Alaire interrogated the speaker silently.
"Hasn't Ed done enough to provoke confiscation?" asked the Judge.
"Ed?"
"Exactly! Ed has made a fool of himself, and brought this on."
"You think so?"
"Well, I have it pretty straight that he's giving money to the Rebel junta and lending every assistance he can to their cause."
"I didn't know he'd actually done anything. How mad!"
"Yes—for a man with interests in Federal territory. But Ed always does the wrong thing, you know."
"Then I presume this confiscation is in the nature of a reprisal. But the stock is mine, not Ed's. I'm an American citizen, and—"
"My dear, you're the first one I've heard boast of the fact," cynically affirmed the Judge. "If you were in Mexico you'd profit more by claiming allegiance to the German or the English or some other foreign flag. The American eagle isn't screaming very loudly on the other side of the Rio Grande just now, and our dusky neighbors have learned that it's perfectly safe to pull his tail feathers."