Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1906-01-30

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The witness paused for a moments
thought.
"She wore dress of very dark red"
he said at last, with some sort of mar
row dark trimming - black, possibly.
That's all / can tell you about it,
"And the hat?"
ST didn't notice the hat, sir. only
glanced at her.
''But in that glance, IIr. Rogers, did
you see nothing unusual, nothing which
suggested to your mind that possibly it
might not be Miss Holladay?'
Nothing, sir"
/ 1Some change of demeanor, perhaps;
of expression?'
The witness hesitated.
81 thought she was looking not quite
30 well as usual" he said slowly. ''She
seemed little pale and worried
"Ah! 1t was dark in the Office, was
it not, at o'clock yesterday after
noon?'
"We had turned on the lights half an
hour before, sir"
as your office well lighted?"
81 have light over my desk, sir,
and there's another on the WALL
$50 you could not see your visitors
face with absolute clearneSsw
''No, sir, but quite clearly enough to
recognize her." he added doggedly.
''Yet you thought her looking pale
and worried?"
''Yes, sir; that was my impression"
"And when she asked for Mr.. Holla-
day did she use the words my father
as your evidence would suggest?"
Again the witness hesitated in the eff
fort at recollection.
mo, SIR" he answered finally. '.Ier
words, 1 think, were, is Mr.. Holiday
engaged at present?"
at was Miss Holidays voice?'
'I could not say, SIR" answered the
witness, again mopping the perspira-
tion from his forehead. 81 have no
wish to incriminate Miss Holiday un-
necessarily. I'm not sufficiently we'll
acquainted with her voice to swear
to it,
"Well, when you answered her ques-
tion in the negative, did she hesitate
before entering the private Officer
''No, sir; she went straight to it."
''Is there any lettering on the door?"
''Oh, yes, the usual lettering, 'Pri-
vate Office"
$50 that, even if she were not ac-
quainted with the place, she might still
have seen where to go?''
''Yes, sir; 1 suppose So"
"And you stated, too, I believe, that
you could have heard no sound of an
alteration in the private Office had
one occurred?'
mo, sir; 1 could have heard moth
ing"
You have been with Mr. Holladay
long time, believe, Mr.. Rogers?"
"Over thirty years, SIR
"And you are intimately acquainted
with his affairs?"
Eyes, sir
'Now, Mr.. Rogers, have you ever, in
ali these years, run across anything
any item of expenditure, any CORE
spondence. anything whatever-which
would lead you to think that Mr.. Hol-
laday was victim of blackmail or
that he had ever had liaison with a
woman?'
''No, sirr' cried the witness. "No,
sir! I'm willing to swear that such
a thing is not possible. 1 should in
evitably have found it out had it ex-
isted."
''That will do for the present" said
Mr.. Royce. 81 shall want to recall the
witness, however, SIR
The coroner nodded. and Rogers
stepped down, still trembling from the
effects of his last outburst. 1 confess
that, for my part, 1 thought we were
very deep in the mire.
The office boy was called next, but
added nothing to the story He had
gone to the chute to mail some letters.
The woman must have entered the
Office while he was away. He saw her
come out again, but, of course, did
not see her face. He had been en-
ployed recently and did not know Miss
Holiday.
Then the physicians who had attend
ed the dead man were called and tes-
titled that the knife blade had pene-
trated the left carotid artery and that
he had bled to death-was dead, indeed,
before they reached him. 1t would
take perhaps ten minutes to produce
such an effusion of blood as Rogers
had noticed, certainly more than five
minutes, so that the blow must have
been struck before the woman left the
inner office.
The policeman who had responded
to the alarm testified that he had ex-
amined the windows and that they
were both bolted on the inside, preclud-
ing the possibility of any one swinging
down from above or clambering up
from below. Nothing in the Office had
been disturbed. There was other evil
dence of an immaterial nature, and
then Miss Holladay's maid was called.
WAS your mistress away from home
yesterday afternoon" asked the coro-
ner.
Eyes, sir. She had the carriage Or