"I thought," said the Judge, "that you handled that Maretti case excellently, and the Dow trial, too; you showed an original cleverness there. More than that, Mr. Huber, you showed promise. There has been a great deal of promise in your professional work, and I thought I detected the same promise in the reports of your political speeches. With influential friends—for, of course, everybody needs influential friends in these days: people of real and solid standing—you ought to go far." "Thank you," said Luke. "Now," the Judge pursued, "I see by the early evening papers you may be offered the candidacy for District-Attorney on the Municipal League ticket." "I believe there is some talk of that, Judge." "Well, we need such a movement as this reform movement: we need it badly. With proper backing, you ought to win. With proper backing, of course." Luke gave no sign of hearing this. Quite out of the air he drawled: "I suppose you came about those letters, Judge Stein?" For all the disturbance that he produced, he might as well have said that it was a pleasant day, or that he expected rain. When his eyes at this question were raised to meet the Judge’s, the benevolent eyes of the Judge did not quiver: like his voice, they were steady and deliberate. "Yes," said the Judge, "and I had them in mind when I spoke of your career. Now, Mr. Huber, my friends think, and I think, that you have been a little hasty and unreasonable because—and remember, it is an old man who tells you so—you are still rather young. But because I know you are an able young man, I have told them I was sure you would see your haste and unreasonableness when you came to consider the matter. As their friend and as a lawyer who has watched your career and remembers his own start in life, I undertook to say so to you and to offer my advice." Luke’s eyelids were again lowered. His hands were clasped in his lap. To a less astute man than Stein, he might have seemed asleep. "I shall be glad," continued Stein, "if I can help you out of your embarrassing position." "Who are your friends, Judge?" asked Luke. The Judge smiled tolerantly. "Come, come, Mr. Huber," he said; "you don’t expect me to mention names, I know. All I will say on that point—all you can justly ask me to say—is that I don’t come from them in my professional capacity. They haven’t retained me to do this. They haven’t even asked me to do it. I am acting entirely of my own volition, and on my own initiative, out of good will for all the parties concerned and not least of all for you." "Yet you seem prepared to plead their case." "I am—on my own initiative, I am, because their case is the right one, as I am sure you will end by seeing. In the first place, these letters are their property." "I doubt," said Luke, "whether they would go into court to prove property."