Chapter 7
Since this first onslaught of the heat synchronized with a startling increase in the number of victims, there were now nearly five deaths a week, a mood of profound discouragement settled on the city. In the suburbs little was left of the wonted animation between the long flat streets and the terraced houses; ordinarily people living in these districts used to spend the best part of the day in their yards, but now every door was shut, nobody was to be seen, even the blinds stayed down, and there was no knowing if it was the heat or the plague that they were trying to shut out. In some houses dry coughs could be heard.
As a result of the fighting in grocery stores, in the course of which the police had had to use their revolvers, a spirit of lawlessness was abroad. Some had cert
