'No doubt Mr. Osborne will find the charges against him are surprisingly minor,' commented the lawyer drily.

'So that's his garne,' said Abel. 'I take the rap while he escapes. Now we'll never find out who he sold that goddamn file to.'

'No, there you are wrong, Mr. Rosnovski. That was the one thing he was willing to talk about,' said Jilks. 'He said it wasn't William Kane. He would never have sold the file to Kane under any circumstances. A man from Chicago called Harry Srnith paid Mr. Osborne cash for theevidence, and, 926 would you believe it, Harry Smith turns out to be an alias because there are dozens of Harry Srniths in the Chicago area and not a single one of them fits the description!

'Find him,' said Abel. 'And find him before the trial starts!

'We're already working on that,' said Jilks. 'If the man is still in Chicago we'll pin him down within the week. Osborne also added that this so - called Smith assured him he only wanted the file for private purposes.

He had no intention of revealing the contents to anyone in authority!

'Then why did "Smith" want the details in the first place?' asked Abel.

'The inference was blackmail. That's why Henry Osbome disappeared, to avoid you. If you think about that, Mr. Rosnovski, he could be telling the truth.

After all, the disclosures are extremely damaging to him, and he must have been as distressed as you when he heard the file was in the hands of the justice Department. It's no wonder he decided to stay out of sight and turned state's evidence when he was eventually caught!

'Do you know,' said Abel, 'the only reason I ever employed that man was because he hated William Kane as much as I did, and now Kane has done us both.'

'There's no proof that Mr. Kane was in any way involved,' said Jilks.

'I dont need proof.'

The trial was delayed at the request of the government. They claimed they needed more time to question Henry Osbome before presenting their case, as he was now their principal witness. Trafford Jilks objected strongly and informed the court that the health of his client, who was no longer a young man, was failing under the strain of false accusations. Ile plea did not move judge Prescott, who agreed to the government's request and postponed the trial for a further four weeks.

The month dragged on for Abel and two days before the trial was due to open, he resigned himself to being found guilty and facing a long jail sentence. Then H. Trafford Jilks' investigator in Chicago found the man called Harry Smith, who turned out to be a local private detective, who had used an alias under strict instructions from his client, a firm of lawyers in New York. It cost Jilks one thousand dollars and another twenty - four hours before Harry Smith revealed that the firm concerned had been Cohen, Cohen and Yablons.

'Kane's lawyer,' said Abel immediately on being told.

'Are you sure?' asked Jilks. 'I would have thought from all we know about William Kane that he would be the last person to use a Jewish firm.'

'Way back, when I bought the hotels from Kanes bank, some of the paperwork was covered by a man called Thomas Cohen. For some reason, the bank used two lawyers for the transaction.'

'What do you want me to do about it?' George asked Abel.

'Nothing,' said Trafford Jilks. 'I don't want any more trouble before the trial. Do you understand me, Mr. Rosnovski?'

'Yes, sir,' said Abel. 'I'll deal with Kane when the trial's over. Now, Mr. Jilks, listen and listen carefully. You must go back to Osborne immediately and tell him the file was sold by Harry Smith to William Kane, and that Kane used the contents to gain revenge on both of us, and stress the "both of us". I promise you when Osborne hears that, he's not going to open his mouth in the witness box, no matter what promises he's made to the justice Department. Henry Osborne's the one man alive who may hate Kane more than I do.'

'Anything you say,' said Jilks, who clearly wasn't convinced, 'but I feel I must warn, you, Mr. Rosnovski, he's still putting the blame firmly on your shoulders, and to date he's been no help to our side at all.'

'You take my wDrd for this, Mr. Jilks. His attitude will change the moment he knows about Kane's involvement.'

H. Trafford Jilks obtained permission to spend ten minutes that night with Henry Osborne in his cell before going on home. Osbome listened but said nothing. Jilks was sure that his news had made no impression on the government's star witness and he decided he would wait until the next morning before telling Abel Rosnovski. He preferred that his client try to get a good night's sleep before the trial opened the next morning.