The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1907-02-15
1.
A Bolt from the Blue.

USUAL. We had all of us fought our
wa. downtown through such a storm
of wind. snow, slush and sleet as is
20 be found nowhere save In mid
March New York. and our tempers
had suffered accordingly. l 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. 1 was some half
hour late, In consequence, and when !
entered the inner office l was sur
prised to find Mr.. Graham. our senior.
already at his desk. He nodded good
morning a little CURLY.
Il 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 door slammed with a
violence extremely unusual.
1 had never seen Mr.. Royce. our ju-
NOR. so deeply shaken. SO visibly dis
tracted. as he was when he burst In
upon us a m later. q 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
ting papers. OF course; we'll. 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.
saw our seniors face change as he
read the headlines. and he seemed pos
ttively horror stricke as he ran rap
idly through the story which followed.
Why, this Is the most remarkable
thing l ever read!" he burst out at last.
REMARKABLE" cried the other. Why.
re a n roh 1n N3yt~or 90 oJrf rT1,o tI4o
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, oo-too-"
and he stopped, fairly choked by his
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 sym%pathetically to
show that he fully assented to the
others words. a straight. deep line of
p~erplexity, which l had come to rec
ognize. formed between his eyebrows.
Evidently" he said at last, the
whole case hinges on the evidence Of
this man Rogers-Holladay's confiden-
tial clerk-and from what know Of
Rogers / should say hat he'd be the
last man in the world to make a willful
rnisstatement. He says that Miss Hol-
Eaday entered her fathers Office late
yesterday afternoon. srayed there ten
minutes. and then came out hurriedly.
A few minutes later Rogers went into
the office and ound his employer
dead. That's the whole case. but itn
be a hard one to break"
Well, it must be broken!" retorted
h other. pulling himself together
with a supreme effort. "of course. I'll
take the case"
"Of Counsel"
last night, but I was out at Babylon,
you know. looking up that witness in
h 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. l think"
The chief nodded.
"Yes-I see the inquest is to begin at
40 o'clock. You haven't much time"
Mold like to have a good man
with me-" n he glanced in my direo-
ton. Car 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 e from you in the
course of the day"
Mr.. Royce nodded as he started for
the door.
Il Will: We'll 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-
lnent we were in the street: there were
cabs In plenty now d~isgorging their
loads and 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
should have welcomed an answer The
storm had cut off my ape that morn
Ding. and regretted now that / had not
made a more determined effort to get
another. A glance at my companion
showed me the folly of attempting to
secure any m from him, so
I contented myself with reviewing what
I already knew of the history of the
principals.
l knew Hiram w. Holiday. the muir
dered man. quite we'll; not only as ev-
cry New Yorker knew that multi-mil-
stai,;tiie as one OF the most successful
operators In Wall street. but personally
as Well. since he had been a client Of
Graham & Royce for twenty years and
more. He was at that time We'll on
toward seventy years of age, l should
say. though he carried his years re-
%narkably we'll; his wife had been long
dead. and he had only one child, his
AdCSiilcl, floliSCS, Wiz lluSl nave Dee1l
about twenty-five. She had been born
abroad, and spent the first years of
her life there With her mother, who had
fingered on the Riviera and among the
hills Of Italy and Switzerland In the
hope Of regaining a health which had
been failing. SO l understood, ever since
her daughters birth. She had come
home at last. bringing the black-eyed
Child with her, and within the year was
dead.
Holidays affections from that mo-
ment seemed to grow and center about
his daughter, who developed into a tall
and beautiful! girl-too beautiful. as
was soon apparent, for our junior part
ner's peace of mind. He had met her
first in a business way. and afterwards
socially. and all Of us who had eyes
could see how he was eating his heart
out at the knowledge that she was far
beyond reach: for it was evident that
her father deemed her worthy of a bril-
liant MARRIAGES.. indeed. she was. I
sometimes thought that she held her
self at a like value, for though there
was about her a constant crowd of
SuitorS, none of them, seemingly, could