hance of getting as good a lawyer as Gottlieb to defend him for
ten dollars, and when he was acquitted made so much of it that
there was hardly a prisoner in the Tombs who did not send for one
of our policies to guard against future legal difficulties. To
all of these we offered free advice and a free trial upon the
charges pending against them, as a sort of premium or inducement
to become policy-holders, and in six months had over two hundred
subscribers. This meant in cash about two thousand dollars, but
it necessitated defending any or all of them whenever they were so
unfortunate as to run foul of the police, and as luck would have
it out of the two hundred policy-holders forty-seven of them were
arrested within the first six months--fifteen for burglary, eleven
for robbery and assault, sixteen for theft, and five for murder.
These latter cases took all of Gottlieb's working hours for some
seven and a half weeks, at the end of which time he threw up his
hands and vowed never to insure anybody against anything again.
It was impossible for me to try any of the cases myself, as I was
not as yet admitted to the bar, and the end of the matter was that
we returned the premiums and cancelled the policies of the remaining
one hundred and fifty-three insured. This done, Gottlieb and I
heaved sighs of mutual relief.

"You are a clever fellow, Quib," he acknowledged good-naturedly,
"but in some ways you are ahead of your time. You ought to have
gone into life insurance or railroading. Your genius is wasted on
anything that ain't done wholesale. Let's you and me just stick
to such clients as come our way in the natural course of events.
There isn't any one born yet big enough to do all the criminal law
business in this little old town by himself."

And in this I with some regret agreed with him.

CHAPTER IV

As I have already taken some pains to indicate, I was fully persuaded
of the practical value of a professional connection with a legal
firm of so eminent a standing as that of Messrs. Haight & Foster,
and for this reason the reader may easily appreciate the shock with
which I received the information that my presence was no longer
desired in the office.

Mr. Haight had unexpectedly sent for me word that I was wanted in
the library and I had obeyed his summons without a suspicion that
my career as a civil attorney was to be abruptly terminated. As
I closed the door behind me I saw the old lawyer standing near