The Pauper of Park Lane

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!

Many a man and many a woman, as they passed up Park Lane on motor-'buses, in cabs, or on foot, glanced at the white house of Samuel Statham, and wondered.

Sunday in Glasgow is always a dismal day. The weather had been grey and depressing, but he had remained in the hotel, busy with correspondence. He had arrived there on Saturday...

They never went to the legitimate theatre because she had no evening-dress. Even to be seen in one would have caused comment among her fellow employes at Cunnington's. The girls...

The cleverness with which the removal of their household goods had been effected, and the cunning and ingenuity displayed regarding them, showed Max Barclay plainly that the dis...

He was aware that Max had taken the opinion of a man he knew on the Stock Exchange as to the probable value of the concession for the Danube-Adriatic Railway, and that his reply...

On the left-hand side of Old Broad Street, City, passing from the Royal Exchange to Liverpool Street Station, stands a dark and dingy building, with a row of four windows lookin...

"Weel?" asked Duncan Macgregor, who was seated in an easy attitude in Sam Statham's library. At the table sat the millionaire himself, while near by, in the enjoyment of a cigar...

"Because when he came a second time to the window and looked out at me, there was a glance of defiance in his eye that I scarcely lie. He's wealthy and influential--we are not,...

In the glorious sundown glinting across the river, and rendering it a rippling flood of gold, Max and Marion were seated in the long upstairs room of that old-fashioned riparian...

"Well," he said in his thin, rather squeaky voice, after he had closed the door behind her and drawn forward a chair, "you have at last summoned courage to come--eh?" He smiled...

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...

Was it possible that his employer knew his secret--the secret of his visit to Cromwell Road on the previous night? Perhaps he did. The suggestion crossed his mind, and he stood...

Max had lunched over at White's, and just come in to find Adam awaiting him. The Frenchman had risen and greeted him merrily, took the proffered Russian cigarette, and they; had...

"I know very little of the details," replied the girl. "Max could, of course, tell you everything. He introduced me one night to Mr Adam, who seemed a very polite man."

The position was, to say the least, strangely incongruous. Here was a man whose power and wealth were world-famous, a man whom kings and princes sought to conciliate and load wi...

That same afternoon, while Charlie Rolfe was bidding farewell to his sister Marion, Max Barclay was sitting in the cosy study of one of the smaller houses in Cromwell Road, smok...

There is a silence and monotony in the eminently respectable thoroughfares in that particular district that, to their residents, is often very depressing. Traffic there is none...

Max Barclay, on leaving Dr Petrovitch, had taken a cab straight to Charlie's chambers in Jermyn Street, arriving there shortly before six. Green, his man, had told him, however,...

At eleven o'clock old Sam Statham had descended from the mysterious upper regions, emerged from the green baize door upon the stairs, which concealed another white-enamelled doo...

Next morning Rolfe went as usual to Park Lane, and spent some hours attending to the old man's correspondence. The excuse Charlie made for his absence was that he had been away...

"There is nothing to discuss," she exclaimed resentfully, looking straight into the old man's grey face. "You have threatened to divulge the secret of my visit to you to-night i...

Released from the eternal bustle of Oxford Street, the girl looked forward with eager anticipation to each Saturday afternoon and Sunday-- the weekly period of rest and recreati...

"What you have told me, Miss Rolfe, concerning your brother's engagement, interests me greatly," the old fellow said at last. "He is entirely in my confidence, and a most valuab...

When about ten o'clock next morning Mr Warner, buyer of the costumes at Cunnington's, noticed the tall, athletic figure of the young man in brown tweeds known as Mr Evans of Dov...

The ominous words of Lorena ever recurred to him. Apparently the girl knew far more than she had told him, and her declaration that confirmation of Adams's charges would be foun...

Max Barclay re-traced his steps along Oxford Street much puzzled. What Marion had told him was both startling and curious in face of the sudden disappearance of the Doctor and h...

Above the dome-shaped roof of the conservatory was a row of four long dark windows, and still above them two further storeys. On the second storey in the centre of the house was...

"Ah! You mean the secret lover--the man who was here yesterday and bought a twenty-guinea evening gown of her to send to his sister--eh?" exclaimed Mr Warner, "buyer" of the cos...

The old-fashioned, ill-cut gown of black stuff and the rather unbecoming big black hat gave Sam's visitor an appearance of being older than she really was. A spotted veil concea...

About half-way up Park Lane--the one-sided row of millionaires' residences that face Hyde Park--not far from the corner of that narrow little turning, Deanery Street, stood a gr...

Once, and only once, had he seen Jean Adam, against whom Sam Statham had warned him. He had met the man of brilliant financial ideas by appointment at lunch at the Savoy, and ha...

The two men were silent for some moments. Statham was watching his visitor's face. To him it was, at least, satisfactory to know that Marion had disappeared, fearing to let her...

The younger man saw that the other was full of fear. Never had he seen his employer so nervous and utterly unstrung. The mystery of it all fascinated him. Statham had unwittingl...

"Miss Rolfe, Mr Cunnington wants you in the counting-house," exclaimed a youth approaching Marion just after ten o'clock the following morning. She had been in the department ea...

Rolfe, on his part, had learned from Drukovitch the full details of the dastardly attempt upon the Doctor's life at Topschieder, and how the little child had been blown to atoms...

"I tell you that such is my firm belief," Sir Charles repeated. "To-morrow I will endeavour to discover whether the same influence that caused the explosion of the bomb at Topsc...

Her attitude was as though she delighted in tantalising him, as if she held knowledge superior to his own. And so she did. She was evidently aware of the whereabouts of Maud--hi...

Max tried to imagine the motive of his friend's visit, while Rolfe, on his part, was undecided as to the extent of the other's knowledge. To come there and boldly face Max had c...

For fully five minutes Samuel Statham stood steadying himself by the back of his chair. His face was white and rigid, his jaw set, his breathing quick and excited, his hands tre...

"Why, of course I do. You're absolutely mistaken, old chap," was Charlie's response. "Of course, I can quite see how this must have puzzled you. But what now arises in my mind i...

Late that same night, in the small and rather well-furnished dining-room of a flat close to Addison Road station, the beetle-browed man known to some as John Adams and to others...

That afternoon, at as early an hour as he decently could, he called at the British Legation, the big white mansion in the centre of the town. Both Sir Charles Harrison, the Mini...

Slowly Max Barclay regained possession of his senses. The discovery had so staggered him that, for a few moments, he had stood there in that room, staring at the woman's tweed c...

The pair remained in the wretchedly uncomfortable room, while the old man finished dressing. Then all three descended, the millionaire walking first. They passed the door of the...

"Excuse me, Miss Lorena, I do not," he declared quickly. "Only we have heard so many threats of exposure that to cease to regard them seriously. Mr Statham's high reputation is...

Entering his chambers in Jermyn Street half an hour later, Rolfe was met by the faithful Green, to whom he gave orders to "ring up" Mr Barclay at Dover Street.

He saw her determination, and hesitated. Then he seemed to commence to argue, to place before her the probable result of her action in casting aside the money, but she would hea...

"But this is most extraordinary--to leave at a moment's notice! I thought she was so very comfortable here. She always spoke so kindly of you, and for the consideration with whi...

"I do," was Rolfe's response. Then after a second's hesitation he added in a changed voice: "I really think, Max, that you are scarcely treating me fairly in this matter. Sorely...

That a Park Lane drawing-room should be transformed into the interior of a log-built house of the Russian steppe was surely unsuspected by any of those who passed up and down th...

Whenever he left the library to ascend the stairs, Charlie Rolfe stole quietly out behind him, and listened. Sometimes he distinctly heard the key in the lock; at others it soun...