"Maybe you"re not above telling a body what kept you out half the night?" inquired his wife.
"If you done and seen what I"ve did and saw," replied Mr. Shrimplin impressively, "you"d look for a little respect in your own home."
"I"d be a heap quicker telling about it," said Mrs. Shrimplin.
Mr. Shrimplin turned to Custer.
"I guess, you"re thinking it was a burglar; but, sonny, it wasn"t no burglar--so you got another guess coming to you," he concluded benevolently.
"I know!" cried Custer. "Some one"s been killed!"
"Exactly!" said Mr. Shrimplin with increasing benevolence. "Some one has been killed!"
"You done it!" cried Custer.
"I found the party," admitted Mr. Shrimplin with calm dignity.
"Oh!" But perhaps Custer"s first emotion was on the whole one of disappointment.
"How you talk!" said Mrs. Shrimplin.
"I reckon I might say more, most any one would," retorted Mr. Shrimplin quietly. "It was old man McBride--someone"s murdered him for his money; I never seen the town so on end over anything before, but whoever wants to be well posted"s got to come to me for the particulars. I seen the old man before Colonel Harbison seen him, I seen him before Andy Gilmore seen him, I seen him before the coroner seen him, or the sheriff or _any one_ seen him! I was on the spot ahead of "em all. If any one wants to know how he looked just after he was killed, they got to come to me to find out. Colonel Harbison can"t tell "em, and Andy Gilmore can"t tell "em; it"s only me knows them particulars!"
The effect of this stirring declaration was quite all he had hoped for.
Out of the tail of his eye he saw that Mrs. Shrimplin was, as she afterward freely confessed, taken aback. As for Custer, he had forgotten his disappointment that a death by violence had occurred for which his father was not directly responsible.
"Did you see the man that killed old Mr. McBride?" asked Custer, breaking the breathless spell that was upon him.
"No; if I"d been just about fifteen minutes sooner I"d have seen him; but I was just about that much too late, sonny. I guess he"s a whole lot better off, though."
"What would you have done if you"d seen him?" Custer"s voice sank to a whisper.
"Well, I don"t pack a gun for nothing. If I"d seen him there, he"d had to go "round to the jail with me. I guess I could have coaxed him there; I was ready for to offer extra inducements!"
"And does everybody know you seen old Mr. McBride the first of any?"
asked Custer.
"I guess they do; I ain"t afraid about that. Colonel Harbison"s too much of a gentleman to claim any credit that ain"t his; he"d be the first one to own up that he don"t deserve no credit."
"What took you into McBride"s store? You hadn"t no errand there." Mrs.
Shrimplin was a careful and acquisitive wife.
"I allow I made an errand there," said Mr. Shrimplin bridling. "I reckon many another man might have thought he hadn"t no errand there either, but I feel different about them things. I was just turned into the Square when along comes young John North--"
"What was he doing there?" suddenly asked Mrs. Shrimplin.
"I expect he was attending strictly to his own business," retorted Mr.
Shrimplin, offended by the utter irrelevancy of the question.
"Go on, pal" begged Custer.
He felt that his mother"s interruptions were positively cruel, and--so like a woman!
"Me and young John North pa.s.sed the time of day," continued Mr.
Shrimplin, thus abjured, "and I started around the north side of the Square to light the lamp on old man McBride"s own corner. If I"d knowed then--" he paused impressively, "if I"d just knowed then, that was my time! I could have laid hands on the murderer. He was there somewheres, most likely he was watching me; well, maybe it was all for the best, I don"t know as a married man"s got any right to take chances. Anyway, I got to within, well--I should say, thirty feet of that lamp-post when all of a sudden Bill began to act up. You never saw a horse act up like he done! He rose in his britching and then the other end of him come up and he acted like he wanted to set down on the singletree!"
"Why did he do that?" asked Custer.
"Well, I guess you"ve got some few things to learn, Custer;" said Mr.
Shrimplin indulgently. "He smelt blood--that"s what he smelt!"
"Oh!" gasped Custer.
"I"ve knowed it to happen before. It"s instinct," explained Shrimplin.
""Singular," says I, and out I jumps to have a look about. I walked to the lamp-post, and then I seen what I hadn"t seen before, that old man McBride"s store door was open, so I stepped on to the sidewalk intending to close it, but as I put my hand on the k.n.o.b I seen where the snow had drifted into the room, so I knew the door must have been open some little time. That"s mighty odd, I thinks, and then it sort of come over me the way Bill had acted, and I went along into the store in pretty considerable of a hurry."
"Were you afraid?" demanded Custer in an awe-struck whisper.
"I"ll tell you the truth, Custer, I wasn"t. I own I"d drawed my gun, wishing to be on the safe side. First thing I noticed was that the lamps hadn"t been turned up, though they was all lit. I got back to the end of the counter when I came to a halt, for there in a heap on the floor was old man McBride, with his head mashed in where some one had hit him with a sledge. There was blood all over the floor, and it was a mighty sickenin" spectacle. I sort of looked around hoping I"d see the murderer, but he"d lit out, and then I went back to the front of the store, where I seen Colonel Harbison coming across the Square. I told him what I"d seen and he went inside to look; while he was looking, along come Andy Gilmore and I told him, too, and he went in. They knowed the murderer wasn"t there, that I"d been in ahead of them. After, that the people seemed to come from every direction; then presently some one started to ring the town bell and that fetched more people, until the Square in front of the store was packed and jammed with "em. Everybody"
wanted to hear about it first-hand from me; they wanted the _full particulars_ from the only one who knowed "em."
Mr. Shrimplin paused for breath. The recollection of his splendid publicity was dazzling. He imagined the morrow with its possibility of social triumph; he went as far as to feel that Mrs. Shrimplin now had a certain sneaking respect for him.
"Did you see tracks in the snow?" demanded Custer.
"No, I didn"t see nothing," declared Mr. Shrimplin.
"You seen young John North."
It was Mrs. Shrimplin who spoke.
"Well, yes, I seen young John North--I said I seen him!"
CHAPTER SIX
PUTTING ON THE SCREWS
A score of men and boys followed the undertaker"s wagon to the small frame cottage that had been Archibald McBride"s home for half a century, and a group of these a.s.sembled about the gate as the wagon drew up before it. Along the quiet street, windows were raised and doors were opened. It was perhaps the first time, as it was to be the last, that Archibald McBride"s neighbors took note of his home-coming.
His keys had been found and intrusted to one of the policemen who accompanied the undertaker and his men; now, as the wagon came to a stand, this officer sprang to the ground, and pushing open the gate went quickly up the path to the front door. There in the shelter of the porch he paused to light a lantern, then he tried key after key until he found the one that fitted the lock; he opened the door and entered the house, the undertaker following him. A second officer stationed himself at the door and kept back the crowd. Their preparations were soon made and the two men reappeared on the porch.
"It"s all right," the undertaker said, and four men raised the stretcher again and carried the old merchant into the house.
At this juncture Colonel Harbison, followed by his nephew and Gilmore, made his way through the crowd before the door. Gilmore, even, gave an involuntary shudder as they entered the small hall lighted by the single lantern, while the colonel could have wished himself anywhere else; he had come from a sense of duty; he had known McBride as well as any one in Mount Hope had known him, and it had seemed a lack of respect to the dead man to leave him to the care of the merely curious; but he was painfully conscious of the still presence in the parlor; he felt that they were unwelcome intruders in the home of that austere old man, who had made no friends, who had no intimates, but had lived according to his choice, solitary and alone. The colonel and Watt Harbison followed the gambler into what had been the old merchant"s sitting-room. There were two lamps on the chimneypiece, both of which Gilmore lighted.