in his head and eyes,
his spine will ache, he will experience symptoms of a nervous
breakdown. He will retire to bed and not emerge for six months,
and when he does he'll be a hopeless and helpless cripple for life.
Tom is an artist, he is, in his own line. They tell me he made
sixty thousand last year out of his accident practice alone. Why,
the case he gave you twenty to keep out of may net him five thousand
dollars."

"If I'd known that it would have cost him fifty!" I said, feeling
that an unjust advantage had been taken of me.

"Twenty is the regular rate," answered Gottlieb. "There are too
many chances to make it worth much more merely to get the other
fellow out of the way. Sometimes, though, I've paid as high as
fifteen hundred for a case."

"Fifteen hundred!" exclaimed I.

"Yes, and got a verdict of nineteen thousand, of which I pocketed
ninety-five hundred and four hundred dollars costs besides."

"Whew!" I whistled.

"Oh, there's pretty good pickin's on occasion even for a police-
court lawyer," he continued; "but it's nothin' to the return from
what I might call legitimate practice. Now, there's old Haight,
of Haight & Foster, for instance. He gets half a dozen twenty-
thousand-dollar fees every year, and all he has is strictly old-
fashioned probate and real-estate practice and a little of this
new-fangled railroad business. My great regret is that I didn't
stick to regular trade instead of going after easy money. Who's
Gottlieb now? Just a police-court lawyer, when he might be arguing
before the Supreme Court of the United States! My brain's just as
good as Haight's. I've licked him many a time in my young days.
And then I get tired of all this hogwash! I tell you it's dirty
business, most of it!"

"Well," I answered, remembering "scienter," "I've no doubt that
you could beat them all. But I fancy you have nothing to complain
of in the way of returns, yourself. What worries me is how to get
any start at all. I've tried half the law offices in town."

Gottlieb listened with some interest as I outlined my experiences.

"But," he exclaimed, "you didn't go to the right person. You should
have tackled the head of the firm himself. Find some sort of
introduction. Flatter him. Offer to work for nothing--and, trust
me, he'll have you. Now, my advice is to go straight to old Haight
and make up your mind to get into his office willy-nilly. It'll
be worth three thousand a year to yo