The Pauper of Park Lane

by William Le Queux

tell us nothing more? Is not your story a somewhat lameone?"

  "Very--I quite admit it. But I can only assure you of its truth."

  "It is not often you speak the truth, Mr Statham, is it?" asked Max,pointedly.

  "I suppose I am like many another man," was his reply. "I only speak itwhen obliged!"

  As he uttered those words there sounded in the hall the loud electricbell of the front door. It was rung twice, whereupon old Sam drewhimself up in an instant in an attitude of alertness.

  "The visitor!" he gasped, raising his bony finger. "The long-expectedcaller!"

  The two rings were evidently a pre-arranged signal.

  They heard old Levi shuffling outside. The door opened, and he stoodexpectant, looking at his master, but uttering no word.

  "Gentlemen," exclaimed old Sam. "If you will permit me, I will go andreceive my visitor. May I ask you to remain here until I return toyou--return to answer any inquiries you may be pleased to put to me?"

  The old fellow was quite calm again. He seemed to have braced himselfup to meet his visitor, whoever he or she might be. It was one of hissecret agents, Charlie thought, without a doubt.

  Both men consented, and old Sam withdrew with Levi.

  "Please remain here. I ask you both to respect my wishes," he said, andgoing out, closed the door behind him.

  The two men listened with strained ears.

  They heard the sound of footsteps outside, but as far as they coulddistinguish, no word was spoken. Whether the mysterious visitor wasmale or female they could not ascertain.

  For several moments they stood at the door, listening.

  Then Max, unable to resist his own curiosity, opened the door slightly,and peered into the hall.

  But only Levi was there, his back turned towards the door. His masterand his visitor had ascended the stairs together, passing the iron doorwhich now stood open for the first time.

  Max beckoned Charlie, who, looking outside into the hall, saw Levistanding with both hands pressed to his brow in an attitude of wildestdespair.

  His agitation was evidently for his master's safety.

  A visitor at a quarter to four in the morning was unusual, to say theleast. Who could it be?

  Levi turned, and as he did so Max closed the door noiselessly, for hedid not wish the faithful old servant to discover him as aneavesdropper.

  Fully ten minutes elapsed, when of a sudden the sharp crack of apistol-shot echoed through the empty upstairs rooms.

  It caused both men to start, so unexpected was it.

  For a second they hesitated; then opening the door, they both dashed upthe forbidden stain.

  CHAPTER FIFTY TWO.

  CONTAINS A COMPLETE REVELATION.

  A complete surprise awaited them.

  The door of the small room on the first floor stood open, and within thelight was switched on.

  Upon the threshold they both paused, dumbfounded by the scene beforethem.

  Just as they had left it, the coffin stood upon its trestles, but lyingon the floor beside was the body of the man whose name it bore upon itsplate--the man Jean Adam!

  In his nerveless grasp was a big service revolver, while the small roundhole in his white temple told its own tale--a tale of suddendenunciation and of suicide.

  The dead man wore evening-dress. On his white shirt-front was an uglycrimson splash, while his fast-glazing eyes, still open, stared blanklyinto space. At the opposite wall, leaning against it for support, wasold Sam Statham, his countenance blanched, his jaw set, unable to uttera word.

  The sudden unexpectedness of the tragedy had appalled him. He stoodspeechless. 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 instantdeath.

  Sam Statham's enemy--the man whom they had presumed was already in hiscoffin was dead! Yet what was the meaning of it all? The whole affairwas a complete enigma. Why had Jean Adam, the adventurer who had livedby 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 silencedescended the stairs, where, standing back in the shadow, trembling likean 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 fiveminutes later, Charlie went forth into Park Lane, and, walking hastilytowards the fountain, found a constable, whom he informed of thetragedy.

  As he went back to the house with the policeman at his side, he wonderedwhether, after all, he had not misjudged old Sam. In any case, therewas a great and complete mystery which must now be elucidated.

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  Just outside the little old town of Arundel in rural Sussex at the topof the steep hill which leads on to the high road to Chichester, a roadrendered dusty in summer and muddy in winter by the constant successionof motor cars which tear along it, stands Fordham Cottage, a smallunpretentious redbrick house, surrounded by a pretty garden, and dividedfrom 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 housewere two prim maiden ladies--stood Rolfe and Barclay, together with thegrey-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 thewindow, as though in expectation of the arrival of someone. The autumnday was fine and dry, and Maud, returning from London by the firsttrain, which had arrived at half-past six that morning, had, afterluncheon, gone out upon her cycle as was her daily habit.

  Her lover, anxious and impatient, scarcely heeded what the Doctor wasexplaining to Max.

  For the past hour both men had been describing in brief what hadoccurred since the ex-Minister's disappearance from Cromwell Road,relating practically what has already been chronicled in the precedingchapters. They had told him of Adam's threats, of the warning given toCharlie by Lorena Lyle, of Adam's endeavour to entice Max toConstantinople and of Statham's evident terror of Adam's vengeance. Toit 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 hearerevince surprise. Then, knitting his brows, he nodded as though heunderstood. And when they told him of Adam's suicide, he drew a deepbreath of apparent relief.

  "That man," he said, in a low, distinct voice, with scarce a trace ofaccent--"that man was my enemy, as well as Statham's. It was he who, inorder to further his speculative financial schemes, paid an assassin tothrow 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--ascoundrel, and an assassin. The assassin, when in the fortress atBelgrade, confessed to the identity of his employer. But in themeantime he disappeared--to South America, it is believed. Prior to theattempt upon me, Lyle, the mining engineer, was his cat's-paw, as he hasever since been--a good fellow at heart, but weak and at the same timeadventurous. Once or twice they made big profits out of concessions forcopper mining obtained from my predecessor in office. When Adam foundthat I refused to participate in business that was a fraud upon thepublic in Paris and London, he plotted to get rid of me. Fortunately hedid not succeed; but when the truth was exposed to the ServianGovernment that he was the real assassin, certain valuable concessionswere at once withdrawn from him, and he was thereby ruined. He vowedvengeance upon me, and also upon Statham--to whom the concessions hadbeen transferred--a terrible vengeance. But soon afterwards hedisappeared, and we heard, upon what seemed to be good authority, thathe 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 daughterMaud should disappear to some place to which he could not trace us.Statham defied his threats, but at the same time thought that if wedisappeared in such a manner that the police would not seek us, it wouldbe a wise step. For that reason I arranged that the furniture, as wellas ourselves, should disappear, in order to make it appear that we hadsuddenly removed, and also to prevent the police searching tooinquisitively for `missing persons.' Had they done this, ourhiding-place would soon have been discovered. I disappeared more forMaud's sake, than for my own. I knew the desperate character of theman, and the mad vengeance within his villainous heart."

  "But Statham also feared him," remarked Charlie, recollecting theoccasion when his employer had betrayed such terror.

  "Yes. The exact facts I do not know. He will tell you