The Holladay Case

from

ve in mid-March New York, and our tempers had suffered accordingly. I had found a cab unobtainable, and there was, of course, the inevitable jam on the Elevated, with the trains many minutes behind th

ers in the Hurd case, Lester," he

st then the outer door slammed w

when he burst in upon us a moment later, a newspaper in his hand. Mr. Graham, startled by

he began, "you look all d

't seen the morning papers, of course; well, look at that!" and he indicated with a trembli

dlines, and he seemed positively horror-stricken

markable thing I ever rea

girl like Frances Holladay would deliberately murder her own father-strike him down in cold blood-is

chair. Frances Holladay accused of-

dded sympathetically to show that he fully assented to the other's words, a straight

e'd be the last man in the world to make a willful misstatement. He says that Miss Holladay entered her father's office late yesterday afternoon, stayed there ten minu

her, pulling himself together with a supre

cour

ng up that witness in the Hurd affair. He'll be all right, and his evidence will give us

hief

s to begin at ten o'cloc

ith me," and he glanced in my dir

was just the question I

eadily. "In a case like this, certainly. Le

ed as he start

in that fellow's story, depe

ong toward our destination with such speed as the storm permitted. There were many questions surging through my brain to which I should have welcomed an answer. The storm had cut off my paper that morning, and I regretted now that I had

on toward seventy years of age, I should say, though he carried his years remarkably well; his wife had been long dead, and he had only one child, his daughter, Frances, who must have been about twenty-five. She had been born abroad, and had spent the first years of her life there with her

s who had eyes could see how he was eating his heart out at the knowledge that she was far beyond his reach; for it was evident that her father deemed her worthy of a brilliant marriage-as, indeed, she was. I sometimes thought that she held herself at a like value, for though there w

paid the driver, and ran up the steps to the door, I after him. He turned down the corridor to the right, and entered the ro

ed yet?" my companion

's in his pri

and say that I'd like to se

with the card. He was

, sir," h

the room and through a

ered. "We tried to find you last night, but learned that you w

day asked f

t get you, we suggested your senior, bu

unior's face crim

ecessary to confine he

bed. She spent the night a

ourse, it's simply ab

oked at him

e evidence turns out as I think it will, I shall

a chair-back, and they trembled

at the examination

him. You see, it's rathe

s

said the coroner, jus

our junior's lips, but he choked it bac

aday before the examination beg

her, certainly, at once. Julius, take Mr. Ro

instantly how I had misjudged her. She came a step toward us, holding out her hand

ied in a voice so low I could scarcel

said my chief, his voice trembling a little despite hims

ve been very kind-have offered to do anything-but I felt that I wanted

oyce. "Well, now that I'm here, I shall stay until I've

air and looked up at him

you can?"

e an alibi-to show that you were somewhere else, you know, at the time the crime was commit

r cheeks again, and she bu

indistinctly. "I must think.

ife, perhaps, in the balance, she wanted time to th

e to call you, then, to testify in your own behalf-and that always hurts. But I hope the case

p at him aga

oftly. "I'm sure I could

I think even the policeman in the corner saw it, for he turned away with

mbling so he could not speak for the moment-and just then th

to begin, s

u may rely on me," and he hastened from the room as confidently as though she had girded him for the