"That's a good idea, Barney," he said. "I guess I'll take your advice." It is not so much to know the law, ran Henry D. Feldman's motto, paraphrasing a famous dictum of Judge Sharswood, as to look, act and talk as though you knew it. To this end Mr. Feldman seldom employed a word of one syllable, if it had a synonym of three or four syllables, and such phrases as _res gestae_, _scienter_, and _lex fori delicti_ were the very life of his conversation with clients. "The information which you now disclose, Mr. Sammet," he said, after Leon had made known his predicament, "is all _obiter dicta_." Leon blushed. He imagined this to be somewhat harsh criticism of the innocent statement that he thought Potash & Perlmutter could be bluffed into releasing Louis Grossman. "_Imprimis_," Mr. Feldman went on, "I have not been consulted by Mr. Grossman about what he desires done in the matter, but, speaking _ex cathedra_, I am of the opinion that some method might be devised for rescinding the contract." "You mean we can get Potash & Perlmutter to release him?" "Precisely," said Mr. Feldman, "and in a very elementary and efficacious fashion." "Well, I ain't prepared to pay so much money at once," said Leon. Now, when it came to money matters, Henry D. Feldman's language could be colloquial to the point of slang. "What's biting you now?" he said. "I ain't going to charge you too much. Leave it to me, and if I deliver the goods it will cost you two hundred and fifty dollars." Leon sighed heavily, but he intended getting Louis back at all costs, not, however, to exceed ten thirty-three, thirty-three. "Well, I ain't kicking none if you can manage it," he replied. "Tell us how to go about it." Straightway Mr. Feldman unfolded a scheme which, stripped of its technical phraseology, was simplicity itself. He rightly conjectured that the most burdensome feature of the contract, so far as Potash & Perlmutter were concerned, was the five per cent. share of the profits that fell to Louis Grossman each week. He therefore suggested that Louis approach Abe Potash and request that, instead of five per cent. of the profits, he be paid a definite sum each week, for the cloak and suit business has its dull spells between seasons, when profits occasionally turn to losses. Thus Louis could advance as a reason that he would feel safer if he be paid, say, twenty dollars a week the year round in lieu of his uncertain share of the profits. "Abe Potash will jump at that," Leon commented. "I anticipate that he will," Mr. Feldman went on, "and then, after he has paid Mr. Grossman the first week's installment it will constitute a rescission of the old contract and a substitution of a new one, which will be a contract of hiring from week to week. At the conclusion of the first week their contractual relations can be severed at the option of either party."