. + +The boy's home life at this time would have seemed pathetic to an +observer,--the more pathetic, perhaps, in that Dick himself was not +aware of its exceptional barrenness. The holidays that bring new +brightness to the eyes of happier children were to him simply days +when he did not go to school, and was expected to provide an extra +quantity of kindling wood. He was housed, and fed, and clothed, after +a fashion, but not loved. Mr. Shackford did not ill-treat the lad, in +the sense of beating him; he merely neglected him. Every year the man +became more absorbed in his law cases and his money, which +accumulated magically. He dwelt in a cloud of calculations. Though +all his interests attached him to the material world, his dry, +attenuated body seemed scarcely a part of it. + +"Shackford, what are you going to do with that scapegrace of +yours?" + +It was Mr. Leonard Tappleton who ventured the question. Few +persons dared to interrogate Mr. Shackford on his private affairs. + +"I am going to make a lawyer of him," said Mr. Shackford, +crackling his finger-joints like stiff parchment. + +"You couldn't do better. You _ought_ to have an attorney in +the family." + +"Just so," assented Mr. Shackford, dryly. "I could throw a bit of +business in his way now and then,--eh?" + +"You could make his fortune, Shackford. I don't see but you might +employ him all the time. When he was not fighting the corporations, +you might keep him at it suing you for his fees." + +"Very good, very good indeed," responded Mr. Shackford, with a +smile in which his eyes took no share, it was merely a momentary +curling up of crisp wrinkles. He did not usually smile at other +people's pleasantries; but when a person worth three or four hundred +thousand dollars condescends to indulge a joke, it is not to be +passed over like that of a poor relation. "Yes, yes," muttered the +old man, as he stooped and picked up a pin, adding it to a row of +similarly acquired pins which gave the left lapel of his threadbare +coat the appearance of a miniature harp, "I shall make a lawyer of +him." + +It had long been settled in Mr. Shackford's mind that Richard, so +soon as he had finished his studies, should enter the law-office of +Blandmann & Sharpe, a firm of rather sinister reputation in South +Millville. + +At fourteen Richard's eyes had begun to open on the situation; at +fifteen he saw very clearly; and one day, without much preliminary +formulating of his plan, he decided on a step that had been taken by +every male Shackford as far back as tradition preserves the record of +his family. + +A friendship had sprung up between Richard and one William Durgin, +a school-mate. This Durgin was a sallow, brooding boy, a year older +than himself. The two lads were antipodal in disposition, +intelligence, and social standing; for though Richard went poorly +clad, the reflection of his cousin's wealth gilded him. Durgin was +the son of a washerwoman. An intimacy between the two would perhaps +have been unlikely but for one fact: it was Durgin's mother who had +given little Dick a shelter at the period of his parents' death. +Though the circumstance did not lie within the pale of Richard's +personal memory, he acknowledged the debt by rather insisting on +Durgin's friendship. It was William Durgin, therefore, who was +elected to wait upon Mr. Shackford on a certain morning which found +that gentleman greatly disturbed by an unprecedented +occurrence,--Richard had slept out of the house the previous night. + +Durgin was the bearer of a note which Mr. Shackford received in +some astonishment, and read deliberately, blinking with weak eyes +behind the glasses. Having torn off the blank page and laid it aside +for his own more economical correspondence (the rascal had actually +used a whole sheet to write ten words!), Mr. Shackford turned, and +with the absorbed air of a naturalist studying some abnormal bug +gazed over the steel bow of his spectacles at Durgin. + +"Skit!" + +Durgin hastily retreated. + +"There's a poor lawyer saved," muttered the old man, taking down +his overcoat from a peg behind the door, and snapping off a shred of +lint on the collar with his lean forefinger. Then his face relaxed, +and an odd grin diffused a kind of wintry glow over it. + +Richard had run away to sea. + + + + +VI + + +After a lapse of four years, during which he had as completely +vanished out of the memory of Stillwater as if he had been lying all +the while in the crowded family tomb behind the South Church, Richard +Shackford reappeared one summer morning at the door of his cousin's +house in Welch's Court. Mr. Shackford was absent at the moment, and +Mrs. Morganson, an elderly deaf woman, who came in for a few hours +every day to do the house-work, was busy in the extension. Without +announcing himself, Richard stalked up-stairs to the chamber in the +gable, and went directly to a little shelf in one corner, upon which +lay the dog's-eared copy of Robinson Crusoe just as he had left it, +save the four years' accumulation of dust. Richard took the book +fiercely in both hands, and with a single mighty tug tore it from top +to bottom, and threw the fragments into the fire-place. + +A moment later, on the way down-stairs, he encountered his kinsman +ascending. + +"Ah, you have come back!" was Mr. Shackford's grim greeting after +a moment's hesitation. + +"Yes," said Richard, with embarrassment, though he had made up his +mind not to be embarrassed by his cousin. + +"I can't say I was looking for you. You might have dropped me a +line; you were politer when you left. Why do you come back, and why +did you go away?" demanded the old man, with abrupt fierceness. The +last four years had bleached him and bent him and made him look very +old. + +"I didn't like the idea of Blandmann & Sharpe, for one thing," +said Richard, "and I thought I liked the sea." + +"And did you?" + +"No, sir! I enjoyed seeing foreign parts, and all that." + +"Quite the young gentleman on his travels. But the sea didn't +agree with you, and now you like the idea of Blandmann & Sharpe?" + +"Not the least in the world, I assure you!" cried Richard. "I take +to it as little as ever I did." + +"Perhaps that is fortunate. But it's going to be rather difficult +to suit your tastes. What _do_ you like?" + +"I like you, cousin Lemuel; you have always been kind to me--in +your way," said poor Richard, yearning for a glimmer of human warmth +and sympathy, and forgetting all the dreariness of his uncared-for +childhood. He had been out in the world, and had found it even +harder-hearted than his own home, which now he idealized in the first +flush of returning to it. Again he saw himself, a blond-headed little +fellow with stocking down at heel, climbing the steep staircase, or +digging in the clay at the front gate with the air full of the breath +of lilacs. That same penetrating perfume, blown through the open +hall-door as he spoke, nearly brought the tears to his eyes. He had +looked forward for years to this coming back to Stillwater. Many a +time, as he wandered along the streets of some foreign sea-port, the +rich architecture and the bright costumes had faded out before him, +and given place to the fat gray belfry and slim red chimneys of the +humble New England village where he was born. He had learned to love +it after losing it; and now he had struggled back through countless +trials and disasters to find no welcome. + +"Cousin Lemuel," said Richard gently, "only just us two are left, +and we ought to be good friends, at least." + +"We are good enough friends," mumbled Mr. Shackford, who could not +evade taking the hand which Richard had forlornly reached out to him, +"but that needn't prevent us understanding each other like rational +creatures. I don't care for a great deal of fine sentiment in people +who run away without so much as thank you." + +"I was all wrong!" + +"That's what folks always say, with the delusion that it makes +everything all right." + +"Surely it help,--to admit it." + +"That depends; it generally doesn't. What do you propose to do?" + +"I hardly know at the moment; my plans are quite in the air." + +"In the air!" repeated Mr. Shackford. "I fancy that describes +them. Your father's plans were always in the air, too, and he never +got any of them down." + +"I intend to get mine down." + +"Have you saved by anything?" + +"Not a cent." + +"I thought as much." + +"I had a couple of hundred dollars in my sea-chest; but I was +shipwrecked, and lost it. I barely saved myself. When Robinson +Crusoe"-- + +"Damn Robinson Crusoe!" snapped Mr. Shackford. + +"That's what I say," returned Richard gravely. "When Robinson +Crusoe was cast on an uninhabited island, shrimps and soft-shell +crabs and all sorts of delicious mollusks--readily boiled, I've no +doubt--crawled up on the beach, and begged him to eat them; but +_I_ nearly starved to death." + +"Of course. You will always be shipwrecked, and always be starved +to death; you are one of that kind. I don't believe you are a +Shackford at all. When they were not anything else they were good +sailors. If you only had a drop of _his_ blood in your veins!" +and Mr. Shackford waved his head towards a faded portrait of a +youngish, florid gentleman with banged hair and high coat-collar, +which hung against the wall half-way up the stair-case. This was the +counterfeit presentment of Lemuel Shackford's father seated with his +back at an open window, through which was seen a ship under full +canvas with the union-jack standing out straight in the wrong +direction. "But what are you going to do for yourself? You can't +start a subscription paper, and play with shipwrecked mariner, you +know." + +"No, I hardly care to do that," said Richard, with a good-natured +laugh, "though no poor devil ever had a better outfit for the +character." + +"What _are_ you calculated for?" + +Richard was painfully conscious of his unfitness for many things; +but he felt there was nothing in life to which he was so ill adapted +as his present position. Yet, until he could look about him, he must +needs eat his kinsman's reluctant bread, or starve. The world was +younger and more unsophisticated when manna dropped from the clouds. + +Mr. Shackford stood with his neck craned over the frayed edge of +his satin stock and one hand resting indecisively on the banister, +and Richard on the step above, leaning his back against the blighted +flowers of the wall-paper. From an oval window at the head of the +stairs the summer sunshine streamed upon them, and illuminated the +high-shouldered clock which, ensconced in an alcove, seemed to be +listening to the conversation. + +"There's no chance for you in the law," said Mr. Shackford, after +a long pause. "Sharpe's nephew has the berth. A while ago I might +have got you into the Miantowona Iron Works; but the rascally +directors are trying to ruin me now. There's the Union Store, if they +happen to want a clerk. I suppose you would be about as handy behind +a counter as a hippopotamus. I have no business of my own to train +you to. You are not good for the sea, and the sea has probably +spoiled you for anything else. A drop of salt water just poisons a +landsman. I am sure I don't know what to do with you." + +"Don't bother yourself about it at all," said Richard, cheerfully. +"You are going back on the whole family, ancestors and posterity, by +suggesting that I can't make my own living. I only want a little time +to take breath, don't you see, and a crust and a bed for a few days, +such as you might give any wayfarer. Meanwhile, I will look after +things around the place. I fancy I was never an idler here since the +day I learnt to split kindling." + +"There's your old bed in the north chamber," said Mr. Shackford, +wrinkling his forehead helplessly. "According to my notion, it is not +so good as a bunk, or a hammock slung in a tidy forecastle, but it's +at your service, and Mrs. Morganson, I dare say, can lay an extra +plate at table." + +With which gracious acceptance of Richard's proposition, Mr. +Shackford resumed his way upstairs, and the young man thoughtfully +descended to the hall-door and thence into the street, to take a +general survey of the commercial capabilities of Stillwater. + +The outlook was not inspiring. A machinist, or a mechanic, or a +day laborer might have found a foot-hold. A man without handicraft +was not in request in Stillwater. "What is your trade?" was the +staggering question that met Richard at the threshold. He went from +workshop to workshop, confidently and cheerfully at first, whistling +softly between whiles; but at every turn the question confronted him. +In some places, where he was recognized with thinly veiled surprise +as that boy of Shackford's, he was kindly put off; in others he +received only a stare or a brutal No. + +By noon he had exhausted the leading shops and offices in the +village, and was so disheartened that he began to dread the thought +of returning home to dinner. Clearly, he was a superfluous person in +Stillwater. A mortar-splashed hod-carrier, who had seated himself on +a pile of brick and was eating his noonday rations from a tin can +just brought to him by a slatternly girl, gave Richard a spasm of envy. +Here was a man who had found his place, and was establishing--what +Richard did not seem able to establish in his own case--a right to +exist. + +At supper Mr. Shackford refrained from examining Richard on his +day's employment, for which reserve, or indifference, the boy was +grateful. When the silent meal was over the old man went to his +papers, and Richard withdrew to his room in the gable. He had +neglected to provide himself with a candle. However, there was +nothing to read, for in destroying Robinson Crusoe he had destroyed +his entire library; so he sat and brooded in the moonlight, casting a +look of disgust now and then at the mutilated volume on the hearth. +That lying romance! It had been, indirectly, the cause of all his +woe, filling his boyish brain with visions of picturesque adventure, +and sending him off to sea, where he had lost four precious years of +his life. + +"If I had stuck to my studies," reflected Richard while +undressing, "I might have made something of myself. He's a great +friend, Robinson Crusoe." + +Richard fell asleep with as much bitterness in his bosom against +DeFoe's ingenious hero as if Robinson had been a living person +instead of a living fiction, and out of this animosity grew a dream +so fantastic and comical that Richard awoke himself with a bewildered +laugh just as the sunrise reddened the panes of the chamber window. +In this dream somebody came to Richard and asked him if he had heard +of that dreadful thing about young Crusoe. + +"No, confound him!" said Richard, "what is it?" + +"It has been ascertained," said somebody, who seemed to Richard at +once an intimate friend and an utter stranger,--"it has been +ascertained beyond a doubt that the man Friday was not a man Friday +at all, but a light-minded young princess from one of the neighboring +islands who had fallen in love with Robinson. Her real name was +Saturday." + +"Why, that's scandalous!" cried Richard with heat. "Think of the +admiration and sympathy the world has been lavishing on this precious +pair; Robinson Crusoe and his girl Saturday! That puts a different +face on it." + +"Another great moral character exploded," murmured the shadowy +shape, mixing itself up with the motes of a sunbeam and drifting out +through the window. Then Richard fell to laughing in his sleep, and +so awoke. He was still confused with the dream as he sat on the edge +of his bed, pulling himself together in the broad daylight. + +"Well," he muttered at length, "I shouldn't wonder! There's +nothing too bad to be believed of that man." + + + + +VII + + +Richard made an early start that morning in search of employment, +and duplicated the failure of the previous day. Nobody wanted him. If +nobody wanted him in the village where he was born and bred, a +village of counting-rooms and workshops, was any other place likely +to need him? He had only one hope, if it could be called a hope; at +any rate, he had treated it tenderly as such and kept it for the +last. He would apply to Rowland Slocum. Long ago, when Richard was an +urchin making pot-hooks in the lane, the man used occasionally to pat +him on the head and give him pennies. This was not a foundation on +which to rear a very lofty castle; but this was all he had. + +It was noon when Richard approached the marble yard, and the men +were pouring out into the street through the wide gate in the rough +deal fence which inclosed the works,--heavy, brawny men, covered with +fine white dust, who shouldered each other like cattle, and took the +sidewalk to themselves. Richard stepped aside to let them pass, eying +them curiously as possible comrades. Suddenly a slim dark fellow, who +had retained his paper cap and leather apron, halted and thrust forth +a horny hand. The others went on. + +"Hullo, Dick Shackford!" + +"What, is that you, Will? _You_ here?" + +"Been here two years now. One of Slocum's apprentices," added +Durgin, with an air of easy grandeur. + +"Two years? How time flies--when it doesn't crawl! Do you like +it?" + +"My time will be out next--Oh, the work? Well, yes; it's not bad, +and there's a jolly set in the yard. But how about you? I heard last +night you'd got home. Been everywhere and come back wealthy? The boys +used to say you was off pirating." + +"No such luck," answered Richard, with a smile. "I didn't prey on +the high seas,--quite the contrary. The high sea captured my kit and +four years' savings. I will tell you about it some day. If I have a +limb to my name and a breath left to my body, it is no thanks to the +Indian Ocean. That is all I have got, Will, and I am looking around +for bread and butter,--literally bread and butter." + +"No? and the old gentleman so rich!" + +Durgin said this with sincere indignation, and was perhaps +unconscious himself of experiencing that nameless, shadowy +satisfaction which Rochefoucauld says we find in the adversity of our +best friends. Certainly Richard looked very seedy in his suit of +slop-shop clothes. + +"I was on my way to Mr. Slocum's to see if I could do anything +with him," Richard continued. + +"To get a job, do you mean?" + +"Yes, to get work,--to learn _how_ to work; to master a +trade, in short." + +"You can't be an apprentice, you know," said Durgin. + +"Why not?" + +"Slocum has two." + +"Suppose he should happen to want another? He might." + +"The Association wouldn't allow it." + +"What Association?" + +"The Marble Workers' Association, of course." + +_"They_ wouldn't allow it! How is that?" + +"This the way of it. Slocum is free to take on two apprentices +every year, but no more. That prevents workmen increasing too fast, +and so keeps up wages. The Marble Workers' Association is a very neat +thing, I can tell you." + +"But doesn't Mr. Slocum own the yard? I thought he did." + +"Yes, he owns the yard." + +"If he wished to extend the business, couldn't he employ more +hands?" + +"As many as he could get,--skilled workmen; but not apprentices." + +"And Mr. Slocum agrees to that?" inquired Richard. + +"He does." + +"And likes it?" + +"Not he,--he hates it; but he can't help himself." + +"Upon my soul, I don't see what prevents him taking on as many +apprentices as he wants to." + +"Why, the Association, to be sure," returned Durgin, glancing at +the town clock, which marked seven minutes past the hour. + +"But how could they stop him?" + +"In plenty of ways. Suppose Slocum has a lot of unfinished +contracts on hand,--he always has fat contracts,--and the men was to +knock off work. That would be kind of awkward, wouldn't it?" + +"For a day or two, yes. He could send out of town for hands," +suggested Richard. + +"And they wouldn't come, if the Association said 'Stay where you +are.' They are mostly in the ring. Some outsiders might come, +though." + +"Then what?" + +"Why, then the boys would make it pretty hot for them in +Stillwater. Don't you notice?" + +"I notice there is not much chance for me," said Richard, +despondingly. "Isn't that so?" + +"Can't say. Better talk with Slocum. But I must get along; I have +to be back sharp at one. I want to hear about your knocking around +the worst kind. Can't we meet somewhere tonight,--at the tavern?" + +"The tavern? That didn't used to be a quiet place." + +"It isn't quiet now, but there's nowhere else to go of a night. +It's a comfortable den, and there's always some capital fellows +dropping in. A glass of lager with a mate is not a bad thing after a +hard day's work." + +"Both are good things when they are of the right sort." + +"That's like saying I'm not the right sort, isn't it?" + +"I meant nothing of the kind. But I don't take to the tavern. Not +that I'm squeamish; I have lived four years among sailors, and have +been in rougher places than you ever dreamed of; but all the same I +am afraid of the tavern. I've seen many a brave fellow wrecked on +that reef." + +"You always was a bit stuck up," said Durgin candidly. + +"Not an inch. I never had much reason to be; and less now than +ever, when I can scarcely afford to drink water, let alone beer. I +will drop round to your mother's some evening--I hope she's +well,--and tell you of my ups and downs. That will be pleasanter for +all hands." + +"Oh, as you like." + +"Now for Mr. Slocum, though you have taken the wind out of me." + +The two separated, Durgin with a half smile on his lip, and +Richard in a melancholy frame of mind. He passed from the +grass-fringed street into the deserted marble yard, where it seemed +as if the green summer had suddenly turned into white winter, and +threading his way between the huge drifts of snowy stone, knocked at +the door of Mr. Slocum's private office. + +William Durgin had summed up the case fairly enough as it stood +between the Marble Workers' Association and Rowland Slocum. The +system of this branch of the trades-union kept trained workmen +comparatively scarce, and enabled them to command regular and even +advanced prices at periods when other trades were depressed. The +older hands looked upon a fresh apprentice in the yard with much the +same favor as workingmen of the era of Jacquard looked upon the +introduction of a new piece of machinery. Unless the apprentice had +exceptional tact, he underwent a rough novitiate. In any case he +served a term of social ostracism before he was admitted to full +comradeship. Mr. Slocum could easily have found openings each year +for a dozen learners, had the matter been under his control; but it +was not. "I am the master of each man individually," he declared, +"but collectively they are my master." So his business, instead of +naturally spreading and becoming a benefit to the many, was kept +carefully pruned down to the benefit of the few. He was often forced +to decline important contracts, the filling of which would have +resulted to the advantage of every person in the village. + +Mr. Slocum recognized Richard at once, and listened kindly to his +story. It was Mr. Slocum's way to listen kindly to every one; but he +was impressed with Richard's intelligence and manner, and became +desirous, for several reasons, to assist him. In the first place, +there was room in the shops for another apprentice; experienced hands +were on jobs that could have been as well done by beginners; and, in +the second place, Mr. Slocum had an intuition that Lemuel Shackford +was not treating the lad fairly, though Richard had said nothing to +this effect. Now, Mr. Slocum and Mr. Shackford were just then at +swords' points. + +"I don't suppose I could annoy Shackford more," was Mr. Slocum's +reflection, "than by doing something for this boy, whom he has always +shamelessly neglected." + +The motive was not a high one; but Richard would have been well +satisfied with it, if he could have divined it. He did divine that +Mr. Slocum was favorably inclined towards him, and stood watching +that gentleman's face with hopeful anxiety. + +"I have my regulation number of young men, Richard," said Mr. +Slocum, "and there will be no vacancy until autumn. If you could wait +a few months." + +Richard's head drooped. + +"Can't do that? You write a good hand, you say. Perhaps you could +assist the book-keeper until there's a chance for you in the yard." + +"I think I could, sir," said Richard eagerly. + +"If you were only a draughtsman, now, I could do something much +better for you. I intend to set up a shop for ornamental carving, and +I want some one to draw patterns. If you had a knack at designing, if +you could draw at all"-- + +Richard's face lighted up. + +"Perhaps you _have_ a turn that way. I remember the queer +things you used to scratch in the mud in the court, when you were a +little shaver. Can you draw?" + +"Why, that is the one thing I can do!" cried Richard,--"in a rough +fashion, of course," he added, fearing he had overstated it. + +"It is a rough fashion that will serve. You must let me see some +of your sketches." + +"I haven't any, sir. I had a hundred in my sea-chest, but that was +lost,--pencillings of old archways, cathedral spires, bits of frieze, +and such odds and ends as took my fancy in the ports we touched at. I +recollect one bit. I think I could do it for you now. Shall I?" + +Mr. Slocum nodded assent, smiling at the young fellow's +enthusiasm, and only partially suspecting his necessity. Richard +picked up a pen and began scratching on a letter sheet which lay on +the desk. He was five or six minutes at the work, during which the +elder man watched him with an amused expression. + +"It's a section of cornice on the facade of the Hindoo College at +Calcutta," said Richard, handing him the paper,--"no, it's the +custom-house. I forget which; but it doesn't matter." + +The amused look gradually passed out of Mr. Slocum's countenance +as he examined the sketch. It was roughly but clearly drawn, and full +of facility. "Why, that's very clever!" he said, holding it at +arms'-length; and then, with great gravity, "I hope you are not a +genius, Richard; that would be too much of a fine thing. If you are +not, you can be of service to me in my plans." + +Richard laughingly made haste to declare that to the best of his +knowledge and belief he was not a genius, and it was decided on the +spot that Richard should assist Mr. Simms, the bookkeeper, and +presently try his hand at designing ornamental patterns for the +carvers, Mr. Slocum allowing him apprentice wages until the quality +of his work should be ascertained. + +"It is very little," said Mr. Slocum, "but it will pay your board, +if you do not live at home." + +"I shall not remain at my cousin's," Richard replied, "if you call +that home." + +"I can imagine it is not much of a home. Your cousin, not to put +too fine a point on it, is a wretch." + +"I am sorry to hear you say that, sir; he's my only living +kinsman." + +"You are fortunate in having but one, then. However, I am wrong to +abuse him to you; but I cannot speak of him with moderation, he has +just played me such a despicable trick. Look here." + +Mr. Slocum led Richard to the door, and pointing to a row of new +workshops which extended the entire length of one side of the marble +yard, said,-- + +"I built these last spring. After the shingles were on we +discovered that the rear partition, for a distance of seventy-five +feet, overlapped two inches on Shackford's meadow. I was ready to +drop when I saw it, your cousin is such an unmanageable old fiend. Of +course I went to him immediately, and what do you think? He demanded +five hundred dollars for that strip of land! Five hundred dollars for +a few inches of swamp meadow not worth ten dollars the acre! 'Then +take your disreputable old mill off my property!' says Shackford,--he +called it a disreputable old mill! I was hasty, perhaps, and I told +him to go to the devil. He said he would, and he did; for he went to +Blandmann. When the lawyers got hold of it, they bothered the life +out of me; so I just moved the building forward two inches, at an +expense of seven hundred dollars. Then what does the demon do but +board up all my windows opening on the meadow! Richard, I make it a +condition that you shall not lodge at Shackford's." + +"Nothing could induce me to live another day in the same house +with him, sir," answered Richard, suppressing an inclination to +smile; and then seriously, "His bread is bitter." + +Richard went back with a light heart to Welch's Court. At the gate +of the marble yard he met William Durgin returning to work. The +steam-whistle had sounded the call, and there was no time for +exchange of words; so Richard gave his comrade a bright nod and +passed by. Durgin turned and stared after him. + +"Looks as if Slocum had taken him on; but it never can be as +apprentice; he wouldn't dare do it." + +Mr. Shackford had nearly finished his frugal dinner when Richard +entered. "If you can't hit it to be in at your meals," said Mr. +Shackford, helping himself absently to the remaining chop, "perhaps +you had better stop away altogether." + + "I can do that now, cousin," replied Richard sunnily. "I have +engaged with Slocum." + +The old man laid down his knife and fork. + +"With Slocum! A Shackford a miserable marble-chipper!" + +There was so little hint of the aristocrat in Lemuel Shackford's +sordid life and person that no one suspected him of even self-esteem. +He went as meanly dressed as a tramp, and as careless of contemporary +criticism; yet clear down in his liver, or somewhere in his anatomy, +he nourished an odd abstract pride in the family Shackford. Heaven +knows why! To be sure, it dated far back; its women had always been +virtuous, and its men, if not always virtuous, had always been +ship-captains. But beyond this the family had never amounted to +anything, and now there was so very little left of it. For Richard as +Richard Lemuel cared nothing; for Richard as a Shackford he had a +chaotic feeling that defied analysis and had never before risen to +the surface. It was therefore with a disgust entirely apart from the +hatred of Slocum or regard for Richard that the old man exclaimed, "A +Shackford a miserable marble-chipper!" + +"That is better than hanging around the village with my hands in +my pockets. Isn't it?" + +"I don't know that anybody has demanded that you should hang +around the village." + +"I ought to go away, you mean? But I have found work here, and I +might not find it elsewhere." + +"Stillwater is not the place to begin life in. It's the place to +go away from, and come back to." + +"Well, I have come back." + +"And how? With one shirt and a lot of bad sailor habits." + +"My one shirt is my only very bad habit," said Richard, with a +laugh,--he could laugh now,--"and I mean to get rid of that." + +Mr. Shackford snapped his fingers disdainfully. + +"You ought to have stuck to the sea; that's respectable. In ten +years you might have risen to be master of a bark; that would have +been honorable. You might have gone down in a gale,--you probably +would,--and that would have been fortunate. But a stone-cutter! You +can understand," growled Mr. Shackford, reaching out for his straw +hat, which he put on and crushed over his brows, "I don't keep a +boarding-house for Slocum's hands." + +"Oh, I'm far from asking it!" cried Richard. "I am thankful for +the two nights' shelter I have had." + +"That's some of your sarcasm, I suppose," said Mr. Shackford, half +turning, with his hands on the door-knob. + +"No, it is some of my sincerity. I am really obliged to you. You +weren't very cordial, to be sure, but I did not deserve cordiality." + +"You have figured that out correctly." + +"I want to begin over again, you see, and start fair." + +"Then begin by dropping Slocum." + +"You have not given me a chance to tell you what the arrangement +is. However, it's irrevocable." + +"I don't want to hear. I don't care a curse, so long as it is an +arrangement," and Mr. Shackford hurried out of the room, slamming the +door behind him. + +Then Richard, quite undisturbed by his cousin's unreasonableness, +sat himself down to eat the last meal he was ever to eat under that +roof,--a feat which his cousin's appetite had rendered comparatively +easy. + +While engaged in this, Richard resolved in his mind several +questions as to his future abode. He could not reconcile his thought +to any of the workingmen's boarding-houses, of which there were five +or six in the slums of the village, where the doorways were greasy, +and women flitted about in the hottest weather with thick woolen +shawls over their heads. Yet his finances did not permit him to +aspire to lodgings much more decent. If he could only secure a small +room somewhere in a quiet neighborhood. Possibly Mrs. Durgin would +let him have a chamber in her cottage. He was beginning life over +again, and it struck him as nearly an ideal plan to begin it on the +identical spot where he had, in a manner, made his first start. +Besides, there was William Durgin for company, when the long nights +of the New England winter set in. The idea smiled so pleasantly in +Richard's fancy that he pushed the plate away from him impatiently, +and picked up his hat which lay on the floor beside the chair. + +That evening he moved from the Shackford house to Mrs. Durgin's +cottage in Cross Street. It was not an imposing ceremony. With a +small brown-paper parcel under his arm, he walked from one threshold +to the other, and the thing was done. + + + + +VIII + + +The six months which followed Richard's installment in the office +at Slocum's Yard were so crowded with novel experience that he +scarcely noted their flight. The room at the Durgins, as will +presently appear, turned out an unfortunate arrangement; but +everything else had prospered. Richard proved an efficient aid to Mr. +Simms, who quietly shifted the pay-roll to the younger man's +shoulders. This was a very complicated account to keep, involving as +it did a separate record of each employee's time and special work. An +ancient bookkeeper parts lightly with such trifles when he has a +capable assistant. It also fell to Richard's lot to pay the hands on +Saturdays. William Durgin blinked his surprise on the first occasion, +as he filed in with the others and saw Richard posted at the desk, +with the pay-roll in his hand and the pile of greenbacks lying in +front of him. + +"I suppose you'll be proprietor next," remarked Durgin, that +evening, at the supper table. + +"When I am, Will," answered Richard cheerily, "you will be on the +road to foreman of the finishing shop." + +"Thank you," said Durgin, not too graciously. It grated on him to +play the part of foreman, even in imagination, with Dick Shackford as +proprietor. Durgin could not disconnect his friend from that seedy, +half-crestfallen figure to whom, a few months earlier, he had given +elementary instruction on the Marble Workers' Association. + +Richard did not find his old schoolmate so companionable as memory +and anticipation had painted him. The two young men moved on +different levels. Richard's sea life, now that he had got at a +sufficient distance from it, was a perspective full of pleasant +color; he had a taste for reading, a thirst to know things, and his +world was not wholly shut in by the Stillwater horizon. It was still +a pitifully narrow world, but wide compared with Durgin's, which +extended no appreciable distance in any direction from the Stillwater +hotel. He spent his evenings chiefly there, returning home late at +night, and often in so noisy a mood as to disturb Richard, who slept +in an adjoining apartment. This was an annoyance; and it was an +annoyance to have Mrs. Durgin coming to him with complaints of +William. Other matters irritated Richard. He had contrived to +replenish his wardrobe, and the sunburn was disappearing from his +hands, which the nature of his occupation left soft and unscarred. +Durgin was disposed at times to be sarcastic on these changes, but +always stopped short of actual offense; for he remembered that +Shackford when a boy, amiable and patient as he was, had had a +tiger's temper at bottom. Durgin had seen it roused once or twice, +and even received a chance sweep of the paw. Richard liked Durgin's +rough wit as little as Durgin relished Richard's good-natured +bluntness. It was a mistake, that trying to pick up the dropped +thread of old acquaintance. + +As soon as the permanency of his position was assured, and his +means warranted the step, Richard transported himself and his effects +to a comfortable chamber in the same house with Mr. Pinkham, the +school-master, the perpetual falsetto of whose flute was positively +soothing after four months of William Durgin's bass. Mr. Pinkham +having but one lung, and that defective, played on the flute. + +"You see what you've gone and done, William," remarked Mrs. Durgin +plaintively, "with your ways. There goes the quietest young man in +Stillwater, and four dollars a week!" + +"There goes a swell, you'd better say. He was always a proud +beggar; nobody was ever good enough for him." + +"You shouldn't say that, William. I could cry, to lose him and his +cheerfulness out of the house," and Mrs. Durgin began to whimper. + +"Wait till he's out of luck again, and he'll come back to us fast +enough. That's when his kind remembers their friends. Blast him! he +can't even take a drop of beer with a chum at the tavern." + +"And right, too. There's beer enough taken at the tavern without +him." + +"If you mean me, mother, I'll get drunk tonight." + +"No, no!" cried Mrs. Durgin, pleadingly, "I didn't mean you, +William, but Peters and that set." + +"I thought you couldn't mean me," said William, thrusting his +hands into the pockets of his monkey-jacket, and sauntering off in +the direction of the Stillwater hotel, where there was a choice +company gathered, it being Saturday night, and the monthly meeting of +the Union. + +Mr. Slocum had wasted no time in organizing a shop for his +experiment in ornamental carving. Five or six men, who had worked +elsewhere at this branch, were turned over to the new department, +with Stevens as foreman and Richard as designer. Very shortly Richard +had as much as he could do to furnish the patterns required. These +consisted mostly of scrolls, wreaths, and mortuary dove-wings for +head-stones. Fortunately for Richard he had no genius, but plenty of +a kind of talent just abreast with Mr. Slocum's purpose. As the +carvers became interested in their work, they began to show Richard +the respect and good-will which at first had been withheld, for they +had not quite liked being under the supervision of one who had not +served at the trade. His youth had also told against him; but +Richard's pleasant, off-hand manner quickly won them. He had come in +contact with rough men on shipboard; he had studied their ways, and +he knew that with all their roughness there is no class so sensitive. +This insight was of great service to him. Stevens, who had perhaps +been the least disposed to accept Richard, was soon his warm ally. + +"See what a smooth fist the lad has!" he said one day holding up a +new drawing to the shop. "A man with a wreath of them acorns on his +head-stone oughter be perfectly happy, damn him!" + +It was, however, an anchor with a broken chain pendent--a design +for a monument to the late Captain Septimius Salter, who had parted +his cable at sea--which settled Richard's status with Stevens. + +"Boys, that Shackford is what _I_ call a born genei." + +After all, is not the one-eyed man who is king among the blind the +most fortunate of monarchs? Your little talent in a provincial +village looms a great deal taller than your mighty genius in a city. +Richard Shackford working for Rowland Slocum at Stillwater was +happier than Michaelangelo in Rome with Pope Julius II. at his back. +And Richard was the better paid, too! + +One day he picked up a useful hint from a celebrated sculptor, who +had come to the village in search of marble for the base of a +soldiers' monument. Richard was laboriously copying a spray of fern, +the delicacy of which eluded his pencil. The sculptor stood a moment +silently observing him. + +"Why do you spend an hour doing only passably well what you could +do perfectly in ten minutes?" + +"I suppose it is because I am stupid, sir," said Richard. + +"No stupid man ever suspected himself of being anything but +clever. You can draw capitally; but nature beats you out and out at +designing ferns. Just ask her to make you a fac-simile in plaster, +and see how handily she will lend herself to the job. Of course you +must help her a little." + +"Oh, I am not above giving nature a lift," said Richard modestly. + +"Lay a cloth on your table, place the fern on the cloth, and pour +a thin paste of plaster of Paris over the leaf,--do that gently, so +as not to disarrange the spray. When the plaster is set, there's your +mold; remove the leaf, oil the matrix, and pour in fresh plaster. +When that is set, cut away the mold carefully, and there's your +spray of fern, as graceful and perfect as if nature had done it all +by herself. You get the very texture of the leaf by this process." + +After that, Richard made casts instead of drawings for the +carvers, and fancied he was doing a new thing, until he visited some +marble-works in the great city. + +At this period, whatever change subsequently took place in his +feeling, Richard was desirous of establishing friendly relations with +his cousin. The young fellow's sense of kinship was singularly +strong, and it was only after several repulses at the door of the +Shackford house and on the street that he relinquished the hope of +placating the sour old man. At times Richard was moved almost to pity +him. Every day Mr. Shackford seemed to grow shabbier and more +spectral. He was a grotesque figure now, in his napless hat and +broken-down stock. The metal button-holes on his ancient waistcoat +had worn their way through the satin coverings, leaving here and +there a sparse fringe around the edges, and somehow suggesting little +bald heads. Looking at him, you felt that the inner man was as +threadbare and dilapidated as his outside; but in his lonely old age +he asked for no human sympathy or companionship, and, in fact, stood +in no need of either. With one devouring passion he set the world at +defiance. He loved his gold,--the metal itself, the weight and color +and touch of it. In his bedroom on the ground-floor Mr. Shackford +kept a small iron-clamped box filled to the lid with bright yellow +coins. Often, at the dead of night, with door bolted and curtain +down, he would spread out the glittering pieces on the table, and +bend over them with an amorous glow in his faded eyes. These were his +blond mistresses; he took a fearful joy in listening to their +rustling, muffle laughter as he drew them towards him with eager +hands. If at that instant a blind chanced to slam, or a footfall to +echo in the lonely court, then the withered old sultan would hurry +his slaves back into their iron-bound seraglio, and extinguish the +light. It would have been a wasted tenderness to pity him. He was +very happy in his own way, that Lemuel Shackford. + + + + +IX + + +Towards the close of his second year with Mr. Slocum, Richard was +assigned a work-room by himself, and relieved of his accountant's +duties. His undivided energies were demanded by the carving +department, which had proved a lucrative success. + +The rear of the lot on which Mr. Slocum's house stood was shut off +from the marble yard by a high brick wall pierced with a private door +for Mr. Slocum's convenience. Over the kitchen in the extension, +which reached within a few feet of the wall, was a disused chamber, +approachable on the outside by a flight of steps leading to a +veranda. To this room Richard and his traps were removed. With a +round table standing in the center, with the plaster models arranged +on shelves and sketches in pencil and crayon tacked against the +whitewashed walls, the apartment was transformed into a delightful +atelier. An open fire-place, with a brace of antiquated iron-dogs +straddling the red brick hearth, gave the finishing touch. The +occupant was in easy communication with the yard, from which the busy +din of clinking chisels came musically to his ear, and was still +beyond the reach of unnecessary interruption. Richard saw clearly all +the advantages of this transfer, but he was far form having any +intimation that he had made the most important move of his life. + +The room had two doors: one opened on the veranda, and the other +into a narrow hall connecting the extension with the main building. +Frequently, that first week after taking possession, Richard detected +the sweep of a broom and the rustle of drapery in this passage-way, +the sound sometimes hushing itself quite close to the door, as if +some one had paused a moment just outside. He wondered whether it was +the servant-maid or Margaret Slocum, whom he knew very well by sight. +It was, in fact, Margaret, who was dying with the curiosity of +fourteen to peep into the studio, so carefully locked whenever the +young man left it,--dying with curiosity to see the workshop, and +standing in rather great awe of the workman. + +In the home circle her father had a habit of speaking with deep +respect of young Shackford's ability, and once she had seen him at +their table,--at a Thanksgiving. On this occasion Richard had +appalled her by the solemnity of his shyness,--poor Richard, who was +so unused to the amenities of a handsomely served dinner, that the +chill which came over him cooled the Thanksgiving turkey on his +palate. + +When it had been decided that he was to have the spare room for +his workshop, Margaret, with womanly officiousness, had swept it and +dusted it and demolished the cobwebs; but since then she had not been +able to obtain so much as a glimpse of the interior. A ten minutes' +sweeping had sufficed for the chamber, but the passage-way seemed in +quite an irreclaimable state, judging by the number of times it was +necessary to sweep it in the course of a few days. Now Margaret was +not an unusual mixture of timidity and daring; so one morning, about +a week after Richard was settled, she walked with quaking heart up to +the door of the studio, and knocked as bold as brass. + +Richard opened the door, and smiled pleasantly at Margaret +standing on the threshold with an expression of demure defiance in +her face. Did Mr. Shackford want anything more in the way of pans and +pails for his plaster? No, Mr. Shackford had everything he required +of the kind. But would not Miss Margaret walk in? Yes, she would step +in for a moment, but with a good deal of indifference, though, giving +an air of chance to her settled determination to examine that room +from top to bottom. + +Richard showed her his drawings and casts, and enlightened her on +all the simple mysteries of the craft. Margaret, of whom he was a +trifle afraid at first, amused him with her candor and sedateness, +seeming now a mere child, and now an elderly person gravely +inspecting matters. The frankness and simplicity were hers by nature, +and the oldish ways--notably her self-possession, so quick to assert +itself after an instant's forgetfulness--came perhaps of losing her +mother in early childhood, and the premature duties which that +misfortune entailed. She amused him, for she was only fourteen; but +she impressed him also, for she was Mr. Slocum's daughter. Yet it was +not her lightness, but her gravity, that made Richard smile to +himself. + +"I am not interrupting you?" she asked presently. + +"Not in the least," said Richard. "I am waiting for these molds to +harden. I cannot do anything until then." + +"Papa says you are very clever," remarked Margaret, turning her +wide black eyes full upon him. _"Are_ you?" + +"Far from it," replied Richard, laughing to veil his confusion, +"but I am glad your father thinks so." + +"You should not be glad to have him think so," returned Margaret +reprovingly, "if you are not clever. I suppose you are, though. Tell +the truth, now." + +"It is not fair to force a fellow into praising himself." + +"You are trying to creep out!" + +"Well, then, there are many cleverer persons than I in the world, +and a few not so clever." + +"That won't do," said Margaret positively. + +"I don't understand what you mean by cleverness, Miss Margaret. +There are a great many kinds and degrees. I can make fairly honest +patterns for the men to work by; but I am not an artist, if you mean +that." + +"You are not an artist?" + +"No; an artist creates, and I only copy, and that in a small way. +Any one can learn to prepare casts; but to create a bust or a +statue--that is to say, a fine one--a man must have genius." + +"You have no genius?" + +"Not a grain." + +"I am sorry to hear that," said Margaret, with a disappointed +look. "But perhaps it will come," she added encouragingly. "I have +read that nearly all great artists and poets are almost always +modest. They know better than anybody else how far they fall short of +what they intend, and so they don't put on airs. You don't, either. I +like that in you. May be you have genius without knowing it, Mr. +Shackford." + +"It is quite without knowing it, I assure you!" protested Richard, +with suppressed merriment. "What an odd girl!" he thought. "She is +actually talking to me like a mother!" + +The twinkling light in the young man's eyes, or something that +jarred in his manner, caused Margaret at once to withdraw into +herself. She went silently about the room, examining the tools and +patterns; then, nearing the door, suddenly dropped Richard a quaint +little courtesy, and was gone. + +This was the colorless beginning of a friendship that was destined +speedily to be full of tender lights and shadows, and to flow on with +unsuspected depth. For several days Richard saw nothing more of +Margaret, and scarcely thought of her. The strangle little figure was +fading out of his mind, when, one afternoon, it again appeared at his +door. This time Margaret had left something of her sedateness behind; +she struck Richard as being both less ripe and less immature than he +had fancied; she interested rather than amused him. Perhaps he had +been partially insulated by his own shyness on the first occasion, +and had caught only a confused and inaccurate impression of +Margaret's personality. She remained half an hour in the workshop, +and at her departure omitted the formal courtesy. + +After this, Margaret seldom let a week slip without tapping once +or twice at the studio, at first with some pretext or other, and then +with no pretense whatever. When Margaret had disburdened herself of +excuses for dropping in to watch Richard mold his leaves and flowers, +she came oftener, and Richard insensibly drifted into the habit of +expecting her on certain days, and was disappointed when she failed +to appear. His industry had saved him, until now, from discovering +how solitary his life really was; for his life was as solitary--as +solitary as that of Margaret, who lived in the great house with only +her father, the two servants, and an episodical aunt. The mother was +long ago dead; Margaret could not recollect when that gray headstone, +with blotches of rusty-green moss breaking out over the lettering, +was not in the churchyard; and there never had been any brothers or +sisters. + +To Margaret Richard's installation in the empty room, where as a +child she had always been afraid to go, was the single important +break she could remember in the monotony of her existence; and now a +vague yearning for companionship, the blind sense of the plant +reaching towards the sunshine, drew her there. The tacitly prescribed +half hour often lengthened to an hour. Sometimes Margaret brought a +book with her, or a piece of embroidery, and the two spoke scarcely +ten words, Richard giving her a smile now and then, and she returning +a sympathetic nod as the cast came out successfully. + +Margaret at fifteen--she was fifteen now--was not a beauty. There +is the loveliness of the bud and the loveliness of the full-blown +flower; but Margaret as a blossom was not pretty. She was awkward and +angular, with prominent shoulder-blades, and no soft curves anywhere +in her slimness; only her black hair, growing low on the forehead, +and her eyes were fine. Her profile, indeed, with the narrow forehead +and the sensitive upper lip, might fairly have suggested the mask of +Clytie which Richard had bought of an itinerant image-dealer, and +fixed on a bracket over the mantel-shelf. But her eyes were her +specialty, if one may say that. They were fringed with such heavy +lashes that the girl seemed always to be in half-mourning. Her smile +was singularly sweet and bright, perhaps because it broke through so +much somber coloring. + +If there was a latent spark of sentiment between Richard and +Margaret in those earlier days, neither was conscious of it; they had +seemingly begun where happy lovers generally end,--by being dear +comrades. He liked to have Margaret sitting there, with her needle +flashing in the sunlight, or her eyelashes making a rich gloom above +the book as she read aloud. It was so agreeable to look up from his +work, and not be alone. He had been alone so much. And Margaret found +nothing in the world pleasanter than to sit there and watch Richard +making his winter garden, as she called it. By and by it became her +custom to pass every Saturday afternoon in that employment. + +Margaret was not content to be merely a visitor; she took a +housewifely care of the workshop, resolutely straightening out its +chronic disorder at unexpected moments, and fighting the white dust +that settled upon everything. The green-paper shade, which did not +roll up very well, at the west window was of her devising. An empty +camphor vial on Richard's desk had always a clove pink, or a pansy, +or a rose, stuck into it, according to the season. She hid herself +away and peeped out in a hundred feminine things in the room. +Sometimes she was a bit of crochet-work left on a chair, and +sometimes she was only a hair-pin, which Richard gravely picked up +and put on the mantel-piece. + +Mr. Slocum threw no obstacles in the path of this idyllic +friendship; possibly he did not observe it. In his eyes Margaret was +still a child,--a point of view that necessarily excluded any +consideration of Richard. Perhaps, however, if Mr. Slocum could have +assisted invisibly at a pretty little scene which took place in the +studio, one day, some twelve or eighteen months after Margaret's +first visit to it, he might have found food for reflection. + +It was a Saturday afternoon. Margaret had come into the workshop +with her sewing, as usual. The papers on the round table had been +neatly cleared away, and Richard was standing by the window, +indolently drumming on the glass with a palette-knife. + +"Not at work this afternoon?" + +"I was waiting for you." + +"That is no excuse at all," said Margaret, sweeping across the +room with a curious air of self-consciousness, and arranging her +drapery with infinite pains as she seated herself. + +Richard looked puzzled for a moment, and then exclaimed, +"Margaret, you have got on a long dress!" + +"Yes," said Margaret, with dignity. "Do you like it,--the train?" + +"That's a train?" + +"Yes," said Margaret, standing up and glancing over her left +shoulder at the soft folds of maroon-colored stuff, which, with a +mysterious feminine movement of the foot, she caused to untwist +itself and flow out gracefully behind her. There was really something +very pretty in the hesitating lines of the tall, slender figure, as +she leaned back that way. Certain unsuspected points emphasized +themselves so cunningly. + +"I never saw anything finer," declared Richard. "It was worth +waiting for." + +"But you shouldn't have waited," said Margaret, with a gratified +flush, settling herself into the chair again. "It was understood that +you were never to let me interfere with your work." + +"You see you have, by being twenty minutes late. I've finished +that acorn border for Stevens's capitals, and there's nothing more to +do for the yard. I am going to make something for myself, and I want +you to lend me a hand." + +"How can I help you, Richard?" Margaret asked, promptly stopping +the needle in the hem. + +"I need a paper-weight to keep my sketches from being blown about, +and I wish you literally to lend me a hand,--a hand to take a cast +of." + +"Really?" + +"I think that little white claw would make a very neat +paper-weight," said Richard. + +Margaret gravely rolled up her sleeve to the elbow, and +contemplated the hand and wrist critically. + +"It is like a claw, isn't it. I think you can find something +better than that." + +"No; that is what I want, and nothing else. That, or no +paper-weight for me." + +"Very well, just as you choose. It will be a fright." + +"The other hand, please." + +"I gave you the left because I've a ring on this one." + +"You can take off the ring, I suppose." + +"Of course I can take it off." + +"Well, then, do." + +"Richard," said Margaret severely, "I hope you are not a fidget." + +"A what?" + +"A fuss, then,--a person who always wants everything some other +way, and makes just twice as much trouble as anybody else." + +"No, Margaret, I am not that. I prefer your right hand because the +left is next to the heart, and the evaporation of the water in the +plaster turns it as cold as snow. Your arm will be chilled to the +shoulder. We don't want to do anything to hurt the good little heart, +you know." + +"Certainly not," said Margaret. "There!" and she rested her right +arm on the table, while Richard placed the hand in the desired +position on a fresh napkin which he had folded for the purpose. + +"Let your hand lie flexible, please. Hold it naturally. Why do you +stiffen the fingers so?" + +"I don't; they stiffen themselves, Richard. They know they are +going to have their photograph taken, and can't look natural. Who +ever does?" + +After a minute the fingers relaxed, and settled of their own +accord into an easy pose. Richard laid his hand softly on her wrist. + +"Don't move now." + +"I'll be as quiet as a mouse," said Margaret giving a sudden queer +little glance at his face. + +Richard emptied a paper of white powder into a great yellow bowl +half filled with water and fell to stirring it vigorously, like a +pastry-cook beating eggs. When the plaster was of the proper +consistency he began building it up around the hand, pouring on a +spoonful at a time, here and there, carefully. In a minute or two the +inert white fingers were completely buried. Margaret made a comical +grimace. + +"Is it cold?" + +"Ice," said Margaret, shutting her eyes involuntarily. + +"If it is too disagreeable we can give it up," suggested Richard. + +"No, don't touch it!" she cried, waving him back with her free +arm. "I don't mind; but it's as cold as so much snow. How curious! +What does it?" + +"I suppose a scientific fellow could explain the matter to you +easily enough. When the water evaporates a kind of congealing process +sets in,--a sort of atmospheric change, don't you know? The sudden +precipitation of the--the"-- + +"You're as good as Tyndall on Heat," said Margaret demurely. + +"Oh, Tyndall is well enough in his way," returned Richard, "but of +course he doesn't go into things so deeply as I do." + +"The idea of telling me that 'a congealing process set in,' when I +am nearly frozen to death!" cried Margaret, bowing her head over the +imprisoned arm. + +"Your unseemly levity, Margaret, makes it necessary for me to +defer my remarks on natural phenomena until some more fitting +occasion." + +"Oh, Richard, don't let an atmospherical change come over +_you!"_ + +"When you knocked at my door, months ago," said Richard, "I didn't +dream you were such a satirical little piece, or may be you wouldn't +have got in. You stood there as meek as Moses, with your frock +reaching only to the tops of your boots. You were a deception, +Margaret." + +"I was dreadfully afraid of you, Richard." + +"You are not afraid of me nowadays." + +"Not a bit." + +"You are showing your true colors. That long dress, too! I believe +the train has turned your head." + +"But just now you said you admired it." + +"So I did, and do. It makes you look quite like a woman, though." + +"I want to be a woman. I would like to be as old--as old as Mrs. +Methuselah. Was there a Mrs. Methuselah?" + +"I really forget," replied Richard, considering. "But there must +have been. The old gentleman had time enough to have several. I +believe, however, that history is rather silent about his domestic +affairs." + +"Well, then," said Margaret, after thinking it over, "I would like +to be as old as the youngest Mrs. Methuselah." + +"That was probably the last one," remarked Richard, with great +profundity. "She was probably some giddy young thing of seventy or +eighty. Those old widowers never take a wife of their own age. I +shouldn't want you to be seventy, Margaret,--or even eighty." + +"On the whole, perhaps, I shouldn't fancy it myself. Do you +approve of persons marrying twice?" + +"N--o, not at the same time." + +"Of course I didn't mean that," said Margaret, with asperity. "How +provoking you can be!" + +"But they used to,--in the olden time, don't you know?" + +"No, I don't." + +Richard burst out laughing. "Imagine him," he cried,--"imagine +Methuselah in his eight or nine hundredth year, dressed in his +customary bridal suit, with a sprig of century-plant stuck in his +button-hole!" + +"Richard," said Margaret solemnly, "you shouldn't speak jestingly +of a scriptural character." + +At this Richard broke out again. "But gracious me!" he exclaimed, +suddenly checking himself. "I am forgetting you all this while!" + +Richard hurriedly reversed the mass of plaster on the table, and +released Margaret's half-petrified fingers. They were shriveled and +colorless with the cold. + +"There isn't any feeling in it whatever," said Margaret, holding +up her hand helplessly, like a wounded wing. + +Richard took the fingers between his palms, and chafed them +smartly for a moment or two to restore the suspended circulation. + +"There, that will do," said Margaret, withdrawing her hand. + +"Are you all right now?" + +"Yes, thanks;" and then she added, smiling, "I suppose a +scientific fellow could explain why my fingers seem to be full of hot +pins and needles shooting in every direction." + +"Tyndall's your man--Tyndall on Heat," answered Richard, with a +laugh, turning to examine the result of his work. "The mold is +perfect, Margaret. You were a good girl to keep so still." + +Richard then proceeded to make the cast, which was soon placed on +the window-ledge to harden in the sun. When the plaster was set, he +cautiously chipped off the shell with a chisel, Margaret leaning over +his shoulder to watch the operation,--and there was the little white +claw, which ever after took such dainty care of his papers, and +ultimately became so precious to him as a part of Margaret's very +self that he would not have exchanged it for the Venus of Milo. + +But as yet Richard was far enough from all that. + + + + +X + + +Three years glided by with Richard Shackford as swiftly as those +periods of time which are imagined to elapse between the acts of a +play. They were eventless, untroubled years, and have no history. +Nevertheless, certain changes had taken place. Little by little Mr. +Slocum had relinquished the supervision of the workshops to Richard, +until now the affairs of the yard rested chiefly on his shoulders. It +was like a dream to him when he looked directly back to his humble +beginning, though as he reflected upon it, and retraced his progress +step by step, he saw there was nothing illogical or astonishing in +his good fortune. He had won it by downright hard work and the +faithful exercise of a sufficing talent. + +In his relations with Margaret, Richard's attitude had undergone +no appreciable change. Her chance visits to the studio through the +week and those pleasant, half-idle Saturday afternoons had become to +both Richard and Margaret a matter of course, like the sunlight, or +the air they breathed. + +To Richard, Margaret Slocum at nineteen was simply a charming, +frank girl,--a type of gracious young womanhood. He was conscious of +her influence; he was very fond of Margaret; but she had not yet +taken on for him that magic individuality which makes a woman the one +woman in the world to her lover. Though Richard had scant experience +in such matters, he was not wrong in accepting Margaret as the type +of a class of New England girls, which, fortunately for New England, +is not a small class. These young women for the most part lead quiet +and restricted lives so far as the actualities are concerned, but +very deep and full lives in the world of books and imagination, to +which they make early escapes. They have the high instincts that come +of good blood, the physique that naturally fits fine manners; and +when chance takes one of these maidens from her island country home +or from some sleepy town on the sea-board, and sets her amid the +complications of city existence, she is an unabashed and unassuming +lady. If in Paris, she differs from the Parisiennes only in the +greater delicacy of her lithe beauty, her innocence which is not +ignorance, and her French pronunciation; if in London, she differs +from English girls only in the matter of rosy cheeks and the rising +inflection. Should none of these fortunate transplantings befall her, +she always merits them by adorning with grace and industry and +intelligence the narrower sphere to which destiny has assigned her. + +Destiny had assigned Margaret Slocum to a very narrow sphere; it +had shut her up in an obscure New England manufacturing village, with +no society, strictly speaking, and no outlets whatever to large +experiences. To her father's affection, Richard's friendship, and her +household duties she was forced to look for her happiness. If life +held wider possibilities for her, she had not dreamed of them. She +looked up to Richard with respect,--perhaps with a dash of sentiment +in the respect; there was something at once gentle and virile in his +character which she admired and leaned upon; in his presence the +small housekeeping troubles always slipped from her; but her heart, +to use a pretty French phrase, had not consciously spoken,--possibly +it had murmured a little, incoherently, to itself, but it had not +spoken out aloud, as perhaps it would have done long ago if an +impediment had been placed in the way of their intimacy. With all her +subtler intuitions, Margaret was as far as Richard from suspecting +the strength and direction of the current with which they were +drifting. Freedom, habit, and the nature of their environment +conspired to prolong this mutual lack of perception. The hour had +sounded, however, when these two were to see each other in a +different light. + +One Monday morning in March, at the close of the three years in +question, as Richard mounted the outside staircase leading to his +studio in the extension, the servant-maid beckoned to him from the +kitchen window. + +Margaret had failed to come to the studio the previous Saturday +afternoon. Richard had worked at cross-purposes and returned to his +boarding-house vaguely dissatisfied, as always happened to him on +those rare occasions when she missed the appointment; but he had +thought little of the circumstance. Nor had he been disturbed on +Sunday at seeing the Slocum pew vacant during both services. The +heavy snow-storm which had begun the night before accounted for at +least Margaret's absence. + +"Mr. Slocum told me to tell you that he shouldn't be in the yard +to-day," said the girl. "Miss Margaret is very ill." + +"Ill!" Richard repeated, and the smile with which he had leaned +over the rail towards the window went out instantly on his lip. + +"Dr. Weld was up with her until five o'clock this morning," said +the girl, fingering the corner of her apron. "She's that low." + +"What is the matter?" + +"It's a fever." + +"What kind of fever?" + +"I don't mind me what the doctor called it. He thinks it come from +something wrong with the drains." + +"He didn't say typhoid?" + +"Yes, that's the name of it." + +Richard ascended the stairs with a slow step, and a moment +afterwards stood stupidly in the middle of the workshop. "Margaret is +going to die," he said to himself, giving voice to the dark +foreboding that had instantly seized upon him, and in a swift vision +he saw the end of all that simple, fortunate existence which he had +lived without once reflecting it could ever end. He mechanically +picked up a tool from the table, and laid it down again. Then he +seated himself on the low bench between the windows. It was +Margaret's favorite place; it was not four days since she sat there +reading to him. Already it appeared long ago,--years and years ago. +He could hardly remember when he did not have this heavy weight on +his heart. His life of yesterday abruptly presented itself to him as +a reminiscence; he saw now how happy that life had been, and how +lightly he had accepted it. It took to itself all that precious +quality of things irrevocably lost. + +The clamor of the bell in the South Church striking noon, and the +shrilling of the steam-whistle softened by the thick-falling snow, +roused Richard from his abstraction. He was surprised that it was +noon. He rose from the bench and went home through the storm, +scarcely heeding the sleet that snapped in his face like whip-lashes. +Margaret was going to die! + +For four or five weeks the world was nearly a blank to Richard +Shackford. The insidious fever that came and went, bringing alternate +despair and hope to the watchers in the hushed room, was in his veins +also. He passed the days between his lonely lodgings in Lime Street +and the studio, doing nothing, restless and apathetic by turns, but +with always a poignant sense of anxiety. He ceased to take any +distinct measurement of time further than to note that an interval of +months seemed to separate Monday from Monday. Meanwhile, if new +patterns had been required by the men, the work in the carving +departments would have come to a dead lock. + +At length the shadow lifted, and there fell a day of soft May +weather when Margaret, muffled in shawls and as white as death, was +seated once more in her accustomed corner by the west window. She had +insisted on being brought there the first practicable moment; nowhere +else in the house was such sunshine, and Mr. Slocum himself had +brought her in his arms. She leaned back against the pillows, smiling +faintly. Her fingers lay locked on her lap, and the sunlight showed +through the narrow transparent palace. It was as if her hands were +full of blush-roses. + +Richard breathed again, but not with so free a heart as before. +What if she had died? He felt an immense pity for himself when he +thought of that, and he thought of it continually as the days wore +on. + +Either a great alteration had wrought itself in Margaret, or +Richard beheld her through a clearer medium during the weeks of +convalescence that followed. Was this the slight, sharp-faced girl he +used to know? The eyes and the hair were the same; but the smile was +deeper, and the pliant figure had lost its extreme slimness without a +sacrifice to its delicacy. The spring air was filling her veins with +abundant health, and mantling her cheeks with a richer duskiness than +they had ever worn. Margaret was positively handsome. Her beauty had +come all in a single morning, like the crocuses. This beauty began to +awe Richard; it had the effect of seeming to remove her further and +further from him. He grew moody and restless when they were together, +and was wretched alone. His constraint did not escape Margaret. She +watched him, and wondered at his inexplicable depression when every +one in the household was rejoicing in her recovery. By and by this +depression wounded her, but she was too spirited to show the hurt. +She always brought a book with her now, in her visits to the studio; +it was less awkward to read than to sit silent and unspoken to over a +piece of needle-work. + +"How very odd you are!" said Margaret, one afternoon, closing the +volume which she had held mutely for several minutes, waiting for +Richard to grasp the fact that she was reading aloud. + +"I odd!" protested Richard, breaking with a jerk from one of his +long reveries. "In what way?" + +"As if I could explain--when you put the quotation suddenly, like +that." + +"I didn't intend to be abrupt. I was curious to know. And then the +charge itself was a trifle unexpected, if you will look at it. But +never mind," he added with a smile; "think it over, and tell me +to-morrow." + +"No, I will tell you now, since you are willing to wait." + +"I wasn't really willing to wait, but I knew if I didn't pretend +to be I should never get it out of you." + +"Very well, then; your duplicity is successful. Richard, I was +puzzled where to begin with your oddities." + +"Begin at the beginning." + +"No, I will take the nearest. When a young lady is affable enough +to read aloud to you, the least you can do is to listen to her. That +is a deference you owe to the author, when it happens to be +Hawthorne, to say nothing of the young lady." + +"But I _have_ been listening, Margaret. Every word!" + +"Where did I leave off?" + +"It was where--where the"--and Richard knitted his brows in the +vain effort to remember--"where the young daguerreotypist, +what's-his-name, took up his residence in the House of the Seven +Gables." + +"No, sir! You stand convicted. It was ten pages further on. The +last words were,"--and Margaret read from the book,-- + +"'Good-night, cousin,' said Phoebe, strangely affected by +Hepsibah's manner. 'If you being to love me, I am glad.'" + +"There, sir! what do you say to that?" + +Richard did not say anything, but he gave a guilty start, and shot +a rapid glance at Margaret coolly enjoying her triumph. + +"In the next place," she continued soberly, after a pause, "I +think it very odd in you not to reply to me,--oh, not now, for of +course you are without a word of justification; but at other times. +Frequently, when I speak to you, you look at me so," making a vacant +little face, "and then suddenly disappear,--I don't mean bodily, but +mentally." + +"I am no great talker at best," said Richard with a helpless air. +"I seldom speak unless I have something to say." + +"But other people do. I, for instance." + +"Oh, you, Margaret; that is different. When you talk I don't much +mind what you are talking about." + +"I like a neat, delicate compliment like that!" + +"What a perverse girl you are to-day!" cried Richard. "You won't +understand me. I mean that your words and your voice are so pleasant +they make anything interesting, whether it's important or not." + +"If no one were to speak until he had something important to +communicate," observed Margaret, "conversation in this world would +come to a general stop." Then she added, with a little ironical +smile, "Even you, Richard, wouldn't be talking all the time." + +Formerly Margaret's light sarcasms, even when they struck him +point-blank, used to amuse Richard, but now he winced at being merely +grazed. + +Margaret went on: "But it's not a bit necessary to be circular or +instructive--with me. I am interested in trivial matters,--in the +weather, in my spring hat, in what you are going to do next, and the +like. One must occupy one's self with something. But you, Richard, +nowadays you seem interested in nothing, and have nothing whatever to +say." + +Poor Richard! He had a great deal to say, but he did not know how, +nor if it were wise to breathe it. Just three little words, murmured +or whispered, and the whole conditions would be changed. With those +fateful words uttered, what would be Margaret's probable attitude, +and what Mr. Slocum's? Though the line which formerly drew itself +between employer and employee had grown faint with time, it still +existed in Richard's mind, and now came to the surface with great +distinctness, like a word written in sympathetic ink. If he spoke, +and Margaret was startled or offended, then there was an end to their +free, unembarrassed intercourse,--perhaps an end to all intercourse. +By keeping his secret in his breast he at least secured the present. +But that was to risk everything. Any day somebody might come and +carry Margaret off under his very eyes. As he reflected on this, the +shadow of John Dana, the son of the rich iron-manufacturer, etched +itself sharply upon Richard's imagination. Within the week young Dana +had declared in the presence of Richard that "Margaret Slocum was an +awfully nice little thing," and the Othello in Richard's blood had +been set seething. Then his thought glanced from John Dana to Mr. +Pinkham and the Rev. Arthur Langly, both of whom were assiduous +visitors at the house. The former had lately taken to accompanying +Margaret on the piano with his dismal little flute, and the latter +was perpetually making a moth of himself about her class at +Sunday-school. + +Richard stood with the edge of his chisel resting idly upon the +plaster mold in front of him, pondering these things. Presently he +heard Margaret's voice, as if somewhere in the distance, saying,-- + +"I have not finished yet, Richard." + +"Go on," said Richard, falling to work again with a kind of +galvanic action. "Go on, please." + +"I have a serious grievance. Frankly, I am hurt by your +preoccupation and indifference, your want of openness or +cordiality,--I don't know how to name it. You are the only person who +seems to be unaware that I escaped a great danger a month ago. I am +obliged to remember all the agreeable hours I have spent in the +studio to keep off the impression that during my illness you got used +to not seeing me, and that now my presence somehow obstructs your +work and annoys you." + +Richard threw his chisel on the bench, and crossed over to the +window where Margaret was. + +"You are as wrong as you can be," he said, looking down on her +half-lifted face, from which a quick wave of color was subsiding; for +the abruptness of Richard's movement had startled her. + +"I am glad if I am wrong." + +"It is nearly an unforgivable thing to be as wide of the mark as +you are. Oh, Margaret, if you had died that time!" + +"You would have been very sorry?" + +"Sorry? No. That doesn't express it; one outlives mere sorrow. If +anything had happened to you, I should never have got over it. You +don't know what those five weeks were to me. It was a kind of death +to come to this room day after day, and not find you." + +Margaret rested her eyes thoughtfully on the space occupied by +Richard rather than on Richard himself, seeming to look through and +beyond him, as if he were incorporeal. + +"You missed me like that?" she said slowly. + +"I missed you like that." + +Margaret meditated a moment. "In the first days of my illness I +wondered if you didn't miss me a little; afterwards everything was +confused in my mind. When I tried to think, I seemed to be somebody +else,--I seemed to be _you_ waiting for me here in the studio. +Wasn't that singular? But when I recovered, and returned to my old +place, I began to suspect I had been bearing your anxiety,--that I +had been distressed by the absence to which you had grown +accustomed." + +"I never got used to it, Margaret. It became more and more +unendurable. This workshop was full of--of your absence. There wasn't +a sketch or a cast or an object in the room that didn't remind me of +you, and seem to mock at me for having let the most precious moments +of my life slip away unheeded. That bit of geranium in the glass +yonder seemed to say with its dying breath, 'You have cared for +neither of us as you ought to have cared; my scent and her goodness +have been all one to you,--things to take or to leave. It was for no +merit of yours that she was always planning something to make life +smoother and brighter for you. What had you done to deserve it? How +unselfish and generous and good she has been to you for years and +years! What would have become of you without her? She left me here on +purpose'--it's the geranium leaf that is speaking all the while, +Margaret--'to say this to you, and to tell you that she was not half +appreciated; but now you have lost her.'" + +As she leaned forward listening, with her lips slightly parted, +Margaret gave an unconscious little approbative nod of the head. +Richard's fanciful accusation of himself caused her a singular thrill +of pleasure. He had never before spoken to her in just this fashion; +the subterfuge which his tenderness had employed, the little detour +it had made in order to get at her, was a novel species of flattery. +She recognized the ring of a distinctly new note in his voice; but, +strangely enough, the note lost its unfamiliarity in an instant. +Margaret recognized that fact also, and as she swiftly speculated on +the phenomenon her pulse went one or two strokes faster. + +"Oh, you poor boy!" she said, looking up with a laugh, and a flush +so interfused that they seemed one, "that geranium took a great deal +upon itself. It went quite beyond its instructions, which were simply +to remind you of me now and then. One day, while you were out,--the +day before I was taken ill,--I placed the flowers on the desk there, +perhaps with a kind of premonition that I was going away from you for +a time." + +"What if you had never come back?" + +"I wouldn't think of that if I were you," said Margaret softly. + +"But it haunts me,--that thought. Sometimes of a morning, after I +unlock the workshop door, I stand hesitating, with my hand on the +latch, as one might hesitate a few seconds before stepping into a +tomb. There were days last month, Margaret, when this chamber did +appear to me like a tomb. All that was happy in my past seemed to lie +buried here; it was something visible and tangible; I used to steal +in and look upon it." + +"Oh, Richard!" + +"If you only knew what a life I led as a boy in my cousin's house, +and what a doleful existence for years afterwards, until I found you, +perhaps you would understand my despair when I saw everything +suddenly slipping away from me. Margaret! the day your father brought +you in here, I had all I could do not to kneel down at your +feet"--Richard stopped short. "I didn't mean to tell you that," he +added, turning towards the work-table. Then he checked himself, and +came and stood in front of her again. He had gone too far not to go +further. "While you were ill I made a great discovery." + +"What was that, Richard?" + +"I discovered that I had been blind for two or three years." + +"Blind?" repeated Margaret. + +"Stone-blind. I discovered it by suddenly seeing--by seeing that I +had loved you all the while, Margaret! Are you offended?" + +"No," said Margaret, slowly; she was a moment finding her voice to +say it. "I--ought I to be offended?" + +"Not if you are not!" said Richard. + +"Then I am not. I--I've made little discoveries myself," murmured +Margaret, going into full mourning with her eyelashes. + +But it was only for an instant. She refused to take her happiness +shyly or insincerely; it was something too sacred. She was a trifle +appalled by it, if the truth must be told. If Richard had scattered +his love-making through the month of her convalescence, or if he had +made his avowal in a different mood, perhaps Margaret might have met +him with some natural coquetry. But Richard's tone and manner had +been such as to suppress any instinct of the kind. His declaration, +moreover, had amazed her. Margaret's own feelings had been more or +less plain to her that past month, and she had diligently disciplined +herself to accept Richard's friendship, since it seemed all he had to +give. Indeed, it had seemed at times as if he had not even that. + +When Margaret lifted her eyes to him, a second after her +confession, they were full of a sweet seriousness, and she had no +thought of withdrawing the hands which Richard had taken, and was +holding lightly, that she might withdraw them if she willed. She felt +no impulse to do so, though as Margaret looked up she saw her father +standing a few paces behind Richard. + +With an occult sense of another presence in the room, Richard, +turned at the same instant. + +Mr. Slocum had advanced two steps into the apartment, and had been +brought to a dead halt by the surprising tableau in the embrasure of +the window. He stood motionless, with an account-book under his arm, +while a dozen expressions chased each other over his countenance. + +"Mr. Slocum," said Richard, who saw that only one course lay open +to him, "I love Margaret, and I have been telling her." + +At that the flitting shadows on Mr. Slocum's face settled into one +grave look. He did not reply immediately, but let his glance wander +from Margaret to Richard, and back again to Margaret, slowly +digesting the fact. It was evident he had not relished it. Meanwhile +the girl had risen from the chair and was moving towards her father. + +"This strikes me as very extraordinary," he said at last. "You +have never given any intimation that such a feeling existed. How long +has this been going on?" + +"I have always been fond of Margaret, sir; but I was not aware of +the strength of the attachment until the time of her illness, when +I--that is, we--came near to losing her." + +"And you, Margaret?" + +As Mr. Slocum spoke he instinctively put one arm around Margaret, +who had crept closely to his side. + +"I don't know when I began to love Richard," said Margaret simply. + +"You don't know!" + +"Perhaps it was while I was ill; perhaps it was long before that; +may be my liking for him commenced as far back as the time he made +the cast of my hand. How can I tell, papa? I don't know." + +"There appears to be an amazing diffusion of ignorance here!" + +Margaret bit her lip, and kept still. Her father was taking it a +great deal more seriously than she had expected. A long, awkward +silence ensued. Richard broke it at last by remarking uneasily, +"Nothing has been or was to be concealed from you. Before going to +sleep to-night, Margaret would have told you all I've said to her." + +"You should have consulted with me before saying anything." + +"I intended to do so, but my words got away from me. I hope you +will overlook it, sir, and not oppose my loving Margaret, though I +see as plainly as you do that I am not worthy of her." + +"I have not said that. I base my disapproval on entirely different +ground. Margaret is too young. A girl of seventeen or eighteen"-- + +"Nineteen," said Margaret, parenthetically. + +"Of nineteen, then,--has no business to bother her head with such +matters. Only yesterday she was a child!" + +Richard glanced across at Margaret, and endeavored to recall her +as she impressed him that first afternoon, when she knocked defiantly +at the workshop door to inquire if he wanted any pans and pails; but +he was totally unable to reconstruct that crude little figure with +the glossy black head, all eyes and beak, like a young hawk's. + +"My objection is impersonal," continued Mr. Slocum. "I object to +the idea. I wish this had not happened. I might not have disliked +it--years hence; I don't say; but I dislike it now." + +Richard's face brightened. "It will be years hence in a few +years!" + +Mr. Slocum replied with a slow, grave smile, "I am not going to be +unreasonable in a matter where I find Margaret's happiness concerned; +and yours, Richard, I care for that, too; but I'll have no +entanglements. You and she are to be good friends, and nothing +beyond. I prefer that Margaret should not come to the studio so +often; you shall see her whenever you like at our fireside, of an +evening. I don't think the conditions hard." + +Mr. Slocum had dictated terms, but it was virtually a surrender. +Margaret listened to him with her cheek resting against his arm, and +a warm light nestled down deep under her eyelids. + +Mr. Slocum drew a half-pathetic sigh. "I presume I have not done +wisely. Every one bullies me. The Marble Workers' Association ruins +my yard for me, and now my daughter is taken off my hands. By the +way, Richard," he said, interrupting himself brusquely, and with an +air of dismissing the subject, "I forgot what I came for. I've been +thinking over Torrini's case, and have concluded that you had better +make up his account and discharge him." + +"Certainly, sir," replied Richard, with a shadow of dissent in his +manner, "if you wish it." + +"He causes a deal of trouble in the yard." + +"I am afraid he does. Such a clean workman when he's sober!" + +"But he is never sober." + +"He has been in a bad way lately, I admit." + +"His example demoralizes the men. I can see it day by day." + +"I wish he were not so necessary at this moment," observed +Richard. "I don't know who else could be trusted with the frieze for +the Soldiers' Monument. I'd like to keep him on a week or ten days +longer. Suppose I have a plain talk with Torrini?" + +"Surely we have enough good hands to stand the loss of one." + +"For a special kind of work there is nobody in the yard like +Torrini. That is one reason why I want to hold on to him for a while, +and there are other reasons." + +"Such as what?" + +"Well, I think it would not be wholly politic to break with him +just now." + +"Why not now as well as any time?" + +"He has lately been elected secretary of the Association." + +"What of that?" + +"He has a great deal of influence there." + +"If we put him out of the works it seems to me he would lose his +importance, if he really has any to speak of." + +"You are mistaken if you doubt it. His position gives him a chance +to do much mischief, and he would avail himself of it very adroitly, +if he had a personal grievance." + +"I believe you are actually afraid of the fellow." + +Richard smiled. "No, I am not afraid of him, but I don't underrate +him. The men look up to Torrini as a sort of leader; he's an +effective speaker, and knows very well how to fan a dissatisfaction. +Either he or some other disturbing element has recently been at work +among the men. There's considerable grumbling in the yard." + +"They are always grumbling, aren't they?" + +"Most always, but this is more serious than usual; there appears +to be a general stir among the trades in the village. I don't +understand it clearly. The marble workers have been holding secret +meetings." + +"They mean business, you think?" + +"They mean increased wages, perhaps." + +"But we are now paying from five to ten per cent more than any +trade in the place. What are they after?" + +"So far as I can gather, sir, the finishers and the slab-sawers +want an advance,--I don't know how much. Then there's some talk about +having the yard closed an hour earlier on Saturdays. All this is +merely rumor; but I am sure there is something in it." + +"Confound the whole lot! If we can't discharge a drunken hand +without raising the pay of all the rest, we had better turn over the +entire business to the Association. But do as you like, Richard. You +see how I am bullied, Margaret. He runs everything! Come, dear." + +And Mr. Slocum quitted the workshop, taking Margaret with him. +Richard remained standing awhile by the table, in a deep study, with +his eyes fixed on the floor. He thought of his early days in the +sepulchral house in Welch's Court, of his wanderings abroad, his long +years of toil since then, and this sudden blissful love that had come +to him, and Mr. Slocum's generosity. Then he thought of Torrini, and +went down into the yard gently to admonish the man, for Richard's +heart that hour was full of kindness for all the world. + + + + +XI + + +In spite of Mr. Slocum's stipulations respecting the frequency of +Margaret's visits to the studio, she was free to come and go as she +liked. It was easy for him to say, Be good friends, and nothing +beyond; but after that day in the workshop it was impossible for +Richard and Margaret to be anything but lovers. The hollowness of +pretending otherwise was clear even to Mr. Slocum. In the love of a +father for a daughter there is always a vague jealousy which refuses +to render a coherent explanation of itself. Mr. Slocum did not escape +this, but he managed, nevertheless, to accept the inevitable with +very fair grace, and presently to confess to himself that the +occurrence which had at first taken him aback was the most natural in +the world. That Margaret and Richard, thrown together as they had +been, should end by falling in love with each other was not a result +to justify much surprise. Indeed, there was a special propriety in +their doing so. The Shackfords had always been reputable people in +the village,--down to Lemuel Shackford, who of course was an old +musk-rat. The family attributes of amiability and honesty had skipped +him, but they had reappeared in Richard. It was through his foresight +and personal energy that the most lucrative branch of the trade had +been established. His services entitled him to a future interest in +the business, and Mr. Slocum had intended he should have it. Mr. +Slocum had not dreamed of throwing in Margaret also; but since that +addition had suggested itself, it seemed to him one of the happy +features of the arrangement. Richard would thus be doubly identified +with the yard, to which, in fact, he had become more necessary than +Mr. Slocum himself. + +"He has more backbone with the men than I have," acknowledged Mr. +Slocum. "He knows how to manage them, and I don't." + +As soft as Slocum was a Stillwater proverb. Richard certainly had +plenty of backbone; it was his only capital. In Mr. Slocum's +estimation it was sufficient capital. But Lemuel Shackford was a very +rich man, and Mr. Slocum could not avoid seeing that it would be +decent in Richard's only surviving relative if, at this juncture, he +were to display a little interest in the young fellow's welfare. + +"If he would only offer to advance a few thousand dollars for +Richard," said Mr. Slocum, one evening, to Margaret, with whom he had +been talking over the future--"the property must all come to him some +time,--it would be a vast satisfaction to me to tell the old man that +we can get along without any of his ill-gotten gains. He made the +bulk of his fortune during the war, you know. The old sea-serpent," +continued Mr. Slocum, with hopeless confusion of metaphor, "had a +hand in fitting out more than one blockade-runner. They used to talk +of a ship that got away from Charleston with a cargo of cotton that +netted the share-holders upwards of two hundred thousand dollars. He +denies it now, but everybody knows Shackford. He'd betray his country +for fifty cents in postage-stamps." + +"Oh, papa! you are too hard on him." + +In words dropped cursorily from time to time, Margaret imparted to +Richard the substance of her father's speech, and it set Richard +reflecting. It was not among the probabilities that Lemuel Shackford +would advance a dollar to establish Richard, but if he could induce +his cousin even to take the matter into consideration, Richard felt +that it would be a kind of moral support to him circumstanced as he +was. His pride revolted at the idea of coming quite unbacked and +disowned, as well as empty-handed, to Mr. Slocum. + +For the last twelve months there had been a cessation of ordinary +courtesies between the two cousins. They now passed each other on the +street without recognition. A year previously Mr. Shackford had +fallen ill, and Richard, aware of the inefficient domestic +arrangements in Welch's Court, had gone to the house out of sheer +pity. The old man was in bed, and weak with fever, but at seeing +Richard he managed to raise himself on one elbow. + +"Oh, it's you!" he exclaimed, mockingly. "When a rich man is sick +the anxious heirs crowd around him; but they're twice as honestly +anxious when he is perfectly well." + +"I came to see if I could do anything for you!" cried Richard, +with a ferocious glare, and in a tone that went curiously with his +words, and shook to the foundations his character of Good Samaritan. + +"The only thing you can do for me is to go away." + +"I'll do that with pleasure," retorted Richard bitterly. + +And Richard went, vowing he would never set foot across the +threshold again. He could not help having ugly thoughts. Why should +all the efforts to bring about a reconciliation and all the +forbearance be on his side? Thenceforth the crabbed old man might go +to perdition if he wanted to. + +And now here was Richard meditating a visit to that same house to +beg a favor! + +Nothing but his love for Margaret could have dragged him to such a +banquet of humble-pie as he knew was spread for his delectation, the +morning he passed up the main street of Stillwater and turned into +Welch's Court. + +As Richard laid his hand on the latch of the gate, Mr. Shackford, +who was digging in the front garden, looked up and saw him. Without +paying any heed to Richard's amicable salutation, the old man left +the shovel sticking in the sod, and walked stiffly into the house. At +another moment this would have amused Richard, but now he gravely +followed his kinsman, and overtook him at the foot of the staircase. + +"Cousin Shackford, can you spare me five or ten minutes?" + +"Don't know as I can," said Mr. Shackford, with one foot on the +lower stair. "Time is valuable. What do you want? You want +something." + +"Certainly, or I wouldn't think of trespassing on your time." + +"Has Slocum thrown you over?" inquired the old man, turning +quickly. A straw which he held between his thin lips helped to give +him a singularly alert expression. + +"No; Mr. Slocum and I agree the best in the world. I want to talk +with you briefly on certain matters; I want to be on decent terms +with you, if you will let me." + +"Decent terms means money, doesn't it?" asked Mr. Shackford, with +a face as wary and lean as a shark's. + +"I do wish to talk about money, among other things," returned +Richard, whom this brutal directness disconcerted a little,--"money +on satisfactory security." + +"You can get it anywhere with that." + +"So I might, and be asking no favor; but I would rather get it of +you, and consider it an obligation." + +"I would rather you wouldn't." + +"Listen to me a moment." + +"Well, I'm listening." + +Mr. Shackford stood in an attitude of attention, with his head +canted on one side, his eyes fixed on the ceiling, and the straw +between his teeth tilted up at an angle of forty degrees. + +"I have, as you know, worked my way in the marble yard to the +position of general manager," began Richard. + +"I didn't know," said Mr. Shackford, "but I understand. You're a +sort of head grave-stone maker." + +"That is taking a rather gloomy view of it," said Richard, "but no +matter. The point is, I hold a responsible position, and I now have a +chance to purchase a share in the works." + +"Slocum is willing to take you in, eh?" + +"Yes." + +"Then the concern is hit." + +"Hit?" + +"Slocum is going into bankruptcy." + +"You are wrong there. The yard was never so prosperous; the coming +year we shall coin money like a mint." + +"You ought to know," said Mr. Shackford, ruminatively. "A thing as +good as a mint must be a good thing." + +"If I were a partner in the business, I could marry Margaret." + +"Who's Margaret?" + +"Mr. Slocum's daughter." + +"That's where the wind is! Now how much capital would it take to +do all that?" inquired Mr. Shackford, with an air of affable +speculation. + +"Three or four thousand dollars,--perhaps less." + +"Well, I wouldn't give three or four cents to have you marry +Slocum's daughter. Richard, you can't pull any chestnuts out of the +fire with my paw." + +Mr. Shackford's interrogation and his more than usual conciliatory +manner had lighted a hope which Richard had not brought with him. Its +sudden extinguishment was in consequence doubly aggravating. + +"Slocum's daughter!" repeated Mr. Shackford. "I'd as soon you +would marry Crazy Nan up at the work-house." + +The association of Crazy Nan with Margaret sent a red flush into +Richard's cheek. He turned angrily towards the door, and then halted, +recollecting the resolve he had made not to lose his temper, come +what would. If the interview was to end there it had better not have +taken place. + +"I had no expectation that you would assist me pecuniarily," said +Richard, after a moment. "Let us drop the money question; it +shouldn't have come up between us. I want you to aid me, not by +lending me money, but by giving me your countenance as the head of +the family,--by showing a natural interest in my affairs, and seeming +disposed to promote them." + +"By just seeming?" + +"That is really all I desire. If you were to propose to put +capital into the concern, Mr. Slocum would refuse it." + +"Slocum would refuse it! Why in the devil should he refuse it?" + +"Because"--Richard hesitated, finding himself unexpectedly on +delicate ground--"because he would not care to enter into business +relations with you, under the circumstances." + +Mr. Shackford removed the straw from his mouth, and holding it +between his thumb and forefinger peered steadily through his +half-closed eyelids at Richard. + +"I don't understand you." + +"The dispute you had long ago, over the piece of meadow land +behind the marble yard. Mr. Slocum felt that you bore on him rather +heavily in that matter, and has not quite forgiven you for forcing +him to rebuild the sheds." + +"Bother Slocum and his sheds! I understand him. What I don't +understand is _you_. I am to offer Slocum three or four thousand +dollars to set you up, and he is to decline to take it. Is that it?" + +"That is not it at all," returned Richard. "My statement was this: +If you were to propose purchasing a share for me in the works, Mr. +Slocum would not entertain the proposition, thinking--as I don't +think--that he would mortify you by the refusal of your money." + +"The only way Slocum could mortify me would be by getting hold of +it. But what are you driving at, anyhow? In one breath you demand +several thousand dollars, and in the next breath you tell me that +nobody expects it, or wants it, or could be induced to have it on any +terms. Perhaps you will inform me what you are here for?" + +"That is what you will never discover!" cried Richard. "It is not +in you to comprehend the ties of sympathy that ought to hold between +two persons situated as we are. In most families this sympathy binds +closely at times,--at christenings, or burials, or when some member +is about to take an important step in life. Generally speaking, blood +is thicker than water; but your blood, cousin Shackford, seems to be +a good deal thinner. I came here to consult with you as my sole +remaining kinsman, as one authorized by years and position to give me +wise counsel and kindly encouragement at the turning point in my +fortune. I didn't wish to go among those people like a tramp, with +neither kith nor kin to say a word for me. Of course you don't +understand that. How should you? A sentiment of that kind is +something quite beyond your conception." + +Richard's words went into one ear and out the other, without +seeming for an instant to arrest Mr. Shackford's attention. The idea +of Slocum not accepting money--anybody's money--presented itself to +Mr. Shackford in so facetious a light as nearly to throw him into +good humor. His foot was on the first step of the staircase, which he +now began slowly to mount, giving vent, as he ascended, to a series +of indescribable chuckles. At the top of the landing he halted, and +leaned over the rail. + +"To think of Slocum refusing,--that's a good one!" + +In the midst of his jocularity a sudden thought seemed to strike +Mr. Shackford; his features underwent a swift transformation, and as +he grasped the rail in front of him with both hands a malicious +cunning writhed and squirmed in every wrinkle of his face. + +"Sir!" he shrieked, "it was a trap! Slocum would have taken it! If +I had been ass enough to make any such offer, he would have jumped at +it. What do you and Slocum take me for? You're a pair of rascals!" + +Richard staggered back, bewildered and blinded, as if he had +received a blow in the eyes. + +"No," continued Mr. Shackford, with a gesture of intense contempt, +"you are less than rascals. You are fools. A rascal has to have +brains!" + +"You shameless old man!" cried Richard, as soon as he could get +his voice. + +To do Mr. Shackford justice, he was thoroughly convinced that +Richard had lent himself to a preposterous attempt to obtain money +from him. The absence of ordinary shrewdness in the method stamped it +at once as belonging to Slocum, of whose mental calibre Mr. Shackford +entertained no flattering estimate. + +"Slocum!" he muttered, grinding the word between his teeth. +"Family ties!" he cried, hurling the words scornfully over the +banister as he disappeared into one of the upper chambers. + +Richard stood with one hand on the newel-post, white at the lip +with rage. For a second he had a wild impulse to spring up the +staircase, but, controlling this, he turned and hurried out of the +house. + +At the gate he brushed roughly against a girl, who halted and +stared. It was a strange thing to see Mr. Richard Shackford, who +always had a pleasant word for a body, go by in that blind, excited +fashion, striking one fist into the palm of the other hand, and +talking to his own self! Mary Hennessey watched him until he wheeled +out of Welch's Court, and then picking up her basket, which she had +rested on the fence, went her way. + + + + +XII + + +At the main entrance to the marble works Richard nearly walked +over a man who was coming out, intently mopping his forehead with a +very dirty calico handkerchief. It was an English stone-dresser named +Denyven. Richard did not recognize him at first. + +"That you, Denyven!... what has happened!" + +"I've 'ad a bit of a scrimmage, sir." + +"A scrimmage in the yard, in work hours!" + +The man nodded. + +"With whom?" + +"Torrini, sir,--he's awful bad this day." + +"Torrini,--it is always Torrini! It seems odd that one man should +be everlastingly at the bottom of everything wrong. How did it +happen? Give it to me straight, Denyven; I don't want a crooked +story. This thing has got to stop in Slocum's Yard." + +"The way of it was this, sir: Torrini wasn't at the shop this +morning. He 'ad a day off." + +"I know." + +"But about one o'clock, sir, he come in the yard. He 'ad been at +the public 'ouse, sir, and he was hummin'. First he went among the +carvers, talking Hitalian to 'em and making 'em laugh, though he was +in a precious bad humor hisself. By and by he come over to where me +and my mates was, and began chaffin' us, which we didn't mind it, +seeing he was 'eavy in the 'ead. He was as clear as a fog 'orn all +the same. But when he took to banging the tools on the blocks, I +sings out, ''Ands off!' and then he fetched me a clip. I was never +looking for nothing less than that he'd hit me. I was a smiling at +the hinstant." + +"He must be drunker than usual." + +"Hevidently, sir. I went down between two slabs as soft as you +please. When I got on my pins, I was for choking him a bit, but my +mates hauled us apart. That's the 'ole of it, sir. They'll tell you +the same within." + +"Are you hurt, Denyven?" + +"Only a bit of a scratch over the heye, sir,--and the nose," and +the man began mopping his brow tenderly. "I'd like to 'ave that +Hitalian for about ten minutes, some day when he's sober, over yonder +on the green." + +"I'm afraid he would make the ten minutes seem long to you." + +"Well, sir, I'd willingly let him try his 'and." + +"How is it, Denyven," said Richard, "that you and sensible +workingmen like you, have permitted such a quarrelsome and +irresponsible fellow to become a leader in the Association? He's +secretary, or something, isn't he?" + +"Well, sir, he writes an uncommonly clean fist, and then he's a +born horator. He's up to all the parli'mentary dodges. Must 'ave 'ad +no end of hexperience in them sort of things on the other side." + +"No doubt,--and that accounts for him being over here." + +"As for horganizing a meeting, sir"-- + +"I know. Torrini has a great deal of that kind of ability; perhaps +a trifle too much for his own good or anybody else's. There was never +any trouble to speak of among the trades in Stillwater till he and +two or three others came here with foreign grievances. These men get +three times the pay they ever received in their own land, and are +treated like human beings for the first time in their lives. But what +do they do? They squander a quarter of their week's wages at the +tavern,--no rich man could afford to put a fourth of his income into +drink,--and make windy speeches at the Union. I don't say all of +them, but too many of them. The other night, I understand, Torrini +compared Mr. Slocum to Nero,--Mr. Slocum, the fairest and gentlest +man that ever breathed! What rubbish!" + +"It wasn't just that way, sir. His words was, and I 'eard +him,--'from Nero down to Slocum.'" + +"It amounts to the same thing, and is enough to make one laugh, if +he didn't make one want to swear. I hear that that was a very lively +meeting the other night. What was that nonsense about 'the privileged +class'?" + +"Well, there is a privileged class in the States." + +"So there is, but it's a large class, Denyven. Every soul of us +has the privilege of bettering out condition if we have the brain and +the industry to do it. Energy and intelligence come to the front, and +have the right to be there. A skillful workman gets double the pay of +a bungler, and deserves it. Of course there will always be rich and +poor, and sick and sound, and I don't see how that can be changed. +But no door is shut against ability, black or white. Before the year +2400 we shall have a chrome-yellow president and a black-and-tan +secretary of the treasury. But, seriously, Denyven, whoever talks +about privileged classes here does it to make mischief. There are +certain small politicians who reap their harvest in times of public +confusion, just as pickpockets do. Nobody can play the tyrant or the +bully in this country,--not even a workingman. Here's the Association +dead against an employer who, two years ago, ran his yard full-handed +for a twelvemonth at a loss, rather than shut down, as every other +mill and factory in Stillwater did. For years and years the +Association has prevented this employer from training more than two +apprentices annually. The result is, eighty hands find work, instead +of a hundred and eighty. Now, that can't last." + +"It keeps wages fixed in Stillwater, sir." + +"It keeps out a hundred workmen. It sends away capital." + +"Torrini says, sir"-- + +"Steer clear of Torrini and what he says. He's a dangerous +fellow--for his friends. It is handsome in you, Denyven, to speak up +for him--with that eye of yours." + +"Oh, I don't love the man, when it comes to that; but there's no +denying he's right smart," replied Denyven, who occasionally marred +his vernacular with Americanisms. "The Association couldn't do +without him." + +"But Slocum's Yard can," said Richard, irritated to observe the +influence Torrini exerted on even such men as Denyven. + +"That's between you and him, sir, of course, but"-- + +"But what?" + +"Well, sir, I can't say hexactly; but if I was you I would bide a +bit." + +"No, I think Torrini's time has come." + +"I don't make bold to advise you, sir. I merely throws out the +hobservation." + +With that Denyven departed to apply to his bruises such herbs and +simples as a long experience had taught him to be efficacious. + +He had gone only a few rods, however, when it occurred to him that +there were probabilities of a stormy scene in the yard; so he turned +on his tracks, and followed Richard Shackford. + +Torrini was a Neapolitan, who had come to the country seven or +eight years before. He was a man above the average intelligence of +his class; a marble worker by trade, but he had been a fisherman, a +mountain guide among the Abruzzi, a soldier in the papal guard, and +what not, and had contrived to pick up two or three languages, among +the rest English, which he spoke with purity. His lingual gift was +one of his misfortunes. + +Among the exotics in Stillwater, which even boasted a featureless +Celestial, who had unobtrusively extinguished himself with a +stove-pipe hat, Torrini was the only figure that approached +picturesqueness. With his swarthy complexion and large, indolent +eyes, in which a southern ferocity slept lightly, he seemed to +Richard a piece out of his own foreign experience. To him Torrini was +the crystallization of Italy, or so much of that Italy as Richard had +caught a glimpse of at Genoa. To the town-folks Torrini perhaps +vaguely suggested hand-organs and eleemosynary pennies; but Richard +never looked at the straight-limbed, handsome fellow without +recalling the Phrygian-capped sailors of the Mediterranean. On this +account, and for other reasons, Richard had taken a great fancy to +the man. Torrini had worked in the ornamental department from the +first, and was a rapid and expert carver when he chose. He had +carried himself steadily enough in the beginning, but in these later +days, as Mr. Slocum had stated, he was scarcely ever sober. Richard +had stood between him and his discharge on several occasions, partly +because he was so skillful a workman, and partly through pity for his +wife and children, who were unable to speak a word of English. But +Torrini's influence on the men in the yard,--especially on the +younger hands, who needed quite other influences,--and his +intemperate speeches at the trades-union, where he had recently +gained a kind of ascendancy by his daring, were producing the worst +effects. + +At another hour Richard might have been inclined to condone this +last offense, as he had condoned others; but when he parted from +Denyven, Richard's heart was still hot with his cousin's insult. As +he turned into the yard, not with his usual swinging gait, but with a +quick, wide step, there was an unpleasant dilation about young +Shackford's nostrils. + +Torrini was seated on a block of granite in front of the upper +sheds, flourishing a small chisel in one hand and addressing the men, +a number of whom had stopped work to listen to him. At sight of +Richard they made a show of handling their tools, but it was so clear +something grave was going to happen that the pretense fell through. +They remained motionless, resting on their mallets, with their eyes +turned towards Richard. Torrini followed the general glance, and +pause din his harangue. + +"Talk of the devil!" he muttered, and then, apparently continuing +the thread of his discourse, broke into a strain of noisy +declamation. + +Richard walked up to him quietly. + +"Torrini," he said, "you can't be allowed to speak here, you +know." + +"I can speak where I like," replied Torrini gravely. He was drunk, +but the intoxication was not in his tongue. His head, as Denyven had +asserted, was as clear as a fog-horn. + +"When you are sober, you can come to the desk and get your pay and +your kit. You are discharged from the yard." + +Richard was standing within two paces of the man, who looked up +with an uncertain smile, as if he had not quite taken in the sense of +the words. Then, suddenly straightening himself, he exclaimed,-- + +"Slocum don't dare do it!" + +"But I do." + +"You!" + +"When I do a thing Mr. Slocum backs me." + +"But who backs Slocum,--the Association, may be?" + +"Certainly the Association ought to. I want you to leave the yard +now." + +"He backs Slocum," said Torrini, settling himself on the block +again, "and Slocum backs down," at which there was a laugh among the +men. + +Richard made a step forward. + +"Hands off!" cried a voice from under the sheds. + +"Who said that?" demanded Richard, wheeling around. No one +answered, but Richard had recognized Durgin's voice. "Torrini, if you +don't quit the yard in two minutes by the clock yonder, I shall put +you out by the neck. Do you understand?" + +Torrini glared about him confusedly for a moment, and broke into +voluble Italian; then, without a warning gesture, sprung to his feet +and struck at Richard. A straight red line, running vertically the +length of his cheek, showed where the chisel had grazed him. The +shops were instantly in a tumult, the men dropping their tools and +stumbling over the blocks, with cries of "Keep them apart!" "Shame on +you!" "Look out, Mr. Shackford!" + +"Is it mad ye are, Torrany!" cried Michael Hennessey, hurrying +from the saw-bench. Durgin held him back by the shoulders. + +"Let them alone," said Durgin. + +The flat steel flashed again in the sunlight, but fell harmlessly, +and before the blow could be repeated, Richard had knitted his +fingers in Torrini's neckerchief and twisted it so tightly that the +man gasped. Holding him by this, Richard dragged Torrini across the +yard, and let him drop on the sidewalk outside the gate, where he lay +in a heap, inert. + +"That was nate," said Michael Hennessey, sententiously. + +Richard stood leaning on the gate-post to recover he breath. His +face was colorless, and the crimson line defined itself sharply +against the pallor; but the rage was dead within him. It had been one +of his own kind of rages,--like lightning out of a blue sky. As he +stood there a smile was slowly gathering on his lip. + +A score or two of the men had followed him, and now lounged in a +half-circle a few paces in the rear. When Richard was aware of their +presence, the glow came into his eyes again. + +"Who ordered you to knock off work?" + +"That was a foul blow of Torrini's, sir," said Stevens, stepping +forward, "and I for one come to see fair play." + +"Give us your 'and, mate!" cried Denyven; "there's a pair of us." + +"Thanks," said Richard, softening at once, "but there's no need. +Every man can go to his job. Denyven may stay, if he likes." + +The men lingered a moment, irresolute, and returned to the sheds +in silence. + +Presently Torrini stretched out one leg, then the other, and +slowly rose to his feet, giving a stupid glance at his empty hands as +he did so. + +"Here's your tool," said Richard, stirring the chisel with the toe +of his boot, "if that's what you're looking for." + +Torrini advanced a step as if to pick it up, then appeared to +alter his mind, hesitated perhaps a dozen seconds, and turning +abruptly on his heel walked down the street without a stagger. + +"I think his legs is shut off from the rest of his body by +water-tight compartments," remarked Denyven, regarding Torrini's +steady gait with mingled amusement and envy. "Are you hurt, sir?" + +"Only a bit of a scratch of the heye," replied Richard, with a +laugh. + +"As I hobserved just now to Mr. Stevens, sir, there's a pair of +us!" + + + + +XIII + + +After a turn through the shops to assure himself that order was +restored, Richard withdrew in the direction of his studio. Margaret +was standing at the head of the stairs, half hidden by the scarlet +creeper which draped that end of the veranda. + +"What are you doing there?" said Richard looking up with a bright +smile. + +"Oh, Richard, I saw it all!" + +"You didn't see anything worth having white cheeks about." + +"But he struck you ... with the knife, did he not?" said +Margaret, clinging to his arm anxiously. + +"He didn't have a knife, dear; only a small chisel, which couldn't +hurt any one. See for yourself; it is merely a cat-scratch." + +Margaret satisfied herself that it was nothing more; but she +nevertheless insisted on leading Richard into the workshop, and +soothing the slight inflammation with her handkerchief dipped in +arnica and water. The elusive faint fragrance of Margaret's hair as +she busied herself about him would of itself have consoled Richard +for a deep wound. All this pretty solicitude and ministration was new +and sweet to him, and when the arnica turned out to be cologne, and +scorched his cheek, Margaret's remorse was so delicious that Richard +half wished the mixture had been aquafortis. + +"You shouldn't have been looking into the yard," he said. "If I +had known that you were watching us it would have distracted me. When +I am thinking of you I cannot think of anything else, and I had need +of my wits for a moment." + +"I happened to be on the veranda, and was too frightened to go +away. Why did you quarrel?" + +In giving Margaret an account of the matter, Richard refrained +from any mention of his humiliating visit to Welch's Court that +morning. He could neither speak of it nor reflect upon it with +composure. The cloud which shadowed his features from time to time +was attributed by Margaret to the affair in the yard. + +"But this is the end of it, is it not?" she asked, with troubled +eyes. "You will not have any further words with him?" + +"You needn't worry. If Torrini had not been drinking he would +never have lifted his hand against me. When he comes out of his +present state, he will be heartily ashamed of himself. His tongue is +the only malicious part of him. If he hadn't a taste for drink and +oratory,--if he was not 'a born horator,' as Denyven calls him,--he +would do well enough." + +"No, Richard, he's a dreadful man. I shall never forget his +face,--it was some wild animal's. And you, Richard," added Margaret +softly, "it grieved me to see you look like that." + +"I was wolfish for a moment, I suppose. Things had gone wrong +generally. But if you are going to scold me, Margaret, I would rather +have some more--arnica." + +"I am not going to scold; but while you stood there, so white and +terrible,--so unlike yourself,--I felt that I did not know you, +Richard. Of course you had to defend yourself when the man attacked +you, but I thought for an instant you would kill him." + +"Not I," said Richard uneasily, dreading anything like a rebuke +from Margaret. "I am mortified that I gave up to my anger. There was +no occasion." + +"If an intoxicated person were to wander into the yard, papa would +send for a constable, and have the person removed." + +"Your father is an elderly man," returned Richard, not relishing +this oblique criticism of his own simpler method. "What would be +proper in his case would be considered cowardly in mine. It was my +duty to discharge the fellow, and not let him dispute my authority. I +ought to have been cooler, of course. But I should have lost caste +and influence with the men if I had shown the least personal fear of +Torrini,--if, for example, I had summoned somebody else to do what I +didn't dare do myself. I was brought up in the yard, remember, and to +a certain extent I have to submit to being weighed in the yard's own +scales." + +"But a thing cannot be weighed in a scale incapable of containing +it," answered Margaret. "The judgment of these rough, uninstructed +men is too narrow for such as you. They quarrel and fight among +themselves, and have their ideas of daring; but there is a higher +sort of bravery, the bravery of self-control, which I fancy they do +not understand very well; so their opinion of it is not worth +considering. However, you know better than I." + +"No, I do not," said Richard. "Your instinct is finer than my +reason. But you _are_ scolding me, Margaret." + +"No, I am loving you," she said softly. "How can I do that more +faithfully than by being dissatisfied with anything but the best in +you?" + +"I wasn't at my best a while ago?" + +"No, Richard." + +"I can never hope to be worthy of you." + +But Margaret protested against that. Having forced him to look at +his action through her eyes, she outdid him in humility, and then the +conversation drifted off into half-breathed nothings, which, though +they were satisfactory enough for these two, would have made a third +person yawn. + +The occurrence at Slocum's Yard was hotly discussed that night at +the Stillwater hotel. Discussions in that long, low bar-room, where +the latest village scandal always came to receive the finishing +gloss, were apt to be hot. In their criticism of outside men and +measures, as well as in their mutual vivisections, there was an +unflinching directness among Mr. Snelling's guests which is not to be +found in more artificial grades of society. The popular verdict on +young Shackford's conduct was as might not have been predicted, +strongly in his favor. He had displayed pluck, and pluck of the +tougher fibre was a quality held in so high esteem in Stillwater that +any manifestation of it commanded respect. And young Shackford had +shown a great deal; he had made short work of the most formidable man +in the yard, and given the rest to understand that he was not to be +tampered with. This had taken many by surprise, for hitherto an +imperturbable amiability had been the leading characteristic of +Slocum's manager. + +"I didn't think he had it in him," declared Dexter. + +"Well, ye might," replied Michael Hennessey. "Look at the lad's +eye, and the muscles of him. He stands on his own two legs like a +monumint, so he does." + +"Never saw a monument with two legs, Mike." + +"Didn't ye? Wait till ye're layin' at the foot of one. But ye'll +wait many a day, me boy. Ye'll be lucky if ye're supploid with a +head-stone made out of a dale-board." + +"Couldn't get a wooden head-stone short of Ireland, Mike." +Retorted Dexter, with a laugh. "You'd have to import it." + +"An' so I will; but it won't be got over in time, if ye go on +interruptin' gintlemen when they're discoorsin'. What was I sayin', +any way, when the blackguard chipped in?" continued Mr. Hennessey, +appealing to the company, as he emptied the ashes from his pipe by +knocking the bowl in the side of his chair. + +"You was talking of Dick Shackford's muscle," said Durgin, "and +you never talked wider of the mark. It doesn't take much muscle, or +much courage either, to knock a man about when he's in liquor. The +two wasn't fairly matched." + +"You are right there, Durgin," said Stevens, laying down his +newspaper. "They weren't fairly matched. Both men have the same +pounds and inches, but Torrini had a weapon and that mad strength +that comes to some folks with drink. If Shackford hadn't made a neat +twist on the neckerchief, he wouldn't have got off with a scratch." + +"Shackford had no call to lay hands on him." + +"There you are wrong, Durgin," replied Stevens. "Torrini had no +call in the yard; he was making a nuisance of himself. Shackford +spoke to him, and told him to go, and when he didn't go Shackford put +him out; and he put him out handsomely,--'with neatness and +dispatch,' as Slocum's prospectuses has it." + +"He was right all the time," said Piggott. "He didn't strike +Torrini before or after he was down, and stood at the gate like a +gentleman, ready to give Torrini his chance if he wanted it." + +"Torrini didn't want it," observed Jemmy Willson. "Ther' isn't +nothing mean about Torrini." + +"But he 'ad a dozen minds about coming back," said Denyven. + +"We ought to have got him out of the place quietly," said Jeff +Stavers; "that was our end of the mistake. He is not a bad fellow, +but he shouldn't drink." + +"He was crazy to come to the yard." + +"When a man 'as a day off," observed Denyven, "and the beer isn't +narsty, he 'ad better stick to the public 'ouse." + +"Oh, you!" exclaimed Durgin. "Your opinion don't weigh. You took a +black eye of him." + +"Yes, I took a black heye,--and I can give one, in a hemergency. +Yes, I gives and takes." + +"That's where we differ," returned Durgin. "I do a more genteel +business; I give, and don't take." + +"Unless you're uncommon careful," said Denyven, pulling away at +his pipe, "you'll find yourself some day henlarging your business." + +Durgin pushed back his stool. + +"Gentlemen! gentlemen!" interposed Mr. Snelling, appearing from +behind the bar with a lemon-squeezer in his hand, "we'll have no black +eyes here that wasn't born so. I am partial to them myself when +nature gives them; and I propose the health of Miss Molly Hennessey," +with a sly glance at Durgin, who colored, "to be drank at the expense +of the house. Name your taps, gentlemen." + +"Snelling, me boy, ye'd win the bird from the bush with yer +beguilin' ways. Ye've brought proud tears to the eyes of an aged +parent, and I'll take a sup out of that high-showldered bottle which +you kape under the counter for the gentle-folk in the other room." + +A general laugh greeted Mr. Hennessey's selection, and peace was +restored; but the majority of those present were workmen from +Slocum's, and the event of the afternoon remained the uppermost +theme. + +"Shackford is a different build from Slocum," said Piggott. + +"I guess the yard will find that out when he gets to be +proprietor," rejoined Durgin, clicking his spoon against the empty +glass to attract Snelling's attention. + +"Going to be proprietor, is he?" + +"Some day or other," answered Durgin. "First he'll step into the +business, and then into the family. He's had his eye on Slocum's girl +these four or five years. Got a cast of her fist up in his workshop. +Leave Dick Shackford alone for lining his nest and making it soft all +round." + +"Why shouldn't he?" asked Stevens. "He deserves a good girl, and +there's none better. If sickness or any sort of trouble comes to a +poor man's door, she's never far off with her kind words and them +things the rich have when they are laid up." + +"Oh, the girl is well enough." + +"You couldn't say less. Before your mother died,"--Mrs. Durgin had +died the previous autumn,--"I see that angil going to your house many +a day with a little basket of comforts tucked under her wing. But +she's too good to be praised in such a place as this," added Stevens. +After a pause he inquired, "What makes you down on Shackford? He has +always been a friend to you." + +"One of those friends who walk over your head," replied Durgin. "I +was in the yard two years before him, and see where he is." + +"Lord love you," said Stevens, leaning back in his chair and +contemplating Durgin thoughtfully, "there is marble and marble; some +is Carrara marble, and some isn't. The fine grain takes a polish you +can't get on to the other." + +"Of course, he is statuary marble, and I'm full of seams and +feldspar." + +"You are like the most of us,--not the kind that can be worked up +into anything very ornamental." + +"Thank you for nothing," said Durgin, turning away. "I came from +as good a quarry as ever Dick Shackford. Where's Torrini to-night?" + +"Nobody has seen him since the difficulty," said Dexter, "except +Peters. Torrini sent for him after supper." + +As Dexter spoke, the door opened and Peters entered. He went +directly to the group composed chiefly of Slocum's men, and without +making any remark began to distribute among them certain small blue +tickets, which they pocketed in silence. Glancing carelessly at his +piece of card-board, Durgin said to Peters,-- + +"Then it's decided?" + +Peters nodded. + +"How's Torrini?" + +"He's all right." + +"What does he say?" + +"Nothing in perticular," responded Peters, "and nothing at all +about his little skylark with Shackford." + +"He's a cool one!" exclaimed Durgin. + +Though the slips of blue pasteboard had been delivered and +accepted without comment, it was known in a second through the +bar-room that a special meeting had been convened for the next night +by the officers of the Marble Workers' Association. + + + + +XIV + + +On the third morning after Torrini's expulsion from the yard, Mr. +Slocum walked into the studio with a printed slip in his hand. A +similar slip lay crumpled under a work-bench, where Richard had +tossed it. Mr. Slocum's kindly visage was full of trouble and +perplexity as he raised his eyes from the paper, which he had been +re-reading on the way up-stairs. + +"Look at that!" + +"Yes," remarked Richard, "I have been honored with one of those +documents." + +"What does it mean?" + +"It means business." + +The paper in question contained a series of resolutions +unanimously adopted at a meeting of the Marble Workers' Association +of Stillwater, held in Grimsey's Hall the previous night. Dropping +the preamble, these resolutions, which were neatly printed with a +type-writing machine on a half letter sheet, ran as follows:-- + +_Resolved,_ That on and after the First of June proximo, the +pay of carvers in Slocum's Marble Yard shall be $2.75 per day, +instead of $2.50 as heretofore. + +_Resolved,_ That on and after the same date, the rubbers and +polishers shall have $2.00 per day, instead of $1.75 as heretofore. + +_Resolved,_ That on and after the same date the millmen are +to have $2.00 per day, instead of $1.75 as heretofore. + +_Resolved,_ That during the months of June, July, and August +the shops shall knock off work on Saturdays at five P.M., instead of +at six P.M. + +_Resolved,_ That a printed copy of these Resolutions be laid +before the Proprietor of Slocum's Marble Yard, and that his immediate +attention to them be respectfully requested. _Per order of +Committee M. W. A._ + +"Torrini is at the bottom of that," said Mr. Slocum. + +"I hardly think so. This arrangement, as I told you the other day +before I had the trouble with him, has been in contemplation several +weeks. Undoubtedly Torrini used his influence to hasten the movement +already planned. The Association has too much shrewdness to espouse +the quarrel of an individual." + +"What are we to do?" + +"If you are in the same mind you were when we talked over the +possibility of an unreasonable demand like this, there is only one +thing to do." + +"Fight it?" + +"Fight it." + +"I have been resolute, and all that sort of thing, in times past," +observed Mr. Slocum, glancing out of the tail of his eye at Richard, +"and have always come off second best. The Association has drawn up +most of my rules for me, and had its own way generally." + +"Since my time you have never been in so strong a position to make +a stand. We have got all the larger contracts out of the way. +Foreseeing what was likely to come, I have lately fought shy of +taking new ones. Here are heavy orders from Rafter & Son, the +Builders' Company, and others. We must decline them by to-night's +mail." + +"Is it really necessary?" asked Mr. Slocum, knitting his forehead +into what would have been a scowl if his mild pinkish eyebrows had +permitted it. + +"I think so." + +"I hate to do that." + +"Then we are at the mercy of the Association." + +"If we do not come to their terms, you seriously believe they will +strike?" + +"I do," replied Richard, "and we should be in a pretty fix." + +"But these demands are ridiculous." + +"The men are not aware of our situation; they imagine we have a +lot of important jobs on hand, as usual at this season. Formerly the +foreman of a shop had access to the order-book, but for the last year +or two I have kept it in the safe here. The other day Dexter came to +me and wanted to see what work was set down ahead in the blotter; but +I had an inspiration and didn't let him post himself." + +"Is not some kind of compromise possible?" suggested Mr. Slocum, +looking over the slip again. "Now this fourth clause, about closing +the yard an hour early on Saturdays, I don't strongly object to that, +though with eighty hands it means, every week, eighty hours' work +which the yard pays for and doesn't get." + +"I should advise granting that request. Such concessions are never +wasted. But, Mr. Slocum, this is not going to satisfy them. They have +thrown in one reasonable demand merely to flavor the rest. I happen +to know that they are determined to stand by their programme to the +last letter." + +"You know that?" + +"I have a friend at court. Of course this is not to be breathed, +but Denyven, without being at all false to his comrades, talks freely +with me. He says they are resolved not to give an inch." + +"Then we will close the works." + +"That is what I wanted you to say, sir!" cried Richard. + +"With this new scale of prices and plenty of work, we might +probably come out a little ahead the next six months; but it wouldn't +pay for the trouble and the capital invested. Then when trade +slackened, we should be running at a loss, and there'd be another +wrangle over a reduction. We had better lie idle." + +"Stick to that, sir, and may be it will not be necessary." + +"But if they strike"-- + +"They won't all strike. At least," added Richard, "I hope not. I +have indirectly sounded several of the older hands, and they have +half promised to hold on; only half promised, for every man of them +at heart fears the trades-union more than No-bread--until No-bread +comes." + +"Whom have you spoken with?" + +"Lumley, Giles, Peterson, and some others,--your pensioners, I +call them." + +"Yes, they were in the yard in my father's time; they have not +been worth their salt these ten years. When the business was turned +over to me I didn't discharge any old hand who had given his best +days to the yard. Somehow I couldn't throw away the squeezed lemons. +An employer owes a good workman something beyond the wages paid." + +"And a workman owes a good employer something beyond the work +done. You stood by these men after they outlived their usefulness, +and if they do not stand by you now, they're a shabby set." + +"I fancy they will, Richard." + +"I think they had better, and I wish they would. We have enough +odds and ends to keep them busy awhile, and I shouldn't like to have +the clinking of chisels die out altogether under the old sheds." + +"Nor I," returned Mr. Slocum, with a touch of sadness in his +intonation. "It has grown to be a kind of music to me," and he paused +to listen to the sounds of ringing steel that floated up from the +workshop. + +"Whatever happens, that music shall not cease in the yard except +on Sundays, if I have to take the mallet and go at a slab all alone." + +"Slocum's Yard with a single workman in it would be a pleasing +spectacle," said Mr. Slocum, smiling ruefully. + +"It wouldn't be a bad time for _that_ workman to strike," +returned Richard with a laugh. + +"He could dictate his own terms," returned Mr. Slocum, soberly. +"Well, I suppose you cannot help thinking about Margaret; but don't +think of her now. Tell me what answer you propose to give the +Association,--how you mean to put it; for I leave the matter wholly +to you. I shall have no hand in it, further than to indorse your +action." + +"To-morrow, then," said Richard, "for it is no use to hurry up a +crisis, I shall go to the workshops and inform them that their +request for short hours on Saturdays is granted, but that the other +changes they suggest are not to be considered. There will never be a +better opportunity, Mr. Slocum, to settle another question which has +been allowed to run too long." + +"What's that?" + +"The apprentice question." + +"Would it be wise to touch on that at present?" + +"While we are straightening out matters and putting things on a +solid basis, it seems to me essential to settle that. There was never +a greater imposition, or one more short-sighted, than this rule which +prevents the training of sufficient workmen. The trades-union will +discover their error some day when they have succeeded in forcing +manufacturers to import skilled labor by the wholesale. I would like +to tell the Marble Workers' Association that Slocum's Yard has +resolved to employ as many apprentices each year as there is room +for." + +"I wouldn't dare risk it!" + +"It will have to be done, sooner or later. It would be a capital +flank movement now. They have laid themselves open to an attack on +that quarter." + +"I might as well close the gates for good and all." + +"So you will, if it comes to that. You can afford to close the +gates, and they can't afford to have you. In a week they'd be back, +asking you to open them. Then you could have your pick of the live +hands, and drop the dead wood. If Giles or Peterson or Lumley or any +of those desert us, they are not to be let on again. I hope you will +promise me that, sir." + +"If the occasion offers, you shall reorganize the shops in your +own way. I haven't the nerve for this kind of business, though I have +seen a great deal of it in the villages, first and last. Strikes are +terrible mistakes. Even when they succeed, what pays for the lost +time and the money squandered over the tavern-bar? What makes up for +the days or weeks when the fire was out on the hearth and the +children had no bread? That is what happens, you know." + +"There is no remedy for such calamities," Richard answered. "Yet I +can imagine occasions when it would be better to let the fire go out +and the children want for bread." + +"You are not advocating strikes!" exclaimed Mr. Slocum. + +"Why not?" + +"I thought you were for fighting them." + +"So I am, in this instance; but the question has two sides. Every +man has the right to set a price on his own labor, and to refuse to +work for less; the wisdom of it is another matter. He puts himself in +the wrong only when he menaces the person or the property of the man +who has an equal right not to employ him. That is the blunder +strikers usually make in the end, and one by which they lose public +sympathy even when they are fighting an injustice. Now, sometimes it +_is_ an injustice that is being fought, and then it is right to +fight it with the only weapon a poor man has to wield against a power +which possesses a hundred weapons,--and that's a strike. For example, +the smelters and casters in the Miantowona Iron Works are meanly +underpaid." + +"What, have they struck?" + +"There's a general strike threatened in the village; foundry-men, +spinners, and all." + +"So much the worse for everybody! I did not suppose it was as bad +as that. What has become of Torrini?" + +"The day after he left us he was taken on as forgeman at Dana's." + +"I am glad Dana has got him!" + +"At the meeting, last night, Torrini gave in his resignation as +secretary of the Association; being no longer a marble worker, he was +not qualified to serve." + +"We unhorsed him, then?" + +"Rather. I am half sorry, too." + +"Richard," said Mr. Slocum, halting in one of his nervous walks up +and down the room, "you are the oddest composition of hardness and +softness I ever saw." + +"Am I?" + +"One moment you stand braced like a lion to fight the whole yard, +and the next moment you are pitying a miscreant who would have laid +your head open without the slightest compunction." + +"Oh, I forgive him," said Richard. "I was a trifle hasty myself. +Margaret thinks so too." + +"Much Margaret knows about it!" + +"I was inconsiderate, to say the least. When a man picks up a tool +by the wrong end he must expect to get cut." + +"You didn't have a choice." + +"I shouldn't have touched Torrini. After discharging him and +finding him disposed to resist my order to leave the yard, I ought to +have called in a constable. Usually it is very hard to anger me; but +three or four times in my life I have been carried away by a devil of +a temper which I couldn't control, it seized me so unawares. That was +one of the times." + +The mallets and chisels were executing a blithe staccato movement +in the yard below, and making the sparks dance. No one walking among +the diligent gangs, and observing the placid faces of the men as they +bent over their tasks, would have suspected that they were awaiting +the word that meant bread and meat and home to them. + +As Richard passed through the shops, dropping a word to a workman +here and there, the man addressed looked up cheerfully and made a +furtive dab at the brown paper cap, and Richard returned the salute +smilingly; but he was sad within. "The foolish fellows," he said to +himself, "they are throwing away a full loaf and are likely to get +none at all." Giles and two or three of the ancients were squaring a +block of marble under a shelter by themselves. Richard made it a +point to cross over and speak to them. In past days he had not been +exacting with these old boys, and they always had a welcome for him. + +Slocum's Yard seldom presented a serener air of contented industry +than it wore that morning; but in spite of all this smooth outside it +was a foregone conclusion with most of the men that Slocum, with +Shackford behind him, would never submit to the new scale of wages. +There were a few who had protested against these resolutions and +still disapproved of them, but were forced to go with the +Association, which had really been dragged into the current by the +other trades. + + The Dana Mills and the Miantowona Iron Works were paying lighter +wages than similar establishments nearer the great city. The managers +contended that they were paying as high if not higher rates, taking +into consideration the cheaper cost of living in Stillwater. "But you +get city prices for your wares," retorted the union; "you don't pay +city rents, and you shall pay city wages." Meetings were held at +Grimsey's Hall and the subject was canvassed, at first calmly and +then stormily. Among the molders, and possibly the sheet-iron +workers, there was cause for dissatisfaction; but the dissatisfaction +spread to where no grievance existed; it seized upon the spinners, +and finally upon the marble workers. Torrini fanned the flame there. +Taking for his text the rentage question, he argued that Slocum was +well able to give a trifle more for labor than his city competitors. +"The annual rent of a yard like Slocum's would be four thousand or +five thousand dollars in the city. It doesn't cost Slocum two hundred +dollars. It is no more than just that the laborer should have a +share--he only asks a beggarly share--of the prosperity which he has +helped to build up." This was specious and taking. Then there came +down from the great city a glib person disguised as The Workingman's +Friend,--no workingman himself, mind you, but a ghoul that lives upon +subscriptions and sucks the senses out of innocent human beings,--who +managed to set the place by the ears. The result of all which was +that one May morning every shop, mill, and factory in Stillwater was +served with a notice from the trades-union, and a general strike +threatened. + +But our business at present is exclusively with Slocum's Yard. + + + + +XV + + +"Since we are in for it," said Mr. Slocum the next morning, "put +the case to them squarely." + +Mr. Slocum's vertebrae had stiffened over night. + +"Leave that to me, sir," Richard replied. "I have been shaping out +in my mind a little speech which I flatter myself will cover the +points. They have brought this thing upon themselves, and we are +about to have the clearest of understandings. I never saw the men +quieter." + +"I don't altogether admire that. It looks as if they hadn't any +doubt as to the issue." + +"The clearest-headed have no doubt; they know as well as you and I +do the flimsiness of those resolutions. But the thick heads are in a +fog. Every man naturally likes his pay increased; if a simple fellow +is told five or six hundred times that his wages ought to be raised, +the idea is so agreeable and insidious that by and by he begins to +believe himself grossly underpaid, though he may be getting twice +what he is worth. He doesn't reason about it; that's the last thing +he'll do for you. In this mood he lets himself be flown away by the +breath of some loud-mouthed demagogue, who has no interest in the +matter beyond hearing his own talk and passing round the hat after +the meeting is over. That is what has happened to our folks below. +But they _are_ behaving handsomely." + +"Yes, and I don't like it." + +Since seven o'clock the most unimpeachable decorum had reigned in +the workshops. It was now nine, and this brief dialogue had occurred +between Mr. Slocum and Richard on the veranda, just as the latter was +on the point of descending into the yard to have his talk with the +men. + +The workshops--or rather the shed in which the workshops were, for +it was one low structure eighteen or twenty feet wide and open on the +west side--ran the length of the yard, and with the short extension +at the southerly end formed the letter L. There were no partitions, +an imaginary line separating the different gangs of workers. A person +standing at the head of the building could make himself heard more or +less distinctly in the remotest part. + +The grating lisp of the wet saws eating their way into the marble +boulder, and the irregular quick taps of the seventy or eighty +mallets were not suspended as Richard took his stand beside a tall +funereal urn at the head of the principal workshop. After a second's +faltering he rapped smartly on the lip of the urn with the key of +his studio-door. + +Instantly every arm appeared paralyzed, and the men stood +motionless, with the tools in their hands. + +Richard began in a clear but not loud voice, though it seemed to +ring on the sudden silence:-- + +"Mr. Slocum has asked me to say a few words to you, this morning, +about those resolutions, and one or two other matters that have +occurred to him in this connection. I am no speech-maker; I never +learned that trade"-- + +"Never learned any trade," muttered Durgin, inaudibly. + +--"but I think I can manage some plain, honest talk, for +straight-forward men." + +Richard's exordium was listened to with painful attention. + +"In the first place," he continued, "I want to remind you, +especially the newer men, that Slocum's Yard has always given steady +work and prompt pay to Stillwater hands. No hand has ever been turned +off without sufficient cause, or kept on through mere favoritism. +Favors have been shown, but they have been shown to all alike. If +anything has gone crooked, it has been straightened out as soon as +Mr. Slocum knew of it. That has been the course of the yard in the +past, and the Proprietor doesn't want you to run away with the idea +that that course is going to be changed. One change, for the time +being, is going to be made at our own suggestion. From now, until the +1st of September, this yard will close gates on Saturdays at five +P.M. instead of six P.M." + +Several voices cried, "Good for Slocum!" "Where's Slocum?" "Why +don't Slocum speak for himself?" cried one voice. + +"It is Mr. Slocum's habit," answered Richard, "to give his +directions to me, I give them to the foremen, and the foremen to the +shops. Mr. Slocum follows that custom on this occasion. With regard +to the new scale of wages which the Association has submitted to him, +the Proprietor refuses to accept it, or any modification of it." + +A low murmur ran through the workshops. + +"What's a modificashun, sir?" asked Jemmy Willson, stepping +forward, and scratching his left ear diffidently. + +"A modification," replied Richard, considerably embarrassed to +give an instant definition, "is a--a"-- + +"A splitting of the difference, by--!" shouted somebody in the +third shop. + +"Thank you," said Richard, glancing in the direction of his +impromptu Webster's Unabridged. "Mr. Slocum does not propose to split +the difference. The wages in every department are to be just what +they are,--neither more nor less. If anybody wishes to make a +remark," he added, observing a restlessness in several of the men, "I +beg he will hold on until I get through. I shall not detain you much +longer, as the parson says before he has reached the middle of his +sermon. + +"What I say now, I was charged to make particularly clear to you. +It is this: In future Mr. Slocum intends to run Slocum's Yard +himself. Neither you, nor I, nor the Association will be allowed to +run it for him. [Sensation.] Until now the Association has tied him +down to two apprentices a year. From this hour, out, Mr. Slocum will +take on, not two, or twenty, but two hundred apprentices if the +business warrants it." + +The words were not clearly off Richard's lips when the foreman of +the shop in which he was speaking picked up a couple of small drills, +and knocked them together with a sharp click. In an instant the men +laid aside their aprons, bundled up their tools, and marched out of +the shed two by two, in dead silence. That same click was repeated +almost simultaneously in the second shop, and the same evolution took +place. Then click, click, click! went the drills, sounding fainter +and fainter in the distant departments; and in less than three +minutes there was not a soul left in Slocum's Yard except the Orator +of the Day. + +Richard had anticipated some demonstration, either noisy or +violent, perhaps both; but this solemn, orderly desertion dashed him. + +He stepped into the middle of the yard, and glancing up beheld +Margaret and Mr. Slocum standing on the veranda. Even at that +distance he could perceive the pallor on one face, and the +consternation written all over the other. + +Hanging his head with sadness, Richard crossed the yard, which +gave out mournful echoes to his footfalls, and swung to the large +gate, nearly catching old Giles by the heel as he did so. Looking +through the slats, he saw Lumley and Peterson hobbling arm in arm +down the street,--after more than twenty-five years of kindly +treatment. + +"Move number one," said Richard, lifting the heavy cross-piece +into its place and fastening it with a wooden pin. "Now I must go and +prop up Mr. Slocum." + + + + +XVI + + +There is no solitude which comes so near being tangible as that of +a vast empty workshop, crowded a moment since. The busy, intense life +that has gone from it mysteriously leaves behind enough of itself to +make the stillness poignant. One might imagine the invisible ghost of +doomed Toil wandering from bench to bench, and noiselessly fingering +the dropped tools, still warm from the workman's palm. Perhaps this +impalpable presence is the artisan's anxious thought, stolen back to +brood over the uncompleted task. + +Though Mr. Slocum had spoken lightly of Slocum's Yard with only +one workman in it, when he came to contemplate the actual fact he was +struck by the pathos of it, and the resolution with which he awoke +that morning began to desert him. + +"The worst is over," exclaimed Richard, joining his two friends on +the veranda, "and everything went smoother than I expected." + +"Everything went, sure enough," said Mr. Slocum, gloomily; "they +all went,--old Giles, and Lumley, and everybody." + +"We somewhat expected that, you know." + +"Yes, I expected it, and wasn't prepared for it." + +"It was very bad," said Richard, shaking his head. + +The desertion of Giles and his superannuated mates especially +touched Mr. Slocum. + +"Bad is no word; it was damnable." + +"Oh, papa!" + +"Pardon me, dear; I couldn't help it. When a man's pensioners +throw him over, he must be pretty far gone!" + +"The undertow was too strong for them, sir, and they were swept +away with the rest. And they all but promised to stay. They will be +the very first to come back." + +"Of course we shall have to take the old fellows on again," said +Mr. Slocum, relenting characteristically. + +"Never!" cried Richard. + +"I wish I had some of your grit." + +"I have none to spare. To tell the truth, when I stood up there to +speak, with every eye working on me, like a half-inch drill, I would +have sold myself at a low figure." + +"But you were a perfect what's-his-name,--Demosthenes," said Mr. +Slocum, with a faint smile. "We could hear you." + +"I don't believe Demosthenes ever moved an audience as I did +mine!" cried Richard gaily. "If his orations produced a like effect, +I am certain that the Grecian lecture-bureau never sent him twice to +the same place." + +"I don't think, Richard, I would engage you over again." + +"I am sure Richard spoke very well," interrupted Margaret. "His +speech was short"-- + +"Say shortened, Margaret, for I hadn't got through when they +left." + +"No, I will not jest about it. It is too serious for jesting. What +is to become of the families of all these men suddenly thrown out of +employment?" + +"They threw themselves out, Mag," said her father. + +"That does not mend the matter, papa. There will be great +destitution and suffering in the village with every mill closed; and +they are all going to close, Bridget says. Thank Heaven that this did +not happen in the winter!" + +"They always pick their weather," observed Mr. Slocum. + +"It will not be for long," said Richard encouragingly. "Our own +hands and the spinners, who had no ground for complaint, will return +to work shortly, and the managers of the iron mills will have to +yield a point or two. In a week at the outside everything will be +running smoothly, and on a sounder foundation than before. I believe +the strike will be an actual benefit to everybody in the end." + +By dint of such arguments and his own sanguine temperament, +Richard succeeded in reassuring Mr. Slocum for the time being, though +Richard did not hide from himself the gravity of the situation. There +was a general strike in the village. Eight hundred men were without +work. That meant, or would mean in a few days, two or three thousand +women and children without bread. It does not take the wolf long to +reach a poor man's door when it is left ajar. + +The trades-union had a fund for emergencies of this sort, and some +outside aid might be looked for; but such supplies are in their +nature precarious and soon exhausted. It is a noticeable feature of +strikes that the moment the workman's pay stops his living expenses +increase. Even the more economical becomes improvident. If he has +money, the tobacco shop and the tavern are likely to get more of it +than the butcher's cart. The prolonged strain is too great to be +endured without stimulant. + + + + +XVII + + +During the first and second days of the strike, Stillwater +presented an animated and even a festive appearance. Throngs of +operatives in their Sunday clothes strolled through the streets, or +lounged at the corners chatting with other groups; some wandered into +the suburbs, and lay in the long grass under the elms. Others again, +though these were few, took to the turnpike or the railroad track, +and tramped across country. + +It is needless to say that the bar-room of the tavern was crowded +from early morning down to the hour when the law compelled Mr. +Snelling to shut off his gas. After which, John Brown's "soul" could +be heard "marching on" in the darkness, through various crooked lanes +and alleys, until nearly daybreak. + +Among the earliest to scent trouble in the air was Han-Lin, the +Chinaman before mentioned. He kept a small laundry in Mud Lane, where +his name was painted perpendicularly on a light of glass in the +basement window of a tenement house. Han-Lin intended to be buried +some day in a sky-blue coffin in his own land, and have a dozen packs +of firecrackers decorously exploded over his remains. In order to +reserve himself for this and other ceremonies involving the burning +of a great quantity of gilt paper, he quietly departed for Boston at +the first sign of popular discontent. As Dexter described it, +"Han-Lin coiled up his pig-tail, put forty grains of rice in a yallar +bag,--enough to last him a month!--and toddled off in his two-story +wooden shoes." He could scarcely have done a wiser thing, for poor +Han-Lin's laundry was turned wrong side out within thirty-six hours +afterwards. + +The strike was popular. The spirit of it spread, as fire and fever +and all elemental forces spread. The two apprentices in Brackett's +bakery had a dozen minds about striking that first morning. The +younger lad, Joe Wiggin, plucked up courage to ask Brackett for a day +off, and was lucky enough to dodge a piece of dough weighing nearly +four pounds. + +Brackett was making bread while the sun shone. He knew that before +the week was over there would be no cash customers, and he purposed +then to shut up shop. + +On the third and fourth days there was no perceptible fall in the +barometer. Trade was brisk with Snelling, and a brass band was +playing national airs on a staging erected on the green in front of +the post-office. Nightly meetings took place at Grimsey's Hall, and +the audiences were good-humored and orderly. Torrini advanced some +Utopian theories touching a universal distribution of wealth, which +were listened to attentively, but failed to produce deep impression. + +"That's a healthy idea of Torrini's about dervidin' up property," +said Jemmy Willson. "I've heerd it afore; but it's sing'ler I never +knowd a feller with any property to have that idea." + +"Ther' 's a great dale in it, I can tell ye," replied Michael +Hennessey, with a well-blackened Woodstock pipe between his teeth and +his hands tucked under his coat-tails. "Isn't ther', Misther +Stavens?" + +When Michael had on his bottle-green swallow-tailed coat with the +brass buttons, he invariably assumed a certain lofty air of ceremony +in addressing his companions. + +"It is sorter pleasant to look at," returned Stevens, "but it +don't seem to me an idea that would work. Suppose that, after all the +property was divided, a fresh shipload of your friends was to land at +New York or Boston; would there be a new deal?" + +"No, sir! by no means!" exclaimed Michael excitedly. "The +furreners is counted out!" + +"But you're a foreigner yourself, Mike." + +"Am I, then? Bedad, I'm not! I'm a rale American Know Nothing." + +"Well, Mike," said Stevens maliciously, "when it comes to a +reg'lar division of lands and greenbacks in the United States, I go +in for the Chinese having their share." + +"The Chinese!" shouted Michael. "Oh, murther, Misther Stevens! Ye +wouldn't be fur dividin' with thim blatherskites!" + +"Yes, with them,--as well as the rest," returned Stevens, dryly. + +Meanwhile the directors and stockholders of the various mills took +counsel in a room at the rear of the National Bank. Mr. Slocum, +following Richard's advice, declined to attend the meeting in person, +or to allow his name to figure on the list of vice-presidents. + +"Why should we hitch our good cause to their doubtful one?" +reflected Richard. "We have no concessions or proposals to make. When +our men are ready to come back to us, they will receive just wages +and fair treatment. They know that. We do not want to fight the +molders. Let the iron-mills do their own fighting;" and Richard +stolidly employed himself in taking an account of stock, and +forwarding by express to their destination the ten or twelve carved +mantel-pieces that happily completed the last contract. + +Then his responsibilities shrunk to winding up the office clock +and keeping Mr. Slocum firmly on his legs. The latter was by far the +more onerous duty, for Mr. Slocum ran down two or three times in the +course of every twenty-four hours, while the clock once wound was +fixed for the day. + +"If I could only have a good set of Waltham works put into your +father," said Richard to Margaret, after one of Mr. Slocum's +relapses, "he would go better." + +"Poor papa! he is not a fighter, like you." + +"Your father is what I call a belligerent non-combatant." + +Richard was seeing a great deal of Margaret these days. Mr. Slocum +had invited him to sleep in the studio until the excitement was past. +Margaret was afraid to have him take that long walk between the yard +and his lodgings in Lime Street, and then her father was an old man +to be without any protection in the house in such untoward times. + +So Richard slept in the studio, and had his plate at table, like +one of the family. This arrangement was favorable to many a stolen +five minutes with Margaret, in the hall or on the staircase. In these +fortuitous moments he breathed an atmosphere that sustained him in +his task of dispelling Mr. Slocum's recurrent fits of despondency. +Margaret had her duties, too, at this period, and the forenoons were +sacred to them. + +One morning as she passed down the street with a small wicker +basket on her arm, Richard said to Mr. Slocum,-- + +"Margaret has joined the strikers." + +The time had already come to Stillwater when many a sharp-faced +little urchin--as dear to the warm, deep bosom that had nursed it as +though it were a crown prince--would not have had a crust to gnaw if +Margaret Slocum had not joined the strikers. Sometimes her heart +drooped on the way home from these errands, upon seeing how little of +the misery she could ward off. On her rounds there was one cottage in +a squalid lane where the children asked for bread in Italian. She +never omitted to halt at that door. + +"Is it quite prudent for Margaret to be going about so?" queried +Mr. Slocum. + +"She is perfectly safe," said Richard,--"as safe as a Sister of +Charity, which she is." + +Indeed, Margaret might then have gone loaded with diamonds through +the streets at midnight. There was not a rough man in Stillwater who +would not have reached forth an arm to shield her. + +"It is costing me nearly as much as it would to carry on the +yard," said Mr. Slocum, "but I never put out any stamps more +willingly." + +"You never took a better contract, sir, than when you agreed to +keep Margaret's basket filled. It is an investment in real +estate--hereafter." + +"I hope so," answered Mr. Slocum, "and I know it's a good thing +now." + +Of the morals of Stillwater at this time, or at any time, the less +said the better. But out of the slime and ooze below sprang the white +flower of charity. + +The fifth day fell on a Sabbath, and the churches were crowded. +The Rev. Arthur Langly selected his text from St. Matthew, chap. +xxii, v. 21: "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are +Caesar's." But as he did not make it quite plain which was Caesar,--the +trades-union or the Miantowona Iron Works,--the sermon went for +nothing, unless it could be regarded as a hint to those persons who +had stolen a large piece of belting from the Dana Mills. On the other +hand, Father O'Meara that morning bravely told his children to +conduct themselves in an orderly manner while they were out of work, +or they would catch it in this world and in the next. + +On the sixth day a keen observer might have detected a change in +the atmosphere. The streets were thronged as usual, and the idlers +still wore their Sunday clothes, but the holiday buoyancy of the +earlier part of the week had evaporated. A turn-out on the part of +one of the trades, though it was accompanied by music and a banner +with a lively inscription, failed to arouse general enthusiasm. A +serious and even a sullen face was not rare among the crowds that +wandered aimlessly up and down the village. + +On the seventh day it required no penetration to see the change. +There was decidedly less good-natured chaffing and more drunkenness, +though Snelling had invoked popular contumely and decimated his +bar-room by refusing to trust for drinks. Bracket had let his ovens +cool, and his shutters were up. The treasury of the trades-union was +nearly drained, and there were growlings that too much had been +fooled away on banners and a brass band for the iron men's parade the +previous forenoon. It was when Brackett's eye sighted the banner with +"Bread or Blood" on it, that he had put up his shutters. + +Torrini was now making violent harangues at Grimsey's Hall to +largely augmented listeners, whom his words irritated without +convincing. Shut off from the tavern, the men flocked to hear him and +the other speakers, for born orators were just then as thick as +unripe whortleberries. There was nowhere else to go. At home were +reproaches that maddened, and darkness, for the kerosene had given +out. + +Though all the trades had been swept into the movement, it is not +to be understood that every workman was losing his head. There were +men who owned their cottages and had small sums laid by in the +savings-bank; who had always sent their children to the district +school, and listened themselves to at least one of Mr. Langly's +sermons or one of Father O'Meara's discourses every Sunday. These +were anchored to good order; they neither frequented the bar-room nor +attended the conclaves at Grimsey's Hall, but deplored as deeply as +any one the spirit that was manifesting itself. They would have +returned to work now--if they had dared. To this class belonged +Stevens. + +"Why don't you come up to the hall, nights?" asked Durgin, +accosting him on the street, one afternoon. "You'd run a chance of +hearing me hold forth some of these evenings." + +"You've answered your own question, William. I shouldn't like to +see you making an idiot of yourself." + +"This is a square fight between labor and capital," returned +Durgin with dignity, "and every man ought to take a hand in it." + +"William," said Stevens meditatively, "do you know about the +Siamese twins?" + +"What about 'em,--they're dead, ain't they?" replied Durgin, with +surprise. + +"I believe so; but when they was alive, if you was to pinch one of +those fellows, the other fellow would sing out. If you was to black +the eye of the left-hand chap, the right-hand chap wouldn't have been +able to see for a week. When either of 'em fetched the other a clip, +he knocked himself down. Labor and capital is jined just as those two +was. When you've got this fact well into your skull, William, I shall +be pleased to listen to your ideas at Grimsey's Hall or anywhere +else." + +Such conservatism as Stevens's, however, was necessarily swept out +of sight for the moment. The wealthier citizens were in a state +bordering on panic,--all but Mr. Lemuel Shackford. In his flapping +linen duster, for the weather was very sultry now, Mr. Shackford was +seen darting excitedly from street to street and hovering about the +feverish crowds, like the stormy petrel wheeling on the edges of a +gale. Usually as chary of his sympathies as of his gold, he +astonished every one by evincing an abnormal interest in the +strikers. The old man declined to put down anything on the +subscription paper then circulating; but he put down his sympathies +to any amount. He held no stock in the concerns involved; he hated +Slocum, and he hated the directors of the Miantowona Iron Works. The +least he hoped was that Rowland Slocum would be laid out. + +So far the strikers had committed no overt act of note, unless it +was the demolition of Han-Lin's laundry. Stubbs, the provision +dealer, had been taught the rashness of exposing samples of potatoes +in his door-way, and the "Tonsorial Emporium" of Professor Brown, a +colored citizen, had been invaded by two humorists, who, after having +their hair curled, refused to pay for it, and the professor had been +too agitated to insist. The story transpiring, ten or twelve of the +boys had dropped in during the morning, and got shaved on the same +terms. "By golly, gen'l'men!" expostulated the professor, "ef dis yah +thing goes on, dis darkey will be cleaned cl'ar out fo de week's +done." No act of real violence had been perpetrated as yet; but with +bands of lawless men roaming over the village at all hours of the day +and night, the situation was critical. + +The wheel of what small social life there was in Stillwater had +ceased to revolve. With the single exception of Lemuel Shackford, the +more respectable inhabitants kept in-doors as much as practicable. +From the first neither Mr. Craggie nor Lawyer Perkins had gone to the +hotel to consult the papers in the reading-room, and Mr. Pinkham did +not dare to play on his flute of an evening. The Rev. Arthur Langly +found it politic to do but little visiting in the parish. His was not +the pinion to buffet with a wind like this, and indeed he was not +explicitly called upon to do so. He sat sorrowfully in his study day +by day, preparing the weekly sermon,--a gentle, pensive person, +inclined in the best of weather to melancholia. If Mr. Langly had +gone into arboriculture instead of into the ministry, he would have +planted nothing but weeping-willows. + +In the mean time the mill directors continued their deliberations +in the bank building, and had made several abortive attempts to +effect an arrangement with the leaders of the union. This seemed +every hour less possible and more necessary. + +On the afternoon of the seventh day of the strike a crowd gathered +in front of the residence of Mr. Alexander, the superintendent of the +Miantowona Iron Works, and began groaning and hooting. Mr. Alexander +sought out Mr. Craggie, and urged him, as a man of local weight and +one accustomed to addressing the populace, to speak a few words to +the mob. That was setting Mr. Craggie on the horns of a cruel +dilemma. He was afraid to disoblige the representative of so powerful +a corporation as the Miantowona Iron Works, but he equally dreaded to +risk his popularity with seven or eight hundred voters; so, like the +crafty chancellor in Tennyson's poem, he dallied with his golden +chain, and, smiling, put the question by. + +"Drat the man!" muttered Mr. Craggie, "does he want to blast my +whole political career! _I_ can't pitch into our adopted +countrymen." + +There was a blot on the escutcheon of Mr. Craggie which he was +very anxious not to have uncovered by any chance in these latter +days,--his ancient affiliation with the deceased native American +party. + +The mob dispersed without doing damage, but the fact that it had +collected and had shown an ugly temper sent a thrill of apprehension +through the village. Mr. Slocum came in a great flurry to Richard. + +"This thing ought to be stopped," said Mr. Slocum. + +"I agree to that," replied Richard, bracing himself not to agree +to anything else. + +"If we were to drop that stipulation as to the increase of +apprentices, no doubt many of the men would give over insisting on an +advance." + +"Our only salvation is to stick to our right to train as many +workmen as we choose. The question of wages is of no account compared +with that; the rate of wages will adjust itself." + +"If we could manage it somehow with the marble workers," suggested +Mr. Slocum, "that would demoralize the other trades, and they'd be +obliged to fall in." + +"I don't see that they lack demoralization." + +"If something isn't done, they'll end up by knocking in our front +doors or burning us all up." + +"Let them." + +"It's very well to say let them," exclaimed Mr. Slocum, +petulantly, "when you haven't any front door to be knocked in!" + +"But I have you and Margaret to consider, if there were actual +danger. When anything like violence threatens, there's an honest +shoulder for every one of the hundred and fifty muskets in the +armory." + +"Those muskets might get on the wrong shoulders." + +"That isn't likely. You do not seem to know, sir, that there is a +strong guard at the armory day and night." + +"I was not aware of that." + +"It is a fact all the same," said Richard; and Mr. Slocum went +away easier in his mind, and remained so--two or three hours. + +On the eighth, ninth, and tenth days the clouds lay very black +along the horizon. The marble workers, who began to see their +mistake, were reproaching the foundry men with enticing them into a +coalition, and the spinners were hot in their denunciations of the +molders. Ancient personal antagonisms that had been slumbering +started to their feet. Torrini fell out of favor, and in the midst of +one of his finest perorations uncomplimentary missiles, selected from +the animal kingdom, had been thrown at him. The grand torchlight +procession on the night of the ninth culminated in a disturbance, in +which many men got injured, several badly, and the windows of +Brackett's bakery were stove in. A point of light had pierced the +darkness,--the trades were quarreling among themselves! + +The selectmen had sworn in special constables among the citizens, +and some of the more retired streets were now patrolled after dark, +for there had been threats of incendiarism. + +Bishop's stables burst into flames one midnight,--whether fired +intentionally or accidentally was not known; but the giant bellows at +Dana's Mills was slit and two belts were cut at the Miantowona Iron +Works that same night. + +At this juncture a report that out-of-town hands were coming to +replace the strikers acted on the public mind like petroleum on fire. +A large body of workmen assembled near the railway station,--to +welcome them. There was another rumor which caused the marble workers +to stare at each other aghast. It was to the effect that Mr. Slocum, +having long meditated retiring from business, had now decided to do +so, and was consulting with Wyndham, the keeper of the green-house, +about removing the division wall and turning the marble yard into a +peach garden. This was an unlooked-for solution of the difficulty. +Stillwater without any Slocum's Marble Yard was chaos come again. + +"Good Lord, boys!" cried Piggott, "if Slocum should do that!" + +Meanwhile, Snelling's bar had been suppressed by the authorities, +and a posse of policemen, borrowed from South Millville, occupied the +premises. Knots of beetle-browed men, no longer in holiday gear, but +chiefly in their shirt-sleeves, collected from time to time at the +head of the main street, and glowered threateningly at the single +policeman pacing the porch of the tavern. The Stillwater Grays were +under arms in the armory over Dundon's drugstore. The thoroughfare +had ceased to be safe for any one, and Margaret's merciful errands +were necessarily brought to an end. How the poor creatures who had +depended on her bounty now continued to exist was a sorrowful +problem. + +Matters were at this point, when on the morning of the thirteenth +day Richard noticed the cadaverous face of a man peering into the +yard through the slats of the main gate. Richard sauntered down +there, with his hands in his pockets. The man was old Giles, and with +him stood Lumley and Peterson, gazing thoughtfully at the sign +outside,-- + +NO ADMITTANCE EXCEPT ON BUSINESS. + +The roughly lettered clapboard, which they had heedlessly passed a +thousand times, seemed to have taken a novel significance to them. + +_Richard_. What's wanted there? + +_Giles. [Very affably.]_ We was lookin' round for a job, Mr. +Shackford. + +_Richard_. We are not taking on any hands at present. + +_Giles_. Didn't know but you was. Somebody said you was. + +_Richard_. Somebody is mistaken. + +_Giles_. P'rhaps to-morrow, or nex' day? + +_Richard_. Rather doubtful, Giles. + +_Giles. [Uneasily.]_ Mr. Slocum ain't goin' to give up +business, is he? + +_Richard_. Why shouldn't he, if it doesn't pay? The business +is carried on for his amusement and profit; when the profit stops it +won't be amusing any longer. Mr. Slocum is not going to run the yard +for the sake of the Marble Workers' Association. He would rather +drive a junk-cart. He might be allowed to steer that himself. + +_Giles_. Oh! + +_Richard_. Good-morning, Giles. + +_Gikles_. 'Mornin', Mr. Shackford. + +Richard rushed back to Mr. Slocum. + +"The strike is broken, sir!" + +"What do you mean?" + +"The thing has collapsed! The tide is turning, _and has washed +in a lot of dead wood!"_ + +"Thank God!" cried Mr. Slocum. + +An hour or so later a deputation of four, consisting of Stevens, +Denyven, Durgin, and Piggott, waited upon Mr. Slocum in his private +office, and offered, on behalf of all the departments, to resume work +at the old rates. + +Mr. Slocum replied that he had not objected to the old rates, but +the new, and that he accepted their offer--conditionally. + +"You have overlooked one point, Mr. Stevens." + +"Which one, sir?" + +"The apprentices." + +"We thought you might not insist there, sir." + +"I insist on conducting my own business in my own way." + +The voice was the voice of Slocum, but the backbone was Richard's. + +"Then, sir, the Association don't object to a reasonable number of +apprentices." + +"How many is that?" + +"As many as you want, I expect, sir," said Stevens, shuffling his +feet. + +"Very well, Stevens. Go round to the front gate and Mr. Shackford +will let you in." + +There were two doors to the office, one leading into the yard, and +the other, by which the deputation had entered and was now making its +exit, opened upon the street. + +Richard heaved a vast sigh of relief as he took down the beam +securing the principal entrance. + +"Good-morning, boys," he chirped, with a smile as bright as newly +minted gold. "I hope you enjoyed yourselves." + +The quartet ducked their heads bashfully, and Stevens replied, +"Can't speak for the others, Mr. Shackford, but I never enjoyed +myself worse." + +Piggott lingered a moment behind the rest, and looking back over +his shoulder said, "That peach garden was what fetched us!" + +Richard gave a loud laugh, for the peach garden had been a +horticultural invention of his own. + +In the course of the forenoon the majority of the hands presented +themselves at the office, dropping into the yard in gangs of five or +six, and nearly all were taken on. To dispose definitely of Lumley, +Giles, and Peterson, they were not taken on at Slocum's Yard, though +they continued to be, directly or indirectly, Slocum's pensioners, +even after they were retired to the town farm. + +Once more the chisels sounded merrily under the long shed. That +same morning the spinners went back to the mules, but the molders +held out until nightfall, when it was signified to them that their +demands would be complied with. + +The next day the steam-whistles of the Miantowona Iron Works and +Dana's Mills sent the echoes flying beyond that undulating line of +pines and hemlocks which half encircles Stillwater, and falls away +loosely on either side, like an unclasped girdle. + +A calm, as if from out the cloudless blue sky that arched it day +after day, seemed to drift down upon the village. Han-Lin, with no +more facial expression than an orange, suddenly reappeared on the +streets, and went about repairing his laundry, unmolested. The +children were playing in the sunny lanes again, unafraid, and mothers +sat on doorsteps in the summer twilights, singing softly to the baby +in arm. There was meat on the table, and the tea-kettle hummed +comfortably at the back of the stove. The very winds that rustled +through the fragrant pines, and wandered fitfully across the vivid +green of the salt marshes, breathed peace and repose. + +Then, one morning, this blissful tranquility was rudely shattered. +Old Mr. Lemuel Shackford had been found murdered in his own house in +Welch's Court. + + + + +XVIII + + +The general effect on Stillwater of Mr. Shackford's death and the +peculiar circumstances attending the tragedy have been set forth in +the earlier chapters of this narrative. The influence which that +event exerted upon several persons then but imperfectly known to the +reader is now to occupy us. + +On the conclusion of the strike, Richard had returned, in the +highest spirits, to his own rooms in Lime Street; but the quiet week +that followed found him singularly depressed. His nerves had been +strung to their utmost tension during those thirteen days of +suspense; he had assumed no light responsibility in the matter of +closing the yard, and there had been moments when the task of +sustaining Mr. Slocum had appeared almost hopeless. Now that the +strain was removed a reaction set in, and Richard felt himself +unnerved by the fleeing shadow of the trouble which had not caused +him to flinch so long as it faced him. + +On the morning and at the moment when Mary Hennessey was pushing +open the scullery door of the house in Welch's Court, and was about +to come upon the body of the forlorn old man lying there in his +night-dress, Richard sat eating his breakfast in a silent and +preoccupied mood. He had retired very late the previous night, and +his lack-lustre eyes showed the effect of insufficient sleep. His +single fellow-boarder, Mr. Pinkham, had not returned from his +customary early walk, and only Richard and Mrs. Spooner, the +landlady, were at table. The former was in the act of lifting the +coffee-cup to his lips, when the school-master burst excitedly into +the room. + +"Old Mr. Shackford is dead!" he exclaimed, dropping into a chair +near the door. "There's a report down in the village that he has been +murdered. I don't know if it is true.... God forgive my +abruptness! I didn't think!" and Mr. Pinkham turned an apologetic +face towards Richard, who sat there deathly pale, holding the cup +rigidly within an inch or two of his lip, and staring blankly into +space like a statue. + +"I--I ought to have reflected," murmured the school-master, +covered with confusion at his maladroitness. "It was very +reprehensible in Craggie to make such an announcement to me so +suddenly, on a street corner. I--I was quite upset by it." + +Richard pushed back his chair without replying, and passed into +the hall, where he encountered a messenger from Mr. Slocum, +confirming Mr. Pinkham's intelligence, but supplementing it with the +rumor that Lemuel Shackford had committed suicide. + +Richard caught up his hat from a table, and hurried to Welch's +Court. Before reaching the house he had somewhat recovered his +outward composure; but he was still pale and internally much +agitated, for he had received a great shock, as Lawyer Perkins +afterwards observed to Mr. Ward in the reading-room of the tavern. +Both these gentlemen were present when Richard arrived, as were also +several of the immediate neighbors and two constables. The latter +were guarding the door against the crowd, which had already begun to +collect in the front yard. + +A knot of carpenters, with their tool-boxes on their shoulders, +had halted at the garden gate on their way to Bishop's new stables, +and were glancing curiously at the unpainted facade of the house, +which seemed to have taken on a remote, bewildered expression, as if +it had an inarticulate sense of the horror within. The men ceased +their whispered conversation as Richard approached, and respectfully +moved aside to let him pass. + +Nothing had been changed in the cheerless room on the ground +floor, with its veneered mahogany furniture and its yellowish leprous +wall-paper, peeling off at the seams here and there. A cane-seated +chair, overturned near the table, had been left untouched, and the +body was still lying in the position in which the Hennessey girl had +discovered it. A strange chill--something unlike any atmospherical +sharpness, a chill that seemed to exhale from the thin, pinched +nostrils--permeated the apartment. The orioles were singing madly +outside, their vermilion bosoms glowing like live coals against the +tender green of the foliage, and appearing to break into flame as +they took sudden flights hither and thither; but within all was +still. On entering the chamber Richard was smitten by the +silence,--that silence which shrouds the dead, and is like no other. +Lemuel Shackford had not been kind or cousinly; he had blighted +Richard's childhood with harshness and neglect, and had lately heaped +cruel insult upon him; but as he stood there alone, and gazed for a +moment at the firmly shut lips, upon which the mysterious white dust +of death had already settled,--the lips that were never to utter any +more bitter things,--the tears gathered in Richard's eyes and ran +slowly down his cheeks. After all said and done, Lemuel Shackford was +his kinsman, and blood is thicker than water! + +Coroner Whidden shortly appeared on the scene, accompanied by a +number of persons; a jury was impaneled, and then began that inquest +which resulted in shedding so very little light on the catastrophe. + +The investigation completed, there were endless details to attend +to,--papers to be hurriedly examined and sealed, and arrangements +made for the funeral on the succeeding day. These matters occupied +Richard until late in the afternoon, when he retired to his lodgings, +looking in on Margaret for a few minutes on his way home. + +"This is too dreadful!" said Margaret, clinging to his hand, with +fingers nearly as icy as his own. + +"It is unspeakably sad," answered Richard,--"the saddest thing I +ever knew." + +"Who--who could have been so cruel?" + +Richard shook his head. + +"No one knows." + +The funeral took place on Thursday, and on Friday morning, as has +been stated, Mr. Taggett arrived in Stillwater, and installed himself +in Welch's Court, to the wonder of many in the village, who would not +have slept a night in that house, with only a servant in the north +gable, for half the universe. Mr. Taggett was a person who did not +allow himself to be swayed by his imagination. + +Here, then, he began his probing of a case which, on the surface, +promised to be a very simple one. The man who had been seen driving +rapidly along the turnpike sometime near daybreak, on Wednesday, was +presumably the man who could tell him all about it. But it did not +prove so. Neither Thomas Blufton, nor William Durgin, nor any of the +tramps subsequently obliged to drop into autobiography could be +connected with the affair. + +These first failures served to stimulate Mr. Taggett; it required +a complex case to stir his ingenuity and sagacity. That the present +was not a complex case he was still convinced, after four days' +futile labor upon it. Mr. Shackford had been killed--either with +malice prepense or on the spur of the moment--for his money. The +killing had likely enough not been premeditated; the old man had +probably opposed the robbery. Now, among the exceptionally rough +population of the town there were possibly fifty men who would not +have hesitated to strike down Mr. Shackford if he had caught them +_flagrante delicto_ and resisted them, or attempted to call for +succor. That the crime was committed by some one in Stillwater or in +the neighborhood Mr. Taggett had never doubted since the day of his +arrival. The clumsy manner in which the staple had been wrenched from +the scullery door showed the absence of a professional hand. Then the +fact that the deceased was in the habit of keeping money in his +bedchamber was a fact well known in the village, and not likely to be +known outside of it, though of course it might have been. It was +clearly necessary for Mr. Taggett to carry his investigation into the +workshops and among the haunts of the class which was indubitably to +furnish him with the individual he wanted. Above all, it was +necessary that the investigation should be secret. An obstacle +obtruded itself here: everybody in Stillwater knew everybody, and a +stranger appearing on the streets or dropping frequently into the +tavern would not escape comment. + +The man with the greatest facility for making the requisite +searches would of course be some workman. But a workman was the very +agent not to be employed under the circumstances. How many times, and +by what strange fatality, had a guilty party been selected to shadow +his own movements, or those of an accomplice! No, Mr. Taggett must +rely only on himself, and his plan forthwith matured. Its execution, +however, was delayed several days, the cooperation of Mr. Slocum and +Mr. Richard Shackford being indispensable. + +At this stage Richard went to New York, where his cousin had made +extensive investments in real estate. For a careful man, the late Mr. +Shackford had allowed his affairs there to become strangely tangled. +The business would detain Richard a fortnight. + +Three days after his departure Mr. Taggett himself left +Stillwater, having apparently given up the case; a proceeding which +was severely criticized, not only in the columns of The Stillwater +Gazette, but by the townsfolks at large, who immediately relapsed +into a state of apprehension approximating that of the morning when +the crime was discovered. Mr. Pinkham, who was taking tea that +evening at the Danas', threw the family into a panic by asserting his +belief that this was merely the first of a series of artistic +assassinations in the manner of those Memorable Murders recorded by +De Quincey. Mr. Pinkham may have said this to impress the four Dana +girls with the variety of his reading, but the recollection of De +Quincey's harrowing paper had the effect of so unhinging the young +school-master that when he found himself, an hour or two afterwards, +in the lonely, unlighted street he flitted home like a belated ghost, +and was ready to drop at every tree-box. + +The next forenoon a new hand was taken on at Slocum's Yard. The +new hand, who had come on foot from South Millville, at which town he +had been set down by the seven o'clock express that morning, was +placed in the apprentice department,--there were five or six +apprentices now. Though all this was part of an understood +arrangement, Mr. Slocum nearly doubted the fidelity of his own eyes +when Mr. Taggett, a smooth-faced young fellow of one and twenty, if +so old, with all the traits of an ordinary workman down to the +neglected fingernails, stepped up to the desk to have the name of +Blake entered on the pay-roll. Either by chance or by design, Mr. +Taggett had appeared but seldom on the streets of Stillwater; the few +persons who had had anything like familiar intercourse with him in +his professional capacity were precisely the persons with whom his +present movements were not likely to bring him into juxtaposition, +and he ran slight risk of recognition by others. With his hair +closely cropped, and the overhanging brown mustache removed, the man +was not so much disguised as transformed. "I shouldn't have known +him!" muttered Mr. Slocum, as he watched Mr. Taggett passing from the +office with his hat in his hand. During the ensuing ten or twelve +days Mr. Slocum never wholly succeeded in extricating himself from +the foggy uncertainty generated by that one brief interview. From the +moment Mr. Taggett was assigned a bench under the sheds, Mr. Slocum +saw little or nothing of him. + +Mr. Taggett took lodging in a room in one of the most crowded of +the low boarding-houses,--a room accommodating two beds besides his +own: the first occupied by a brother neophyte in marble-cutting, and +the second by a morose middle-aged man with one eyebrow a trifle +higher than the other, as if it had been wrenched out of line by the +strain of habitual intoxication. This man's name was Wollaston, and +he worked at Dana's. + +Mr. Taggett's initial move was to make himself popular in the +marble yard, and especially at the tavern, where he spent money +freely, though not so freely as to excite any remark except that the +lad was running through pretty much all his small pay,--a +recklessness which was charitably condoned in Snelling's bar-room. He +formed multifarious friendships, and had so many sensible views on +the labor problem, advocating the general extinguishment of +capitalists, and so on, that his admittance to the Marble Workers' +Association resolved itself into merely a question of time. The old +prejudice against apprentices was already wearing off. The quiet, +evasive man of few words was now a loquacious talker, holding his own +with the hardest hitters, and very skillful in giving offense to no +one. "Whoever picks up Blake for a fool," Dexter remarked one night, +"will put him down again." Not a shadow of suspicion followed Mr. +Taggett in his various comings and goings. He seemed merely a +good-natured, intelligent devil; perhaps a little less devilish and a +trifle more intelligent than the rest, but not otherwise different. +Denyven, Peters, Dexter, Willson, and others in and out of the Slocum +clique were Blake's sworn friends. In brief, Mr. Taggett had the +amplest opportunities to prosecute his studies. Only for a pained +look which sometimes latterly shot into his eyes, as he worked at the +bench, or as he walked alone in the street, one would have imagined +that he was thoroughly enjoying the half-vagabond existence. + +The supposition would have been erroneous, for in the progress of +those fourteen days' apprenticeship Mr. Taggett had received a wound +in the most sensitive part of his nature: he had been forced to give +up what no man ever relinquishes without a wrench,--his own idea. + +With the exception of an accident in Dana's Mill, by which +Torrini's hand had been so badly mangled that amputation was deemed +necessary, the two weeks had been eventless outside of Mr. Taggett's +personal experience. What that experience was will transpire in its +proper place. Margaret was getting daily notes from Richard, and Mr. +Slocum, overburdened with the secret of Mr. Taggett's presence in the +yard,--a secret confined exclusively to Mr. Slocum, Richard, and +Justice Beemis,--was restlessly awaiting developments. + +The developments came that afternoon when Mr. Taggett walked into +the office and startled Mr. Slocum, sitting at the desk. The two +words which Mr. Taggett then gravely and coldly whispered in Mr. +Slocum's ear were,-- + +"RICHARD SHACKFORD." + + + + +XIX + + +Mr. Slocum, who had partly risen from the chair, sank back into +his seat. "Good God!" he said, turning very pale. "Are you mad?" + +Mr. Taggett realized the cruel shock which the pronouncing of that +name must have caused Mr. Slocum. Mr. Taggett had meditated his line +of action, and had decided that the most merciful course was +brusquely to charge young Shackford with the crime, and allow Mr. +Slocum to sustain himself for a while with the indignant disbelief +which would be natural to him, situated as he was. He would then in a +manner be prepared for the revelations which, if suddenly presented, +would crush him. + +If Mr. Taggett was without imagination, as he claimed, he was not +without a certain feminine quickness of sympathy often found in +persons engaged in professions calculated to blunt the finer +sensibilities. In his intercourse with Mr. Slocum at the Shackford +house, Mr. Taggett had been won by the singular gentleness and +simplicity of the man, and was touched by his misfortune. + +After his exclamation, Mr. Slocum did not speak for a moment or +two, but with his elbows resting on the edge of the desk sat +motionless, like a person stunned. Then he slowly lifted his face, to +which the color had returned, and making a movement with his right +hand as if he were sweeping away cobwebs in front of him rose from +the chair. + +"You are simply mad," he said, looking Mr. Taggett squarely and +calmly in the eyes. "Are you aware of Mr. Richard Shackford's +character and his position here?" + +"Precisely." + +"Do you know that he is to marry my daughter?" + +"I am very sorry for you, sir." + +"You may spare me that. It is quite unnecessary. You have fallen +into some horrible delusion. I hope you will be able to explain it." + +"I am prepared to do so, sir." + +"Are you serious?" + +"Very serious, Mr. Slocum." + +"You actually imagine that Richard Shackford--Pshaw! It's simply +impossible!" + +"I am too young a man to wish even to seem wiser than you, but my +experience has taught me that nothing is impossible." + +"I begin to believe so myself. I suppose you have grounds, or +something you consider grounds, for your monstrous suspicion. What +are they? I demand to be fully informed of what you have been doing +in the yard, before you bring disgrace upon me and my family by +inconsiderately acting on some wild theory which perhaps ten words +can refute." + +"I should be in the highest degree criminal, Mr. Slocum, if I were +to make so fearful an accusation against any man unless I had the +most incontestable evidence in my hands." + +Mr. Taggett spoke with such cold-blooded conviction that a chill +crept over Mr. Slocum, in spite of him. + +"What is the nature of this evidence?" + +"Up to the present stage, purely circumstantial." + +"I can imagine that," said Mr. Slocum, with a slight smile. + +"But so conclusive as to require no collateral evidence. The +testimony of an eye-witness of the crime could scarcely add to my +knowledge of what occurred that Tuesday night in Lemuel Shackford's +house." + +"Indeed, it is all so clear! But of course a few eye-witnesses +will turn up eventually," said Mr. Slocum, whose whiteness about the +lips discounted the assurance of his sarcasm. + +"That is not improbable," returned Mr. Taggett. + +"And meanwhile what are the facts?" + +"They are not easily stated. I have kept a record of my work day +by day, since the morning I entered the yard. The memoranda are +necessarily confused, the important and the unimportant being jumbled +together; but the record as it stands will answer your question more +fully than I could, even if I had the time--which I have not--to go +over the case with you. I can leave these notes in your hands, if you +desire it. When I return from New York"-- + +"You are going to New York!" exclaimed Mr. Slocum, with a start. +"When?" + +"This evening." + +"If you lay a finger on Richard Shackford, you will make the +mistake of your life, Mr. Taggett!" + +"I have other business there. Mr. Shackford will be in Stillwater +to-morrow night. He engaged a state-room on the Fall River boat this +morning." + +"How can you know that?" + +"Since last Tuesday none of his movements have been unknown to +me." + +"Do you mean to say that you have set your miserable spies upon +him?" cried Mr. Slocum. + +"I should not state the fact in just those words," Mr. Taggett +answered. "The fact remains." + +"Pardon me," said Mr. Slocum. "I am not quite myself. Can you +wonder at it?" + +"I do not wonder." + +"Give me those papers you speak of, Mr. Taggett. I would like to +look through them. I see that you are a very obstinate person when +you have once got a notion into your head. Perhaps I can help you out +of your error before it is irreparable." Then, after hesitating a +second, Mr. Slocum added, "I may speak of this to my daughter? +Indeed, I could scarcely keep it from her." + +"Perhaps it is better she should be informed." + +"And Mr. Shackford, when he returns to-morrow?" + +"If he broaches the subject of his cousin's death, I advise you to +avoid it." + +"Why should I?" + +"It might save you or Miss Slocum some awkwardness,--but you must +use your own discretion. As the matter stands it makes no difference +whether Mr. Shackford knows his position to-day or to-morrow. It is +too late for him to avail himself of the knowledge. Otherwise, of +course, I should not have given myself away in this fashion." + +"Very well," said Mr. Slocum, with an impatient movement of his +shoulders; "neither I nor my daughter will open our lips on this +topic. In the mean while you are to take no further steps without +advising me. That is understood?" + +"That is perfectly understood," returned Mr. Taggett, drawing a +narrow red note-book from the inner pocket of his workman's blouse, +and producing at the same time a small nickel-plated door-key. "This +is the key of Mr. Shackford's private workshop in the extension. I +have not been able to replace it on the mantel-shelf of his +sitting-room in Lime Street. Will you have the kindness to see that +it is done at once?" + +A moment later Mr. Slocum stood alone in the office, with Mr. +Taggett's diary in his hand. It was one of those costly little +volumes--gilt-edged and bound in fragrant crushed Levant +morocco--with which city officials are annually supplied by a +community of grateful taxpayers. + +The dark crimson of the flexible covers, as soft and slippery to +the touch as a snake's skin, was perhaps the fitting symbol of the +darker story that lay coiled within. With a gesture of repulsion, as +if some such fancy had flitted through his mind, Mr. Slocum tossed +the note-book on the desk in front of him, and stood a few minutes +moodily watching the _reflets_ of the crinkled leather as the +afternoon sunshine struck across it. Beneath his amazement and +indignation he had been chilled to the bone by Mr. Taggett's brutal +confidence. It was enough to chill one, surely; and in spite of +himself Mr. Slocum began to feel a certain indefinable dread of that +little crimson-bound book. + +Whatever it contained, the reading of those pages was to be a +repellent task to him; it was a task to which he could not bring +himself at the moment; to-night, in the privacy of his own chamber, +he would sift Mr. Taggett's baleful fancies. Thus temporizing, Mr. +Slocum dropped the volume into his pocket, locked the office door +behind him, and wandered down to Dundon's drug-store to kill the +intervening hour before supper-time. Dundon's was the aristocratic +lounging place of the village,--the place where the only genuine +Havana cigars in Stillwater were to be had, and where the favored +few, the initiated, could get a dash of hochheimer or cognac with +their soda-water. + +At supper, that evening, Mr. Slocum addressed scarcely a word to +Margaret, and Margaret was also silent. The days were dragging +heavily with her; she was missing Richard. Her own daring travels had +never extended beyond Boston or Providence; and New York, with +Richard in it, seemed drearily far away. Mr. Slocum withdrew to his +chamber shortly after nine o'clock, and, lighting the pair of candles +on the dressing-table, began his examination of Mr. Taggett's +memoranda. + +At midnight the watchman on his lonely beat saw those two candles +still burning. + + + + +XX + + +Mr. Taggett's diary was precisely a diary,--disjoined, full of +curt, obscure phrases and irrelevant reflections,--for which reason +it will not be reproduced here. Though Mr. Slocum pondered every +syllable, and now and then turned back painfully to reconsider some +doubtful passage, it is not presumed that the reader will care to do +so. An abstract of the journal, with occasional quotation where the +writer's words seem to demand it, will be sufficient for the +narrative. + +In the opening pages Mr. Taggett described his novel surroundings +with a minuteness which contrasted oddly with the brief, hurried +entries further on. He found himself, as he had anticipated, in a +society composed of some of the most heterogeneous elements. +Stillwater, viewed from a certain point, was a sort of microcosm, a +little international rag-fair to which nearly every country on earth +had contributed one of its shabby human products. "I am moving," +wrote Mr. Taggett, "in an atmosphere in which any crime is possible. +I give myself seven days at the outside to light upon the traces of +Shackford's murder. I feel him in the air." The writer's theory was +that the man would betray his identity in one of two ways: either by +talking unguardedly, or by indulging in expenditures not warranted by +his means and position. If several persons had been concerned in the +crime, nothing was more likely than a disagreement over the spoil, +and consequent treachery on the part of one of them. Or, again, some +of the confederates might become alarmed, and attempt to save +themselves by giving away their comrades. Mr. Taggett, however, +leaned to the belief that the assassin had had no accomplices. + +The sum taken from Mr. Shackford's safe was a comparatively large +one,--five hundred dollars in gold and nearly double that amount in +bank-notes. Neither the gold nor the paper bore any known mark by +which it could be recognized; the burglar had doubtless assured +himself of this, and would not hesitate to disburse the money. That +was even a safer course, judiciously worked, than to secrete it. The +point was, Would he have sufficient self-control to get rid of it by +degrees? The chances, Mr. Taggett argued, were ten to one he would +not. + +A few pages further on Mr. Taggett compliments the Unknown on the +adroit manner in which he is conducting himself. He has neither let +slip a suspicious word, nor made an incautious display of his booty. +Snelling's bar was doing an unusually light business. No one appeared +to have any money. Many of the men had run deeply into debt during +the late strike, and were now drinking moderately. In the paragraph +which closes the week's record Mr. Taggett's chagrin is evident. He +confesses that he is at fault. "My invisible friend does not +_materialize_ so successfully as I expected," is Mr. Taggett's +comment. + +His faith in the correctness of his theory had not abated; but he +continued his observation in a less sanguine spirit. These +observations were not limited to the bar-room or the workshop; he +informed himself of the domestic surroundings of his comrades. Where +his own scrutiny could not penetrate, he employed the aid of +correspondents. He knew what workmen had money in the local +savings-bank, and the amount of each deposit. In the course of his +explorations of the shady side of Stillwater life, Mr. Taggett +unearthed many amusing and many pathetic histories, but nothing that +served his end. Finally, he began to be discouraged. + +Returning home from the tavern, one night, in a rather desponding +mood, he found the man Wollaston smoking his pipe in bed. Wollaston +was a taciturn man generally, but this night he was conversational, +and Mr. Taggett, too restless to sleep, fell to chatting with him. +Did he know much about the late Mr. Shackford? Yes, he had known him +well enough, in an off way,--not to speak of him; everybody knew him +in Stillwater; he was a sort of miser, hated everybody, and bullied +everybody. It was a wonder somebody didn't knock the old silvertop on +the head years ago. + +Thus Mr. Wollaston grimly, with his pores stopped up with +iron-fillings,--a person to whom it would come quite easy to knock +any one on the head for a slight difference of opinion. He amused Mr. +Taggett in his present humor. + +No, he wasn't aware that Shackford had had trouble with any +particular individual; believed he did have a difficulty once with +Slocum, the marble man; but he was always fetching suits against the +town and shying lawyers at the mill directors,--a disagreeable old +cuss altogether. Adopted his cousin, one time, but made the house so +hot for him that the lad ran off to sea, and since then had had +nothing to do with the old bilk. + +Indeed! What sort of fellow was young Shackford? Mr. Wollaston +could not say of his own knowledge; thought him a plucky chap; he had +put a big Italian named Torrini out of the yard, one day, for talking +back. Who was Torrini? The man that got hurt last week in the Dana +Mill. Who were Richard Shackford's intimates? Couldn't say; had seen +him with Mr. Pinkham, the school-master, and Mr. Craggie,--went with +the upper crust generally. Was going to be partner in the marble yard +and marry Slocum's daughter. Will Durgin knew him. They lived +together one time. He, Wollaston, was going to turn in now. + +Several of these facts were not new to Mr. Taggett, but Mr. +Wollaston's presentation of them threw Mr. Taggett into a reverie. + +The next evening he got Durgin alone in a corner of the bar-room. +With two or three potations Durgin became autobiographical. Was he +acquainted with Mr. Shackford outside the yard? Rather. Dick +Shackford? His (Durgin's) mother had kept Dick from starving when he +was a baby,--and no thanks for it. Went to school with him, and knew +all about his running off to sea. Was near going with him. Old man +Shackford never liked Dick, who was a proud beggar; they couldn't +pull together, down to the last,--both of a piece. They had a jolly +rumpus a little while before the old man was fixed. + +Mr. Taggett pricked up his ears at this. + +A rumpus? How did Durgin know that? A girl told him. What girl? A +girl he was sweet on. What was her name? Well, he didn't mind telling +her name; it was Molly Hennessey. She was going through Welch's Court +one forenoon,--may be it was three days before the strike,--and saw +Dick Shackford bolt out of the house, swinging his arms and swearing +to himself at an awful rate. Was Durgin certain that Molly Hennessey +had told him this? Yes, he was ready to take his oath on it. + +Here, at last, was something that looked like a glimmer of +daylight. + +It was possible that Durgin or the girl had lied; but the story +had an air of truth to it. If it were a fact that there had recently +been a quarrel between these cousins, whose uncousinly attitude +towards each other was fast becoming clear to Mr. Taggett, then here +was a conceivable key to an enigma which had puzzled him. + +The conjecture that Lemuel Shackford had himself torn up the +will--if it was a will, for this still remained in dispute--had never +been satisfactory to Mr. Taggett. He had accepted it because he was +unable to imagine an ordinary burglar pausing in the midst of his +work to destroy a paper in which he could have no concern. But +Richard Shackford would have the liveliest possible interest in the +destruction of a document that placed a vast estate beyond his reach. +Here was a motive on a level with the crime. That money had been +taken, and that the fragments of the will had been carelessly thrown +into a waste-paper basket, just as if the old man himself had thrown +them there, was a stroke of art which Mr. Taggett admired more and +more as he reflected upon it. + +He did not, however, allow himself to lay too much stress on these +points; for the paper might turn out to be merely an expired lease, +and the girl might have been quizzing Durgin. Mr. Taggett would have +given one of his eye-teeth just then for ten minutes with Mary +Hennessey. But an interview with her at this stage was neither +prudent nor easily compassed. + +"If I have not struck a trail," writes Mr. Taggett, "I have come +upon what strongly resembles one; the least I can do is to follow it. +My first move must be to inspect that private workshop in the rear of +Mr. Slocum's house. How shall I accomplish it? I cannot apply to him +for permission, for that would provoke questions which I am not ready +to answer. Moreover, I have yet to assure myself that Mr. Slocum is +not implicated. There seems to have been also a hostile feeling +existing between him and the deceased. Why didn't some one tell me +these things at the start! If young Shackford is the person, there is +a tangled story to be unraveled. _Mem:_ Young Shackford is Miss +Slocum's lover." + +Mr. Slocum read this passage twice without drawing breath, and +then laid down the book an instant to wipe the sudden perspiration +from his forehead. + +In the note which followed, Mr. Taggett described the difficulty +he met with in procuring a key to fit the wall-door at the rear of +the marble yard, and gave an account of his failure to effect an +entrance into the studio. He had hoped to find a window unfastened; +but the window, as well as the door opening upon the veranda, was +locked, and in the midst of his operations, which were conducted at +noon-time, the approach of a servant had obliged him to retreat. + +Forced to lay aside, at least temporarily, his designs on the +workshop, he turned his attention to Richard's lodgings in Lime +Street. Here Mr. Taggett was more successful. On the pretext that he +had been sent for certain drawings which were to be found on the +table or in a writing-desk, he was permitted by Mrs. Spooner to +ascend to the bedroom, where she obligingly insisted on helping him +search for the apocryphal plans, and seriously interfered with his +purpose, which was to find the key of the studio. While Mr. Taggett +was turning over the pages of a large dictionary, in order to gain +time, and was wondering how he could rid himself of the old lady's +importunities, he came upon a half-folded note-sheet, at the bottom +of which his eye caught the name of Lemuel Shackford. It was in the +handwriting of the dead man. Mr. Taggett was very familiar with that +handwriting. He secured the paper at a venture, and put it in his +pocket without examination. + +A few minutes later, it being impossible to prolong the pretended +quest for the drawings, Mr. Taggett was obliged to follow Mrs. +Spooner from the apartment. As he did so he noticed a bright object +lying on the corner of the mantel-shelf,--a small nickel-plated key. +In order to take it he had only to reach out his hand in passing. It +was, as Mr. Taggett had instantly surmised, the key of Richard's +workshop. + +If it had been gold, instead of brass or iron, that bit of metal +would have taken no additional value in Mr. Taggett's eyes. On +leaving Mrs. Spooner's he held it tightly clasped in his fingers +until he reached an unfrequented street, where he halted a moment in +the shadow of a building to inspect the paper, which he had half +forgotten in his satisfaction at having obtained the key. A stifled +cry rose to Mr. Taggett's lips as he glanced over the crumpled +note-sheet. + +It contained three lines, hastily scrawled in lead-pencil, +requesting Richard Shackford to call at the house in Welch's Court at +eight o'clock on a certain Tuesday night. The note had been written, +as the date showed, on the day preceding the Tuesday night in +question--the night of the murder! + +For a second or two Mr. Taggett stood paralyzed. Ten minutes +afterwards a message in cipher was pulsing along the wires to New +York, and before the sun went down that evening Richard Shackford was +under the surveillance of the police. + +The doubtful, unknown ground upon which Mr. Taggett had been +floundering was now firm under his feet,--unexpected ground, but +solid. Meeting Mary Hennessey in the street, on his way to the marble +yard, Mr. Taggett no longer hesitated to accost her, and question her +as to the story she had told William Durgin. The girl's story was +undoubtedly true, and as a piece of circumstantial evidence was only +less important than the elder Shackford's note. The two cousins had +been for years on the worst of terms. At every step Mr. Taggett had +found corroboration of Wollaston's statement to that effect. + +"Where were Coroner Whidden's eyes and ears," wrote Mr. +Taggett,--the words were dashed down impatiently on the page, as if +he had sworn a little internally while writing them,--"when he +conducted that inquest! In all my experience there was never a thing +so stupidly managed." + +A thorough and immediate examination of Richard Shackford's +private workshop was now so imperative that Mr. Taggett resolved to +make it even if he had to do so under the authority of a +search-warrant. But he desired as yet to avoid publicity. + +A secret visit to the studio seemed equally difficult by day and +night. In the former case he was nearly certain to be deranged by the +servants, and in the latter a light in the unoccupied room would +alarm any of the household who might chance to awaken. From the +watchman no danger was to be apprehended, as the windows of the +extension were not visible from the street. + +Mr. Taggett finally decided on the night as the more propitious +time for his attempt,--a decision which his success justified. A +brilliant moon favored the in-door part of the enterprise, though it +exposed him to observation in his approach from the marble yard to +the veranda. + +With the dense moonlight streaming outside against the +window-shades, he could safely have used a candle in the studio +instead of the screened lantern which he had provided. Mr. Taggett +passed three hours in the workshop,--the last hour in waiting for the +moon to go down. Then he stole through the marble yard into the +silent street, and hurried home, carrying two small articles +concealed under his blouse. The first was a chisel with a triangular +piece broken out of the centre of the bevel, and the other was a box +of safety-matches. The peculiarity of this box of matches was--that +just one match had been used from it. + +Mr. Taggett's work was done. + +The last seven pages of the diary were devoted to a review of the +case, every detail of which was held up in various lights, and +examined with the conscientious pains of a lapidary deciding on the +value of a rare stone. The concluding entries ran as follow:-- + +_"Tuesday Night_. Here the case passes into other hands. I +have been fortunate rather than skillful in unmasking the chief actor +in one of the most singular crimes that ever came under my +investigation. By destroying three objects, very easily destroyed, +Richard Shackford would have put himself beyond the dream of +suspicion. He neglected to remove these dumb witnesses, and now the +dumb witnesses speak! If it could be shown that he was a hundred +miles from Stillwater at the time of the murder, instead of in the +village, as he was, he must still be held, in the face of the proofs +against him, accessory to the deed. These proofs, roughly summarized, +are:-- + +_"First_. The fact that he had had an altercation with his +cousin a short time previous to the date of the murder,--a murder +which may be regarded not as the result of a chance disagreement, but +of long years of bitter enmity between the two men. + +_"Secondly_. The fact that Richard Shackford had had an +appointment with his cousin on the night the crime was committed, and +had concealed that fact from the authorities at the time of the +coroner's inquest. + +_"Thirdly_. That the broken chisel found in the private +workshop of the accused explains the peculiar shape of the wound +which caused Lemuel Shackford's death, and corresponds in every +particular with the plaster impression taken of that wound. + +_"Fourthly_. That the partially consumed match found on the +scullery floor when the body was discovered (a style of match not +used in the house in Welch's Court) completes the complement of a box +of safety-matches belonging to Richard Shackford, and hidden in a +closet in his workshop. + +"Whether Shackford had an accomplice or not is yet to be +ascertained. There is nothing whatever to implicate Mr. Rowland +Slocum. I make the statement because his intimate association with +one party and his deep dislike of the other invited inquiry, and at +first raised an unjust suspicion in my mind." + +The little red book slipped from Mr. Slocum's grasp and fell at +his feet. As he rose from the chair, the reflection which he caught +of himself in the dressing-table mirror was that of a wrinkled, white +old man. + +Mr. Slocum did not believe, and no human evidence could have +convinced him, that Richard had deliberately killed Lemuel Shackford; +but as Mr. Slocum reached the final pages of the diary, a horrible +probability insinuated itself in his mind. Could Richard have done it +accidentally? Could he--in an instant of passion, stung to sudden +madness by that venomous old man--have struck him involuntarily, and +killed him? A certain speech which Richard had made in Mr. Slocum's +presence not long before came back to him now with fearful +emphasis:-- + +_"Three or four times in my life I have been carried away by a +devil of a temper which I couldn't control, it seized me so +unawares."_ + +"It seized me so unawares!" repeated Mr. Slocum, half aloud; and +then with a swift, unconscious gesture, he pressed his hands over his +ears, as if to shut out the words. + + + + +XXI + + +Margaret must be told. It would be like stabbing her to tell her +all this. Mr. Slocum had lain awake long after midnight, appalled by +the calamity that was about to engulf them. At moments, as his +thought reverted to Margaret's illness early in the spring, he felt +that perhaps it would have been a mercy if she had died then. He had +left the candles burning; it was not until the wicks sunk down in the +sockets and went softly out that slumber fell upon him. + +He was now sitting at the breakfast-table, absently crumbling bits +of bread beside his plate and leaving his coffee untouched. Margaret +glanced at him wistfully from time to time, and detected the restless +night in the deepened lines of his face. + +The house had not been the same since Lemuel Shackford's death; he +had never crossed its threshold; Margaret had scarcely known him by +sight, and Mr. Slocum had not spoken to him for years; but Richard's +connection with the unfortunate old man had brought the tragic event +very close to Margaret and her father. Mr. Slocum was a person easily +depressed, but his depression this morning was so greatly in excess +of the presumable cause that Margaret began to be troubled. + +"Papa, has anything happened?" + +"No, nothing new has happened; but I am dreadfully disturbed by +some things which Mr. Taggett has been doing here in the village." + +"I thought Mr. Taggett had gone." + +"He did go; but he came back very quietly without anybody's +knowledge. I knew it, of course; but no one else, to speak of." + +"What has he done to disturb you?" + +"I want you to be a brave girl, Margaret,--will you promise that?" + +"Why, yes," said Margaret, with an anxious look. "You frighten me +with your mysteriousness." + +"I do not mean to be mysterious, but I don't quite know how to +tell you about Mr. Taggett. He has been working underground in this +matter of poor Shackford's death,--boring in the dark like a +mole,--and thinks he has discovered some strange things." + +"Do you mean he thinks he has found out who killed Mr. +Shackford?" + +"He believes he has fallen upon clews which will lead to that. The +strange things I alluded to are things which Richard will have to +explain." + +"Richard? What has he to do with it?" + +"Not much, I hope; but there are several matters which he will be +obliged to clear up in order to save himself from very great +annoyance. Mr. Taggett seems to think that--that"-- + +"Good heavens, papa! What does he think?" + +"Margaret, he thinks that Richard knew something about the murder, +and has not told it." + +"What could he know? Is that all?" + +"No, that is not all. I am keeping the full truth from you, and it +is useless to do so. You must face it like a brave girl. Mr. Taggett +suspects Richard of being concerned, directly or indirectly, with the +crime." + +The color went from Margaret's cheek for an instant. The statement +was too horrible and sudden not to startle her, but it was also too +absurd to have more than an instant's effect. Her quick recovery of +herself reassured Mr. Slocum. Would she meet Mr. Taggett's specific +charges with the like fortitude? Mr. Slocum himself had been +prostrated by them; he prayed to Heaven that Margaret might have more +strength than he, as indeed she had. + +"The man has got together a lot of circumstantial evidence," +continued Mr. Slocum cautiously; "some of it amounts to nothing, +being mere conjecture; but some of it will look badly for Richard, to +outsiders." + +"Of course it is all a mistake," said Margaret, in nearly her +natural voice. "It ought to be easy to convince Mr. Taggett of that." + +"I have not been able to convince him." + +"But you will. What has possessed him to fall into such a +ridiculous error?" + +"Mr. Taggett has written out everything at length in this +memorandum-book, and you must read it for yourself. There are +expressions and statements in these pages, Margaret, that will +necessarily shock you very much; but you should remember, as I tried +to while reading them, that Mr. Taggett has a heart of steel; without +it he would be unable to do his distressing work. The cold +impartiality with which he sifts and heaps up circumstances involving +the doom of a fellow-creature appears almost inhuman; but it is his +business. No, don't look at it here!" said Mr. Slocum, recoiling; he +had given the book to Margaret. "Take it into the other room, and +read it carefully by yourself. When you have finished, come back and +tell me what you think." + +"But, papa, surely you"-- + +"I don't believe anything, Margaret! I don't know the true from +the false any more! I want you to help me out of my confusion, and +you cannot do it until you have read that book." + +Margaret made no response, but passed into the parlor and closed +the folding-doors behind her. + +After an absence of half an hour she reentered the breakfast room, +and laid Mr. Taggett's diary on the table beside her father, who had +not moved from his place during the interval. Margaret's manner was +collected, but it was evident, by the dark circles under her eyes, +and the set, colorless lips, that that half hour had been a cruel +thirty minutes to her. In Margaret's self-possession Mr. Slocum +recognized, not for the first time, the cropping out of an ancestral +trait which had somehow managed to avoid him in its wayward descent. + +"Well?" he questioned, looking earnestly at Margaret, and catching +a kind of comfort from her confident bearing. + +"It is Mr. Taggett's trade to find somebody guilty," said +Margaret, "and he has been very ingenious and very merciless. He was +plainly at his wits' ends to sustain his reputation, and would not +have hesitated to sacrifice any one rather than wholly fail." + +"But you have been crying, Margaret." + +"How could I see Richard dragged down in the dust in this fashion, +and not be mortified and indignant?" + +"You don't believe anything at all of this?" + +"Do _you?"_ asked Margaret, looking through and through him. + +"I confess I am troubled." + +"If you doubt Richard for a second," said Margaret, with a slight +quiver of her lip, "that will be the bitterest part of it to me." + +"I don't give any more credit to Mr. Taggett's general charges +than you do, Margaret; but I understand their gravity better. A +perfectly guiltless man, one able with a single word to establish his +innocence, is necessarily crushed at first by an accusation of this +kind. Now, can Richard set these matters right with a single word? I +am afraid he has a world of difficulty before him." + +"When he returns he will explain everything. How can you question +it?" + +"I do not wish to; but there are two things in Mr. Taggett's story +which stagger me. The motive for the destruction of Shackford's +papers,--that's not plain; the box of matches is a puerility unworthy +of a clever man like Mr. Taggett, and as to the chisel he found, why, +there are a hundred broken chisels in the village, and probably a +score of them broken in precisely the same manner; but, Margaret, did +Richard ever breathe a word to you of that quarrel with his cousin?" + +"No." + +"He never mentioned it to me either. As matters stood between you +and him, nothing was more natural than that he should have spoken of +it to you,--so natural that his silence is positively strange." + +"He may have considered it too unimportant. Mr. Shackford always +abused Richard; it was nothing new. Then, again, Richard is very +proud, and perhaps he did not care to come to us just at that time +with family grievances. Besides, how do we know they quarreled? The +village is full of gossip." + +"I am certain there was a quarrel; it was only necessary for those +two to meet to insure that. I distinctly remember the forenoon when +Richard went to Welch's Court; it was the day he discharged Torrini." + +A little cloud passed over Margaret's countenance. + +"They undoubtedly had angry words together," continued Mr. Slocum, +"and we are forced to accept the Hennessey girl's statement. The +reason you suggest for Richard's not saying anything on the subject +may suffice for us, but it will scarcely satisfy disinterested +persons, and doesn't at all cover another circumstance which must be +taken in the same connection." + +"What circumstance?" + +"His silence in regard to Lemuel Shackford's note,--a note written +the day before the murder, and making an appointment for the very +night of it." + +The girl looked steadily at her father. + +"Margaret!" exclaimed Mr. Slocum, his face illuminated with a +flickering hope as he met her untroubled gaze, "did Richard tell +_you?"_ + +"No," replied Margaret. + +"Then he told no one," said Mr. Slocum, with the light fading out +of his features again. "It was madness in him to conceal the fact. He +should not have lost a moment, after the death of his cousin, in +making that letter public. It ought instantly to have been placed in +Coroner Whidden's hands. Richard's action is inconceivable, +unless--unless"-- + +"Do not say it!" cried Margaret. "I should never forgive you!" + +In recapitulating the points of Mr. Taggett's accusation, Mr. +Slocum had treated most of them as trivial; but he had not been +sincere. He knew that that broken chisel had no duplicate in +Stillwater, and that the finding of it in Richard's closet was a +black fact. Mr. Slocum had also glossed over the quarrel; but that +letter!--the likelihood that Richard kept the appointment, and his +absolute silence concerning it,--here was a grim thing which no +sophistry could dispose of. It would be wronging Margaret to deceive +her as to the vital seriousness of Richard's position. + +"Why, why did he hide it!" Mr. Slocum persisted. + +"I do not see that he really hid it, papa. He shut the note in a +book lying openly on the table,--a dictionary, to which any one in +the household was likely to go. You think Mr. Taggett a person of +great acuteness." + +"He is a very intelligent person, Margaret." + +"He appears to me very short-sighted. If Richard were the dreadful +man Mr. Taggett supposes, that paper would have been burnt, and not +left for the first comer to pick up. I scorn myself for stooping to +the suggestion!" + +"There is something in the idea," said Mr. Slocum slowly. "But why +did Richard never mention the note,--to you, or to me, or to +anybody?" + +"He had a sufficient reason, you may be sure. Oh, papa, how ready +you are to believe evil of him!" + +"I am not, God knows!" + +"How you cling to this story of the letter! Suppose it turns out +to be some old letter, written two or three years ago? You could +never look Richard in the face again." + +"Unfortunately, Shackford dated it. It is useless for us to +blindfold ourselves, Margaret. Richard has managed in some way to get +himself into a very perilous situation, and we cannot help him by +shutting our eyes. You misconceive me if you imagine I think him +capable of coolly plotting his cousin's death; but it is not outside +the limits of the possible that what has happened a thousand times +may have happened once more. Men less impulsive than Richard"-- + +"I will not listen to it!" interrupted Margaret, drawing herself +up. "When Richard returns he will explain the matter to you,--not to +me. If I required a word of denial from him, I should care very +little whether he was innocent or not." + +Mr. Slocum threw a terrified glance at his daughter. Her lofty +faith sent a chill to his heart. What would be the result of a fall +from such a height? He almost wished Margaret had something less of +that ancestral confidence and obstinacy the lack of which in his own +composition he had so often deplored. + +"We are not to speak of this to Richard," he said, after a +protracted pause; "at least not until Mr. Taggett considers it best. +I have pledged myself to something like that." + +"Has Richard been informed of Mr. Taggett's singular proceeding?" +asked Margaret, freezingly. + +"Not yet; nothing is to be done until Mr. Taggett returns from New +York, and then Richard will at once have an opportunity of clearing +himself." + +"It would have spared us all much pain and misunderstanding if he +had been sent for in the first instance. Did he know that this person +was here in the yard?" + +"The plan was talked over before Richard left; the details were +arranged afterwards. He heartily approved of the plan." + +A leisurely and not altogether saint-like smile crept into the +corners of Margaret's mouth. + +"Yes, he approved of the plan," repeated Mr. Slocum. "Perhaps +he"--Here Mr. Slocum checked himself, and left the sentence flying at +loose ends. Perhaps Richard had looked with favor upon a method of +inquiry which was so likely to lead to no result. But Mr. Slocum did +not venture to finish the suggestion. He had never seen Margaret so +imperious and intractable; it was impossible to reason or to talk +frankly with her. He remained silent, sitting with one arm thrown +dejectedly across the back of the chair. + +Presently his abject attitude and expression began to touch +Margaret; there was something that appealed to her in the thin gray +hair fallowing over his forehead. Her eyes softened as they rested +upon him, and a pitying little tremor came to her under lip. + +"Papa," she said, stooping to his side, with a sudden rosy bloom +in her cheeks, "I have all the proof I want that Richard knew nothing +of this dreadful business." + +"You have proof!" exclaimed Mr. Slocum, starting from his seat. + +"Yes. The morning Richard went to New York"--Margaret hesitated. + +"Well!" + +"He put his arm around me and kissed me." + +"Well!" + +"Well?" repeated Margaret. "Could Richard have done that,--could +he have so much as laid his hand upon me--if--if"-- + + Mr. Slocum sunk back in the chair with a kind of groan. + +"Papa, you do not know him!" + +"Oh, Margaret, I am afraid that that is not the kind of evidence +to clear Richard in Mr. Taggett's eyes." + +"Then Richard's word must do it," she said haughtily. "He will be +home to-night." + +"Yes, he is to return to-night," said Mr. Slocum, looking away +from her. + + + + +XXII + + +During the rest of the day the name of Richard Shackford was not +mentioned again by either Margaret or her father. It was a day of +suspense to both, and long before night-fall Margaret's impatience +for Richard to come had resolved itself into a pain as keen as that +with which Mr. Slocum contemplated the coming; for every hour +augmented his dread of the events that would necessarily follow the +reappearance of young Shackford in Stillwater. + +On reaching his office, after the conversation with Margaret, Mr. +Slocum found Lawyer Perkins waiting for him. Lawyer Perkins, who was +as yet in ignorance of the late developments, had brought information +of his own. The mutilated document which had so grimly clung to its +secret was at last deciphered. It proved to be a recently executed +will, in which the greater part of Lemuel Shackford's estate, real +and personal, was left unconditionally to his cousin. + +"That disposes of one of Mr. Taggett's theories," was Mr. Slocum's +unspoken reflection. Certainly Richard had not destroyed the will; +the old man himself had destroyed it, probably in some fit of pique. +Yet, after all, the vital question was in no way affected by this +fact; the motive for the crime remained, and the fearful evidence +against Richard still held. + +After the departure of Lawyer Perkins, who had been struck by the +singular perturbation of his old friend, Mr. Slocum drew forth Mt. +Taggett's journal, and re-read it from beginning to end. Margaret's +unquestioning faith in Richard, her prompt and indignant rejection of +the whole story, had shaken her father at moments that morning; but +now his paralyzing doubts returned. This second perusal of the diary +impressed him even more strongly than the first. Richard had killed +Lemuel Shackford,--in self-defense, may be, or perhaps accidentally; +but he had killed him! As Mr. Slocum passed from page to page, +following the dark thread of narrative that darkened at each remove, +he lapsed into that illogical frame of mind when one looks half +expectantly for some providential interposition to avert the calamity +against which human means are impotent. If Richard were to drop dead +in the street! If he were to fall overboard off Point Judith in the +night! If only anything would happen to prevent his coming back! Thus +the ultimate disgrace might be spared them. But the ill thing is the +sure thing; the letter with the black seal never miscarries, and +Richard was bound to come! "There is no escape for him or for us," +murmured Mr. Slocum, closing his finger in the book. + +It was in a different mood that Margaret said to herself, "It is +nearly four o'clock; he will be here at eight!" As she stood at the +parlor window and watched the waning afternoon light making its +farewells to the flower-beds in the little square front-gardens of +the houses opposite, Margaret's heart was filled with the tenderness +of the greeting she intended to give Richard. She had never been cold +or shy in her demeanor with him, nor had she ever been quite +demonstrative; but now she meant to put her arms around his neck in a +wifely fashion, and recompense him so far as she could for all the +injustice he was to suffer. When he came to learn of the hateful +slander that had lifted its head during his absence, he should +already be in possession of the assurance of her faith. + +In the mean while the hands in Slocum's Yard were much exercised +over the unaccountable disappearance of Blake. Stevens reported the +matter to Mr. Slocum. + +"Ah, yes," said Mr. Slocum, who had not provided himself with an +explanation, and was puzzled to improvise one. "I discharged +him,--that is to say, I let him go. I forgot to mention it. He didn't +take to the trade." + +"But he showed a good fist for a beginner," said Stevens. "He was +head and shoulders the best of the new lot. Shall I put Stebbins in +his place?" + +"You needn't do anything until Mr. Shackford gets back." + +"When will that be, sir?" + +"To-night, probably." + +The unceremonious departure of Blake formed the theme of endless +speculation at the tavern that evening, and for the moment obscured +the general interest in old Shackford's murder. + +"Never to let on he was goin'!" said one. + +"Didn't say good-by to nobody," remarked a second. + +"It was devilish uncivil," added a third. + +"It is kind of mysterious," said Mr. Peters. + +"Some girl," suggested Mr. Willson, with an air of tender +sentiment, which he attempted further to emphasize by a capricious +wink. + +"No," observed Dexter. "When a man vanishes in that sudden way his +body is generally found in a clump of blackberry bushes, months +afterwards, or left somewhere on the flats by an ebb tide." + +"Two murders in Stillwater in one month would be rather crowding +it, wouldn't it?" inquired Piggott. + +"Bosh!" said Durgin. "There was always something shady about +Blake. We didn't know where he hailed from, and we don't know where +he's gone to. He'll take care of himself; that kind of fellow never +lets anybody play any points on him." With this Durgin threw away the +stump of his cigar, and lounged out at the street door. + +"I couldn't get anything out of the proprietor," said Stevens; +"but he never talks. May be Shackford when he"--Stevens stopped short +to listen to a low, rumbling sound like distant thunder, followed +almost instantly by two quick faint whistles. "He's aboard the train +to-night." + +Mr. Peters quietly rose from his seat and left the bar-room. + +The evening express, due at eight, was only a few seconds behind +time. As the screech of the approaching engine rung out from the dark +wood-land, Margaret and her father exchanged rapid glances. It would +take Richard ten minutes to walk from the railway station to the +house,--for of course he would come there directly after sending his +valise to Lime Street. + +The ten minutes went by, and then twenty. Margaret bent steadily +over her work, listening with covert intentness for the click of the +street gate. Likely enough Richard had been unable to find any one to +take charge of his hand-baggage. Presently Mr. Slocum could not +resist the impulse to look at his watch. It was half past eight. He +nervously unfolded The Stillwater Gazette, and sat with his eyes +fastened on the paper. + +After a seemingly interminable period the heavy bell of the South +Church sounded nine, and then tolled for a few minutes, as the dismal +custom is in New England country towns. + +A long silence followed, unrelieved by any word between father and +daughter,--a silence so profound that the heart of the old-fashioned +time-piece, throbbing monotonously in its dusky case at the foot of +the stairs, made itself audible through the room. Mr. Slocum's gaze +continued fixed on the newspaper which he was not reading. Margaret's +hands lay crossed over the work on her lap. + +Ten o'clock. + +"What can have kept him?" murmured Margaret. + +"There was only that way out of it," reflected Mr. Slocum, +pursuing his own line of thought. + +Margaret's cheeks were flushed and hot, and her eyes dulled with +disappointment, as she rose from the low rocking-chair and crossed +over to kiss her father good-night. Mr. Slocum drew the girl gently +towards him, and held her for a moment in silence. But Margaret, +detecting the subtile commiseration in his manner, resented it, and +released herself coldly. + +"He has been detained, papa." + +"Yes, something must have detained him!" + + + + +XXIII + + +When the down express arrived at Stillwater, that night, two +passengers stepped from the rear car to the platform: one was Richard +Shackford, and the other a commercial traveler, whose acquaintance +Richard had made the previous evening on the Fall River boat. + +There were no hacks in waiting at the station, and Richard found +his politeness put to a severe test when he saw himself obliged to +pilot his companion part of the way to the hotel, which lay--it +seemed almost maliciously--in a section of the town remote from the +Slocums'. Curbing his impatience, Richard led the stranger through +several crooked, unlighted streets, and finally left him at the +corner of the main thoroughfare, within pistol-shot of the red glass +lantern which hung over the door of the tavern. This cost Richard ten +good minutes. As he hurriedly turned into a cross-street on the left, +he fancied that he heard his name called several times from somewhere +in the darkness. A man came running towards him. It was Mr. Peters. + +"Can I say a word to you, Mr. Shackford?" + +"If it isn't a long one. I am rather pressed." + +"It is about Torrini, sir." + +"What of him?" + +"He's mighty bad, sir." + +"Oh, I can't stop to hear that," and Richard quickened his pace. + +"The doctor took off his hand last Wednesday," said Peters, +keeping alongside, "and he's been getting worse and worse." + +Richard halted. "Took off his hand?" + +"Didn't you know he was caught in the rolling-machine at Dana's? +Well, it was after you went away." + +"This is the first I've heard of it." + +"It was hard lines for him, sir, with the woman and the two +children, and nothing to eat in the house. The boys in the yard have +done what they could, but with the things from the drug-store, and so +on, we couldn't hold up our end. Mr. Dana paid the doctor's bill, +but if it hadn't been for Miss Slocum I don't know what would have +happened. I thought may be if I spoke to you, and told you how it +was"-- + +"Did Torrini send you?" + +"Lord, no! He's too proud to send to anybody. He's been so proud +since they took off his hand that there has been no doing anything +with him. If they was to take off his leg, he would turn into one +mass of pride. No, Mr. Shackford, I came of myself." + +"Where does Torrini live, now?" + +"In Mitchell's Alley." + +"I will go along with you," said Richard, with a dogged air. It +seemed as if the fates were determined to keep him from seeing +Margaret that night. Peters reached out a hand to take Richard's +leather bag. "No, thank you, I can carry it very well." In a small +morocco case in one of the pockets was a heavy plain gold ring for +Margaret, and not for anything in the world would Richard have +allowed any one else to carry the bag. + +After a brisk five minutes' walk the two emerged upon a broad +street crossing their path at right angles. All the shops were closed +except Stubbs the provision dealer's and Dundon's drug-store. In the +window of the apothecary a great purple jar, with a spray of gas jets +behind it, was flaring on the darkness like a Bengal light. Richard +stopped at the provision store and made some purchases; a little +further on he halted at a fruit stand, kept by an old crone, who had +supplemented the feeble flicker of the corner street lamp with a +pitch-pine torch, which cast a yellow bloom over her apples and +turned them all into oranges. She had real oranges, however, and +Richard selected half a dozen, with a confused idea of providing the +little Italians with some national fruit, though both children had +been born in Stillwater. + +Then the pair resumed their way, Peters acting as pioneer. They +soon passed beyond the region of sidewalks and curbstones, and began +picking their steps through a narrow, humid lane, where the water lay +in slimy pools, and the tenement houses on each side blotted out the +faint starlight. The night was sultry, and door and casement stood +wide, making pits of darkness. Few lights were visible, but a +continuous hum of voices issued from the human hives, and now and +then a transient red glow at an upper window showed that some one was +smoking a pipe. This was Mitchell's Alley. + +The shadows closed behind the two men as they moved forward, and +neither was aware of the figure which had been discreetly following +them for the last ten minutes. If Richard had suddenly wheeled and +gone back a dozen paces, he would have come face to face with the +commercial traveler. + +Mr. Peters paused in front of one of the tenement houses, and +motioned with his thumb over his shoulder for Richard to follow him +through a yawning doorway. The hall was as dark as a cave, and full +of stale, moldy odors. Peters shuffled cautiously along the bare +boards until he kicked his toe against the first step of the +staircase. + +"Keep close to the wall, Mr. Shackford, and feel your way up. +They've used the banisters for kindling, and the landlord says he +shan't put in any more. I went over here the other night," added Mr. +Peters reminiscentially. + +After fumbling several seconds for the latch, Mr. Peters pushed +open a door, and ushered Richard into a large, gloomy rear room. A +kerosene lamp was burning dimly on the mantel-shelf, over which hung +a coarsely-colored lithograph of the Virgin in a pine frame. Under +the picture stood a small black crucifix. There was little +furniture,--a cooking-stove, two or three stools, a broken table, and +a chest of drawers. On an iron bedstead in the corner lay Torrini, +muffled to the chin in a blanket, despite the hot midsummer night. +His right arm, as if it were wholly disconnected with his body, +rested in a splint on the outside of the covering. As the visitors +entered, a tall dusky woman with blurred eyes rose from a low bench +at the foot of the bed. + +"Is he awake?" asked Peters. + +The woman, comprehending the glance which accompanied the words, +though not the words themselves, nodded yes. + +"Here is Mr. Shackford come to see you, Torrini," Peters said. + +The man slowly unclosed his eyes; they were unnaturally brilliant +and dilated, and seemed to absorb the rest of his features. + +"I didn't want him." + +"Let by-gones be by-gones, Torrini," said Richard, approaching the +bedside. "I am sorry about this." + +"You are very good; I don't understand. I ask nothing of Slocum; +but the signorina comes every day, and I cannot help it. What would +you have? I'm a dead man," and he turned away his face. + +"It is not so bad as that," said Richard. + +Torrini looked up with a ghastly smile. "They have cut off the +hand that struck you, Mr. Shackford." + +"I suppose it was necessary. I am very sorry. In a little while +you will be on your feet again." + +"It is too late. They might have saved me by taking the arm, but I +would not allow them. I may last three or four days. The doctor says +it." + +Peters, standing in the shadow, jerked his head affirmatively. + +"I do not care for myself," the man continued,--"but she and the +little ones--That is what maddens me. They will starve." + +"They will not be let starve in Stillwater," said Richard. + +Torrini turned his eyes upon him wistfully and doubtfully. "You +will help them?" + +"Yes, I and others." + +"If they could be got to Italy," said Torrini, after meditating, +"it would be well. Her farther," giving a side look at the woman, "is +a fisherman of Capri." At the word Capri the woman lifted her head +quickly. "He is not rich, but he's not poor; he would take her." + +"You would wish her sent to Naples?" + +"Yes." + +"If you do not pull through, she and the children shall go there." + +"Brigida!" called Torrini; then he said something rapidly in +Italian to the woman, who buried her face in both hands, and did not +reply. + +"She has no words to thank you. See, she is tired to death, with +the children all day and me all night,--these many nights." + +"Tell her to go to bed in the other room," said Richard. "There's +another room, isn't there? I'll sit with you." + +"You?" + +"Your wife is fagged out,--that is plain. Send her to bed, and +don't talk any more. Peters, I wish you'd run and get a piece of ice +somewhere; there's no drinking-water here. Come, now, Torrini, I +can't speak Italian. Oh, I don't mind your scowling; I intend to +stay." + +Torrini slowly unknitted his brows, and an irresolute expression +stole across his face; then he called Brigida, and bade her go in +with the children. She bowed her head submissively, and fixing her +melting eyes on Richard for an instant passed into the adjoining +chamber. + +Peters shortly reappeared with the ice, and after setting a jug of +water on the table departed. Richard turned up the wick of the +kerosene lamp, which was sending forth a disagreeable odor, and +pinned an old newspaper around the chimney to screen the flame. He +had, by an odd chance, made his lampshade out of a copy of The +Stillwater Gazette containing the announcement of his cousin's death. +Richard gave a quick start as his eye caught the illuminated +head-lines,--Mysterious Murder of Lemuel Shackford! Perhaps a slight +exclamation escaped Richard's lips at the same time, for Torrini +turned and asked what was the matter. "Nothing at all," said Richard, +removing the paper, and placing another in its stead. Then he threw +open the blinds of the window looking on the back yard, and set his +hand-bag against the door to prevent it being blown to by the +draught. Torrini, without altering the rigid position of his head on +the pillow, followed every movement with a look of curious +insistence, like that of the eyes in a portrait. His preparations +completed for the night, Richard seated himself on a stool at the +foot of the bed. + +The obscurity and stillness of the room had their effect upon the +sick man, who presently dropped into a light sleep. Richard sat +thinking of Margaret, and began to be troubled because he had +neglected to send her word of his detention, which he might have done +by Peters. It was now too l ate. The town clock struck ten in the +midst of his self-reproaches. At the first clang of the bell, Torrini +awoke with a start, and asked for water. + +"If anybody comes," he said, glancing in a bewildered, anxious way +at the shadows huddled about the door, "you are not to leave me alone +with him." + +"Him? Whom? Are you expecting any one?" + +"No; but who knows? one might come. Then, you are not to go; you +are not to leave me for a second." + +"I've no thought of it," replied Richard; "you may rest easy.... +He's a trifle light in the head," was Richard's reflection. + +After that Torrini dozed rather than slumbered, rousing at brief +intervals; and whenever he awoke the feverish activity of his brain +incited him to talk,--now of Italy, and now of matters connected +with his experiences in this country. + +"Naples is a pleasant place!" he broke out in the hush of the +midnight, just as Richard was dropping off. "The band plays every +afternoon on the Chiaia. And then the _festas,_--every third day +a festa. The devil was in my body when I left there and dragged +little Brigida into all this misery. We used to walk of an evening +along the Marinella,--that's a strip of beach just beyond the Molo +Piccolo. You were never in Naples?" + +"Not I," said Richard. "Here, wet your lips, and try to go to +sleep again." + +"No, I can't sleep for thinking. When the Signorina came to see +me, the other day, her heart was pierced with pity. Like the blessed +Madonna's, her bosom bleeds for all! You will let her come +to-morrow?" + +"Yes, yes! If you will only keep quiet, Margaret shall come." + +"Margherita, we say. You are to wed her,--is it not so?" + +Richard turned down the wick of the lamp, which was blazing and +spluttering, and did not answer. Then Torrini lay silent a long +while, apparently listening to the hum of the telegraph wires +attached to one end of the roof. At odd intervals the freshening +breeze swept these wires, and awoke a low aeolian murmur. The moon +rose in the mean time, and painted on the uncarpeted floor the shape +of the cherry bough that stretched across the window. It was two +o'clock; Richard sat with his head bent forward, in a drowse. + +"Now the cousin is dead, you are as rich as a prince,--are you +not?" inquired Torrini, who had lain for the last half hour with his +eyes wide open in the moonlight. + +Richard straightened himself with a jerk. + +"Torrini, I positively forbid you to talk any more!" + +"I remember you said that one day, somewhere. Where was it? Ah, in +the yard! 'You can't be allowed to speak here, you know.' And then I +struck at you,--with that hand they've taken away! See how I remember +it!" + +"Why do you bother your mind with such things? Think of just +nothing at all, and rest. Perhaps a wet cloth on your forehead will +refresh you. I wish you had a little of my genius for not keeping +awake." + +"You are tired, you?" + +"I have had two broken nights, traveling." + +"And I give you no peace?" + +"Well, no," returned Richard bluntly, hoping the admission would +induce Torrini to tranquilize himself, "you don't give me much." + +"Has any one been here?" demanded Torrini abruptly. + +"Not a soul. Good Heaven, man, do you know what time it is?" + +"I know,--I know. It's very late. I ought to keep quiet; but, the +devil! with this fever in my brain!... Mr. Shackford!" and +Torrini, in spite of his imprisoned limb, suddenly half raised +himself from the mattress. "I--I"-- + +Richard sprung to his feet. "What is it,--what do you want?" + +"Nothing," said Torrini, falling back on the pillow. + +Richard brought him a glass of water, which he refused. He lay +motionless, with his eyes shut, as if composing himself, and Richard +returned on tiptoe to his bench. A moment or two afterwards Torrini +stirred the blanket with his foot. + +"Mr. Shackford!" + +"Well?" + +"I am as grateful--as a dog." + +Torrini did not speak again. This expression of his gratitude +appeared to ease him. His respiration grew lighter and more regular, +and by and by he fell into a profound sleep. Richard watched awhile +expectantly, with his head resting against the rail of the bedstead; +then his eyelids drooped, and he too slumbered. But once or twice, +before he quite lost himself, he was conscious of Brigida's thin face +thrust like a silver wedge through the half-open door of the hall +bedroom. It was the last thing he remembered,--that sharp, pale face +peering out from the blackness of the inner chamber as his grasp +loosened on the world and he drifted off on the tide of a dream. A +narrow white hand, like a child's, seemed to be laid against his +breast. It was not Margaret's hand, and yet it was hers. No, it was +the plaster model he had made that idle summer afternoon, years and +years before he had ever thought of loving her. Strange for it to be +there! Then Richard began wondering how the gold ring would look in +the slender forefinger. He unfastened the leather bag and took out +the ring. He was vainly trying to pass it over the first joint of the +dead white finger, when the cast slipped from his hold and fell with +a crash to the floor. Richard gave a shudder, and opened his eyes. +Brigida was noiselessly approaching Torrini's bedside. Torrini still +slept. It was broad day. Through the uncurtained window Richard saw +the blue sky barred with crimson. + + + + +XXIV + + +"Richard did come home last night, after all," said Mr. Slocum, +with a flustered air, seating himself at the breakfast table. + +Margaret looked up quickly. + +"I just met Peters on the street, and he told me," added Mr. +Slocum. + +"Richard returned last night, and did not come to us!" + +"It seems that he watched with Torrini,--the man is going to die." + +"Oh," said Margaret, cooling instantly. "That was like Richard; he +never thinks of himself first. I would not have had him do +differently. Last evening you were filled with I don't know what +horrible suspicions, yet see how simply everything explains itself." + +"If I could speak candidly, Margaret, if I could express myself +without putting you into a passion, I would tell you that Richard's +passing the night with that man has given me two or three ugly +ideas." + +"Positively, papa, you are worse than Mr. Taggett." + +"I shall not say another word," replied Mr. Slocum. Then he +unfolded the newspaper lying beside him, and constructed a barrier +against further colloquy. + +An hour afterwards, when Richard threw open the door of his +private workshop, Margaret was standing in the middle of the room +waiting for him. She turned with a little cry of pleasure, and +allowed Richard to take her in his arms, and kept to the spirit and +the letter of the promise she had made to herself. If there was an +unwonted gravity in Margaret's manner, young Shackford was not keen +enough to perceive it. All that morning, wherever he went, he carried +with him a sense of Margaret's face resting for a moment against his +shoulder, and the happiness of it rendered him wholly oblivious to +the constrained and chilly demeanor of her father when they met. The +interview was purposely cut short by Mr. Slocum, who avoided Richard +the rest of the day with a persistency that must have ended in +forcing itself upon his notice, had he not been so engrossed by the +work which had accumulated during his absence. + +Mr. Slocum had let the correspondence go to the winds, and a +formidable collection of unanswered letters lay on Shackford's desk. +The forenoon was consumed in reducing the pile and settling the +questions that had risen in the shops, for Mr. Slocum had neglected +everything. Richard was speedily advised of Blake's dismissal from +the yard, but, not knowing what explanation had been offered, was +unable to satisfy Stevens' curiosity on the subject. "I must see +Slocum about that at once," reflected Richard; but the opportunity +did not occur, and he was too much pressed to make a special business +of it. + +Mr. Slocum, meanwhile, was in a wretched state of suspense and +apprehension. Justice Beemis's clerk had served some sort of legal +paper--presumably a subpoena--on Richard, who had coolly read it in +the yard under the gaze of all, and given no sign of discomposure +beyond a momentary lifting of the eyebrows. Then he had carelessly +thrust the paper into one of his pockets and continued his directions +to the men. Clearly he had as yet no suspicion of the mine that was +ready to be sprung under his feet. + +Shortly after this little incident, which Mr. Slocum had witnessed +from the window of the counting-room, Richard spoke a word or two to +Stevens, and quitted the yard. Mr. Slocum dropped into the carving +department. + +"Where is Mr. Shackford, Stevens?" + +"He has gone to Mitchell's Alley, sir. Said he'd be away an hour. +Am I to say he was wanted?" + +"No," replied Mr. Slocum, hastily; "any time will do. You needn't +mention that I inquired for him," and Mr. Slocum returned to the +counting-room. + +Before the hour expired he again distinguished Richard's voice in +the workshops, and the cheery tone of it was a positive affront to +Mr. Slocum. Looking back to the week prior to the tragedy in Welch's +Court, he recollected Richard's unaccountable dejection; he had had +the air of a person meditating some momentous step,--the pallor, the +set face, and the introspective eyes. Then came the murder, and +Richard's complete prostration. Mr. Slocum in his own excitement had +noted it superficially at the time, but now he recalled the young +man's inordinate sorrow, and it seemed rather like remorse. Was his +present immobile serenity the natural expression of a man whose heart +had suddenly ossified, and was no longer capable of throbbing with +its guilt? Richard Shackford was rapidly becoming an awful problem to +Mr. Slocum. + +Since the death of his cousin, Richard had not been so much like +his former self. He appeared to have taken up his cheerfulness at the +point where he had dropped it three weeks before. If there were any +weight resting on his mind, he bore it lightly, with a kind of +careless defiance. + +In his visit that forenoon to Mitchell's Alley he had arranged for +Mrs. Morganson, his cousin's old housekeeper, to watch with Torrini +the ensuing night. This left Richard at liberty to spend the evening +with Margaret, and finish his correspondence. Directly after tea he +repaired to the studio, and, lighting the German student-lamp, fell +to work on the letters. Margaret came in shortly with a magazine, and +seated herself near the round table at which he was writing. She had +dreaded this evening; it could scarcely pass without some mention of +Mr. Taggett, and she had resolved not to speak of him. If Richard +questioned her it would be very distressing. How could she tell +Richard that Mr. Taggett accused him of the murder of his cousin, and +that her own father half believed the accusation? No, she could never +acknowledge that. + +For nearly an hour the silence of the room was interrupted only by +the scratching of Richard's pen and the rustling of the magazine as +Margaret turned the leaf. Now and then he looked up and caught her +eye, and smiled, and went on with his task. It was a veritable return +of the old times. Margaret became absorbed in the story she was +reading and forgot her uneasiness. Her left hand rested on the pile +of answered letters, to which Richard added one at intervals, she +mechanically lifting her palm and replacing it on the fresh +manuscript. Presently Richard observed this movement and smiled in +secret at the slim white hand unconsciously making a paper-weight of +itself. He regarded it covertly for a moment, and then his disastrous +dream occurred to him. There should be no mistake this time. He drew +the small morocco case from his pocket, and leaning across the table +slipped the ring on Margaret's finger. + +Margaret gave a bewildered start, and then seeing what Richard had +done held out her hand to him with a gracious, impetuous little +gesture. + +"I meant to give it you this morning," he said, pressing his lip to +the ring, "but the daylight did not seem fine enough for it." + +"I thought you had forgotten," said Margaret, slowly turning the +band on her finger. + +"The first thing I did in New York was to go to a jeweler's for +this ring, and since then I have guarded it day and night as +dragonishly as if it had been the Koh-i-Noor diamond, or some +inestimable gem which hundreds of envious persons were lying in wait +to wrest from me. Walking the streets with this trinket in my +possession, I have actually had a sense of personal insecurity. I +seemed to invite general assault. That was being very sentimental, +was it not?" + +"Yes, perhaps." + +"That small piece of gold meant so much to me." + +"And to me," said Margaret. "Have you finished your letters?" + +"Not yet. I shall be through in ten minutes, and then we'll have +the evening to ourselves." + +Richard hurriedly resumed his writing and Margaret turned to her +novel again; but the interest had faded out of it; the figures had +grown threadbare and indistinct, like the figures in a piece of old +tapestry, and after a moment or two the magazine glided with an +unnoticed flutter into the girl's lap. She sat absently twirling the +gold loop on her finger. + +Richard added the address to the final envelope, dried it with the +blotter, and abruptly shut down the lid of the inkstand with an air +of as great satisfaction as if he had been the fisherman in the +Arabian story corking up the wicked afrite. With his finger still +pressing the leaden cover, as though he were afraid the imp of toil +would get out again, he was suddenly impressed by the fact that he +had seen very little of Mr. Slocum that day. + +"I have hardly spoken to him," he reflected. "Where is your +father, to-night?" + +"He has a headache," said Margaret. "He went to his room +immediately after supper." + +"It is nothing serious, of course." + +"I fancy not; papa is easily excited, and he had had a great deal +to trouble him lately,--the strike, and all that." + +"I wonder if Mr. Taggett has been bothering him." + +"I dare say Mr. Taggett has bothered him." + +"You knew of his being in the yard?" + +"Not while he was here. Papa told me yesterday. I think Mr. +Taggett was scarcely the person to render much assistance." + +"Then he has found nothing whatever?" + +"Nothing important." + +"But anything? Trifles are of importance in a matter like this. +Your father never wrote me a word about Taggett." + +"Mr. Taggett has made a failure of it, Richard." + +"If nothing new has transpired, then I do not understand the +summons I received to-day." + +"A summons!" + +"I've the paper somewhere. No, it is in the pocket of my other +coat. I take it there is to be a consultation of some kind at Justice +Beemis's office to-morrow." + +"I am very glad," said Margaret, with her face brightening. +To-morrow would lift the cloud which had spread itself over them all, +and was pressing down so heavily on one unconscious head. To-morrow +Richard's innocence should shine forth and confound Mr. Taggett. A +vague bitterness rose in Margaret's heart as she thought of her +father. "Let us talk of something else," she said, brusquely breaking +her pause; "let us talk of something pleasant." + +"Of ourselves, then," suggested Richard, banishing the shadow +which had gathered in his eyes at his first mention of Mr. Taggett's +name. + +"Of ourselves," repeated Margaret gayly. + +"Then you must give me your hand," stipulated Richard, drawing his +chair closer to hers. + +"There!" said Margaret. + +While this was passing, Mr. Slocum, in the solitude of his +chamber, was vainly attempting to solve the question whether he had +not disregarded all the dictates of duty and common sense in allowing +Margaret to spend the evening alone with Richard Shackford. Mr. +Slocum saw one thing with painful distinctness--that he could not +help himself. + + + + +XXV + + +The next morning Mr. Slocum did not make his appearance in the +marble yard. His half-simulated indisposition of the previous night +had turned into a genuine headache, of which he perhaps willingly +availed himself to remain in his room, for he had no desire to see +Richard Shackford that day. + +It was an hour before noon. Up to that moment Richard had been +engaged in reading and replying to the letters received by the +morning's mail, a duty which usually fell to Mr. Slocum. As Richard +stepped from the office into the yard a small boy thrust a note into +his hand, and then stood off a short distance tranquilly boring with +one toe in the loose gravel, and apparently waiting for an answer. +Shackford hastily ran his eye over the paper, and turning towards the +boy said, a little impatiently: + +"Tell him I will come at once." + +There was another person in Stillwater that forenoon whose +agitation was scarcely less than Mr. Slocum's, though it greatly +differed from it in quality. Mr. Slocum was alive to his finger-tips +with dismay; Lawyer Perkins was boiling over with indignation. It was +a complex indignation, in which astonishment and incredulity were +nicely blended with a cordial detestation of Mr. Taggett and vague +promptings to inflict some physical injury on Justice Beemis. That +he, Melanchthon Perkins, the confidential legal adviser and personal +friend of the late Lemuel Shackford, should have been kept for two +weeks in profound ignorance of proceedings so nearly touching his +lamented client! The explosion of the old lawyer's wrath was so +unexpected that Justice Beemis, who had dropped in to make the +disclosures and talk the matter over informally, clutched at his +broad-brimmed Panama hat and precipitately retreated from the office. +Mr. Perkins walked up and down the worn green drugget of his private +room for half an hour afterwards, collecting himself, and then +dispatched a hurried note to Richard Shackford, requesting an instant +interview with him at his, Lawyer Perkins's, chambers. + +When, some ten minutes subsequently, Richard entered the +low-studded square room, darkened with faded moreen curtains and +filled with a stale odor of law-calf, Mr. Perkins was seated at his +desk and engaged in transferring certain imposing red-sealed +documents to a green baize satchel which he held between his knees. +He had regained his equanimity; his features wore their usual +expression of judicial severity; nothing denoted his recent +discomposure, except perhaps an additional wantonness in the stringy +black hair falling over the high forehead,--that pallid high forehead +which always wore the look of being covered with cold perspiration. + +"Mr. Shackford," said Lawyer Perkins, suspending his operations a +second, as he saluted the young man, "I suppose I have done an +irregular thing in sending for you, but I did not see any other +course open to me. I have been your cousin's attorney for over +twenty-five years, and I've a great regard for you personally. That +must justify the step I am taking." + +"The regard is mutual, I am sure," returned Richard, rather +surprised by this friendly overture, for his acquaintance with the +lawyer had been of the slightest, though it had extended over many +years. "My cousin had very few friends, and I earnestly desire to +have them mine. If I were in any trouble, there is no one to whom I +would come as unhesitatingly as to you." + +"But you are in trouble." + +"Yes, my cousin's death was very distressing." + +"I do not mean that." Mr. Perkins paused a full moment. "The +district attorney has suddenly taken a deep interest in the case, and +there is to be a rigorous overhauling of the facts. I am afraid it is +going to be very unpleasant for you, Mr. Shackford." + +"How could it be otherwise?" asked Richard, tranquilly. + +Lawyer Perkins fixed his black eyes on him. "Then you fully +understand the situation, and can explain everything?" + +"I wish I could. Unfortunately, I can explain nothing. I don't +clearly see why I have been summoned to attend as a witness at the +investigation to be held to-day in Justice Beemis's office." + +"You are unacquainted with any special reason why your testimony +is wanted?" + +"I cannot conceive why it should be required. I gave my evidence +at the time of the inquest, and have nothing to add to it. Strictly +speaking, I have had of late years no relations with my cousin. +During the last eighteen months we have spoken together but once." + +"Have you had any conversation on this subject with Mr. Slocum +since your return from New York?" + +"No, I have had no opportunity. I was busy all day yesterday; he +was ill in the evening, and is still confined to his room." + +Mr. Perkins was manifestly embarrassed. + +"That is unfortunate," he said, laying the bag on the desk. "I +wish you had talked with Mr. Slocum. Of course you were taken into +the secret of Taggett's presence in the marble yard?" + +"Oh, yes; that was all arranged before I left home." + +"You don't know the results of that manoeuvre?" + +"There were no results." + +"On the contrary, Taggett claims to have made very important +discoveries." + +"Indeed! Why was I not told!" + +"I can't quite comprehend Mr. Slocum's silence." + +"What has Taggett discovered?" + +"Several things, upon which he builds the gravest suspicions." + +"Against whom?" + +"Against you." + +"Against me!" cried Richard, recoiling. The action was one +altogether of natural amazement, and convinced Mr. Perkins, who had +keenly watched the effect of his announcement, that young Shackford +was being very hardly used. + +Justice Beemis had given Mr. Perkins only a brief outline of the +facts, and had barely touched on details when the old lawyer's anger +had put an end to the conversation. His disgust at having been left +out in the cold, though he was in no professional way concerned in +the task of discovering the murderer of Lemuel Shackford, had caused +Lawyer Perkins instantly to repudiate Mr. Taggett's action. "Taggett +is a low, intriguing fellow," he had said to Justice Beemis; "Taggett +is a fraud." Young Shackford's ingenuous manner now confirmed Mr. +Perkins in that belief. + +Richard recovered himself in a second or two. "Why did not Mr. +Slocum mention these suspicions to me?" he demanded. + +"Perhaps he found it difficult to do so." + +"Why should he find it difficult?" + +"Suppose he believed them." + +"But he could not believe them, whatever they are." + +"Well, then, suppose he was not at liberty to speak." + +"It seems that you are, Mr. Perkins, and you owe it to me to be +explicit. What does Taggett suspect?" + +Lawyer Perkins brooded a while before replying. His practice was +of a miscellaneous sort, confined in the main to what is technically +termed office practice. Though he was frequently engaged in small +cases of assault and battery,--he could scarcely escape that in +Stillwater,--he had never conducted an important criminal case; but +when Lawyer Perkins looked up from his brief reverie, he had fully +resolved to undertake the defense of Richard Shackford. + +"I will tell you what Taggett suspects," he said slowly, "if you +will allow me to tell you in my own way. I must ask a number of +questions." + +Richard gave a half-impatient nod of assent. + +"Where were you on the night of the murder?" inquired Lawyer +Perkins, after a slight pause. + +"I spent the evening at the Slocums', until ten o'clock; then I +went home,--but not directly. It was moonlight, and I walked about, +perhaps for an hour." + +"Did you meet any one?" + +"Not that I recollect. I walked out of town, on the turnpike." + +"When you returned to your boarding-house, did you meet any one?" + +"No, I let myself in with a pass-key. The family had retired, with +the exception of Mr. Pinkham." + +"Then you saw him?" + +"No, but I heard him; he was playing on the flute at his chamber +window, or near it. He always plays on the flute when he can't +sleep." + +"What o'clock was that?" + +"It must have been after eleven." + +"Your stroll was confined to the end of the town most remote from +Welch's Court?" + +"Yes, I just cruised around on the outskirts." + +"I wish you had spoken with somebody that night." + +"The streets were deserted. I wasn't likely to meet persons on the +turnpike." + +"However, some one may have seen you without your knowing it?" + +"Yes," said Richard curtly. He was growing restive under these +interrogations, the drift of which was plain enough to be +disagreeable. Moreover, Mr. Perkins had insensibly assumed the tone +and air of a counsel cross-examining a witness on the other side. +This nocturnal cruise, whose direction and duration were known only +to young Shackford, struck Lawyer Perkins unpleasantly. He meditated +a moment before putting the next question. + +"Were you on good terms--I mean fairly good terms--with your +cousin?" + +"No," said Richard; "but the fault was not mine. He never liked +me. As a child I annoyed him, I suppose, and when I grew up I +offended him by running away to sea. My mortal offense, however, was +accepting a situation in Slocum's Yard. I have been in my cousin's +house only twice in three years." + +"When was the last time?" + +"A day or two previous to the strike." + +"As you were not in the habit of visiting the house, you must have +had some purpose in going there. What was the occasion?" + +Richard hung his head thoughtfully. "I went there to talk over +family matters,--to inform him of my intended marriage to Margaret +Slocum. I wanted his good-will and support. Mr. Slocum had offered to +take me into the business. I thought perhaps my cousin Lemuel, seeing +how prosperous I was, would be more friendly to me." + +"Did you wish him to lend you capital?" + +"I didn't expect or wish him to; but there was some question of +that." + +"And he refused?" + +"Rather brutally, if I may say so now." + +"Was there a quarrel?" + +Richard hesitated. + +"Of course I don't press you," said Mr. Perkins, with some +stiffness. "You are not on the witness stand." + +"I began to think I was--in the prisoner's dock," answered +Richard, smiling ruefully. "However, I have nothing to conceal. I +hesitated to reply to you because it was painful for me to reflect +that the last time I saw my cousin we parted in anger. He charge me +with attempting to overreach him, and I left the house in +indignation." + +"That was the last time you saw him?" + +"The last time I saw him alive." + +"Was there any communication between you two after that?" + +"No." + +"None whatever?" + +"None." + +"Are you quite positive?" + +"As positive as I can be that I live and have my senses." + +Lawyer Perkins pulled a black strand of hair over his forehead, +and remained silent for nearly a minute. + +"Mr. Shackford, are you sure that your cousin did not write a note +to you on the Monday preceding the night of his death?" + +"He may have written a dozen, for all I know. I only know that I +never received a note or a letter from him in the whole course of my +life." + +"Then how do you account for the letter which has been found in +your rooms in Lime Street,--a letter addressed to you by Lemuel +Shackford, and requesting you to call at his house on that fatal +Tuesday night?" + +"I--I know nothing about it," stammered Richard. "There is no such +paper!" + +"It was in this office less than one hour ago," said Lawyer +Perkins sternly. "It was brought here for me to identify Lemuel +Shackford's handwriting. Justice Beemis has that paper!" + +"Justice Beemis has it!" exclaimed Richard. + +"I have nothing more to say," observed Lawyer Perkins, reaching +out his hand towards the green bag, as a sign that the interview was +ended. "There were other points I wished to have some light thrown +on; but I have gone far enough to see that it is useless." + +"What more is there?" demanded Richard in a voice that seemed to +come through a fog. "I insist on knowing! You suspect me of my +cousin's murder?" + +"Mr. Taggett does." + +"And you?" + +"I am speaking of Mr. Taggett." + +"Well, go on, speak of him," said Richard desperately. "What else +has he discovered?" + +Mr. Perkins wheeled his chair round until he faced the young man. + +"He has discovered in your workshop a chisel with a peculiar break +in the edge,--a deep notch in the middle of the bevel. With that +chisel Lemuel Shackford was killed." + +Richard gave a perceptible start, and put his hand to his head, as +if a sudden confused memory had set the temples throbbing. + +"A full box of safety matches," continued Mr. Perkins, in a cold, +measured voice, as though he were demonstrating a mathematical +problem, "contains one hundred matches. Mr. Taggett has discovered a +box that contains only ninety-nine. The missing match was used that +night in Welch's Court." + +Richard stared at him blankly. "What can I say?" he gasped. + +"Say nothing to me," returned Lawyer Perkins, hastily thrusting a +handful of loose papers into the open throat of the green bag, which +he garroted an instant afterwards with a thick black cord. Then he +rose flurriedly from the chair. "I shall have to leave you," he said; +"I've an appointment at the surrogate's." + +And Lawyer Perkins passed stiffly from the apartment. + +Richard lingered a moment alone in the room with his chin resting +on his breast. + + + + +XXVI + + +There was a fire in Richard's temples as he reeled out of Lawyer +Perkins's office. It was now twelve o'clock, and the streets were +thronged with the motley population disgorged by the various mills +and workshops. Richard felt that every eye was upon him; he was +conscious of something wild in his aspect that must needs attract the +attention of the passers-by. At each step he half expected the +leveling of some accusing finger. The pitiless sunshine seemed to +single him out and stream upon him like a calcium light. It was +intolerable. He must get away from this jostling crowd, this babel of +voices. What should he do, where should he go? To return to the yard +and face the workmen was not to be thought of; if he went to his +lodgings he would be called to dinner, and have to listen to the +inane prattle of the school-master. That would be even more +intolerable than this garish daylight, and these careless squads of +men and women who paused in the midst of their laugh to turn and +stare. Was there no spot in Stillwater where a broken man could hide +himself long enough to collect his senses? + +With his hands thrust convulsively into the pockets of his +sack-coat, Richard turned down a narrow passage-way fringing the rear +of some warehouses. As he hurried along aimlessly his fingers +encountered something in one of his pockets. It was the key of a new +lock which had been put on the scullery door of the house in Welch's +Court. Richard's heart gave a quick throb. There at least was a +temporary refuge; he would go there and wait until it was time for +him to surrender himself to the officers. + +It appeared to Richard that he was nearly a year reaching the +little back yard of the lonely house. He slipped into the scullery +and locked the door, wondering if his movements had been observed +since he quitted the main street. Here he drew a long breath and +looked around him; then he began wandering restlessly through the +rooms, of which there were five or six on the ground-floor. The +furniture, the carpets, and all the sordid fixtures of the house were +just as Richard had known them in his childhood. Everything was +unchanged, even to the faded peacock-feather stuck over the parlor +looking-glass. As he regarded the familiar objects and breathed the +snuffy atmosphere peculiar to the place, the past rose so vividly +before him that he would scarcely have been startled if a lean, gray +old man had suddenly appeared in one of the doorways. On a peg in the +front hall hung his cousin's napless beaver hat, satirically ready to +be put on; in the kitchen closet a pair of ancient shoes, worn down +at the heel and with taps on the toe, had all the air of intending to +step forth. The shoes had been carefully blacked, but a thin skin of +mould had gathered over them. They looked like Lemuel Shackford. They +had taken a position habitual with him. Richard was struck by the +subtile irony which lay in these inanimate things. That a man's hat +should outlast the man, and have a jaunty expression of triumph! That +a dead man's shoes should mimic him! + +The tall eight-day clock on the landing had run down. It had +stopped at twelve, and it now stood with solemnly uplifted finger, as +if imposing silence on those small, unconsidered noises which +commonly creep out, like mice, only at midnight. The house was full +of such stealthy sounds. The stairs creaked at intervals, +mysteriously, as if under the weight of some heavy person ascending. +Now and then the woodwork stretched itself with a snap, as though it +had grown stiff in the joints with remaining so long in one position. +At times there were muffled reverberations of footfalls on the +flooring overhead. Richard had a curious consciousness of not being +alone, but of moving in the midst of an invisible throng of persons +who elbowed him softly and breathed in his face, and vaguely +impressed themselves upon him as being former occupants of the +premises. This populous solitude, this silence with its busy +interruptions, grew insupportable as he passed from room to room. + +One chamber he did not enter,--the chamber in which his cousin's +body was found that Wednesday morning. In Richard's imagination it +was still lying there, white and piteous, by the hearth. He paused at +the threshold and glanced in; then turned abruptly and mounted the +staircase. + +On gaining his old apartment in the gable, Richard seated himself +on the edge of the cot-bed. His shoulders sagged down and a stupefied +expression settled upon his face, but his brain was in a tumult. His +own identity was become a matter of doubt to him. Was he the same +Richard Shackford who had found life so sweet when he awoke that +morning? IT must have been some other person who had sat by a window +in the sunrise thinking of Margaret Slocum's love,--some Richard +Shackford with unstained hands! This one was accused of murdering his +kinsman; the weapon with which he had done it, the very match he had +used to light him in the deed, were known! The victim himself had +written out the accusation in black and white. Richard's brain reeled +as he tried to fix his thought on Lemuel Shackford's letter. That +letter!--where had it been all this while, and how did it come into +Taggett's possession? Only one thing was clear to Richard in his +inextricable confusion,--he was not going to be able to prove his +innocence; he was a doomed man, and within the hour his shame would +be published to the world. Rowland Slocum and Lawyer Perkins had +already condemned him, and Margaret would condemn him when she knew +all; for it was evident that up to last evening she had not been +told. How did it happen that these overwhelming proofs had rolled +themselves up against him? What malign influences were these at work, +hurrying him on to destruction, and not leaving a single loophole of +escape? Who would believe the story of his innocent ramble on the +turnpike that Tuesday night? Who could doubt that he had gone +directly from the Slocums' to Welch's Court, and then crept home +red-handed through the deserted streets? + +Richard heard the steam-whistles recalling the operatives to work, +and dimly understood it was one o'clock; but after that he paid no +attention to the lapse of time. It was an hour later, perhaps two +hours,--Richard could not tell,--when he roused himself from his +stupor, and descending the stairs passed through the kitchen into the +scullery. There he halted and leaned against the sink, irresolute, as +though his purpose, if he had had a purpose, were escaping him. He +stood with his eyes resting listlessly on a barrel in the further +corner of the apartment. It was a heavy-hooped wine-cask, in which +Lemuel Shackford had been wont to keep his winter's supply of salted +meat. Suddenly Richard started forward with an inarticulate cry, and +at the same instant there came a loud knocking at the door behind +him. The sound reverberated through the empty house, filling the +place with awful echoes,--like those knocks at the gate of Macbeth's +castle the night of Duncan's murder. Richard stood petrified for a +second; then he hastily turned the key in the lock, and Mr. Taggett +stepped into the scullery. + +The two men exchanged swift glances. The bewildered air of a +moment before had passed from Richard; the dullness had faded out of +his eyes, leaving them the clear, alert expression they ordinarily +wore. He was self-possessed, but the effort his self-possession cost +him was obvious. There was a something in his face--a dilation of the +nostril, a curve of the under lip--which put Mr. Taggett very much on +his guard. Mr. Taggett was the first to speak. + +"I've a disagreeable mission here," he said slowly, with his hand +remaining on the latch of the door, which he had closed on entering. +"I have a warrant for your arrest, Mr. Shackford." + +"Stop a moment!" said Richard, with a glow in his eyes. "I have +something to say." + +"I advise you not to make any statement." + +"I understand my position perfectly, Mr. Taggett, and I shall +disregard the advice. After you have answered me one or two +questions, I shall be quite at your service." + +"If you insist, then." + +"You were present at the examination of Thomas Blufton and William +Durgin, were you not?" + +"I was." + +"You recollect William Durgin's testimony?" + +"Most distinctly." + +"He stated that the stains on his clothes were from a certain +barrel, the head of which had been freshly painted red." + +"I remember." + +"Mr. Taggett, _the head of that barrel was painted blue!"_ + + + + +XXVII + + +Mr. Taggett, in spite of the excellent subjection under which he +held his nerves, caught his breath at these words, and a transient +pallor overspread his face as he followed the pointing of Richard's +finger. If William Durgin had testified falsely on that point, if he +had swerved a hair's-breadth from the truth in that matter, then +there was but one conclusion to be drawn from his perjury. A flash of +lightning is not swifter than was Mr. Taggett's thought in grasping +the situation. In an instant he saw all his carefully articulated +case fall to pieces in his hands. Richard crossed the narrow room, +and stood in front of him. + +"Mr. Taggett, do you know why William Durgin lied? He lied because +it was life or death with him! In a moment of confusion he had +committed one of those simple, fatal blunders which men in his +circumstances always commit. He had obliterated the spots on his +clothes with red paint, when he ought to have used blue!" + +"That is a very grave supposition." + +"It is not a supposition," cried Richard. "The daylight is not a +plainer fact." + +"You are assuming too much, Mr. Shackford." + +"I am assuming nothing. Durgin has convicted himself; he has +fallen into a trap of his own devising. I charge him with the murder +of Lemuel Shackford; I charge him with taking the chisel and the +matches from my workshop, to which he had free access; and I charge +him with replacing those articles in order to divert suspicion upon +me. My unfortunate relations with my cousin gave color to this +suspicion. The plan was an adroit plan, and has succeeded, it seems." + +Mr. Taggett did not reply at once, and then very coldly: "You will +pardon me for suggesting it, but it will be necessary to ascertain if +this is the cask which Durgin hoped, and also if the head has not +been repainted since." + +"I understand what your doubt implies. It is your duty to assure +yourself of these facts, and nothing can be easier. The person who +packed the meat--it was probably a provision dealer named +Stubbs--will of course be able to recognize his own work. The other +question you can settle with a scratch of your penknife. You see. +There has been only one thin coat of paint laid on,--the grain of the +wood is nearly distinguishable through it. The head is evidently new; +but the cask itself is an old one. It has stood here these ten +years." + +Mr. Taggett bent a penetrating look on Richard. "Why did you +refuse to answer the subpoena, Mr. Shackford?" + +"But I haven't refused. I was on my way to Justice Beemis's office +when you knocked. Perhaps I am a trifle late," added Richard, +catching Mr. Taggett's distrustful glance. + +"The summons said two o'clock," remarked Mr. Taggett, pressing the +spring of his watch. "It is now after three." + +"After three!" + +"How could you neglect it,--with evidence of such presumable +importance in your hands?" + +"It was only a moment ago that I discovered this. I had come here +from Mr. Perkins's office. Mr. Perkins had informed me of the +horrible charge which was to be laid at my door. The intelligence +fell upon me like a thunder-clap. I think it unsettled my reason for +a while. I was unable to put two ideas together. At first he didn't +believe I had killed my cousin, and presently he seemed to believe +it. When I got out in the street the sidewalk lurched under my feet +like the deck of a ship; everything swam before me. I don't know how +I managed to reach this house, and I don't know how long I had been +sitting in a room up-stairs when the recollection of the subpoena +occurred to me. I was standing here dazed with despair; I saw that I +was somehow caught in the toils, and that it was going to be +impossible to prove my innocence. If another man had been in my +position, I should have believed him guilty. I stood looking at the +cask in the corner there, scarcely conscious of it; then I noticed +the blue paint on the head, and then William Durgin's testimony +flashed across my mind. Where is he?" cried Richard, turning swiftly. +"That man should be arrested!" + +"I am afraid he is gone," said Mr. Taggett, biting his lip. + +"Do you mean he has fled?" + +"If you are correct--he has fled. He failed to answer the summons +to-day, and the constable sent to look him up has been unable to find +him. Durgin was in the bar-room of the tavern at eight o'clock last +night; he has not been seen since." + +"He was not in the yard this morning. You have let him slip +through your fingers." + +"So it appears, for the moment." + +"You still doubt me, Mr. Taggett?" + +"I don't let persons slip through my fingers." + +Richard curbed an impatient rejoinder, and said quietly, "William +Durgin had an accomplice." + +Mr. Taggett flushed, as if Richard had read his secret thought. +Durgin's flight, if he really had fled, had suggested a fresh +possibility to Mr. Taggett. What if Durgin were merely the pliant +instrument of the cleverer man who was now using him as a shield? +This reflection was precisely in Mr. Taggett's line. In absconding +Durgin had not only secured his own personal safety, but had +exonerated his accomplice. It was a desperate step to take, but it +was a skillful one. + +"He had an accomplice?" repeated Mr. Taggett, after a moment. "Who +was it?" + +"Torrini!" + +"The man who was hurt the other day?" + +"Yes." + +"You have grounds for your assertion?" + +"He and Durgin were intimate, and have been much together lately. +I sat up with Torrini the night before last; he acted and talked very +strangely; the man was out of his head part of the time, but now, as +I think it over, I am convinced that he had this matter on his mind, +and was hinting at it. I believe he would have made disclosures if I +had urged him a little. He was evidently in great dread of a visit +from some person, and that person was Durgin. Torrini ought to be +questioned without delay; he is very low, and may die at any moment. +He is lying in a house at the further end of the town. If it is not +imperative that I should report myself to Justice Beemis, we had +better go there at once." + +Mr. Taggett, who had been standing with his head half bowed, +lifted it quickly as he asked the question, "Why did you withhold +Lemuel Shackford's letter?" + +"It was never in my possession, Mr. Taggett," said Richard, +starting. "That paper is something I cannot explain at present. I can +hardly believe in its existence, though Mr. Perkins declares that he +has had it in his hands, and it would be impossible for him to make a +mistake in my cousin's writing." + +"The letter was found in your lodgings." + +"So I was told. I don't understand it." + +"That explanation will not satisfy the prosecuting attorney." + +"I have only one theory about it," said Richard slowly. + +"What is that?" + +"I prefer not to state it now. I wish to stop at my boarding-house +on the way to Torrini's; it will not be out of our course." + +Mr. Taggett gave silent acquiescence to this. Richard opened the +scullery door, and the two passed into the court. Neither spoke until +they reached Lime Street. Mrs. Spooner herself answered Richard's +ring, for he had purposely dispensed with the use of his pass-key. + +"I wanted to see you a moment, Mrs. Spooner," said Richard, making +no motion to enter the hall. "Thanks, we will not come in. I merely +desire to ask you a question. Were you at home all day on that Monday +immediately preceding my cousin's death?" + +"No," replied Mrs. Spooner wonderingly, with her hand still resting +on the knob. "I wasn't at home at all. I spent the day and part of the +night with my daughter Maria Ann at South Millville. It was a boy," +added Mrs. Spooner, quite irrelevantly, smoothing her ample apron with +the disengaged hand. + +"Then Janet was at home," said Richard. "Call Janet." + +A trim, intelligent-looking Nova Scotia girl was summoned from the +basement kitchen. + +"Janet," said Richard, "do you remember the day, about three weeks +ago, that Mrs. Spooner was absent at South Millville?" + +"Yes," replied the girl, without hesitation. "It was the day +before"--and then she stopped. + +"Exactly; it was the day before my cousin was killed. Now I want +you to recollect whether any letter or note or written message of any +description was left for me at this house on that day." + +Janet reflected. "I think there was, Mr. Richard,--a bit of paper +like." + +Mr. Taggett riveted his eyes on the girl. + +"Who brought the paper?" demanded Richard. + +"It was one of the Murphy boys, I think." + +"Did you hand it to me?" + +"No, Mr. Richard, you had gone out. It was just after breakfast." + +"You gave it to me when I came home to dinner, then?" + +"No," returned Janet, becoming confused with a dim perception that +something had gone wrong and she was committing herself. + +"I remember, I didn't come home. I dined at the Slocums'. What did +you do with that paper?" + +"I put it on the table in your room up-stairs." + +Mr. Taggett's eyes gleamed a little at this. + +"And that is all you can say about it?" inquired Richard, with a +fallen countenance. + +Janet reflected. She reflected a long while this time. "No, Mr. +Shackford: an hour or so afterwards, when I went up to do the +chamber-work, I saw that the wind had blow the paper off of the +table. I picked up the note and put it back; but the wind blew it off +again." + +"What then?" + +"Then I shut up the note in one of the big books, meaning to tell +you of it, and--and I forgot it! Oh, Mr. Richard, have I done +something dreadful?" + +"Dreadful!" cried Richard. "Janet, I could hug you!" + +"Oh, Mr. Richard," said Janet with a little coquettish movement +natural to every feminine thing, bird, flower, or human being, +"you've always such a pleasant way with you." + +Then there was a moment of dead silence. Mrs. Spooner saw that the +matter, whatever it was, was settled. + +"You needn't wait, Janet!" she said, with a severe, mystified air. + +"We are greatly obliged to you, Mrs. Spooner, not to mention +Janet," said Richard; "and if Mr. Taggett has no questions to ask we +will not detain you." + +Mrs. Spooner turned her small amiable orbs on Richard's companion. +That silent little man Mr. Taggett! "He doesn't look like much," was +the landlady's unuttered reflection; and indeed he did not present a +spirited appearance. Nevertheless Mrs. Spooner followed him down the +street with her curious gaze until he and Richard passed out of +sight. + +Neither Richard nor Mr. Taggett was disposed to converse as they +wended their way to Mitchell's Alley. Richard's ire was slowly +kindling at the shameful light in which he had been placed by Mr. +Taggett, and Mr. Taggett was striving with only partial success to +reconcile himself to the idea of young Shackford's innocence. Young +Shackford's innocence was a very awkward thing for Mr. Taggett, for +he had irretrievably committed himself at head-quarters. With +Richard's latent ire was mingled a feeling of profound gratitude. + +"The Lord was on my side," he said presently. + +"He was on your side, as you remark; and when the Lord is on a +man's side a detective necessarily comes out second best." + +"Really, Mr. Taggett," said Richard, smiling, "that is a handsome +admission on your part." + +"I mean, sir," replied the latter, slightly nettled, "that it +sometimes seems as if the Lord himself took charge of a case." + +"Certainly you are entitled to the credit of going to the bottom +of this one." + +"I have skillfully and laboriously damaged my reputation, Mr. +Shackford." + +Mr. Taggett said this with so heavy an air that Richard felt a +stir of sympathy in his bosom. + +"I am very sorry," he said good-naturedly. + +"No, I beg of you!" exclaimed Mr. Taggett. "Any expression of +friendliness from you would finish me! For nearly ten days I have +looked upon you as a most cruel and consummate villain." + +"I know," said Richard. "I must be quite a disappointment to you, +in a small way." + +Mr. Taggett laughed in spite of himself. "I hope I don't take a +morbid view of it," he said. A few steps further on he relaxed his +gait. "We have taken the Hennessey girl into custody. Do you imagine +she was concerned?" + +"Have you questioned her?" + +"Yes; she denies everything, except that she told Durgin you had +quarreled with the old gentleman." + +"I think Mary Hennessey an honest girl. She's little more than a +child. I doubt if she knew anything whatever. Durgin was much too +shrewd to trust her, I fancy." + +As the speakers struck into the principal street, through the +lower and busier end of which they were obliged to pass, Mr. Taggett +caused a sensation. The drivers of carts and the pedestrians on both +sidewalks stopped and looked at him. The part he had played in +Slocum's Yard was now an open secret, and had produced an excitement +that was not confined to the clientele of Snelling's bar-room. It was +known that William Durgin had disappeared, and that the constables +were searching for him. The air was thick with flying projectures, +but none of them precisely hit the mark. One rumor there was which +seemed almost like a piece of poetical justice,--a whisper to the +effect that Rowland Slocum was suspected of being in some way mixed +up with the murder. The fact that Lawyer Perkins, with his green bag +streaming in the wind, so to speak, had been seen darting into Mr. +Slocum's private residence at two o'clock that afternoon was +sufficient to give birth to the horrible legend. + +"Mitchell's Alley," said Mr. Taggett, thrusting his arm through +Richard's, and hurrying on the escape the Stillwater gaze. "You went +there directly from the station the night you got home." + +"How did you know that?" + +"I was told by a fellow-traveler of yours,--and a friend of mine." + +"By Jove! Did it ever strike you, Mr. Taggett, that there is such +a thing as being too clever?" + +"It has occurred to me recently." + +"Here is the house." + +Two sallow-skinned children, with wide, wistful black eyes, who +were sitting on the stone step, shyly crowded themselves together +against the door-jamb to make passage-way for Richard and Mr. +Taggett. Then the two pairs of eyes veered round inquiringly, and +followed the strangers up the broken staircase and saw one of them +knock at the door which faced the building. + +Richard's hasty tap bringing no response, he lifted the latch +without further ceremony and stepped into the chamber, Mr. Taggett a +pace or two behind him. The figure of Father O'Meara slowly rising +from a kneeling posture at the bedside was the first object that met +their eyes; the second was Torrini's placid face, turned a little on +the pillow; the third was Brigida sitting at the foot of the bed, +motionless, with her arms wrapped in her apron. + +"He is dead," said the priest softly, advancing a step towards +Richard. "You are too late. He wanted to see you, Mr. Shackford, but +you were not to be found." + +Richard sent a swift glance over the priest's shoulder. "He wanted +to tell me what part he had played in my cousin's murder?" said +Richard. + +"God forbid! the wretched man had many a sin on his soul, but not +that." + +"Not that!" + +"No; he had no hand in it,--no more than you or I. His fault was +that he concealed his knowledge of the deed after it was done. He did +not even suspect who committed the crime until two days' afterwards, +when William Durgin"-- + +Richard's eyes lighted up as they encountered Mr. Taggett's. The +priest mistook the significance of the glances. + + +"No," said Father O'Meara, indicating Brigida with a quick motion +of his head, "the poor soul does not understand a word. But even if +she did, I should have to speak of these matters here and now, while +they are fresh in my mind. I am obeying the solemn injunctions of the +dead. Two days after the murder William Durgin came to Torrini and +confessed the deed, offering to share with him a large sum in gold +and notes if he would hide the money temporarily. Torrini agreed to +do so. Later Durgin confided to him his plan of turning suspicion +upon you, Mr. Shackford; indeed, of directly charging you with the +murder, if the worst came to the worst. Torrini agreed to that also, +because of some real or fancied injury at your hands. It seems that +the implement which Durgin had employed in forcing the scullery +door--the implement which he afterwards used so mercilessly--had been +stolen from your workshop. The next morning Durgin put the tool back +in its place, not knowing what other disposition to make of it, and +it was then that the idea of shouldering the crime upon you entered +his wicked heart. According to Torrini, Durgin did not intend to harm +the old gentleman, but simply to rob him. The unfortunate man was +awakened by the noise Durgin made in breaking open the safe, and +rushed in to his doom. Having then no fear of interruption, Durgin +leisurely ransacked the house. How he came across the will, and +destroyed it with the idea that he was putting the estate out of your +possession--this and other details I shall give you by and by." + +Father O'Meara paused a moment. "After the accident at the mill +and the conviction that he was not to recover, Torrini's conscience +began to prick him. When he reflected on Miss Slocum's kindness to +his family during the strike, when he now saw her saving his wife and +children from absolute starvation, he was nearly ready to break the +oath with which he had bound himself to William Durgin. Curiously +enough, this man, so reckless in many things, held his pledged word +sacred. Meanwhile his wavering condition became apparent to Durgin, +who grew alarmed, and demanded the stolen property. Torrini refused +to give it up; even his own bitter necessities had not tempted him to +touch a penny of it. For the last three days he was in deadly terror +lest Durgin should wrest the money from him by force. The poor woman, +here, knows nothing of all this. It was her presence, however, which +probably prevented Durgin from proceeding to extremities with +Torrini, who took care never to be left alone." + +"I recollect," said Richard, "the night I watched with him he was +constantly expecting some one. I supposed him to be wandering in his +mind." + +"He was expecting Durgin, though Torrini had every reason for +believing that he had fled." + +Mr. Taggett leaned forward, and asked, "When did he go,--and +where?" + +"He was too cunning to confide his plans to Torrini. Three nights +ago Durgin came here and begged for a portion of the bank-note; +previously he had reclaimed the whole sum; he said the place was +growing too warm for him, and that he had made up his mind to leave. +But Torrini held on to the money, having resolved that it should be +restored intact to you. He promised Durgin, however, to keep his +flight secret for three or four days, at the end of which time +Torrini meant to reveal all to me at confession. The night you sat +with him, Mr. Shackford, he was near breaking his promise; your +kindness was coals of fire on his head. His agony, lest he should die +or lose his senses before he could make known the full depth of +Durgin's villainy, must have been something terrible. This is the +substance of what the poor creature begged me to say to you with his +dying regrets. The money is hidden somewhere under the mattress, I +believe. A better man than Torrini would have spent some of it," +added Father O'Meara, waving a sort of benediction in the direction +of the bed. + +Richard did not speak for a moment or two. The wretchedness and +grimness of it all smote him to the heart. When he looked up Mr. +Taggett was gone, and the priest was gently drawing the coverlet over +Torrini's face. + +Richard approached Father O'Meara and said: "When the money is +found, please take charge of it, and see that every decent +arrangement is made. I mean, spare nothing. I am a Protestant, but I +believe in any man's prayers when they are not addressed to a heathen +image. I promised Torrini to send his wife and children to Italy. +This pitiful, miserable gold, which cost so dear and is worth so +little, shall be made to do that much good, at least." + +As Richard was speaking, a light footfall sounded on the staircase +outside; then the door, which stood ajar, was softly pushed open, and +Margaret paused on the threshold. At the rustle of her dress Richard +turned, and hastened towards her. + +"It is all over," he said softly, laying his finger on his lip. +Father O'Meara was again kneeling by the bedside. + +"Let us go now," whispered Richard to Margaret. It seemed fit that +they should leave the living and the dead to the murmured prayers and +solemn ministration of the kindly priest. Such later services as +Margaret could render to the bereaved woman were not to be wanting. + +At the foot of the stairs Richard Shackford halted abruptly, and, +oblivious of the two children who were softly chattering together in +the doorway, caught Margaret's hand in his. + +"Margaret, Torrini has made a confession that sets at rest all +question of my cousin's death." + +"Do you mean that he"--Margaret faltered, and left the sentence +unfinished. + +"No; it was William Durgin, God forgive him!" + +"William Durgin!" The young girl's fingers closed nervously on +Richard's as she echoed the name, and she began trembling. +"That--that is stranger yet!" + +"I will tell you everything when we get home; this is no time or +place; but one thing I must ask you now and here. When you sat with +me last night were you aware that Mr. Taggett firmly believed it was +I who had killed Lemuel Shackford?" + +"Yes," said Margaret. + +"That is all I care to know!" cried Richard; "that consoles me!" +and the two pairs of great inquisitive eyes looking up from the stone +step saw the signorina standing quite mute and colorless with the +strange gentleman's arms around her. And the signorina was smiling! + + + + +XXVIII + + +One June Morning, precisely a year from that morning when the +reader first saw the daylight breaking upon Stillwater, several +workmen with ladders and hammers were putting up a freshly painted +sign over the gate of the marble yard. Mr. Slocum and Richard stood +on the opposite curbstone, to which they had retired in order to take +in the general effect. The new sign read,--Slocum & Shackford. +Richard protested against the displacement of its weather-stained +predecessor; it seemed to him an act little short of vandalism; but +Mr. Slocum was obstinate, and would have it done. He was secretly +atoning for a deep injustice, into which Richard had been at once too +sensitive and too wise closely to inquire. If Mr. Slocum had harbored +a temporary doubt of him Richard did not care to know it; it was +quite enough to suspect the fact. His sufficient recompense was that +Margaret had not doubted. They had now been married six months. The +shadow of the tragedy in Welch's Court had long ceased to oppress +them; it had vanished with the hasty departure of Mr. Taggett. +Neither he nor William Durgin was ever seen again in the flesh in +Stillwater; but they both still led, and will probably continue for +years to lead, a sort of phantasmal, legendary life in Snelling's +bar-room. Durgin in his flight had left no traces. From time to time, +as the months rolled on, a misty rumor was blown to the town of his +having been seen in some remote foreign city,--now in one place, and +now in another, always on the point of departing, self-pursued like +the Wandering Jew; but nothing authentic. His after-fate was to be a +sealed book in Stillwater. + +"I really wish you had let the old sign stand," said Richard, as +the carpenters removed the ladders. "The yard can never be anything +but Slocum's Yard." + +"It looks remarkably well up there," replied Mr. Slocum, shading +his eyes critically with one hand. "You object to the change, but for +my part I don't object to changes. I trust I may live to see the day +when even this sign will have to be altered to--Slocum, Shackford & +Son. How would you like that?" + +"I can't say," returned Richard laughing, as they passed into the +yard together. "I should first have to talk it over--with the son!" + +The End + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Stillwater Tragedy, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STILLWATER TRAGEDY *** + +***** This file should be named 5435.txt or 5435.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/3/5435/ + +Produced by This eBook was created by Charles Aldarondo +(pg@aldarondo.net). + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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