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.