"If you'll come to the point."
"Exactly. Do you remember my case?"
"In a way. I had a good many of them."
"Which, I hope, you did not handle in the same way that you did mine. But to recall it all to your recollection, I was accused of having killed my own cousin, Tom Langdon, with a mallet."
"Yes—I remember now. You two had some kind of a drunken fight."
"And you, at the time, if I remember correctly, had a fight of your own. It was nearing election time."
"Correct. I remember now." Then, with a little smile, "Quite luckily, I was beaten."
"I agree with you there. But to return to the original statement. Am I right, or am I wrong, when I say that you were striving very hard, for a record that would aid you in the election?"
"Every official tries to make the best possible record. Especially at election time."
"No matter whom it injures."