He sat up in his chair with a movement full of energy, and then added, with a smile:
“Let me take your hat, sir; then show me this wonderful knot of yours, and we’ll see what can be done with it.”
The man removed his hat, and Earle saw that it was half full of papers, letters, etc., which he turned out upon the table, and then proceeded to unfold the case which he wished the young lawyer to take charge of.
A long conference followed; question after question was put and answered, and every paper looked into and explained, and the clock on the belfry-tower near by struck the hour of midnight before Earle’s strange visitor left him, and a handsome retaining fee as well.
This he did not demand, but the man’s keen eyes had more than once rested on that empty pocket-book lying upon the table, and he doubtless knew that it would not come amiss.
For the next four months Earle had no need to complain of a lack of work—night and day he toiled, quietly, steadily, persistently, a stern purpose visible in his face, a light in his fine eyes which meant “victory,” if such a result was possible.
This case, which indeed proved a most perplexing one, he felt assured would either “make or mar” his whole future; and, if there was any such thing as winning, he was determined to conquer.
It was to come to trial the first of October.
He had had about four months to work it up in, and now, on the last night of September, he sat again alone in his office, with folded hands and weary brain, but with a smile of satisfaction lighting up his face instead of the weary expression of bitterness which rested there on that dreary night when he received his first visit from the thin-visaged, wiry man.
He was reasonably sure of success, notwithstanding that the opposing counsel was one of the oldest and ablest lawyers in the city, and he was aware that if he gained the case against him he could not fail to be looked upon with respect for the future.