human
But, said the chief of them to Potter,
gpt
Well, said the chief,
human
They're not all like that, though,
gpt
You bet they aren't, said the chief, with compressed lips.
human
You had some experience, didn't you?
gpt
They tried to blow up the shop,
human
We've got to act as if we knew they were going to try to blow up _this_ shop.... Your German-Americans in Detroit have been pretty well-behaved.
gpt
Yes, said Potter.
human
There was any quantity of talk before April sixth. I imagine they've quieted down now. Personally I've thought it was just talk and a natural sympathy.
gpt
Ninety per cent. of the Germans in this country wish we would hang the other ten per cent. so they could live in peace. But we can't forget the other ten per cent. They're bad, and they mean business. It's hard to make folks believe it, though. Somehow Americans don't take spies and that sort of thing seriously. It looks sometimes as if they didn't take war seriously.
human
Yes, said Potter.
gpt
There wasn't any big wave of excitement when war was declared. The people took it complacently. They don't realize.
human
They won't realize until some morning's paper is full of lists of the dead.
gpt
Out here we have a sort of attitude that seems to say, 'Well, we've gone to war, but we aren't going to get hurt.'
human
It isn't my job to wake them up. I'll be busy keeping information from getting _out_ of this place--and gentlemen with bombs from getting in.
gpt
And my job, said Potter, gravely,
human
he said, his voice coming to life, his eyes awakening to a glow of enthusiasm.
gpt
It's a fine job--the best job in the world. Some day the air of France will be dark with American 'planes, and I'll have helped. I can almost see it--hundreds and thousands of aeroplanes with their noses pointed toward Berlin, and nothing on God's footstool to stop them. Enough of them to drive the German out of the air and keep him out.... And then we'll play with him from the air.... A barrage of American aeroplanes behind the German lines--imagine that!--cutting them off, smashing their communications! All we've got to have is _enough_--and the war's over.
human
You're not taking this war so placidly,
gpt
It will come, he said.
human
Gradually we're finding out we have a country--and that we love our country. Wait till you see this American people awake and on the job. I don't take it placidly, because the thing was shoved down my throat. I was kicked awake.