slender thread my victory
had hung.

But my chief would not listen; he declared that a man must be judged
by his achievements, and that he judged me by mine.

"Let us find out how our friend is," I said at last; so the hospital
was called up. We were informed that the patient was stronger, but
would not be able to leave his bed for two or three days.

"The Jourdains may tell him of my call," I said. "They'll suspect
something when I don't return to-day--yet they may wait for me a day
or two longer--they have my money--and one day is all I want. It's
just possible that they may keep silent altogether. They've nothing to
gain by speaking--it's plain that they're not in the conspiracy.
Anyway, to-morrow I'll be out of reach."

Mr. Graham nodded.

"Yes--that's plainly the next step. You must follow them to
France--but where in France will you look for them? I didn't think of
that before. Why, the search is just beginning! I thought it
impossible to accomplish what you have accomplished, but that seems
easy, now, beside this new problem."

"Yes," I assented; "still, it may not be so hard as it looks. We must
try to find out where the women have gone, and I believe Rogers can
help us. My theory is that they're from one of the towns which the
Holladays visited when they were abroad, and Mr. Holladay must have
kept in touch with his office, more or less, during that time."

My chief sprang up and seized his hat.

"The very thing!" he cried. "There's no luck about that bit of
reasoning, Mr. Lester. Come, I'll go with you."

"Only," I added, as we went down together, "I very much fear that the
search will lead to Paris, for Martigny is undoubtedly a Parisian."

"And to find a person in Paris...."

I did not answer: I only shut my teeth together, and told myself for
the hundredth time that I must not fail.

Rogers had been carrying on the routine work of the business since his
employer's death, and was supervising the settlement of accounts, and
the thousand and one details which must be attended to before the
business could be closed up. We found him in the private office, and
stated our errand without delay.

"Yes," he said, "Mr. Holladay kept in touch with the office, of
course. Let me see--what was the date?"

"Let us look for the first six months of 1876," I suggested.

He got down the file covering that period, and ran through the
letters.

"Yes, here they are," he said after a moment. "In January, he wr