human
Just a minute, Ben Ali, said Matt, catching the Hindoo by the sleeve of his embroidered coat and leading him apart.
gpt
What's the matter with your niece?
human
Salaam, sahib, chattered Ben Ali.
gpt
Haidee all right soon.
human
She can't make an ascension with me, Ben Ali. She was the cause of that trouble, and it would be sheer madness to take her aloft on that trapeze.
gpt
Yis, sahib, _such baht_ (that is true). Ben Ali drew a quivering hand over his forehead.
human
But she be well like ever soon, sahib.
gpt
What ails that brown rascal? he asked, staring after Ben Ali.
human
He's in as bad a taking as the girl. What did he say about her? I've never been able to get him to tell me anything about her spells.
gpt
He tells me that she will be all right in a little while,
human
Then we'll delay the flight. It will be half an hour yet before all the people get here.
gpt
You don't mean to say that you want the girl to ride a trapeze under the _Comet_?
human
Why not? Burton answered.
gpt
You said you'd take her, and she's willing to go--she wants to go.
human
When I said I'd take her, returned Matt,
gpt
I didn't know anything about her spells. Suppose she were to have one while we're in the air? Why, Burton, she might throw herself from the trapeze.
human
No, declared the other,
gpt
I protest against allowing her to go up in the aëroplane, said Matt firmly.
human
When the machine is off the ground it has to have my whole attention. I won't be able to look after Haidee without endangering both our lives.
gpt
I'm paying you five hundred a week for the stunt you pull off with the flying machine, ain't I?
human
You are,
gpt
And I'm giving the fifty on top of that for taking the girl up with you?
human
That was your proposition.
gpt
And you agreed to it?
human
That was before I knew Haidee was afflicted in this way, Burton.
gpt
Bosh! scoffed the showman.
human
The thing has got on your nerves.
gpt
So it has, acknowledged Matt.
human
I'm not going to place Haidee in any danger, if I can help it.
gpt
And that shot goes as it lays, Burton, spoke up McGlory, who had been taking a deep interest in the talk.
human
If you think Motor Matt is going to risk the girl's neck, or his own, for a little fifty a week, you've got another guess coming.
gpt
Am I to understand, he went on, taking a look at the gathering crowds,
human
That's what you're to understand! snapped McGlory.
gpt
We'll not hem, and haw, and side-step, not for a holy minute.
human
It's this way, Burton, continued Matt.
gpt
Haidee can't go up on the trapeze--we have to take a running start, you know, and it would be impossible. She'll have to ride up on the lower plane; then, after we are well clear of the ground, she'll have to drop from the footboard with the trapeze in her hands. If she's not entirely herself, the drop from the footboard to the end of the trapeze ropes will be too much for her. She'll fall.
human
But I told you that after she comes out of these things she's as fit as ever, cried Burton.
gpt
It's a still day--the best we've had for flying since you joined the show. I don't want to give up the idea.
human
And you don't want to see Haidee killed before your eyes, do you?
gpt
Oh, splash! There'll be nothing of that kind. Ah, look! Here she comes, and she's just as well as ever.