Dust in the House
By DAVID H. KELLER
A weird mystery story about an old house that had been closed for a century,
and the two skeletons that sat across the table from
each other in that house
"It is a good thing for you that you happened to see our advertisement," commented the lawyer. "It means that the Hubler estate, worth at least several million, will go to you instead of being distributed among various charitable institutions of the city of New York."
The man seated on the other side of the table smiled. "It was rather singular that I just happened to see your advertisement in a Paris paper. I do not know how I happened to read it in a part of the paper I seldom look at. Of course I knew I belonged to the family, but I never bothered to look them up. Are you sure there are no other heirs?"
"None that we can be sure of. Of course the usual number of claimants; that was bound to occur, but all of them are fraudulent. There was one other genuine heir, the daughter of a great-uncle of yours. We know she was born; we do not know that she died; we simply cannot find her. We have satisfied all legal requirements in our search for her. If she does not appear in a week, the fortune is yours. Of course there are conditions but that only makes it more interesting. The whole affair is interesting. Think of it! A valuable estate tied up for one hundred years, meantime increasing in value simply because of the real estate connected with it. Our legal firm has cared for it all these hundred years, as a trust. And meantime the house has been unoccupied, unopened and unentered for all those years. It has often been painted on the outside and the roof repaired as needed, but no one has been inside since the windows were boarded shut and the front door locked by your great-grand-father.
"It seems that he locked the door and stayed near the house till the windows were boarded shut. Then he came to our law office, had this most peculiar will made, and then killed himself. His heirs were to enter the house at the end of the hundred years, spend one night in the dining-room and then divide the estate among them. Then the house was to be torn down, all the furniture burned, and the land sold."
The man smiled rather sourly. "One night alone in the house?" he asked.
"Yes," replied the lawyer. "A representative of our firm is to go there with you, and see that you are escorted to the room. The next morning that man will call for you. Then legal application will be made for the dissolving of the trust and the closing of the estate."
"And I am the only heir?"
"Yes, except for this lost woman. As I told you, we know she was born. Her mother died and her father disappeared, taking the baby with him. And we have proof that he died, but where his daughter is we do not know. We have tried to find her, but failed."
"How old would she be if she were living?"
