The Marrow of Tradition Read online

  XX

  A SHOCKING CRIME

  On Friday morning, when old Mrs. Ochiltree's cook Dinah went to wake hermistress, she was confronted with a sight that well-nigh blanched herebony cheek and caused her eyes almost to start from her head withhorror. As soon as she could command her trembling limbs sufficiently tomake them carry her, she rushed out of the house and down the street,bareheaded, covering in an incredibly short time the few blocks thatseparated Mrs. Ochiltree's residence from that of her niece.

  She hastened around the house, and finding the back door open and theservants stirring, ran into the house and up the stairs with thefamiliarity of an old servant, not stopping until she reached the doorof Mrs. Carteret's chamber, at which she knocked in great agitation.

  Entering in response to Mrs. Carteret's invitation, she found the lady,dressed in a simple wrapper, superintending the morning toilet of littleDodie, who was a wakeful child, and insisted upon rising with the birds,for whose music he still showed a great fondness, in spite of his narrowescape while listening to the mockingbird.

  "What is it, Dinah?" asked Mrs. Carteret, alarmed at the frightened faceof her aunt's old servitor.

  "O my Lawd, Mis' 'Livy, my Lawd, my Lawd! My legs is trim'lin' so dat Ican't ha'dly hol' my han's stiddy 'nough ter say w'at I got ter say! OLawd have mussy on us po' sinners! W'atever is gwine ter happen in disworl' er sin an' sorrer!"

  "What in the world is the matter, Dinah?" demanded Mrs. Carteret, whoseown excitement had increased with the length of this preamble. "Hasanything happened to Aunt Polly?"

  "Somebody done broke in de house las' night, Mis' 'Livy, an' kill' Mis'Polly, an' lef' her layin' dead on de flo', in her own blood, wid hercedar chis' broke' open, an' eve'thing scattered roun' de flo'! O myLawd, my Lawd, my Lawd, my Lawd!"

  Mrs. Carteret was shocked beyond expression. Perhaps the spectacle ofDinah's unrestrained terror aided her to retain a greater measure ofself-control than she might otherwise have been capable of. Giving thenurse some directions in regard to the child, she hastily descended thestairs, and seizing a hat and jacket from the rack in the hall, ranimmediately with Dinah to the scene of the tragedy. Before the thoughtof this violent death all her aunt's faults faded into insignificance,and only her good qualities were remembered. She had reared Olivia; shehad stood up for the memory of Olivia's mother when others had seemed toforget what was due to it. To her niece she had been a second mother,and had never been lacking in affection.

  More than one motive, however, lent wings to Mrs. Carteret's feet. Heraunt's incomplete disclosures on the day of the drive past the hospitalhad been weighing upon Mrs. Carteret's mind, and she had intended tomake another effort this very day, to get an answer to her questionabout the papers which the woman had claimed were in existence. Supposeher aunt had really found such papers,--papers which would seem to provethe preposterous claim made by her father's mulatto mistress? Supposethat, with the fatuity which generally leads human beings to keepcompromising documents, her aunt had preserved these papers? If theyshould be found there in the house, there might be a scandal, if nothingworse, and this was to be avoided at all hazards.

  Guided by some fortunate instinct, Dinah had as yet informed no one butMrs. Carteret of her discovery. If they could reach the house before themurder became known to any third person, she might be the first tosecure access to the remaining contents of the cedar chest, which wouldbe likely to be held as evidence in case the officers of the lawforestalled her own arrival.

  They found the house wrapped in the silence of death. Mrs. Carteretentered the chamber of the dead woman. Upon the floor, where it hadfallen, lay the body in a pool of blood, the strongly marked countenancescarcely more grim in the rigidity of death than it had been in life. Agaping wound in the head accounted easily for the death. The cedar cheststood open, its strong fastenings having been broken by a steel barwhich still lay beside it. Near it were scattered pieces of old lace,antiquated jewelry, tarnished silverware,--the various mute souvenirs ofthe joys and sorrows of a long and active life.

  Kneeling by the open chest, Mrs. Carteret glanced hurriedly through itscontents. There were no papers there except a few old deeds and letters.She had risen with a sigh of relief, when she perceived the end of apaper projecting from beneath the edge of a rug which had beencarelessly rumpled, probably by the burglar in his hasty search forplunder. This paper, or sealed envelope as it proved to be, whichevidently contained some inclosure, she seized, and at the sound ofapproaching footsteps thrust hastily into her own bosom.

  The sight of two agitated women rushing through the quiet streets at soearly an hour in the morning had attracted attention and arousedcuriosity, and the story of the murder, having once become known, spreadwith the customary rapidity of bad news. Very soon a policeman, and alittle later a sheriff's officer, arrived at the house and took chargeof the remains to await the arrival of the coroner.

  By nine o'clock a coroner's jury had been summoned, who, after briefdeliberation, returned a verdict of willful murder at the hands of someperson or persons unknown, while engaged in the commission of aburglary.

  No sooner was the verdict announced than the community, or at least thewhite third of it, resolved itself spontaneously into a committee of thewhole to discover the perpetrator of this dastardly crime, which, atthis stage of the affair, seemed merely one of robbery and murder.

  Suspicion was at once directed toward the negroes, as it always is whenan unexplained crime is committed in a Southern community. The suspicionwas not entirely an illogical one. Having been, for generations, trainedup to thriftlessness, theft, and immorality, against which only thirtyyears of very limited opportunity can be offset, during which briefperiod they have been denied in large measure the healthful socialstimulus and sympathy which holds most men in the path of rectitude,colored people might reasonably be expected to commit at least a shareof crime proportionate to their numbers. The population of the town wasat least two thirds colored. The chances were, therefore, in the absenceof evidence, at least two to one that a man of color had committed thecrime. The Southern tendency to charge the negroes with all the crimeand immorality of that region, unjust and exaggerated as the claim maybe, was therefore not without a logical basis to the extent aboveindicated.

  It must not be imagined that any logic was needed, or any reasoningconsciously worked out. The mere suggestion that the crime had beencommitted by a negro was equivalent to proof against any negro thatmight be suspected and could not prove his innocence. A committee ofwhite men was hastily formed. Acting independently of the police force,which was practically ignored as likely to favor the negroes, thiscommittee set to work to discover the murderer.

  The spontaneous activity of the whites was accompanied by a visibleshrinkage of the colored population. This could not be taken as anyindication of guilt, but was merely a recognition of the palpable factthat the American habit of lynching had so whetted the thirst for blackblood that a negro suspected of crime had to face at least thepossibility of a short shrift and a long rope, not to mention moregruesome horrors, without the intervention of judge or jury. Since tohave a black face at such a time was to challenge suspicion, and sincethere was neither the martyr's glory nor the saint's renown in beingkilled for some one else's crime, and very little hope of successfulresistance in case of an attempt at lynching, it was obviously the partof prudence for those thus marked to seek immunity in a temporarydisappearance from public view.