"A loan fish! You loan money. And when ze people cannot pay, you convict zem and take zeir ranchos."
The lean, sharklike Hardy looked a little depressed at this accusation.
"Well, if they can't pay, it isn't my fault," was all he could say.
"It isn't zeir fault, too, is it?" Lopez was curious to know.
"What's that?" Hardy said.
"So you take ze rancho from my friend, Señor Jones. A nice sort of neighbor you are, you beeg fish!"
"I'm not to blame because he's a rotten business man, am I?" Hardy tried to set himself right.
Lopez looked at him scornfully. "How do you know 'e is a rotten business man?"
"Why, the fact that I've had to foreclose the mortgage shows that," Hardy smiled.