The Red Cloud chief., 1905-11-03

of us fought our way down
town through such Il storm of wind,
snow. slush md sleet as is to bc found
nowhere save in mid-March New York,
II our temperS had suffered accord
lngly. | had found Il cab un~obtainable,
nnd there was. of course. the inevitable
jam on the elevated. with the trains
many minutes behind the schedule. l
was some half hour late in conse-
lnence, and when | entered the inner
Office | was surprised to find Mr.. Ora
ham, u senior, already ut his desk.
lie nodded good morning Il little curly.
Il wish you'd look over these papers
in the Hurd case, Lester" he said,
and pushed them toward me.
took them and sat down, and just
then the outer door slammed with a
violence extremely unsual.
| had never seen Mr.. Royce. our jun
Tor, so deeply shaken. so viSibiy dis
tractcd, as he was hen he burst in
upon us a ONE later, a newspaper
in his hand. Mr.. Graham. startled by
the noise of his entrance, wheeled
around from his desk and stared at
him in establishment.
why, upon my word, JOHN he be-
gan, "you look all lone up. What's
the mattery'
Matter enough, sir" and Mr.. Royce
spread out the paper on the desk be-
fore him. you haven't seen the morn
ing papers, of course. Well, look ut
that and he indicated with n trem-
t,:-. a,..o, A., ,,t;,Ia ,,I;,I, pon,,piaI
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" he burst out ut last.
'Remarkable!' cried the other. why,
it's an outrage, sir! The idea that II
gentle, cultured girl like Frances Hol-
laday would deliberately murder her
own father, strike him down in cold
blood, is too INDUSTRIOUS, too absolute
ly prcpostcrouS, too-too'- And he
stopped. fairly choked by his emotion.
The words brought me upright in my
chair. Frances Holiday accused of
Well, no wonder our Junior was up
set.
But Mr.. Graham was reading through
the article again more carefully. and,
while he nodded sympathetically to
show that he fully assented 10 the
Others words. II straight, deep line of
p%erpleXity. which | had come to recog-
niZc, 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 | know of Rogers !
should say that he'd be the last man
in the world to make a willful mis-
statement. He says that Miss Holla-
day entered her fathers office late yes
terday afternoon, stayed there ten
minutes and then came out hurrieIly.
\ 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"
We'll. it must he broken." retorted
the other, pulling himself together
with Il supreme effort. 'Of course I'll
lake the case"
or course"
Miss Holiday probably sent for me
last night, but | was out at Babylon
you 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,
think"
The chief nodded.
"Ycs. ! see the inquest is to begin a
10 o'clock. You haven't much time
mo, I'd like TO have Il good man will
me-" and he glanced in my direction
''Can you spare me LESTER
My heart gave n jump. 1t was jus
the question | was hoping he woulC
ask.
why, yes, of course" answered thu
chief readily. In Il case like this
certainly, Let me hear from you II
the course of the day"
Mr.. Royce nodded as he started 70
the door.
II will. Wen find some flaw In tina
fellows story, depend upon 1t. Conn
IN, Lester"
l snatched up pen and paper and TO
lowed him to the elevator. In a me
ment we were in the street. fher
were cabs in plenty now, disgorgin
their loads and starting back uptow,
again. We hailed one, and In anothe
moment were rafting along towar