secluded table at Wallack's, and over a
cigar and stein of bock, drew up a resume of the case--to clear the
atmosphere, as it were. It ran something like this:

March 13, Thursday--Holladay found murdered; daughter
drives to Washington Square.

March 14, Friday--Coroner's inquest; Miss Holladay
released; mysterious note received.

March 16, Sunday--Holladay buried.

March 18, Tuesday--Will opened and probated.

March 28, Friday--Miss Holladay returns from drive,
bringing new maid with her and discharges old one.

March 29, Saturday--Gives orders to open summer house.

April 1, Tuesday--Asks for $100,000.

April 2, Wednesday--Gets it.

April 3, Thursday--Leaves home, ostensibly for Belair,
in company with new maid.

April 14, Monday--Butler reports her disappearance;
Royce taken ill; I begin my search.

There I stopped. The last entry brought me up to date--there was
nothing more to add. But it seemed impossible that all the
developments of this mystery should have taken only a month. For
years, as it seemed to me, I had thought of nothing else.

I looked over the schedule again carefully. There was only one opening
that I could see where it was possible to begin work with the hope of
accomplishing anything. That was in the very first entry. Miss
Holladay had driven to Washington Square; she had, I felt certain,
visited her sister; I must discover the lodging of this woman. Perhaps
I should also discover Frances Holladay there. In any event, I should
have a new point to work from.

The police had been over the ground, I knew; they had exhausted every
resource in the effort to locate Mr. Holladay's mysterious visitor,
and had found not a trace of her. But that fact did not discourage me;
for I hoped to start my search with information which the police had
not possessed. Brooks, the coachman, should be able to tell me----

Recalled suddenly to remembrance of him, I looked at my watch and saw
that it was past his hour. I was pleased to find him awaiting me when
I opened the office door three minutes later. I had only a few
questions to ask him.

"When your mistress left the carriage the day you drove her to
Washington Square, did you notice which street she took after she left
the square?"

"Yes, sir; she went on down West Broadway."

"On which side?"

"Th' left-hand side, sir; th' east side."

"She must have crossed the st