I'm out of politics; in case you don't know, I'm in business for myself and haven't the least interest in what the city does, or what any one does to it." "Even though you should happen to be the bone of contention--and the butt of what may be a good deal of unpleasant newspaper notoriety ?" "You're talking blackmail!" "I beg your pardon.

Blackmail is something by which one extorts money.
I'm here to try to give you money--or at least the promise of it--and at the same time allow you to make up for something that should, whether it does or not, weigh rather heavily on your conscience." "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.