James W. Hildebrand was charged with embezzlement. Judging by the efforts of his counsel to have the case set over for at least ten days and the Court's refusal to grant a delay, together with certain significant observations as to the time that would probably be required to produce and present the evidence--a week or more--Sampson realised that this was a case of considerable magnitude. He racked his brain in the futile effort to recall any mention of it in the newspapers. It was his practice to read every line of the criminal news printed, for this was the only means he had of justifying the declaration that he had formed an opinion. Nothing escaped him--or at least he thought so--and yet here was a case, evidently important, that had slipped through without having made the slightest impression on him. It was most disturbing. This should not have happened. His heart sank as he thought of the California reservations uptown. He was expected to take up the transportation and Pullman that very afternoon. The old man--he was seventy--was accused of having misappropriated something like fifty thousand dollars of the funds belonging to a real-estate and investment concern in which he was not only a partner but also its secretary and treasurer. The alleged crime had been committed some five years prior to the day on which he was brought to trial. After having evaded capture for four years and a half by secluding himself in Europe, he voluntarily had returned to the States, giving himself up to the authorities. Sampson abused himself secretly for having allowed such a theatric incident as this to get by without notice on his part. Other prospective jurors sitting nearby appeared to know all about the case, for he caught sundry whispered comments that enlightened him considerably. He realised that he had been singularly and criminally negligent. A protracted and confidential confab took place between the Court and the counsel for both sides. Every juror there hoped that they were discussing some secret and imperative reason for indefinitely postponing the case after all--or, perhaps, better than that, the prisoner was going to plead guilty and save all of them! Finally the little group before the bench broke up and one of the attorneys for Hildebrand approached the rail and held open the gate. A woman entered and took a seat beside the prisoner. Sampson, with scant interest in the woman herself--except to note that she was slender and quite smartly attired--was at once aware of a surprising politeness and deference on the part of the transmogrified lawyers, both of whom smirked and scraped and beamed with what they evidently intended to be gallantry.