The Holladay Case

The Holladay Case, by Burton E.
Stevenson

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Title: The Holladay Case A Tale
Author: Burton E. Stevenson
Release Date: October 30, 2006 [EBook #19672]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE HOLLADAY CASE
A TALE

By
BURTON E. STEVENSON
AUTHOR OF "AT ODDS WITH THE REGENT," "A SOLDIER OF
VIRGINIA," ETC.
NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1903
COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
Published November, 1903
THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, RAHWAY, N. J.
[Illustration: MR. ROYCE DELIVERS THE HUNDRED
THOUSAND DOLLARS.]

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. A BOLT FROM THE BLUE, 1
II. IN THE GRIP OF CIRCUMSTANCE, 15
III. THE COIL TIGHTENS, 37
IV. I HAVE AN INSPIRATION, 56
V. I DINE WITH A FASCINATING STRANGER, 70
VI. GODFREY'S PANEGYRIC, 90
VII. MISS HOLLADAY BECOMES CAPRICIOUS, 101
VIII. THE MYSTERIOUS MAID, 114

IX. I MEET MONSIEUR MARTIGNY, 131
X. AN ASTONISHING DISAPPEARANCE, 146
XI. I UNMASK MY ENEMY, 165
XII. AT THE CAFÉ JOURDAIN, 183
XIII. EN VOYAGE, 197
XIV. I PROVE A BAD SENTINEL, 213
XV. TWO HEADS ARE BETTER THAN ONE, 229
XVI. I BEARD THE LION, 247
XVII. ETRETAT, 270
XVIII. THE VEIL IS LIFTED, 280
XIX. THE END OF THE STORY, 293

THE HOLLADAY CASE
CHAPTER I
A Bolt from the Blue
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. I had
found a cab unobtainable, and there was, of course, the inevitable jam
on the Elevated, with the trains many minutes behind the schedule. I
was some half-hour late, in consequence, and when I entered the inner
office, I was surprised to find Mr. Graham, our senior, already at his
desk. He nodded good-morning a little curtly.

"I wish you'd look over these papers in the Hurd case, Lester," he said,
and pushed them toward me.
I took them and sat down; and just then the outer door slammed with a
violence extremely unusual.
I had never seen Mr. Royce, our junior, so deeply shaken, so visibly
distracted, as he was when he burst in upon us a moment 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
astonishment.
"Why, upon my word, John," he began, "you look all done up. What's
the matter?"
"Matter enough, sir!" and Mr. Royce spread out the paper on the desk
before him. "You haven't seen the morning papers, of course; well,
look at that!" and he indicated with a trembling finger the article which
occupied the first column of the first page--the place of honor.
I saw our senior's face change as he read the headlines, and he seemed
positively horror-stricken as he ran rapidly 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 Frances Holladay would
deliberately murder 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 Holladay 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 other's words, a straight, deep line of perplexity, which I had come
to recognize, formed between his eyebrows.
"Plainly," he said at last, "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 misstatement. He says that Miss Holladay entered her father's
office late yesterday 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 a hard one
to break."
"Well, it must be broken!" retorted the other, pulling himself together
with a supreme effort. "Of course, I'll take