"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 writes from Nice, where they seem to have remained during February and March. About the middle of April, they started north--here's a letter dated Paris, April 19th--and from Paris they went to a place called Etretat. They remained there through May, June, and July. That is all the time covered by this file. Shall I get another?" "No," I answered; "but I wish you'd make an abstract of Mr. 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. "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.