and I must say I rather
like the way you have been handling your work."

Cass looked at him with rising wonder. The work which he had been
doing of late was most ordinary and routine, and called for no display
of legal skill whatever. Suspicions slowly began to rise.

"I'd hate to see you tackle anything at this stage of your career, Mr.
Cass, that would bring discredit upon you. And I am afraid your
association with Ketchim is going to do just that. But possibly you do
not intend to handle further business for him?"

Ketchim, though long confined in the Tombs, had at length secured
bail, through the not wholly disinterested efforts of his uncle,
Stolz, the sworn enemy of Ames. And, because of his loyal efforts in
behalf of Ketchim, Stolz had insisted that Cass be retained as counsel
for the latter when his trial should come up.

"I'll tell you what I'll do, Mr. Cass," said Ames suddenly. "Mr. Hood
will take you on at a salary of, say, five thousand to start with.
We'll try you out for a few weeks. Then, if we don't mutually fit,
why, we'll quietly separate and say nothing. How about it?"

Cass thought hard. Half of that salary would have looked large to him
then. But--

"May I ask," he slowly said in reply, "what class of work Mr. Hood
would give me to start with?"

"Why, nothing of great importance, perhaps, while you are getting into
the harness. Possibly court work, as a starter. You've had experience
in that, eh?"

Cass reflected again. The temptation was tremendous. That little house
which he had passed and stopped to look at so wistfully every night on
his way home was now within his grasp.

He glanced up at the great man, sitting so calmly before him. Then he
thought suddenly of Avon. Then of Carmen.

"Mr. Ames," he said, "if I enter your employ, it must be with the
stipulation that I shall have nothing to do with the Ketchim trial."

Ames's face went suddenly dark. "If you enter my employ, sir, it will
be with the stipulation that you do as I say," he returned coldly.

And then the young lawyer saw through the mask. And his anger flamed
high at what he discerned behind it. He rose and faced the great man.

"Mr. Ames," said he, "you have made a mistake. I am poor, and I need
business. But I have not as yet fallen so completely under the spell
of fortune-hunting as to sell my honor to a man like you! To enter
your employ, I now see, would mean the total loss of character and
self respect. It woul