human
Well--what do you think?
gpt
I think you're a nut! Johnson Boller said with sweet candor.
human
I think you're a plain da--well, I think you're unbalanced. You know what that young thug will do to you, don't you?
gpt
Eh?
human
If he's the crook he looks, he'll light out of here about three in the morning with everything but the piano and your encyclopædia. If he isn't a crook, just as soon as he gets loose and talks it over with his friends, he'll have you pinched for detaining him here against his will; and I'll give you ten to one that he collects not less than twenty-five hundred dollars before he's through. You scared him stiff with your eagle eye and your crazy notions, and he pleaded guilty so he could go to bed and get away from you. I'll have to testify to that if he calls on me.
gpt
Fiddlesticks!
human
Is it? Wait and see, Anthony, Johnson Boller said earnestly.
gpt
That kid spells trouble. I can feel it in the air.
human
You can always feel it in the air,
gpt
Maybe so; but this feeling amounts to a pain! Boller said warmly.
human
This is a hunch--a premonition--one of those prophetic aches that can't be ignored. Why, he had a fight started before you had spoken ten words to him, and----
gpt
Oh, rot!
human
On the level, he said,
gpt
By no means, Anthony laughed.
human
As a matter of fact, all I want to do is to talk to him in the morning. I want to know, Johnson, whether he will actually persist in fighting off the chance I'm offering him--because it's so confounded characteristic of the whole human race. If he's as obstinate in the morning as he is now--well, I suppose I'll turn him loose with a ten-dollar bill, and look around for another subject. I'd really like to approach a dozen men, picked haphazard, and write a little paper on the manner in which they greet opportunity.
gpt
Yes, but not while I'm with you, Johnson Boller said.
human
Anthony, do this--get the kid aside in the morning and tell him you'd been drinking heavily all day and didn't know what you were doing to-night. See? Make a joke of it and slip him fifty to keep quiet, and then----
gpt
Ah, Wilkins, Anthony smiled.
human
Got his togs, did you?
gpt
He passed them out to me through a crack in the door, he reported disgustedly.
human
What shall I do with them? They're hardly worth pressing, sir.
gpt
Of course not. Don't bother with them, Anthony smiled, and waved his man away.
human
Johnson, turn intelligent for a moment, will you?
gpt
Why? Intelligence has no place in this evening.
human
Oh, yes it has. Let's examine the case of this David youngster and try to reconstruct his emotions and his mental impressions when confronted with opportunity such as----
gpt
Damn opportunity! said Johnson Boller, rising with a jerk.
human
I'm going to bed!