Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1906-01-23
CHAPTER L
VIE atmosphere of the Office that
morning was shade less gen.
;a1 than I1SuaI We had all

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 / 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 1 entered the inner
office l was surprised to find Mr.. GEa-
ham, our senior, already at his desk.
He nodded good morning little curtly.
81 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
violence extremely unsual.
had never seen Mr.. Royce, our jun
ior, SO deeply shaken. so visibly dis
tracted, as he was when he burst in
upon us moment later, newspaper
in his hand. Mr.. Graham, startled by
the noise of his entrance, wheeled
around from his desk and stared at
him in astonishment.
'Why, upon my word, John,' he be-
gan, you look all done up. What's
the matter"
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 at
thatr and he indicated with a 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 I ever readw he burst out at last.
"Remarkablep' cried the other. "Why,
it's an outrage, sir! The idea that
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 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 to the
others words, straight, deep line Of
perplexity, which had come to recog-
nize, formed between his eyebrows.
PLAINLY" he said at last, 1.-The whole
case hinges on the evidence Of this man
Rogers, Holladay's 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 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 hurriedly.
A few minutes later Rogers went into
the Office and found his employer dead.
That's the whole case. but it'll be
hard one to break"
"Well, it must be brokenw retorted
the other, pulling himself together
with supreme effort. "Of course I'll
take the case"
'Of course.'
} ''Miss Holiday probably sent for me
last night, but 1 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, I
think"
The chief nodded.
Yes, see the inquest is to begin at
10 o'clock. You haven't much time"
mo, I'd like to have a good man with
me-" and he glanced in my direction.
"Can you spare me Lester?"
i My heart gave jump. 1t was just
the question l was hoping he would
ask
"Why, yes, Of course" answered the
chief readily. "In a case like this,
certainly. Let me hear from you in
the course of the day"
Mr.. Royce nodded as he started for
the door.
81 will. Wen find some flaw in that
fellows story, depend upon it. Come
on, Lester"
/ snatche6 up pen and paper and fol
lowed him to the elevator. In a mo-
ment we We're in the street There
were cabs in plenty now, disgorging
their loads and starting back uptown
again. We hailed one and in another
moment were rafting along toward
our destination with such speed as the
storm permitted. There We're many
questions surging through my brain to
which l should have welcomed an an
swer The storm had cut off my pa
per that morning, and regretted now
that had not made 4 more determined
effort to get another. a glance at my
companion showed me the folly of at
tempting to secure any Information
from him. so I contented myself with
reviewing what already knew of the
history of the principals.
knew Hiram ". Holiday, the mur-
dered man. quite well, not only as ev-
cry New YorkeG knew that multimil-.