THE STILL WATER TRAGEDY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 304, 23 December 1891, Page 7

THE STILL WATER TRAGEDY.

By Thomas Bailey Aldxuch.

Author ot "Tho Queen of Sheba/ , Vv'""-?^ r J° rie Daw >" " Prudence r" " ' Palfroy," etc. VOL. 11. ! CHAPTER XXVI. IMbre wa3 a firo in Richard's temples a 8 fie reeled out of Lawyer Perkins' office. Ib was now twelve o'clock, and the streets * wero 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 muab needs attract the attention- of the passers- j by. At each step he half expected the levelling of some accusing finger. The pitiless sunshiije seemed to single him out and stream upon him like a calcium light. Ib wis 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 schoolmaster. 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 spob in Stillwater where a broken man could hide himself long enough to collect iisßonsGS? • ■ With his hands thrust convulsively into tbe pockets of his sack coat, Richard turned down a narrow passage-way fringing the rear of some warehouses. As he hurried along aimlessly his fiiigers encountered something in one of his pockets. It was the key of a new lock which had been pub 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 ib was time for him to surrender himself bo bhe officers. Ib appeared to Richard that he was nearly a year reaching the little baok yard of the . lonely house. lie slipped into the scullery and locked tho door, wondering if his movemeats had been observed since he quitted the main street. Here he drew a long breath and looked around j him ; then he began wandering restlessly through bhe rooms, of which there were five or six on the groundfloor. 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 parlour 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, grey old man had suddenly appeared in one of the doorways. On a peg in bho fronb hall bung his cousin's napless beaver hat satirically ready to be pub on ; in the kitchen closet a pair of ancient shoes, worn down ab the heel and with tape on the toe, had all the air of intending to step forth. The shoes had been . carefully blacked, bub a thin skin of mould had gathered over them. They looked .liko Lemuel Shackfcrd. They had taken a position habitual with him. Richard was struck by the subtle irony which lay in these inanimate things. That a man's hat .should butla'st the man, and have a jaunty expression of triumph ! That a dead man's shoes should mimic him ! Tho tall eight day clock on the landing bad run down. Ib had stopped ab twelve, and ib now stood winh solemnly uplifted ' finger, as if imposing silence en those small, anconsidered 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 trnder the weight of some heavy person ascending. Now and then the woodwork stretched itself with a snap, as though it had grown c tiff in the joints with remaining bo long in one position. Ab times there were mufilod reverberations of footfalls on tho flooring overhead. Richard had a curious consciousness of nob 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 itg 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 sound that Wednesday morning. In Richard's imagination it was still lying there, white and piteous, by the hearth. He paused at the threshold and glancsd in ; then turned abruptly and mounted the Staircase. On gaining his old apartment in tho p?.blo, Richard sealed himself on the odge of tho cob-bed. JUs shoulders sagged down, and a stupefied expression settled upon bi3 face, but his brain was in a tumult. Ilia own identity was become » matter of doubt to him. Was he. the Bamo Richard Shackford who had found life so sweet when he awoke that morning? Ib must have been some other person wh') had sat by a window in the Eunrise thinking , of Margaret SJocum's love,-—some Kichard Shacktord with unhands I This one was accusod of murderiiig bis kinsman ; the weapon with which ho bad done it, the very match ho hnd used tv lijjhb him in the deed, were lniotvn ! Tho victim himself had written t>ub i-he accusation in black and white. Kichard'a brain refcled as he tried to fix his thought on Lemuel Shackford's letter. That letter '.—where had ib been all this while, and hew did ib come into Taggott's possession ';—Only one thine was clear to Richard "i his inextricable cuufusion,—he was nob to be able to prove his innocence ; ho was a doomed man, ami within tho hour nisyhamo would bo published to the VorW. Rowland Slocum and Lawyer Parkins had already condemned him, and .Margaret would condemn him when she knew all, for ib was evident (hat ip to last evening sho had not been tolJ. How did ib nappon that these overwhelming proofs ! had roller! themselves up against him ? "- hat malign influences were these at work, hurrying him on to destruction, and i liob leaving a single loophole of escape ? Who would believe the story of his innocent ramblo on tho turnpike that Tuesday night? VVi lo could doubt that he vv i ?? ne d,rocfcl y from the SJocuma' to Welch a Court, and then crept home red•banded through tho deserted streets ? Kichard heard the steam whistles recall"i£ tho operatives to work, and dimly oadewtood it was one o'clock ; but alter cnat he paid no attention to the lapse of «imc. It was an hour later, perhaps two liOHre,~.Richard could not tell,—when he roused himself from his etupor, and deaconaii,> : the stairs passed through the kitchen ifltothe scullery. There he haltedandleaned against the sink, irresolute, as though his purpose, if he had had a purpose, woreescapm<? him. Hβ stood with his eyes resting lietleariy on a barrel in the further corner oifche apartment. It was a heavy-hooped j v-inecask, m which Lemuel Shaakford had ! been wont to kegp hig v/in , erV , q{ =alted meat,- Suddenly Richard staked lorward with an inarticulate cry, and at ltx6 same instant there came a loud knock-

ing ab the d6or behind him. The sound reverberated through fcho empty house, filling the place with awful echoes,—like those knocks ab the gate of Maobebh's caetle-' - the- night of Duncan'& -murder. Richard stood petrified for a second ; then he hastily turned the key in the lock, and Mr Taggebb stepped into the scullery. The two men exchanged swift glances. The bewildered air of a moment before had passed from Richard; the dulness had faded oub of ht3 eyes, leaving them the clear, alerb expression they ordinarily wore. He wae self-possessed, but the effort hia eelf-possession cost him was obvious. There was a something in his face—a dilation of the nostril, a curve of the under lip—which pub Mr Taggebb very much on his guard. Mr Taggetb 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 oii entering. ' I have a warrant) for your asrest, Mr Shackford.' * Stop a moment!' said Richard, with a glow in his eyes. ' I have something to* say.' 'I advise you nob to make any statement.' ' I understand my position perfectly, Mr Tageetb, and I shall disiegard bhe advice. Afber you have answered me one or two questions, I shall be quite at your service. , '■If you insist, then.' ' You were present ab the examination of Thomas Biufton 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 fro«n a certain barrel, the head of which had been freshly painted red." 'I remember.' . *Mr Taggetb, tlie head of that barrel was painted blue !' (To be Continued.)