By Advice of Counsel | Page 5

a loyal husband and a devoted father," agreed Mr. Tutt.

"But so, very likely, is the hyena. Certainly Hogan hasn't got the excuse
of necessity for doing what he does."
"Don't you suppose he has to give up good and plenty to somebody?"
demanded Tutt. "Cops and prison keepers and bondsmen and under
sheriffs, and all kinds of crooked petty officials. I should worry!"
"Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em, And little
fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum,"
quoted Miss Wiggin reminiscently.
"A flea has to be a flea," continued Tutt. "He, or it, can't be anything
else, but Hogan doesn't have to be a lawyer. He could be an honest man
if he chose."
"He? Not on your life! He couldn't be honest if he tried!" roared Mr.
Tutt. "He's just a carnivorous animal! A man eater! They talk about
scratching a Russian and finding a Tartar; I'd hate to scratch some of
our legal brethren."
"So would I!" assented Tutt. "I guess you're right, Mr. Tutt. Christianity
and the Golden Rule are all right in the upper social circles, but off
Fifth Avenue there's the same sort of struggle for existence that goes on
in the animal world. A man may be all sweetness and light to his wife
and children and go to church on Sundays; he may even play pretty fair
with his own gang; but outside of his home and social circle he's a
ravening wolf; at least Raphael B. Hogan is!"
* * * * *
The subject of the foregoing entirely accidental conversation was at
that moment standing contemplatively in his office window smoking an
excellent cigar preparatory to returning to the bosom of his family.
Raphael B. Hogan believed in taking life easily. He was accustomed to
say that outside office hours his time belonged to his wife and children;
and several times a week he made it his habit on the way home to
supper to stop at the florist's or the toy shop and bear away with him

inexpensive tokens of his love and affection. On the desk behind him,
over which in the course of each month passed a lot of very tainted
money, stood a large photograph of Mrs. Hogan, and another of the
three little Hogans in ornamented silver frames, and his face would
soften tenderly at the sight of their self-conscious faces, even at a
moment when he might be relieving a widowed seamstress of her entire
savings-bank account. After five o'clock this hyena purred at his wife
and licked his cubs; the rest of the time he knew no mercy.
But he concealed his cruelty and his avarice under a mask of benignity.
He was fat, jolly and sympathetic, and his smile was the smile of a
warm-hearted humanitarian. The milk of human kindness oozed from
his every pore. In fact, he was always grumbling about the amount of
work he had to do for nothing. He was a genial, generous host;
unostentatiously conspicuous in the local religious life of his
denomination; in court a model of obsequious urbanity, deferential to
the judges before whom he appeared and courteous to all with whom he
was thrown in contact. A good-natured, easy-going, simple-minded fat
man; deliberate, slow of speech, well-meaning, with honesty sticking
out all over him, you would have said; one in whom the widow and the
orphan would have found a staunch protector and an unselfish friend.
And now, having thus subtly connoted the character of our villain, let
us proceed with our narrative.
The telephone buzzed on the wall set beside him.
"That you, chief?" came the voice of Simpkins.
"Yep."
"Got one off Delany."
"What is it?"
"Kid smashed a window--malicious mischief. Held for examination
to-morrow at two. Five hundred bail."
"Any sugar?"

"Don't know. Says his father's dead and mother earns seventeen a week
in a sweatshop and sends him to school. Got some insurance. I'm going
right round there now."
"Well," replied Hogan, "don't scare her by taking too much off her at
first. I suppose there's evidence to hold him?"
"Sure. Delany says he saw it."
"All right. But go easy! Good night."
"Leave that to me, chief!" assured Simpkins. "See you to-morrow."
It will be observed that in this professional interchange nothing at all
was said regarding the possibility of establishing Tony's innocence, but
that on the contrary Mr. Simpkins' mind was concentrated upon his
mother's ability to pay. This was the only really important
consideration to either of them. But Hogan did not worry, because he
knew that Simpkins would skilfully entangle Mrs. Mathusek in such a
web of apprehension that rather than face her fears she would if
necessary go out and steal the money. So Mr. Raphael B. Hogan hung
up