" he exclaimed, growing frightfully angry. "Give him back
his money! I have no money of his. It is he owes me money for
keeping him out of jail."

"But how about the roll of bills?" I protested. "You certainly do
not intend to keep all of that?"

"Certainly--that is my fee," he retorted calmly; "and small enough
it is too!"

"How much was there in that roll, Toby?" I asked.

"About five hundred dollars," answered my friend. "But let him
keep it, by all means!"

"Why," I exclaimed, "he has done nothing to earn such a fee. He
merely got up and said that you had no scienter--whatever that is.
It is not worth more than ten dollars."

"Ten dollars!" shouted Gottlieb. "Ten dollars! Why scienter is
one of the most complicated and technical defences known to the
law. Ten dollars! Scienter is worth a thousand! Your rascally
friend got his money for nothing, didn't he? He's lucky to be
outside the bars--for if I ever saw a guilty man he's one. Get
along, both of you, or I'll call an officer!"

And with that Gottlieb slipped inside his office and banged the
door.

"Come along, Quib!" urged Tony; "there's a great deal of truth in
what he says. I don't begrudge it to him. It was well worth it
to me."

"Lord!" I groaned. "Five hundred dollars just for scienter. If
that is the law, then I'll turn lawyer."

And with that idea growing more firmly each moment in my mind I
returned to the boarding-house with my friend.

CHAPTER III

I am free to confess that the ease with which Counsellor Gottlieb
had deprived my friend Toby of the ill-gotten proceeds of his check
--or, for his sake putting it more politely, had earned his fee--
was the chief and inducing cause that led me to adopt the law as
a career. I shall not pretend that I had any lofty aims or ambitions,
felt any regard for its dignity or fascination for the mysteries
of its science when I selected it for my profession. My objects
were practical--my ambition to get the largest financial return
consonant with the least amount of work. My one concrete experience
of the law had opened my eyes to its possibilities in a way that
I had never dreamed of, and I resolved to lose no time in placing
myself in a position to rescue others from harm on the same pecuniary
basis as did Mr. Gottlieb.

Of course I realized that I must serve an apprenticeship, and indeed
the law required that were I not a graduate of a law school that
I must have worked as a