human
Oh Katie, I must tell you. That fellow--what's his name? Mann? The mythical being known as the man who mends the boats is a fellow you'll have to avoid, should you ever see him again--which of course is not likely.
gpt
Yes?
human
Who do you suppose the scoundrel _is_?
gpt
I'm sure I don't know,
human
A military _convict_. Attacked an officer. Served time at Leavenworth.
gpt
And what do you suppose he was prying around the Island for?
human
I'm sure I have no idea,
gpt
Going to write a _play_--a play about the _army_! Now what do you think of that? Darrett found out about it. Oh just the man, you see, to write a play about the army! And some sensationalists here are going to put it on. It's the most damnable insolence I ever heard of! They ought to stop it.
human
Oh, I don't know, said Katie, still absorbed in the cabs down below;
gpt
Well a fine view he'll give of it! It's the most insufferable impertinence I ever knew of!
human
Why, Wayne, why all this heat? You're not in the army any more.
gpt
Well, don't you think I'm not _of_ it, when an upstart like that turns up to rail at it!
human
But how do you know he'll rail?
gpt
Oh he'll rail, all right. I know his type. But we'll see to it that it's pretty generally understood it's military life as presented by a military _convict_.
human
Perhaps you can trust him to make that point clear himself,
gpt
The _coward_. The _cur_.
human
Look here, Wayne, I don't know why you're so sure you have a right to say that!
gpt
I'd like to know why I haven't! Attacked an officer without the slightest provocation whatsoever! Some kind of a hot-headed taking sides with a deserter, I believe it was. I suppose this remarkable play is to be a glorification of desertion,
human
Well, said Katie with an unsteady laugh,
gpt
Come now, Katie, you know better than that.
human
Wayne, she said quietly,
gpt
Really, Katie, you have a positive genius for saying preposterous things.
human
In which there may occasionally lurk a little truth. You _are_ deserting. Why aren't you?
gpt
I call that about as close to rot as an intelligent person could come, he replied hotly.
human
I'm resigning my commission. It's perfectly regular.
gpt
Yes; being an officer and a gentleman, you _can_ resign your commission, and have it perfectly regular. Being that same officer and gentleman, you never were mugged--treated as a prospective criminal; no four thousand posters bearing your picture will now be sent broadcast over the country; no fifty dollars is offered lean detectives for your capture; you're in no chance of being thrown into prison and have your government do all in its power to wring the manhood out of you! Oh no--an officer and a gentleman--you resign your commission and go ahead with your life. But you're leaving the army, aren't you? Deserting it. And why? Because you don't like the spirit of it. And yet--though you're too big for it--though it's _time_ for you to desert--you're enough bound by it not to let the light of your intelligence fall for one single second on the question of desertion!
human
Wayne, she said,
gpt
I don't use the term as a hard name. I'm not using it in just its technical sense, our army sense. But mayn't desertion be a brave thing? A fine thing? To desert a thing we've gone beyond--to have the courage to desert it and walk right off from the dead thing to the live thing--? Oh, don't mind my calling you a deserter, Wayne, she added, her eyes full of tears,