Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 25, 2025
Our first step was to be an easy one, thanks to the severity and thoroughness of French administration, but I admit that I saw not what we should do further, once we had verified the date of Miss Holladay's birth. The next step must be left to chance. The notary unlocked the door, showed us into his office, and set out chairs for us. Then he got down his register of births for 1876.
There were the usual preliminaries, name, age, residence, and so on, Coroner Goldberg asking the questions. He was a really good cross-examiner, and soon came to the core of the matter. "What is the position of your desk in Mr. Holladay's office?" he asked. "There is an outer office for the clerks; opening from that, a smaller room where my desk is placed. Opening from my room was Mr.
"Before Miss Holladay's birth, then?" "Oh, yes, sir; long before. Just before his marriage, Mr. Holladay bought the Fifth Avenue house he lived in ever since, and I was employed, then, sir, as an under-servant." "Mr. Holladay and his wife were very happy together, weren't they?" I questioned. "Very happy; yes, sir. They were just like lovers, sir, until her death.
"Did you notice the time they stayed at Etretat covers the period of Miss Holladay's birth, with which, I'm convinced, these people were in some way concerned. We must look up Etretat." A map at the office showed us that it was a little fishing hamlet and seaside resort on the shore of the English Channel, not far north of Havre.
It was one of the old-styled brownstone fronts which lined both sides of the avenue twenty years ago; it was no longer in the ultra-fashionable quarter, which had moved up toward Central Park, and shops of various kinds were beginning to encroach upon the neighborhood; but it had been Hiram Holladay's home for forty years, and he had never been willing to part with it.
Again the witness hesitated in the effort at recollection. "No, sir," he answered finally. "Her words, I think, were, 'Is Mr. Holladay engaged at present?" "It was Miss Holladay's voice?" "I could not say, sir," answered the witness, again mopping the perspiration from his forehead. "I have no wish to incriminate Miss Holladay unnecessarily.
If we had lost the trail thus early in the chase, what hope was there that we should ever run down the quarry? And how explain the fact that no record had been made of Frances Holladay's birth? Why should her parents have wished to conceal it? Would they not naturally have been anxious to see that it was properly recorded?
Holladay's whereabouts during the whole time he was abroad, and send it to our office not later than this afternoon." "Very well, sir," he said, and we left the room. "But why didn't you let him go farther?" asked Mr. Graham, as we left the building. "Because I think I've found the place, sir," I answered.
When they had finished with it, Mr. Royce and I examined it. It was an ordinary one-bladed erasing knife with ivory handle. It was open, the blade being about two inches and a half in length, and, as I soon convinced myself, very sharp indeed. "Will you describe Mr. Holladay's position?" continued the coroner.
I recognized her in an instant, and so did he it was Miss Holladay's maid. I saw, too, that her eyes were red with weeping, and as she sat down beside our junior's desk she began to cry afresh. "Why, what's the matter?" he demanded. "Nothing wrong with your mistress?" "She aint my mistress any more," sobbed the girl. "She discharged me this afternoon." "Discharged you!" echoed our junior.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking