When he drew an assignment for a client, no man could break it.

And when he undertook a case, he was sure to find his opponent's weak point.

He would pick flaws in pleas; he would postpone; he would browbeat witnesses; he would take exceptions to the rulings of the court in order to excite the sympathy of the jury; he would object to testimony on the other side, and try to get in irrelevant testimony on his own; he would abuse the opposing counsel, crying out, "The counsel on the other side lies like thunder, and he knows it!" By shrewdness, by an unwearying perseverance, by throwing his whole weight into his work, Conger made himself the most successful lawyer of his time in the Territory.

And preserved his social position at the same time, for though he was not at all scrupulous, he managed to keep on the respectable side of the line which divides the lawyer from the shyster.
Mr.Conger had been Mr.Plausaby's counsel in one or two cases, and Charlton, knowing no other lawyer, sent for him.

Mr.Conger had, with his characteristic quickness of perception, picked up the leading features of the case from the newspapers.