David May, an entirely different type of man. May was as mild as a
day in June--as urbane as Kaffenburgh had been insolent. He
fluttered into Houston like a white dove of peace with the
proverbial olive branch in his mouth. From now on the tactics
employed by the representatives of Hummel were conciliatory in the
extreme. Mr. May, however, did not long remain in Houston, as it
was apparent that there was nothing to be done by either side
pending the action of the courts, and in any event Dodge was
abundantly supplied with local counsel. The time had now come when
Hummel must have begun to feel that the fates were against him and
that a twenty-year term in state prison was a concrete possibility
even for him.

In the meantime, Dodge and Bracken had taken up their headquarters
at the Rice Hotel in the most expensive suite of rooms in the
house, a new scheme for getting the prisoner beyond the reach of
the New York courts apparently having been concocted. Dodge was
now indulged in every conceivable luxury and vice. He was plunged
into every sort of excess, there was no debauchery which Bracken
could supply that was not his and their rapid method of existence
was soon the talk of the county and continued to be so for ten long
months. There is more than one way to kill a cat and more than one
method of wiping out the only existing witness against a desperate
man striving to escape the consequences of crime.

Dodge's daily routine was somewhat as follows: He never slept at
his own hotel, but arose in the morning between ten and eleven
o'clock, when he was at once visited by Bracken and supplied with
numerous drinks in lieu of the breakfast for which he never had any
desire. At noon the two would have luncheon with more drinks. In