sed after
the departure of the woman before you went back into the inner
office?"

"Not more than three or four minutes. I thought perhaps Mr. Holladay
was getting ready to accompany his daughter, and I didn't wish to
detain him."

"And you found him, as you say, lying forward across his desk with a
knife in his throat and the blood spurting out. Did you recognize the
knife?"

"Yes, sir. It was his knife--a knife he kept lying on his desk to
sharpen pencils with and erase and so on."

"Sharp, was it?"

"It had one long blade, very sharp, sir."

The coroner picked up a knife that was lying on the desk before him.

"Is this the knife?" he asked.

Rogers looked at it carefully.

"That's the knife, sir," he said, and it was passed to the jury. 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.

"He was lying forward on the desk, with his arms outstretched and his
head to one side."

"And there was a great deal of blood?"

"Oh, a great deal! Someone, apparently, had attempted to check it,
for a little distance away there was a handkerchief soaked in blood."

The coroner picked up a handkerchief and handed it to the witness.

"Is that the handkerchief?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," said Rogers, after a moment.

"Is it a man's or a woman's handkerchief?"

"Oh, a woman's undoubtedly."

The jury examined it and so did we. It was a small square of fine
cambric with no mark that I could see, soaked through and through with
blood--unquestionably a woman's handkerchief. Then Rogers told the
rest of the story--how he had summoned aid and informed the police.

"Now, Mr. Rogers," said the coroner, when he had finished, "there is
one point more. Has there been anything in your knowledge of Mr.
Holladay or his business to suggest the idea of suicide?"

The witness shook his head decidedly.

"Nothing whatever, sir," he said positively. "His business was
prospering; he was happy and contented--why, he was planning for a
trip abroad with his daughter."

"Let us suppose for a moment," continued Goldberg, "that he did
actually stab himself in his daughter's presence; what would you
naturally expect her to do?"

"I should expect her to give the alarm--to summo