The reader must bear in mind that the law herein dealt with is the law as it is administered in the legal forms of his country, in no degree changed and in no degree colored by the imagination of the author. Every legal statement represents an established principle, thoroughly analyzed by the courts of last resort. There can be no question as to the probable truth of these legal conclusions. They are as certainly established as it is possible for the decisions of courts to establish any principle of law. The reader is reminded that the schemes of skilled plotters, resorted to for the purpose of defeating the spirit of the law, are, for the most part, too elaborate and too intricate to be made the subject of popular discussion. An attempt to explain to the but half-interested layman plots of this character would be as vain as an attempt to demonstrate an abstract problem in analytical mechanics. The knaves who have been pleased to devote their energies and their capacities to problems of this nature are experts learned and capable, and against these the average man of affairs can defend himself but poorly. He may be warned, however, and the author will have accomplished his purpose if he succeeds in identifying the black flag of such pirate crafts. In the present volume he has deemed it wise to continue to utilize as his central figure the lawyer, Randolph Mason,--a rather mysterious legal misanthrope, having no sense of moral obligation, but learned in the law, who by virtue of the strange tilt of his mind is pleased to strive with the difficulties of his clients as though they were mere problems involving no matter of right or equity or common justice. This emotionless counsellor has already been introduced to the public. He has been described as a man in the middle forties. “Tall and reasonably broad across the shoulders; muscular, without being either stout or lean.” His hair was thin and of a brown color, with erratic streaks of gray. His forehead was broad and high and of a faint reddish color. His eyes were restless, inky black, and not over large. The nose was big and muscular and bowed. The eyebrows were black and heavy, almost bushy. There were heavy furrows, running from the nose downward and outward to the comers of the mouth. The mouth was straight, and the jaw was heavy and square. “Looking at the face of Randolph Mason from above, the expression in repose was crafty and cynical; viewed from below upward, it was savage and vindictive, almost brutal; while from the front, if looked squarely in the face, the stranger was fascinated by the animation of the man. and at once concluded that his expression was at the same time sneering and fearless. He was evidently of Southern extraction and a man of unusual power.”