Several hours had gone by, hours which Samuel Statham spent, seated in a
deep easy-chair near the empty fire grate, reviewing his long and
eventful life.
With his head buried in his hands, he reflected upon all the past--its
tragedy and its prosperity. True, he had grown rich, wealthier than he
had ever dreamed, but, ah! at what a cost! The world knew nothing. The
world of finance, known in the City, looked upon him as a power to be
reckoned with. By a stroke of that stubby, ink-stained pen which lay
upon the writing-table he could influence the markets in Paris or
Berlin. His aid and advice were sought by men who were foremost in the
country's commerce and politics, and he granted loans to princes and to
kingdoms. And yet the tragedy of his own heart was a bitter one, and
his secret one that none dreamed.
He, like many another world-famous man, had a skeleton in his cupboard.
And that day it had seen the light, and the sight of it had caused him
to begin the slow and painful process of putting his house in order,
prior to quitting it for ever--prior to seeking death by his own hand.
For nearly an hour he had been huddled up in the big leather armchair
almost immovable. He had scrawled two or three letters, and written the
superscription upon their envelopes, and from his writing-table he had
taken a bundle of letters tied with a faded blue ribbon. One by one he
had read them through, and then, placing them in the grate, he had
applied a match and burnt them all. Some other business documents
followed, as well as an old parchment deed, which he first tried to
tear, but at last burned until it was merely twisted tinder.
It was now afternoon, and the silence of that house of mystery, wherein
no one save Charles Rolfe ever penetrated, was unbroken. Across the
soft green carpet lay a bar of warm sunlight that seemed strangely out
of place in that sombre apartment, with its despairing owner, while
outside the shabby stranger was no longer to be seen.
He might be lurking in the vicinity, but Levi had an hour ago entered
and informed his master that the patient vigil had been relaxed.
Old Sam had dismissed him with a grunt of dissatisfaction. Those last
hours of his life he wished to spend alone.
He had been trying to see some way out of the _cul-de-sac_ in which he
found himself, but there was none. That shabby wayfarer--his worst
enemy, had found him. Years ago he had sworn a terrible vengeance, but
for secret reasons, known only to Statham himself, he had laughed his
threats to scorn. Then came his death, and Statham was free, free to
prosper, become rich and powerful, and use his great wealth for good or
for evil as he felt so inclined.
He had, however, used it for good. His contributions to charities were
many and handsome. Among other things, he had built and endowed a wing
of the London Hospital, for which his Majesty signified his intention of
conferring a baronetcy upon him. But that honour he declined. To his
brother in the City he had said, "I don't wish for any honour, and I'll
remain plain Sam to the end of my days." There was a reason--a secret
reason--why he was unable to receive the distinction. None knew it--
none even dreamed.
The papers expressed wonder at the refusal, and people called him a
fool. In Old Broad Street men were envious, and laughed in their
sleeves. Yet if they had known the real reason they would surely have
stood aghast.
One day, however, his private secretary, young Rolfe, had come to him
with a strange and improbable tale. His enemy was alive and well, and
was, moreover, actually in England! He questioned the young man, and
found certain discrepancies in the statement. Therefore, shrewd and
far-seeing, he refused to believe it, and suspected blackmail to be the
ultimate intention. He did not, however, suspect Rolfe of any
inclination that way. He was both faithful and devoted.
Five years before, Rolfe's father, a man of considerable means who had
been interested in his financial undertakings, burnt his fingers badly
over a concession given by the Persian Government and became bankrupt.
A year later he died, a ruined man, leaving a son Charles and a daughter
Marion. The latter had been compelled, he understood, to earn her
living in a London shop, and the former, who had only recently come down
from Oxford, he had engaged as his confidential secretary.
He had indeed done this because he had felt that Charlie's father had
made the ruinous speculation upon his advice, and it therefore behoved
him to do some little for the dead man's children. Few men in the City
of London in these modern days are possessors of consciences, and those
who have are usually too busy with their own affairs to think of the
children of ruined friends.
Old Sam Statham was a hard man, it must be admitted. He would drive a
bargain to the last fraction of percentage, and in repayment of loans he
was relentless sometimes. Yet the acts of private charity that he did
were many, and he never sought to advertise them.
In Charles Rolfe he had not been disappointed. Never once had he
disobeyed the orders he had given, and, what was more, never once had he
sought to penetrate beyond the door at the head of the staircase which
shut off the ground floor from the one above.
The first day that Rolfe came to attend to his correspondence he had
told him that he must never ascend those stairs, and that if he did he
would be discharged at a moment's notice.
This prohibition struck the young man as curious and lent additional
colour to the whispers of mystery concerning the fine fashionable house.
A thousand weird suggestions arose within his mind of what was
concealed upstairs, yet he was powerless to investigate, and, after a
few weeks, grew to regard his master's words as those of an eccentric
man whose enormous wealth had rendered a trifle extraordinary at times.
Old Levi was janitor of that green baize door. Situated round the
corner, no one standing in the hall could see it. Therefore its
existence was unsuspected. But it was an iron door covered with green
baize, and always kept locked. Levi kept the key, and to all Rolfe's
inquisitiveness he was dumb.
"The master allows nobody upstairs," was always his reply. "I sleep
downstairs because I am not permitted to ascend."
What other servants might be there he knew not. Levi was the only other
person he ever saw. The curtains at the upper windows always looked
fresh and smart, and often as he went up Park Lane at night and glanced
up at them, he saw lights in them, showing that they must be inhabited.
At first all this puzzled him sorely. He had told Marion about it, and
also Maud Petrovitch, both girls being intensely interested in the
mystery of the house and the character of the unseen occupants of its
upper floors.
But as Charlie declared that old Statham was eccentric in everything,
the mystery had gradually worn off and been forgotten.
The old man's face had sadly changed since early morning. His
countenance now was that of a man in sheer despair. He had looked up
the Continental Bradshaw and had scrawled half a dozen telegrams,
addressed to his secretary, now on his way to Servia, and these had been
taken to the post-office by Levi.
But it was all in vain. The message to Belgrade could not possibly
reach Rolfe for another three days, and then, alas! it would be too
late.
Before then he would be finished with all earthly things, and the world
would denounce him as a coward. Yet even that would be preferable to
standing and hearing his enemy's denunciation than facing exposure,
ridicule, and ruin.
"Levi was right when he suggested flight," he was murmuring to himself.
"Yet where can I go? I'm too well-known. My portrait is constantly in
the papers, and, save Greece, there is no country in which I could
obtain sanctuary. Again, suppose I got safely to Greece, what about the
firm's credit? It would be gone. But if I die to-day, before this man
returns, they cannot accuse the dead, and the firm, being in a sound
financial position, cannot be attacked. No, only by my own death can I
save the situation. I must sacrifice myself. There is no help for it!
None! I must die!"
He gazed wildly around the big old-fashioned room as though his eyes
were searching for some means of escape.
But there was none. His past had that day risen against him, and he was
self-condemned.
His chin sank again upon his chest, and his deep-set eyes were fixed
upon the soft, dark-green carpet. The marble clock chimed the hour of
four, and recalled him to a sense of his surroundings.
He stretched himself, sighing deeply. He was wondering, when that
shabby watcher, who held his life in his dirty talons, would return.
Thoughts of the past, tragic and bitter, arose within him, and a
muttered imprecation escaped his thin, white lips. He was faced with a
problem that even the expenditure of his millions could not solve. He
could purchase anything on earth, but he could not buy a few more years
of his own life.
He envied the man who was poor and struggling, the man with a cheerful
wife and loving children, the man who worked and earned and had no
far-reaching interests. The wage-earner was to him the ideal life of a
man, for he obtained an income without the enormous responsibility
consequent upon being a "principal." His vast wealth was but a
millstone about his neck.
That little leather book, with its brass lock, wherein was recorded his
financial position in a nutshell, was lying upon the table. When he had
consulted it he had been appalled. He was worth far more than he had
ever imagined. And yet, by an irony of fate, the accumulation of that
wealth was now to cost him his life!
The long bar of sunlight had been moving slowly across the carpet, all
the afternoon. Old Sam Statham has risen and crossed again to his
writing-table, searching among some papers in a drawer, and finding a
silver cigarette case, much tarnished by long neglect. This he opened,
and within was displayed one tiny object. It was not a cigarette, but a
tiny glass tube with a glass stopper, containing a number of very small
white pilules.
He was gazing thoughtfully upon these, without removing the tube from
its hiding-place, when, of a sudden, the door opened, and Levi, his pale
face flushed with excitement and half breathless, entered, exclaiming in
a low whisper:
"Rolfe is here! Shall I show him in?"
"Rolfe!" gasped the millionaire in a voice of amazement. "Are you
serious, Levi?"
"Serious? Of course. He has just called and asked if you can see him."
"Show him in instantly," was Statham's answer, as hope became at that
instant renewed. "We may find a way out of this difficulty yet--with
his aid."
"We may," echoed Levi, closing the door for a moment behind him, so that
the young man might not overhear his words. "We may; but recollect that
he is a man in love."
"Well?"
"And he loves that girl Maud Petrovitch. Don't you understand--eh?"
asked Levi, with an evil flash in his eyes.
"Ah! I see," replied his master, biting his under lip. "I follow you,
Levi. It is good that you warned me. Leave the girl to me. Show him
in."
"You know what I told you a few days ago--of his friendship with
Petrovitch," the old servant went on. "Recollect that what I said was
the truth, and act upon the confidential information I gave you. In
this matter you've a difficult task before you, but don't be
chicken-hearted and generous, as you are so very often. You're in a
tight corner, and you must get out of it somehow, by hook or by crook."
"Trust me to look after myself," responded the millionaire, with a
sudden smile upon his pale, haggard face, for he saw that with his
secretary in London he might after all escape, and he had already closed
the tarnished cigarette case that contained those pilules by which he
had been contemplating ending his stormy existence. "Tell him to come
in."
"But I beg of you to be firm. You're not a fool," urged Levi, bending
earnestly towards him. "What is a woman's honour as compared with your
future? You must sacrifice her--or yourself. There are many women in
the world, recollect--but there is only one Samuel Statham!"