"Do you think five thousand dollars would be too much?" he finally
asked with some hesitation.

"Five!" cried the lawyer in astonishment. "It should be twenty
thousand--at the least!"

It is not my intention to give a history of the firm of Gottlieb
& Quibble, but rather a general description of the work of any
criminal law office. Its object is precisely the same as that of
the best offices where civil law is practised--that is, to make
money out of the client. But inasmuch as the client who seeks the
aid of a criminal attorney is usually in dread of losing not merely
money but liberty, reputation, and perhaps life as well, he is
correspondingly ready to pay generously for any real or fancied
service on the part of the lawyers. Thus the fees of a criminal
practitioner--when the client has any money--are ridiculously high,
and he usually gets sooner or later all that the client has.
Indeed, there are three golden rules in the profession, of which
the first has already been hinted at--namely, thoroughly terrify
your client. Second, find out how much money he has and where it
is. Third, get it. The merest duffer can usually succeed in
following out the first two of these precepts, but to accomplish
the third requires often a master's art. The ability actually to
get one's hands on the coin is what differentiates the really great
criminal lawyer from his inconspicuous brethren.

The criminal attorney, therefore, whether he be called to see his
client at the Tombs or in the police station, or is consulted in
his own office, at once informs the latter that he is indeed in a
parlous state. He demonstrates to him conclusively that there
exist but a few steps between him and the gallows, or at least the
State's prison, and that his only hope lies in his procuring at
once sufficient money to--first, get out on bail; second, buy off
the witnesses; third, "fix" the police; fourth, "square" the judge;
and lastly, pay the lawyer. Even where the prisoner has no money
himself, his family are usually ready to do what they can to get
him off, in order to save themselves from the disgrace of being
related to a convict. It is not what may actually happen to your
client, but what he thinks may happen, that makes him ready and
anxious to give up his money. Thus, the more artistic the practitioner
in painting the dire consequences which will result if the family
of the offender does not come to his rescue the quicker and lar