The Justification of Andrew Lebrun

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mew 5i£*5bfllfng IRovels. THE MANXMAN. By Hall Caine. THE HEAVENLY TWINS. By Sarah Grand. Fortieth Thousand. IDEALA. By Sarah Grand. Tenth Thousand. OUR MANIFOLD NATURE. By Sarah Grand. THE STORY OF A MODERN WOMAN. By Ella Hepworth Dixon. A SUPERFLUOUS WOMAN. New Edition. Sixth Thousand. THE COUNTESS RADNA. By W. E. Norris. FROM THE FIVE RIVERS. By Flora Annie Steel. RELIOS. Fragments of a Life. By Frances MacNab. A RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS. By C J. Cutcliffe Hyne. THE LAST SENTENCE. By Maxwell Gray. Sixth Thousand. THE TOWER OF TADDEO. By Ouida. New Edition, with Illustrations by Holland Tringham. THE KING OF SCHNORRERS. By I. Zangwill. Illustrated. CHILDREN OF THE GHETTO. By I. Zangwill. Eighth Thousand. THE PREMIER AND THE PAINTER. By I. Zangwill and Louis Cowen. Third Edition. THE NAULAHKA.

By Rudvard Kipling and Wolcott Balestier. Second Edition. THE O'CONNORS OF BALLINAHINCH. By Mrs. Hunger - FORD. APPASSIONATA. By Elsa d'Esterre Keeling. AVENGED ON SOCIETY. By H. F. Wood. LONDON : WM. HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford St., W.C. And at all Booksellers and Boohslalls. BY FRANK BARRETT AUTHOR OF 'KITTY'S FATHER,' ETC. LONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANN 1894 [All rights reserved] CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE STRANGE COVENANT OF NICOLAS VAN DER HOEL -----.. i II. THE HOUSE IN WEAVER STREET AND THE CLOSED LABORATORY g III, THE VACILLATION OF ANDREW LEBRUN - 1 9 IV. THE MARVELLOUS OUTCOME OF MY MASTER'S EXPERIMENT - - - - 28 V. THE MYSTERIOUS VISITOR FROM ' T' OTHER WORLD ' - - - - - 36 VI. A FORESHADOWING OF EVIL - - - 44 VII. HOW MY FRIENDS FELL INTO TROUBLE - 53 VIII. THE SECOND EXPERIMENT OF ANDREW LEBRUN 62 IX.

THERESE TAKES A BOLD STEP - - 71 X. MR. SOMERSET'S GENEROSITY AND ANDREW LEBRUN'S - - - - - So XI. DAPHNE AMUSES HERSELF - - - So XII. THE SHADOW DEEPENS - - - - 97 XIII. DAPHNE LEAVES US - - - - 104 XIV. ANDREW LEBRUN PREPARES FOR THE WORST - 112 XV. MR. SOMERSET OFFERS REPARATION - - CONTENTS VI CHATTER PAGE XVI. THE DATE UPON THE DOOR - - - 13° XVII. DAPHNE RETURNS - - - - 1 39 XVIII. CLOSING IN ----- I48 XIX. THE LAST ALTERNATIVE - - - - 1 54 XX. WHAT WE DID WITH DAPHNE'S BODY - - 1 64 XXI. OUR ENEMY, MR. DAVID LEIGH - - - 171 XXII. I AM WARNED THAT MY EVIDENCE MAY HANG ANDREW LEBRUN - - - "179 XXIII. DAVID LEIGH SHAKES MY PREJUDICE - - 185 XXIV. THERESE IS FOUND - 194 XXV. I BEGIN TO LIKE DAVID LEIGH - - - 202 XXVI. THE TRIAL OF ANDREW LF.BRUN - - 209 XXVII. SOME ACCOUNT OF THE TRIAL OF ANDREW LEBRUN ------ 2l8 XXVIII.

Chapter I. The Strange Covenant Of Nicolas Van Der Hoel

One morning I read in a Sunday newspaper this curious advertisement : TO EXPERIMENTAL CHEMISTS AND CLOCKMAKERS.— To be disposed of, on extremely favourable conditions, a freehold property, consisting of a house and garden, situated in Weaver Street, Spitalfields. For cards to view and further particulars apply personally to Messrs. Whetstone and Farrar, Solicitors, Crutchedfriars.' As my master, Mr. Andrew Lebrun, was both a clockmaker and an experimental chemist, and then desirous of leaving Clerkenwell for his daughters' sake, I cut out this advertisement and took it to him when I went to business on Monday morning. ' It's an odd thing,' said he, smiling, as he laid down the slip of paper. ' I doubt if there are half a dozen clockmakers in London who dabble in chemistry — so much the better for them, perhaps.' I ' I thought, sir,' said I, ' that as there is a garden, the house might please the young ladies.' ' A garden in Spitalfields !' he observed, raising his eyebrows and shaking his head sceptically. ' I fear they would gain very little by changing Clerkenwell for that quarter.

Still'— taking up the advertise ment and glancing at it again—' those " extremely favourable conditions " are a great inducement.' ' There can be no harm in looking at the place.' ' No ; and we must leave this house at quarter day. I will go and see it, John, and you shall go with me ; for the business concerns you, and you are a better judge than I whether any trade is to be done there.' And therewith, to despatch an irksome duty at once, he called Therese down and bade her mind the shop in our absence, and we went off to the City together, Mr. Lebrun and I. We found the firm of solicitors in Crutchedfriars, and my master having told the clerk that he wished to see the property in Weaver Street, we were, after some little delay, shown into the inner office of Mr. Farrar. Mr. Farrar, a short, stout, clean-shaven, shrewd looking man, of about fifty, was writing at the table.

He cast a penetrating glance at us — or, rather, at my master ; for beside him I was too insignificant for observation — and said in a genial tone : ' Take a seat, gentlemen. I will speak to you directly.' He finished his letter, and then shifting his chair so as to face my master, he said pointedly : ' You are Mr. Andrew Lebrun, I presume ?' ' Yes,' replied he. ' This is John Grey, my friend and business manager — my factotum, indeed.' Mr. Farrar nodded, without shifting his regard from my master's face — less from rude indifference than from the subtle fascination which my master's face exercised upon most observers. He was a strikingly handsome old man, with his noble forehead, his long visage pointed with a short gray beard, his dark, deep-sunk eyes, calm and tender, with the patience that accompanies reflection and study, yet lustrous with latent passion.

The thin ness of his nostril, the curve of his lips, the form of his mouth marked him as a man of refined and sensitive disposition — a man to be respected, to be loved and feared as well. ' A clockmaker and a chemist also ?' said Mr. Farrar interrogatively. ' A clockmaker by necessity, a chemist by instinct.' ' I'm afraid you make very little by your chemistry, Mr. Lebrun.' ' Nothing.' Mr. Farrar nodded, with a look of kindly com passion in his face, as if he read in my master's furrowed cheek the history of years and years of fruitless experiment; and then, shifting his chair and assuming a more business-like air, he said briskly : ' Well, sir, our client is very anxious to sell this house in Spitalfields, but the conditions under which it is to be sold are so peculiar that it is only by the greatest hazard that we can hope to sell it at any price.

The value of the ground alone is eight or ten thousand pounds ; but if a suitable purchaser can be found, he may get it for a few hundreds.' ' I could not afford to pay more than a few— a very few — hundreds.' ' Ah ! Well, there is this agreeable contingency — that you may possibly have all the purchase-money returned to you within ten years, so that you will have obtained a property of eight or ten thousand pounds for absolutely nothing.' ' May I ask what constitutes a suitable pur chaser ?' ' Yes. In addition to his being a watchmaker and experimentalist, he must be a man of blameless character. I know your objection, Mr. Lebrun,' he added, raising his finger as my master smiled. ' You would say that morally an absolutely blameless man does not exist. But the definition is not of that exacting kind.

It is necessary only that the pur chaser should have an unblemished reputation.' ' I can answer for that, sir,' I ventured to say. ' It is also necessary that this honest man should pledge himself to perform a certain covenant con nected with the transfer. Annexed to the house is a laboratory, which has been closed for a hundred years. The purchaser must promise to open this building, and in the cause of humanity and science to faithfully carry out the written instructions nailed upon a bench within.' 'A very peculiar provision,' observed my master. ' Very. The man who made it was a clockmaker and a natural philosopher,' returned the lawyer with a quiet smile. ' To explain the position clearly I must tell you something about him. He was a Dutchman, named Nicolas Van der Hoel, and he bought this house in Spitalfields towards the end of the last century. ' By his selecting that quarter, then chiefly popu lated by French refugees — Huguenots and others — it is probable that he himself was expatriated — possibly for being a natural philosopher ; for even at that time, as you know, experimental chemists were regarded less favourably than they are at present.

A man who used an alembic was regarded with suspicion, and if he made any discovery beyond the intelligence of his neighbours, it was attributed to infernal agency. ' In 1792 Nicolas Van der Hoel died. He left a will, bequeathing the house in Weaver Street to a legatee, whom we will call John Doe, and his heirs, on condition that for a hundred years it should be let at a rental of £20 per annum to " honest clockmakers," and that at the end of that time it should be sold r ccording to the stipulations I have already indicated . ' During these ninety-nine years the laboratory at the back of the house was not to be opened on any pretext whatever. On infringement of these con ditions John Doe was to forfeit the property, and the house was then to go to another legatee — Richard Roe, we'll say.' ' If the house was to be let, how could John Doe guard against the laboratory being opened by his tenant ?' I asked. ' By taking very good care to select honest clock makers for tenants,' replied Mr. Farrar, smiling, ' and imposing stringent conditions upon them.

As the place is worth double the rent fixed by Nicolas Van der Hoel, Mr. John Doe has found no lack of applicants, and has had the good fortune to keep conscientious tenants.' ' Is it not possible, sir, that curiosity may have led someone to open the building and close it again surreptitiously ?' ' It is possible, of course ; but I think it more probable that no one has entered that mysterious laboratory since Nicolas Van der Hoel closed it, and I shall try to show you my reason for this belief. Not content with these provisions for guarding his secret a hundred years, Nicolas Van der Hoel took another and a more extraordinary measure. ' By his will he commanded that the furniture and personal effects contained in the house should be sold, the sum realized to be deposited in the bank of Messrs. Grote and Grote, who, a hundred years ago, bore a reputation scarcely less honoured than it is now.

Previously, as he states in an appendix to his will, Van der Hoel had apprised the bankers of his intention, and folding a piece of water-marked paper in their presence, he punctured his signature with a pin through the doubled paper. ' He then tore the paper in half, and, giving the bankers one portion, told them that they were to pay the sum to be deposited in their bank after his death to the person who presented the duplicate half, which he took away with him. Out of this fund an annual dividend of i per cent, was to be paid to the second legatee, Mr. Richard Roe. 'The object of this ingenious arrangement was obviously to put a second safeguard upon the secret of the closed laboratory. But the subtle Dutchman goes farther than that. He puts another embargo upon both legatees by giving the bankers a rever sionary interest in the fund.

For if it can be proved that the person presenting the duplicate signature is in any way connected with either of the legatees, all claim to the fund shall be forfeited, and it shall become the property of Messrs. Grote and Grote. ' Do you follow me, sir ?' asked Mr. Farrar, turning to me, for it was evident by my master's wandering attention that he took no interest in this part of the affair ; indeed, in pecuniary matters Mr. Lebrun was as simple and indifferent as a child. ■ I think I understand you,' said I. ' There is reason to believe that the counterfoil, by means of which the fund now lying in the bank can be claimed, is to be found in the closed laboratory. Neither of the legatees has any temptation to secure the paper, since they are debarred from using it. On the contrary, both are anxious to keep it closed — John Doe because his prospective property goes over to Richard Roe in case of infraction, and Richard Roe because he loses his yearly dividend as soon as the fund is claimed.' ' Precisely ; and for that reason you may be sure that the representatives of Richard Roe will do their best to prevent the house being sold.

I have thought it best to explain this fully, because if you present yourself as a purchaser, Mr. Lebrun, you must expect a searching investigation into your past life on the part of this legatee's solicitor.' ' I have no reason to shrink from that,' said my master quietly. ' The main thing is to find if the house is acceptable to my children as a home, and suitable to Mr. Grey as a place of business. I, for my own use, shall be glad to open the laboratory, but as for its secret and its papers and the rest ' He shrugged his shoulders significantly. ' May I ask, Mr. Farrar,' said I, 'what amount was placed in the hands of Messrs. Grote and Grote after the sale of Mr. Van der Hoel's effects?' ' A little over fifty pounds.' 'Fifty pounds!' exclaimed my master derisively. ' There seems here to be much ado about nothing.' ' Your business friend, sir, knows better than that.

By the simple force of lying there at accumulative interest, the mite of fifty pounds has grown into the monster of a million ; and Mr. Richard Roe's dividend, which for the first year was no more than half a sovereign, is now worth ten thousand pounds.' ' Ah, yes,' said Andrew Lebrun carelessly. ' I did not think of applying mathematics to such an affair.' ' Well, sir, now that you know the conditions, are you still desirous of seeing the house with a view to purchase ?' ' Yes ; if Mr. Grey thinks it suitable, and it is within my means, I will buy it.' ' There will be no difficulty about payment. My client, Mr. John Doe, cannot let it after the expira tion of ninety-nine years, and must keep it closed, paying rates for nothing, if he does not sell. And, as I have shown, the difficulty of finding a purchaser against the opposition of Mr. Richard Roe is so great that any offer on your side will, I am sure, be accepted.

My clerk shall fetch a cab and take you to view the property at once.' ' I am afraid it won't do, John,' said my master, as we went out to the cab. ' We shall see, sir,' said I quietly. But I vowed in my heart that if it were the veriest ruin, I would induce him to take it, seeing him already, in my mind's eye, the possessor of that slip of punctured paper — a millionaire, and my dear young ladies, Therese and Daphne, no longer forced to pinch and scrape in order to make ends meet.

Chapter II. The House In Weaver Street And The Closed Laboratory

Weaver Street is a quiet turning out of Church Street, Spitalfields. The houses are all old, and chiefly occupied by salesmen in the adjacent market. Some pigeons were strutting in the middle of the roadway, and there was an air of quiet gentility in the neighbourhood which pleased me, as I thought of Therese and Daphne, for here they might go out dressed as they pleased without being subjected to the coarse pleasantries to which the factory girls that swarm in Clerkenwell treat anyone whose manners and appearance differ from theirs. And I was not less pleased when I looked about me with a business view. ' They must be good, solid, old-fashioned, respectable people who live here,' thought I — ' families who would scorn to have two and-ninepenny alarums in their rooms, or carry ten and-sixpenny watches in their pockets ; folks who are willing to pay a fair price fora good article and sound workmanship.' And the look of the clockmaker's shop, before which we stopped, strengthened this opinion.

It had a long, low, bow-fronted window, glazed with queer little panes of glass of a greenish tint, doubtless as old as the century, showing what careful tenants had been found for the house — all very brightly polished, and displaying a select stock of goods on the two shelves behind. ' I can have my working-bench in the window there,' said I to myself, ' and go steadily on with my repairs without being disturbed from my occupation by little blackguard boys tapping at the window to make faces at me when I look up.' On the facade over the low bow-front was written 'George West, clockmaker.' I wondered if we should have the good fortune to paint that name THE HOUSE IN WEA VER STREET 11 out, and put ' Andrew Lebrun ' in its place. It seemed almost too much to hope for. We descended two steps to enter the shop.

It was very spacious, and even to me (clockmaker though I am) there was something awesome about it — my thoughts running now upon the mystery of the closed laboratory. The walls were black with age, and, by reason of the low front, the light was dim and objects obscure. From three sides the many clock-dials stood out like ghostly faces ; the movement of the pendulums was scarcely visible, so that the combined ticking of so many escapements seemed to come from nothing. One could fancy a score of bodiless spectres chatter ing their teeth in terror. But these grim ideas were dispelled by the sight of a fine cat asleep on the counter, and Mr. West in his shirt-sleeves and a white apron sitting with his back to the light, reading a newspaper. This gave a humanizing aspect to the place, besides speaking well for the business which could be conducted in such an easy manner. ' Good-morning, Mr. Evans,' said he, recognising the clerk, as he rose and regarded us over the rims of his glasses. ' What can I do for you to-day, sir ?' The clerk explained the object of our visit, and then Mr. West, going to the foot of the stairs at the back of the shop, called up in a thin, piping voice : 'Jenny, my dear, here's Mr. Farrar's young gentle man brought a party to look at the house.' A thin, silver-haired old lady came down presently and led us upstairs, telling us on the way that she and her husband had lived there for forty years, and that they should be loath to quit their old home, but that they proposed to live with a married daughter in the country.

And this was understandable, for a nicer old house (in a city) it would be difficult to imagine. The rooms large, with plenty of light ; comfortably fur nished with real old furniture ; not a speck of dust anywhere ; the wainscoted walls neatly painted, and everything in good repair. The front windows looked on to the street; the back over a long garden, surrounded by a high brick wall, beyond which on three sides rose high stacks of wood from a timber yard having its frontage in Brick Lane. The border under the wall was planted with hardy shrubs and annuals — nasturtiums, convolvuli, and the like — and a fine mulberry-tree (probably planted by the early French refugees for the use of silk worms) rose from the strip of grass that carpeted the space between the borders. These things looked very fresh and bright after the late showers, and for that reason the more incongruous with the surrounding stacks of timber.

This was odd enough, to be sure ; but my curiosity was piqued to a still greater extent by the closed laboratory, which I saw below from one of the open windows. It was a solid rectangular building, some forty feet long by twenty in breadth and about nine in height, THE HOUSE IN WEAVER STREET 13 annexed to the house, but leaving a considerable space on each side between the walls of the garden. The top was flat and covered with lead, a small chimney rising from the further end. I could see no door, window or opening of any kind from above ; but when we went down into the garden, where I could inspect it more closely, I observed a long, narrow casement running all round under the projecting edge of the roof, protected on the outer side by an iron grating, and glazed on the inner side (as I could just see, standing back by the wall) with bottle ends, which would allow the light to enter, but screen the interior from observation.

By the depth between the grating and the glazing I reckoned the wall to be at least twelve inches thick, and it was solidly built of sound red brick. The walls were partly overgrown with ivy, but I could find no trace of any entrance from the garden masked by the foliage. Nor was there any, as Mr. West assured us. ' The only way of getting in is from the shop,' said he ; and leading us into the house, he showed us the framework of a door filled in with brickwork in a recess under the staircase. ' The Dutchman's folly, sir, we call it,' said he. ' Old Nick's folly some term it, for the man who built it was named Nicolas, you know; but I call it the devil's folly, for over and over again, when I was a young man, it tempted me to be dishonest, but happily I had sense enough to overcome the tempta tion, and now we've grown so indifferent that we wouldn't give sixpence to know all the old Dutchman took such mighty pains to conceal.' ' Well, John, what do you think of it ?' asked my master on the way home. ' It's an opportunity not to be lost — a real stroke of fortune !' I exclaimed, with enthusiasm. ' The young ladies will have a suitable home now.

They will be happier there than it is possible for them to be in such a place as Clerkenwell.' ' That is the main inducement ; but we must regard the pecuniary side, and keep within our means. Can we afford it ?' ' Why, sir, the place is clearly to be had for a mere song, and what is to prevent your selling it for its full value when you have fulfilled the simple con dition imposed by the vendor ? You may make thousands of pounds by the sale, to say nothing of what you may find in the laboratory.' ' What do you expect to find there, John ?' he asked, with a smile. ' What do I expect you to find, sir ? Why, the counterpart of the paper deposited at the bank — a paper that will make you a millionaire !' ' If I thought that, I wouldn't have the house at a sift. No man should have so much money who has not the capacity to employ it properly.

I should be the unhappiest man in the world with such responsi bilities.' ' But there are the young ladies to be thought of,' I observed. THE HOUSE IN WEAVER STREET 15 ' I am as thoughtful of their happiness as my own. For them — motherless, young, inexperienced — the calamity of being thrown suddenly into an unknown sphere, with its follies, indulgences, temptations, would be greater than my own.' ' Well, sir,' said I, fearing that his dread of these chimeras might lead him to keep the young ladies in Clerkenwell for the whole term of his natural life, 'it may be that we shall find nothing in the Dutchman's folly after all.' ' Nothing,' he returned, with conviction. ' The fact of his making such a disposition of his effects proves that he was out of his senses.' ' To be sure, sir,' said I, for the sake of the young ladies. ' You're quite right, I dare say.' But I did not think so at all ; for the Dutchman's will seemed to show an amount of foresight and calculation beyond the capacity of a madman. ' Very good.

And now, John, if we are to go on with this affair, I beg you to keep all speculations with regard to finding treasure entirely to yourself. I beg you to say nothing to my dear daughters to encourage hopes that may lead to disappointment, or render them discontented with their present position. Promise me this.' I gave him my promise, and kept it so strictly that neither Therese, who might very well have been trusted with the secret, nor Daphne, who was more disposed to building castles in the air, knew any thing at all about the piece of punctured paper which might make them inheritors of a million. Well, my master bought the house in Weaver Street, and we moved in towards the end of Sep tember. I shall never forget that night when, having closed the shop — for I must pass over the details of intervening events, that I may come at once to the astonishing sequel — and made all necessary prepara tions, I took up a pickaxe and struck the first blow at the brickwork that closed the entrance to the laboratory.

It gave out a peculiar hollow ring, like that of a blow struck on the dome of a tomb. Andrew Lebrun stood near with his two daughters, for he was so fully convinced that the paper would not be found in the closed building, that he made no attempt to check the natural curiosity of the young ladies, who had learnt, of course, that the laboratory had been bricked up for a hundred years. The night was close and sultry, and the perspira tion ran down my face as I hammered and wrenched at the brick partition, but I did not mind that. I felt no fatigue — nothing but a devouring passion to get at the fortune which lay within reach ; and this exciting my imagination, I saw in every blow some new happiness for the young ladies. ' There's a lovely dress for Miss Daphne,' said I to myself, as a brick came out, ' and the most beau tiful hat in the world,' as another fell ; and then, as a great block tumbled into fragments at my feet, ' there are books and pictures for Miss Therese — all that her heart can desire.' Meanwhile, as a significant accompaniment, old THE HOUSE IN WEAVER STREET 17 Andrew Lebrun slowly and steadily shovelled the debris aside as so much rubbish.

As soon as my pick went clean through I put my eye to the hole and looked through, but I could see nothing for the darkness beyond ; and this was not to be wondered at, for, on enlarging the hole and getting through with a light, we found the passage barred by a door. A key (with others hanging from it) was in the lock. It grated and shrieked (as I thought) when my master turned it. There was a second door beyond that, which we opened with one of the keys suspended to the first, and then at last we stood, all four, in the laboratory — the first living souls that had entered it for a hundred years. We were all a little awed — except my master, who stepped aside to examine a curiously-shaped alembic standing on a tripod. At the farther end of the laboratory stood the bench on which I expected to find the punctured paper.

As we perceived at the first glance, there was something nailed upon it — drab with the dust of a century. It was a sheet of parchment. I blew away the dust, and found that the writing upon it was in Latin, and, therefore, unintelligible to me. I wrenched out the nails, and was about to lift the parchment, when Andrew Lebrun laid his hand upon it, with a stern glance of reproof at me. Then he held it up to the light and began to read, but I looked about in vain for that half sheet of paper that was to make him a millionaire. Meanwhile, the two young ladies were satisfying their curiosity ; but there was little there that they were not familiar with, having free access to their father's little laboratory in the old house. They laughed, and said they were disappointed in finding nothing so dreadful as they expected.

I, too, was also disappointed — too much so to laugh. Presently the girls went up to their father, who was reading the parchment, kissed him, and bidding me ' Good-night,' left the laboratory to go up to their rooms. I stayed there — dispirited and dull — looking in silence at my master, who, it seemed to me, was marvellously absorbed in the reading of the parchment. At length he finished it, and holding the sheet in his hand, fixed his eyes upon me with the strangest look imaginable. Though his eyes were on me, I believe he was unconscious of my presence, so deeply wrought was he by some inner thought. ' I don't see any paper, sir,' said I despondently. He shook his head without replying. ' You were right after all. Nicolas Van der Hoel must have been a madman. A madman,' he said, in a hushed voice, and with an abstracted expression, ' or the greatest discoverer that has ever lived in the history of man. . .