Chapter 21

“Listen,” said Lefkovitsky, helping himself to a cigar out of the silver box at his elbow on the strength of it. “I’ll tell you something. Very few lawyers know it, either. When a man’s arrested for debt and locked up—as when he isn’t able to give a bond to remain inside the jail limits—the sheriff becomes personally responsible for him; and if the debtor escapes the sheriff is liable to the creditor in damages. But—and here’s what most people aren’t wise to—if the debtor voluntarily returns before the creditor can…