Reginald Wright Kauffman

“ Hoagland, recovering an instant before his immediate superior, seized the opportunity thus provided.
“Cut it out! Cut out the society stuff!” he interrupted. “Chief,” said he to Boyle, “this guy never had one lone good quality except that he was decent to Pedro—and Pedro was a bird.”
Boyle decided upon nonchalance. He sought to cover wide wonder with a narrow smile. “Well, why shouldn't Señor Villeta be good to a bird? He's some bird himself!”
Don Ramon was not, however, to be distracted by persiflage. ”

“ Not at all. What I gave her and what she then gave you were my own counterfeit plates, carefully but quickly copied from the originals—while those originals were in my possession—by your Señor Josiah Tucker, God rest his soul! Señor Secretary of the Treasury, you have been flooding your own country with bogus money! ”

“ I was consistent, and save for the few charred fragments that Señor Hoagland has brought here, and that one unfortunately given the paper maker, the only existing copies of notes I have printed are now on that desk there. I paid them to this señor doctor to quiet him and because I hoped him soon to disappear.”
Don Ramon paused. He raised a dramatic arm.
“Gentlemen,” he smilingly declared, “you have grievously wronged me. It is not I who have been the counterfeit. I used real paper and real plates—your paper and the plates that you had made. ”