A complete surprise awaited them.
The door of the small room on the first floor stood open, and within the
light was switched on.
Upon the threshold they both paused, dumbfounded by the scene before
them.
Just as they had left it, the coffin stood upon its trestles, but lying
on the floor beside was the body of the man whose name it bore upon its
plate--the man Jean Adam!
In his nerveless grasp was a big service revolver, while the small round
hole in his white temple told its own tale--a tale of sudden
denunciation and of suicide.
The dead man wore evening-dress. On his white shirt-front was an ugly
crimson splash, while his fast-glazing eyes, still open, stared blankly
into space. At the opposite wall, leaning against it for support, was
old Sam Statham, his countenance blanched, his jaw set, unable to utter
a word.
The sudden unexpectedness of the tragedy had appalled him. He stood
speechless. He could only point to the inanimate form upon the floor.
Max lifted the body and sought eagerly for signs of life. There were,
however, none. The bullet had penetrated his brain, causing instant
death.
Sam Statham's enemy--the man whom they had presumed was already in his
coffin was dead! Yet what was the meaning of it all? The whole affair
was a complete enigma. Why had Jean Adam, the adventurer who had lived
by his wits for years and the hero of a thousand thrilling adventures,
taken his own life beside his own coffin?
Rolfe and Barclay turned away from the gruesome scene, and in silence
descended the stairs, where, standing back in the shadow, trembling like
an aspen, stood old Levi.
As they passed down, the servant entered the room to join his master,
with whispered words of awe.
Then, at the millionaire's suggestion, when he descended to them five
minutes later, Charlie went forth into Park Lane, and, walking hastily
towards the fountain, found a constable, whom he informed of the
tragedy.
As he went back to the house with the policeman at his side, he wondered
whether, after all, he had not misjudged old Sam. In any case, there
was a great and complete mystery which must now be elucidated.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just outside the little old town of Arundel in rural Sussex at the top
of the steep hill which leads on to the high road to Chichester, a road
rendered dusty in summer and muddy in winter by the constant succession
of motor cars which tear along it, stands Fordham Cottage, a small
unpretentious redbrick house, surrounded by a pretty garden, and divided
from the road by a high old wall clothed completely by ivy.
It was three o'clock in the afternoon.
Within the neat old-fashioned front parlour--for the owners of the house
were two prim maiden ladies--stood Rolfe and Barclay, together with the
grey-haired, grey-bearded man who, having rented the place furnished,
was living there in complete seclusion--Doctor Michael Petrovitch.
They were in earnest conversation, but Charlie kept his eyes upon the
window, as though in expectation of the arrival of someone. The autumn
day was fine and dry, and Maud, returning from London by the first
train, which had arrived at half-past six that morning, had, after
luncheon, gone out upon her cycle as was her daily habit.
Her lover, anxious and impatient, scarcely heeded what the Doctor was
explaining to Max.
For the past hour both men had been describing in brief what had
occurred since the ex-Minister's disappearance from Cromwell Road,
relating practically what has already been chronicled in the preceding
chapters. They had told him of Adam's threats, of the warning given to
Charlie by Lorena Lyle, of Adam's endeavour to entice Max to
Constantinople and of Statham's evident terror of Adam's vengeance. To
it all the grave grey-bearded statesman had listened attentively.
Only when they described their secret visit to the house in Park Lane,
and the extraordinary discoveries they had made there, did their hearer
evince surprise. Then, knitting his brows, he nodded as though he
understood. And when they told him of Adam's suicide, he drew a deep
breath of apparent relief.
"That man," he said, in a low, distinct voice, with scarce a trace of
accent--"that man was my enemy, as well as Statham's. It was he who, in
order to further his speculative financial schemes, paid an assassin to
throw a bomb at my carriage--the bomb that killed the poor little child!
He was an adventurer who had filched money from widows and orphans--a
scoundrel, and an assassin. The assassin, when in the fortress at
Belgrade, confessed to the identity of his employer. But in the
meantime he disappeared--to South America, it is believed. Prior to the
attempt upon me, Lyle, the mining engineer, was his cat's-paw, as he has
ever since been--a good fellow at heart, but weak and at the same time
adventurous. Once or twice they made big profits out of concessions for
copper mining obtained from my predecessor in office. When Adam found
that I refused to participate in business that was a fraud upon the
public in Paris and London, he plotted to get rid of me. Fortunately he
did not succeed; but when the truth was exposed to the Servian
Government that he was the real assassin, certain valuable concessions
were at once withdrawn from him, and he was thereby ruined. He vowed
vengeance upon me, and also upon Statham--to whom the concessions had
been transferred--a terrible vengeance. But soon afterwards he
disappeared, and we heard, upon what seemed to be good authority, that
he was dead. He had been shot in a drunken brawl in Caracas."
"And then he suddenly turned up again--eh?" Max remarked.
"Yes; and for that reason Mr Statham suggested that I and my daughter
Maud should disappear to some place to which he could not trace us.
Statham defied his threats, but at the same time thought that if we
disappeared in such a manner that the police would not seek us, it would
be a wise step. For that reason I arranged that the furniture, as well
as ourselves, should disappear, in order to make it appear that we had
suddenly removed, and also to prevent the police searching too
inquisitively for `missing persons.' Had they done this, our
hiding-place would soon have been discovered. I disappeared more for
Maud's sake, than for my own. I knew the desperate character of the
man, and the mad vengeance within his villainous heart."
"But Statham also feared him," remarked Charlie, recollecting the
occasion when his employer had betrayed such terror.
"Yes. The exact facts I do not know. He will tell you himself,"
answered the ex-Minister.
"Maud was in London last night, and called upon Statham," Max remarked.
"She called in secret lest she might be seen and followed by Adam," her
father replied. "She went there to return to Statham a sum of money he
had sent her."
"For what?"
"He wished to know the whereabouts of Lorena Lyle, who had been her
schoolfellow in Belgrade. Statham, I fear, intended, in some way, to
avenge himself upon Lyle--and on his daughter more especially--on
account of his association with his enemy. The girl is in London, and
he wished to know where she was living."
"And the money which she returned was given her in order, to induce her
to divulge?"
The Doctor nodded in the affirmative, adding:
"You see that Statham, surrounded by unscrupulous enemies as he has
been, was bound to act always for his own protection. He has been
misjudged--by you--by everybody. I, who know him more intimately,
perhaps, than anyone save his own brother Levi, assure you that it is
so."
"His brother Levi!" cried Charlie.
"Of course, Levi, who poses as his servant, is his brother. They have
been inseparable always, from the early days when Sam Statham was a
mining prospector and concession-hunter--the days before fortune smiled
upon the three Statham brothers, and they were able to open the doors of
the offices in Old Broad Street. The romance of old Sam's life is the
romance of the great firm."
"He treated my sister badly," declared Charlie. "For that I can never
forgive him."
"No; there you are wrong. It is true that he would not allow her to be
reinstated at Cunnington's, and, on the face of it, treated her
unjustly. But he had a motive. True, she refused to betray to him
something which my daughter had told her in confidence. For that
refusal he allowed her to be dismissed from her situation; but on the
following day he sent her down to me here to remain in concealment."
"Why?"
"Because of that man Adam. He had been attracted by her good looks, and
had begun to pester her with his attentions. Statham knew this from the
report of one who had watched her in secret. Therefore, by sending her
here into hiding, he was acting in her best interests."
"Then she is here?" cried Max, anxiously, his face suddenly brightening.
"Yes. See! here she comes--with Maud!" and as both men turned quickly
to the window they saw the two laughing girls, flushed by their ride,
wheeling their cycles up the path from the road.
Next moment both men dashed outside, and both girls, utterly amazed and
breathless, found themselves suddenly in the arms of their lovers.
The Doctor looked on, smiling, and in silence. He saw the lips of both
girls covered with the hot fervent kisses of good and honest men. He
heard their whispered words, and then he turned away.
Those long black days of suspicion and despair were at an end. The
mystery of it all was now being rapidly solved, and both girls within
that little parlour wept tears of joy upon the shoulders of the men whom
they had chosen as their husbands.
The happiness of four young hearts was complete. The grim shadow had
lifted, and upon them now fell at last the bright sunshine of life and
of love.
The self-effacement of that little household was at an end. Freed from
the bondage of silence, the truth was at last told. Maud, with her own
lips, explained to Charlie the confession she had made to Marion on the
night of their disappearance. She had told her how the man Adam, whom
she had known in Belgrade, had followed her several times in the
neighbourhood of Earl's Court, had spoken to her, and had declared his
love for her. She never suspected that he had been her father's enemy--
the man who had been the instigator of the dastardly outrage--until on
the previous evening, her father had, in confidence, told her the truth,
and added that, because of his re-appearance, they had to fly. She
dared not tell him they had met, but she had made Marion her confidante.
It was the story of the bomb outrage that had held Marion horrified.
Charlie, when he had listened open-mouthed to the explanation of his
well-beloved, cried:
"The assassin! And he dared to speak to you of love!"
"He is dead, dearest," answered the girl, quietly stroking his hair from
his brow. "Let us forgive him--and forget." For answer he took her
again in his arms, and kissed her tenderly upon the lips.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three days later.
The coroner's jury had returned a verdict of "suicide while of unsound
mind," and the body of Jean Adam had, with the undertaker's assistance,
been buried in Highgate Cemetery in the actual coffin which had been so
long prepared for him. It was surely a weird revenge of old Sam's.
But the whole occurrence was a grim and terrible repayment of an old
debt.
In the fading twilight of the wet and gloomy day on which the dead man's
body was, without a single follower, committed to the grave, Rolfe and
Barclay were seated with the millionaire in the familiar library in Park
Lane.
Old Sam had been making explanations similar to those made by the Doctor
down at Arundel. Suddenly he said, looking from one to the other:
"And now I have to apologise to you both. In arranging the
disappearance of my dear friend the Doctor, I contrived to mislead you,
in order to add mystery to the occurrence. I knew, Rolfe, you lost your
train at Charing Cross that night; that you did not wish to be seen off
by your sister Marion because you had--in my interests--quarrelled with
Adam and had made murderous threats against him--perhaps unwisely.
These threats, however, you believed Adam had told to Barclay, hence
your fear of the last-named later on. I arranged that a man should be
present at Cromwell Road in clothes resembling your own, that a garment
should be placed in the house with a bloodstain upon it, and that the
doctor's safe should be blown open as though thieves had visited the
place after the removal of the furniture. I knew from the Doctor that
you, Barclay, would go there that evening, and my object was to puzzle
and mislead you, at the same time believing that, having suspicions of
your friend Rolfe, you would not go to the police. Again, in order to
test Rolfe's devotion to myself, I suggested that the honour of the
woman he loved, if sacrificed, could save me. I made this suggestion in
order to put Rolfe off the scent."
"Then it was all your own doing?" Max cried, in surprise.
"Entirely," was the old man's response. "In the interests of myself, as
well as of both of you. Adam believed that you were aware of his secret
intentions, therefore he was plotting to entice you to Turkey--a country
where you might have disappeared with ease. That was undoubtedly his
object."
For a few moments he paused; then, clearing his throat, the old man
said, in a distinct voice:
"The other night you were no doubt both surprised to find my
drawing-room transposed into the interior of a Russian house. Well, it
was done with a distinct purpose--to defeat my enemy. He, with his
friend and accomplice Lyle, had made a false charge against me--a charge
supported by the perjured evidence of the hunchback--a charge of having
in the old days, years ago, murdered a woman--the woman who was my
wife."
A shadow of pain crossed the old man's brow at what seemed a bitter
remembrance. Then, after a moment's pause, he went on:
"She was worthless! Ah! yes, I admit that. But I swear I am innocent
of the charge they brought against me. She was killed in Caracas in a
brutal manner, but by whom I could never discover. After her death I
left South America. Adam and his friend dropped their foul charge
against me, and I lost sight of them for years. Later on, I was
prospecting in the Timan Mountains, in Northern Russia, within the
Arctic Circle, a wild snow-covered country outside the edge of
civilisation. Both gold and emeralds had been discovered along the
Ishma Valley, and there had been a rush there. Among the many
adventurous spirits attracted thither was Jean Adam, with his attendant
_alter ego_ Lyle. We met again. It was in winter, and we were in a
state of semi-starvation, all three of us. Not a word was said
regarding the charge they had made against me. Both were without means,
and both down on their luck. For a fortnight we remained together,
then, finding things hopeless resolved to struggle back to civilisation
at the nearest little Russian village, a miserable little place called
Ust Ussa, four hundred and fifty versts south. On the way we all three
nearly succumbed to the intense cold and want of food. At last,
however, late one night we came across a lonely house in a clearing in
the pine forest on the outskirts of the village which was our goal.
Sinking with fatigue, we begged shelter of the white-bearded old man who
lived there. He took us in, gave us food, and allowed us to sleep. I
was drowsy and slept heavily. It was late when I awoke--when I awoke to
find lying beside the table opposite me the old man stone dead, stabbed
to the heart! The place had been ransacked; the old man's hoard of
money--for there are no banks there--had been found, and my two
companions were missing. They had gone--no one knew whither! What
could I do? To remain, would mean to be accused of the crime, and
probably sent to Siberia. Well, I reflected for a moment. Then I took
some food, stole out, and made my way again into the snow-covered
wilderness. Ah! the recollection of it all is still upon me, though
years have since elapsed."
"And then?" asked Max, when he found tongue.
"Since then I and my brothers Levi and Ben have abandoned the old life,
but I have ever since been determined to avenge the brutal murder of
that poor old peasant. I made a vow not to enjoy the luxuries which my
money brought me until my conscience had been cleared and the assassin
brought to justice. Hence, I have lived in the desolation attendant
upon pauperism. I have been the Pauper of Park Lane. Seven years ago I
sent an agent to the place, and purchased all the interior of the house.
Then, when I came to live here, I had the drawing-room fitted as you
see it, and have since awaited my opportunity. The other night, as you
know, Jean Adam came to renew his false charge against me, and I took
him upstairs and ushered him suddenly into the scene of his crime. Ah!
his terror was horrible to witness: he trembled from head to foot. He
saw the hangman's rope around his neck. Then I took him into the next
room, and showed him in silence what I had prepared for him. He read
his own name inscribed there, and with a curse upon his lips, drew his
revolver and put an end to his life."
Both his hearers remained in silence. It had surely been a just
vengeance--blood for blood!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A year has now passed.
Marion is now the wife of Max Barclay, and the pair spend the greater
part of their time at the beautiful old castle Kilmaronock, up in
Perthshire, for in her perfect happiness she prefers a healthy out-door
life to that of London.
Rolfe, who is still confidential secretary to Mr Samuel Statham, has
married Maud, and has abandoned his bachelor chambers in Jermyn Street
for a pretty little house in Curzon Street, where he is quite near to
the mansion in Park Lane.
Doctor Petrovitch has returned to Servia at the invitation of the King,
and is expected every day to accept the portfolio of Prime Minister.
Old Duncan Macgregor has been promoted to be general manager of the
great Clyde and Motherwell Locomotive Works; while Levi acts as servant
to his brother, their secret still being kept, and the position of
Statham Brothers in the City is to-day higher than it has ever been.
As regards the Park Lane mansion, with the red-striped sun-blinds--the
house you know well, without doubt--there is now no further mystery
concerning it. The rumours regarding its beautiful interior, and the
sounds of piano-playing were all of course, the outcome of gossip. The
truth, however, is now common knowledge, and society during the past
nine months or so has been amazed to see painters, decorators, and
upholsterers so busily at work. It is evident that old Sam intends to
entertain largely during this coming season.
The house is now exquisitely furnished from top to bottom. He no longer
sleeps on his little camp bed, or dines off a chump chop cooked over a
gas-stove by old Levi. The dark shadow has now been lifted from his
life.
In fact, he no longer lives in the squalor of an empty house as "The
Pauper of Park Lane."
The End.