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

Fully ten minutes elapsed, when of a sudden the sharp crack of a pistol-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 up the 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 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 s.p.a.ce. 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 pa.s.sed 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 Suss.e.x 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 a.s.sa.s.sin 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 a.s.sa.s.sin. The a.s.sa.s.sin, when in the fortress at Belgrade, confessed to the ident.i.ty 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 partic.i.p.ate 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 a.s.sa.s.sin, 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 a.s.sociation 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, a.s.sure 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.