Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-10-28
CHAPTER I.

 morning was shade less gen, I ial than usual. We had all of us fought our way down town through such a storm of wind, snow, slush and sleet as is to be found nowhere save in mid March New York, and our tempers had suffered accord ingiy. I had found a cab unobtainable,
 and there was, of course, the inevitable Jam on the elevated, with the trains many minutes behind the schedule. was some half hour late in conse- quence, and when I entered the inner office I was surprised to find Mir. Gra- nam, our senior, already at his desk.
 He nodded good morning little curtly. T wish you'd look over these papers n the Hurd case, Lester" he said, Rnd pushed them toward me- I took them and sat down, and just
 hen the outer door slammed with a violence extremely unsual. had never seen MT. Royce, our jun Tor, so deeply shaken, so visibly dis. tracted, as he was when he burst in npon us a moment later, a newspaper
 his hand. MT. Graham, startled by noise of his entrance, wheeled rfound from his desk and stared at him in astonishment.
 Why. upon my word. John," he be- |gan, you look all done up. Whats the matterY'
 Matter enough, sir" and Mir. Royce EEpread out the paper On the desk be- fore him. You haven't seen the morn Elng papers, of course Well, look at |that!' and he indicated with trem- bling finger the article which occupied |the first column of the first page, the place of honor.
 saw our seniors face change as he read the headlines, and he seemed positively horror stricken as he ran rapidly through the story which fol lowed.
 "Why, this is the most remarkable thing ever read!" be burst out at last.
 "Remarkable. cried the other. "Why, It's an outrage, sir The idea that a gentle, cultured girl like Frances Hol- laday would deliberately murder her own father, strike him down in cold blood, is too monstrous, too absolute ly preposterous, too-too"- And he stopped. fairly choked by his emotion.
 The words brought me upright in my chair. Frances Holladay accused of Well, no wonder our junior was up- set!
 But Mir. Graham was reading through the article again more carefully, and, while he nodded sympathetically to show that he fully assented to the others words, straight, deep line of pTplexity, which had come to recog- nize, formed between his eyebrows.
 Plainly" he said at last, ''the whole case hinges on the evidence of this man Rogers Holidays confidential clerk, and from what I know of Rogers I should say that he'd be the last man In the world to make a willfuI mis- statement. He says that Miss Holla- day entered her fathers office late yes terday afternoon, stayed there ten minutes and then came out hurriedly. few minutes later Rogers went into the office and found his employer dead. That's the whole case, but it'll be a hard one to break"
 Well, it must be brokenw retorted the other, pulling himself together with a supreme effort. "Of course I'll take the case"
 "0f coursew
 Miss HolIaday probably sent for me last night, but was out at Babylon, vou know, looking up that witness in the Hurd affair. He'll be all right. and his evidence will give us the case Our answer in the Brown injunction can wait till tomorrow. That's all, I think"
 The chief nodded.
 'Yes, see the inquest is to begin at 1 10 o'clock. You haven't much time"
 ''So, I'd like to have good man with me" and he glanced in my direction. Can you spare me LesterY
 My heart gave a jump. It was just he question I was hoping he would ,sk.
 "why. yes. of course" answered the thief readily. Tn a case like this. | Let me hear from you in | .he course of the day"
 Mfr. Royce nodded as he started for he door.
 q will. Wen find some flaw in that