“I quite agree with you, Mr. Ames,” returned Cass. “But as I am particularly busy this morning, may I ask why you have sent for me? Have you anything that I can––”
“I have,” abruptly interrupted the financier. “We need additions to our legal staff. I thought perhaps you might like to talk over the matter with me, with a view to entering our employ.”
“Why, Mr. Ames, I––I have never thought of––” The young man’s eyes glistened.
“Well, suppose you think of it now,” said Ames, smiling graciously. “I have heard considerable about you of late, 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?”