Everybody was satisfied—­Hogan, Simpkins, Asche, McGurk, even Delany, because the fleas upon his back were satisfied and he was planning ultimately to get rid of the whole damn tangle by having the indictment quietly dismissed when nobody was looking, by his friend O’Brien, to whom the case had been sent for trial.  And everything being as it should be, and Tony being locked safely up in a cell, Mr. Joey Simpkins set himself to the task of extorting three hundred and fifty dollars more from Mrs. Mathusek upon the plea that the great Mr. Hogan could not possibly conduct the case before a jury for less.

Now the relations of Mr. Assistant District Attorney O’Brien and the Hon. Raphael B. Hogan were distinctly friendly.  At any rate, whenever Mr. Hogan asked for an adjournment in Mr. O’Brien’s court he usually got it without conspicuous difficulty, and that is what occurred on the five several occasions that the case of The People versus Antonio Mathusek came up on the trial calendar during the month following Tony’s incarceration, on each of which Mr. Hogan with unctuous suavity rose and humbly requested that the case be put over at his client’s earnest request in order that counsel might have adequate time in which to subpoena witnesses and prepare for a defense.

And each day Simpkins, who now assumed a threatening and fearsome demeanor toward Mrs. Mathusek, visited the heartsick woman in her flat and told her that Tony could and would rot in the Tombs until such time as she procured three hundred and fifty dollars.  The first week she assigned her life-insurance money; the second she pawned the furniture; until at last she owed Hogan only sixty-five dollars.  At intervals Hogan told Tony that he was trying to force the district attorney to try the case, but that the latter was insisting on delay.

In point of fact, O’Brien had never looked at the papers, much less made any effort to prepare the case; if he had he would have found that there was no case at all.  And Delany’s mind became at peace because he perceived that at the proper psychological moment he could go to O’Brien and whisper:  “Say, Mr. O’Brien, that Mathusek case.  It’s a turn-out!  Better recommend it for dismissal,” and O’Brien would do so for the simple reason that he never did any more work than he was actually compelled to do.

But as chance would have it, three times out of the five, Mr. Ephraim Tutt happened to be in court when Mr. Hogan rose and made his request for an adjournment; and he remembered it because the offense charged was such an odd one—­breaking a window.

Delany’s simple plan was again defeated by Nemesis, who pursued him in the shape of the rectangular Mr. Asche, and who shouldered himself into O’Brien’s office during the fifth week of Tony’s imprisonment and wanted to know why in hell he didn’t try that Mathusek case and get rid of it.  The assistant district attorney had just been called down by his official boss and being still sore was glad of a chance to take it out on someone else.