human
I've tried for two years to get you to send that boy to a good boarding-school, and you wouldn't do it. I couldn't stand having him loafing around the house any longer, so I told Jerry Mitchell to take him away to a friend of his who keeps a dogs' hospital on Long Island and to tell his friend to hold him there till he got some sense into him. Well, you've spoiled that for the moment with your detectives, but it still looks good to me. I'll give you a choice. You can either send that boy to a boarding-school next week, or he goes to Jerry Mitchell's friend. I'm not going to have him in the house any longer, loafing in my chair and smoking my cigarettes. Which is it to be?
gpt
But, Peter!
human
Well?
gpt
If I send him to a school, he may be kidnapped.
human
Kidnapping can't hurt him. It's what he needs. And, anyway, if he is I'll pay the bill and be glad to do it. Take him off to bed now. To-morrow you can start looking up schools. Great Godfrey! He hopped to the writing-desk and glared disgustedly at the _debris_ on it.
gpt
Who's been making this mess on my desk? It's hard! It's darned hard! The only room in the house that I ask to have for my own, where I can get a little peace, and I find it turned into a beer-garden, and coffee or some damned thing spilled all over my writing-desk!
human
That isn't coffee, Peter, said Mrs. Pett mildly. This cave-man whom she had married under the impression that he was a gentle domestic pet had taken all the spirit out of her.
gpt
It's Willie's explosive.
human
Willie's explosive?
gpt
Lord Wisbeach--I mean the man who pretended to be Lord Wisbeach--dropped it there.
human
Dropped it there? Well, why didn't it explode and blow the place to Hoboken, then?
gpt
There was fortunately some slight miscalculation in my formula, uncle Peter, he said.
human
I shall have to look into it to-morrow. Whether the trinitrotoluol--
gpt
Has this--this _fish_ been living on me all this time--have I been supporting this--this _buzzard_ in luxury all these years while he fooled about with an explosive that won't explode! He pointed an accusing finger at the inventor. Look into it tomorrow, will you? Yes, you can look into it to-morrow after six o'clock! Until then you'll be working--for the first time in your life--working in my office, where you ought to have been all along. He surveyed the crowded room belligerently.
human
Now perhaps you will all go back to bed and let people get a little sleep. Go home!