Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1907-02-15
The Holiday Case:
BY BURTON {. STEVENSON.
zmznzurzuHsnnc Copyright, 1903 by Henry Holt & Co .EnuGumuzza
I.
A Bolt from the Blue.
BY BURTON E. STEVENSON.


The atmosphere of the office that
morning was a shade less genial than
usual. We had all of us fought our
way downtown 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 accordingly. / had found
a cab unobtainable, and there was, Of
course, the inevitable jam on the ele-
waited, with the trains many minutes
behind the schedule. / was some half
hour late, in consequence, and when /
entered the inner Office l was sur
prlsed TO find Mr.. Graham, our senior.
already at his desk. He nodded good
morning a little CURLY.
II wish you'd look over these papers
In the Hurd case, Lester" he said. and
pushed them toward me.
l took them and sat down, and Just
then the outer DOR slammed with a
violence extremely unusual.
l had never seen Mr.. Royce, our ju-
nior, so deeply shaken, so visibly dis
tracted, as he was when he burst in
upon US a 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 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
that!" and he indicated with a trem-
bling finger the article which occupied
the first column OF the first page-the
place Of honor.
l saw our seniors face change as he
read the headlines, and he seemed pos
ttiNalU horror of rioLK an nc hA a - a n
idly through the story which followed.
why, this is the most remarkable
thing I ever read!" he burst out at last.
"Remarkable!" cried the other. why,
it's a damnable outrage, sir! The idea
that a gentle, cultured girl like Fran
ces Holiday would deliberately muir
der her own father-strike him down
In cold blood-is too monstrous, too
absolutely 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
upset!
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, q straight, deep line of
p~erplexity, which / had come to rec
ognize. formed between his eyebrows.
Evidently" he a at last. the
Whole case hinges on the evidence OF
this man Rogers-Holladay's confiden-
tial clerk-and from what 1 know of
Rogers l should say that he'd be the
last man in the world to make a willful
misstatement. He says that Miss Hol-
laday entered her fathers office late
yesterday afternoon, stayed there ten
minutes, n 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 q hard one to break"
We'll, II must be broken!" retorted
the other, pulling himself together
with a supreme effort. "Of course, I'll
take the case"
''Of 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.
"Yes-I see the inquest is to begin at
10 o'clock. You haven't much time"
Mold like to have a good man
with me-" n he glanced in my direc-
ton. Can you spare me Lester?"
My heart gave a jump. 1t was just
the question l was hoping he would
ask.
why. yes. of course" answered the
chief readily. I'm a case like this, GER
tainly. Let me hear from in the
course of the day"
MIR. Royce nodded as he started for
the door.
81 will: wen find some flaw In that
fellows story, depend upon it. Come
on, Lester"
I gathered up pen and paper and fol-
lowed him TO the elevator. In a mo-
ment we were in the street; there were
cabs In plenty now. d~isgorging their
loads M starting back uptown again;
we hailed one, and in another moment
were rafting along toward our desti-
nation with such speed as the storm
permitted. There were many questions
surging through my brain to which l
have welcomed an answer The
storm had cut off my paper that morn
ing, and 1 regretted now that / had not
made q more determined effort to get
a glance at my companion
me the folly of attempting TO
secure any information from him, so
contented myself with reviewing what
1 already knew of the history of the
principals.
| knew Hiram w. Holiday. the muir
dered man. quite well; not only as ev-
cry New Yorker knew that multi-mil-
as n of the most successful
operators in Wall street, but personally
as we'll, since he had been a client of
Graham e. Royce for twenty years and
He was at that time we'll on
seventy years of age, / should
though he carried his years re-
markably we'll: his wife had been long
dead. and he had only one child, his
daughter, Frances, who must have been
about twenty-five. She a been born
abroad. and spent the first ear of
life there with her mother, who had
on the Riviera and among the
hills OF Italy and switzerland In the
hope OF %regaining a health which had
been failing. so / understood. ever since
daughters birth. She had come
home at last. bringing the black-eyed
child with her, and within the year was
Holidays affections from that mo-
ment seemed to grow and center about
his daughter, who developed into a tall
md beautiful girl-too beautiful. as
was soon apparent, for u junior part
ner's peace of min He had met her
frst In a business way, n afterwards
socially, and all OF us who had eyes
.ould see how he was eating his heart
out at the knowledge that she was far
reach: for IL was evident that
her father deemed her worthy of a brill
liant m-arriage-as. indeed. h was.
thought that she held her
self at a like value, for though there
vas about her a constant crowd of
suitors, none OF them, seemingly. could
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