two in the morning
`` Certainly ; I am always ready , '' said the assistant prosecutor ; `` which is the first case ? '' `` The poisoning case . '' `` Very well , '' said the assistant prosecutor , but he did not consider it well at all -- he had not slept all night . A send-off had been given to a departing friend , and he drank and played till two in the morning , so that he was entirely unfamiliar with this case , and now hastened to glance over the indictment . The secretary had purposely suggested the case , knowing that the prosecutor had not read it . The secretary was a man of liberal , even radical , ideas . Breae was conservative , and the secretary disliked him , and envied his position .