human
Judging by the price he charged for those firelighters, he said,
gpt
Mr. Noakes is a profiteer.
human
Prophet neither here nor there, for all his Bible name, and his sons’ likewise, said Mrs. Trenchard.
gpt
That there Nahum, coming here and stuffing his unnat’ral thoughts into the heads of our young fellers whose time be nigh come! There was Billy Runt, and young Pantany, and Tim Coggins, and such—oh! it did rile me, and I hadn’t the heart to go there, so I comed home along. And bless ’ee, he be going to wag his tongue again to-morrow, and axed the boys to bring all their friends to hear un.
human
Splendid! cried Eves.
gpt
I say, Bob, we’ll go. You can nobble the audience for Aunt Caroline.
human
This is rather serious, you know, Tom,
gpt
Broken a collar-stud, old man?
human
No; I mean this speechifying. It’s not right for the fellow to turn the village boys against military service.
gpt
Gas like that won’t do much harm.
human
But it may. It ought to be stopped. It’s our duty to stop it.
gpt
Jolly good idea! Start an opposition meeting and talk him down. Ripping rag!
human
I’m afraid I’m not up to that. You see——
gpt
Leave it to me, then. I bet I can rattle my tongue faster than Nahum Noakes. By George! Bobby, what an awful name!
human
You don’t understand, Tom. It isn’t talk that’s wanted. The question is, is he sincere? If he is—well, what about free speech?
gpt
A free kick is more to the purpose. But what are you driving at?
human
Well, oughtn’t we to find out if he really has a conscientious objection?—test him, you know? Mrs. Trenchard seemed to doubt it, and if he’s a humbug he ought to be exposed.
gpt
Just so, Socrates. I’ll kick him, and see how he takes it. You can’t take him to pieces like a clock, and examine his innards.
human
That’s the difficulty. Your idea won’t do at all. You can’t justify an unprovoked assault.
gpt
I jolly well can. But I’m dead beat; pedalling that heavy old machine nearly biffed me. Sleep on it, Bob; perhaps you’ll dream one of your bright ideas.