book_id
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| title
stringclasses 1
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stringclasses 1
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listlengths 1
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|---|---|---|---|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Respectable man--the smooth, smiling villain whom all the City honours, whose very trade is lies and murder; who buys his daily bread with the blood and tears of men."
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wonder that the women can keep their patience with the ninny. If Miss Clara Pugsley were to use her atrophied brain for five minutes, she would know that no woman with a husband and five children to feed and clothe, and a rent of eighteenpence a week to pay, can save a farthing out of such wages. It is gross insolence of this over-fed, idle, ignorant girl to talk in this fashion to the poor. But this fatuous nonsense is preached all over the country every day in the week. Ladies call it"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": ""
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": ""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Send a philosopher to London, but no poet, says Heine."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Everywhere we are stared down on by wealth and Respectability, while, crammed away in retired lanes and damp alleys, poverty dwells, with her rags and her tears. Heine, like many another thinker, was struck by the wretchedness and poverty of London, hiding away behind the mansions of plutocrats and Respectables. He saw"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "and the poet cried to poor Poverty,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well art thou in the right when thou alliest thyself to vice and crime. Outlawed criminals often bear more humanity in their hearts than those cold, blameless citizens of virtue, in whose white hearts the power of evil is quenched, but also the power of good."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "England Within and Without, a very pungent and witty delineation of the English character from an American point of view. He tells us that the British Philistine is"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "that"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Philistinism pervades the whole society of Great Britain south of the Tweed. Mr. Grant says that this Philistinism is of late growth in England, a phenomenon of the last hundred and fifty years. We cannot find traces of it in the"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "in the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, Ben Jonson, Ford, and Massinger, nor in all the comedies of Shakspere. Master Ford and Master Page, the townsmen of Windsor, are neither snobs nor Philistines. But now, in this wonderful nineteenth century, the Philistines are as obvious as the poor; they swarm and teem everywhere. The dense-minded middle-class man, rich, purse-proud, vulgar, incapable of apprehending anything beyond the range of his own personal experience, comes upon the stage. Enter Pugsley, with a capacious abdomen, a red beef face, set off with cropped side whiskers, a shiny pow, a big voice, and an imposing cough."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He is the butt, it is true, of the courtier and of the travelled man; nevertheless, he is represented as the type of a large class, and as one who is becoming a power in the land, and who is recognised as one of the characteristic elements of its society. He is conscious at once of his importance, and of his social inferiority, and he submits, although with surliness, to the snubbing of his superiors, which sometimes takes a very active and aggressive shape."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ask for Pugsley's"
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "upon the Pugsley lines, I would do all I could to encourage the youngster. He would earn success so easily that he would not care a rap for it. I would go, unbeknown to him, and scatter pins on the ground in front of the office where he intended to apply for a clerkship, so that he might stoop to pick them up, thereby, like the youth in the story, convincing the employer of his thrifty and methodical qualities. His library should be stocked with the lives of self-made men, the biographies of smart bagmen, and works on how to grow money. Portraits of successful merchants should deck the walls of his bedroom, and he should be taught to revere them as patron saints. I warrant such methods of fostering the love of commercial success would have the desired effect. The boy would run away to"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There is less inconvenience in being mad with the mad than by being wise by oneself."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It is among the respectable classes of this vast and happy empire that the greatest profusion of snobs is to be found."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I sojourned perforce for a long while in Villadom, says an enemy of Respectability;"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You can't bide there without getting harm; but the worst of it is, we have no option, many of us; we have to live in Villadom at some time or another in our lives. Thackeray, Guy de Maupassant, George Gissing, and George Moore have given us some clever studies of the kind of folk who live in those genteel residences in the suburbs. Mr. Moore's picture of Ashbourne Crescent, in the last chapter of"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "A Drama in Muslin,"
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "In Ashbourne Crescent there is neither dissent nor Radicalism, but general aversion to all considerations which might disturb belief in all the routine of existence, in all its temporal and spiritual aspects, as it had come amongst them. The fathers and the brothers go to the City every day at nine, the young ladies play tennis, read novels, and beg to be taken to dances at the Kensington Town Hall. On Sunday the air is alive with the clanging of bells, and, in orderly procession, every family proceeds to church, the fathers in all the gravity of umbrellas and prayer-books, the matrons in silk mantles and clumsy, ready-made elastic sides; the girls in all the gaiety of their summer dresses, with lively bustles bobbing; the young men in frock-coats which show off their broad shoulders, as from time to time they pull their tawny moustaches. Each house keeps a cook and housemaid, and on Sunday afternoons, when the skies are flushed with sunset, and the outlines of this human warren grow harshly distinct--black lines upon pale red--these are seen walking arm-in-arm away towards a distant park with their young men.... And that Ashbourne Crescent, with its bright brass knockers, its white-capped maidservants, and spotless oilcloths, will in the dim future pass away before some great tide of revolution that is now gathering strength far away, deep down and out of sight in the heart of a nation, is probable enough; but it is certainly now, in all its cheapness and vulgarity, more than anything else representative, though the length and breadth of the land be searched, of the genius of Empire that has been glorious through the long tale that nine hundred years have to tell."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "John Halifax,"
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "of the afternoon promenade are mostly the wives and daughters of Villadom. They do not know how largely responsible they are for that nocturnal orgy of the streets when they are snug in their luxurious drawing-rooms. It is the fetish-worship of Respectability that makes thousands of women redundant, drives some to the streets, and condemns others to withered celibacy. Men realise that the Respectable daughters of Villadom are luxuries that they cannot afford to maintain, in early life, at least; and the _demi-monde_ know this, too. As Mr. W. R. Greg wrote:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "While the _monde_ has been deteriorating, the _demi-monde_ has been improving; as the one has grown stupider and costlier, the other has grown, more attractive, more decorous, and more easy. The ladies _there_ are now often as clever and amusing, usually more beautiful, and not infrequently (in external demeanour, at least,) as modest, as their rivals in more recognised society."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": ""
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "and"
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Men, and still more women, who lift themselves above the ordinary standard by their philosophical tastes and speculations, may indeed be accounted fortunate if they escape calumny or obloquy from general society."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mankind is an ass, who kicks those who endeavour to take off his panniers,"
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Douglas, was persecuted and turned out of the ministry by Scotch Respectables for writing a play to amuse and instruct his fellow men; and Dr. Alexander Carlyle was threatened with a prosecution for standing by Home, his friend. Religious Respectability persecuted the devout Hannah More for instructing the children of the poor. Moneyed Respectability hanged John Brown, mobbed Theodore Parker, and threatened to shoot Ernestine Rose for endeavouring to free negro slaves. Shelley, one of the humanest souls who ever lived, was driven from Eton by respectable young cads, expelled from Oxford by Respectability, and banished to another country. Byron, who taught men, by brave precept and example to love liberty, was reviled, slandered, and forced to live abroad. Walt Whitman, for showing men the beauty and purity of the reproductive function, degraded and assailed by Respectability, was"
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I can bear it no longer, cries Thackeray,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Carlyle calls England"
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I announce a life that shall be copious, vehement, spiritual, bold."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "and even to go to the extreme of asserting that we could well dispense with much of it. The latter-day Anglo-Saxon, who thinks without thought, has for himself a very clear and satisfying idea of civilisation. Emerson, on the other hand, remarks that"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "and that"
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "slowly and painfully must we climb the stages till we cease to obey the blind dictates of instinctive impulse and to base our codes on the reigning opinions of the irrational mass. It is hardly needful to reiterate even one of the preliminary conclusions of all philosophers and humanists to prove that most men have no reasoned views upon the conduct of life. Seneca says that"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The veracity of Swift's aphorism that most men have as much turn for flying as for thinking, and of Carlyle's laconic"
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "he is no less absurd than those who fawn around the lackeys of a court. Our noble lords are not of one type, as our common people are not of one cast, though in many rude examples of nobility we can trace the basic elements of ruffianism, and see the bestial fruits thereof. What most concerns us is the question whether a society that grants titles to its successful money-grabbers is clean-purged of its antique barbarism. An academical diploma conferred upon a teacher of the arts or sciences is possibly one means by which the respectful heed of the uncultured is secured for new doctrine. For the one who appends certain characters to his signature will be held in esteem by the many as a man worth hearing. Even in the matter of degrees given to scholars of distinction, we too often discover that such award fosters moral and mental deterioration, and that it narrows and mars the career of thinkers who are elevated to a throne of authority. Our laureates must need be eminently wary in their main theories, though they may pipe an undernote of revolt in the sequestered grove, to ease their souls of the sting of the stultifying penalty of vulgar rank. Yes, titles of all kinds seem to have a tendency to degrade; and the sun of courtly favour often withers the real and aids the growth of the spurious nobility."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Brave old Samuel,"
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "These be the men we are told to look up to, said a tattered plebeian, whose eyes had been blasted by the hunting magistrate who was riding on other men's land. But that we do"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "our rich, idle folk with an avid awe is undoubted. Few persons in a town are especially interested in hearing that Mr. Herbert Spencer is there on a visit; but we are most of us anxious to shake hands with a prize-fighter, or the"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Jubilee Plunger,"
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The fop of Charles's time, says Leslie, in Mr. Mallock's"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "New Republic,"
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Life without industry is guilt; industry without art is brutality. Now, in the push and drive of industry at the close of this century it is as hard for myriads to keep the soul alive, as it is for many thousands to find food for the body. The trader who makes Mammon his idol, who thinks money, and spends his wealth irrationally, brutalises life. But for the others, let us rather pity and try to amend the condition of those who cannot, in plain terms,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There are strong-minded and somewhat exceptional tradesmen who can shake off the dust of the warehouse, and spend the hours of freedom in the cultivation of the intellect. There are men of business who do excellent work in art and science, while their jaded associates are satisfying their purely animal wants. The question is--Can a man live the higher life, and _succeed_ in the worldly meaning of prosperity? Men do not grow money by storing the brain with knowledge, and the merchant who ponders upon a phase of evolution, or murmurs a rhythm of Tennyson while he is at the ledger, will most probably be an indifferent money-maker. Lamb's _Good Clerk_, you will remember,"
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The superior worth of simplicity of life, the enervating and demoralising effects of the trammels and hypocrisies of artificial society, are ideas which have never been entirely absent from cultivated minds since Rousseau wrote; and they will in time produce their due effect, though at present needing to be asserted by deeds, for words, on this subject, have nearly exhausted their power."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Intellectual Life :"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Are the Philistines to have all the talk to themselves for ever; are they to rehearse their stupid old platitudes without the least fear of contradiction? How long, O Lord, how long?"
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "novels. Again, we should rejoice to learn that a factory worker, who has taught himself to read at the age of forty, is studying Mr. Spencer's"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "First Principles."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Perhaps so; but for the nonce, we mostly plod on in that"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "which we are wont to describe as"
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "With sallow faces and twisted bodies, and one of their shoulders a little forced up by perpetual bending at work over a table ... they all belonged to the army of poor threadbare devils who vegetate frugally in a mean little plaster-house, with a flower bed for a garden."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "England Without and Within. He tells of faces that had probably"
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Our society, says M. Taine,"
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Respect is often paid in proportion as it is claimed."
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Pericles should be taught to boys:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "This diabolical invention of gentility,"
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Since every Jack became a gentleman, there's many a gentle person made a Jack,"
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Foundations of Belief."
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Social Evolution or in Drummond's"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ascent of Man, good as those simple souls are, that will make the dominant public opinion of the next half century. Nor are the rank-and-file of the clergy--of all denominations--in many instances qualified to engage effectively in this controversy. Their pulpit science has long been a by-word. Unless some defenders of the orthodox position abler than those that have yet appeared can be found, the rationalists will be believed when they boast, as our author does, that they hold a"
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Social Evolution ; the second of"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The Ascent of Man ; the third, of"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The Foundations of Belief. In completely discrediting the two first of these three works, Mr. Cecil's task has been easy, and he has shown considerable skill in accomplishing it. If we take Mr. Kidd's"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Social Evolution"
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ascent of Man; and it is in his criticism of this that Mr. Cecil shows himself at his best. Had he only been less destitute of the rudiments of good behaviour and good feeling, we should have had little but commendation to bestow on the manner in which he exposes Mr. Drummond's absurd justifications of the ways of God to man, and the hopeless inaccuracies of his theories as to altruism, and"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Few books in the long run do more harm than such books as"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The Ascent of Man."
}
]
|
49263 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Language of this kind is distinctly provocative, but it may be found bracing enough to the energetic rejector of scientific compromise. Whatever"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Pseudo-Philosophy"
}
]
|
681611 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Meaning what?"
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ah, if we only had a little child,"
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "O Queen, be cheerful, for the dearest wish of your heart will be granted you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Who is that?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Look behind you, croaked the voice,"
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And do you tell me, Master Frog, said she,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It is to have a little small child of your own,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Very well, the Frog went on,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I do,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Those green leaves will fade, said the Frog,"
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Never was there such a beautiful child,"
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What shall her name be?"
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She shall be called Briar-Rose,"
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Be merry, my lords and ladies, cried the voice."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Laugh while you may, but remember that tears may follow laughter."
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There's one, said she, with a harsh laugh,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "For, said he,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am sure you are very welcome."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Is it so, indeed? said the thirteenth fairy."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am not too late, then, though the feast is all but done. I shall eat off silver while my sisters eat off gold, and there is no curiously-shaped casket for me. No matter, I am content, because I am in time, and I shall dower the Princess with the gift which I have brought for her!"
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Queen, said she,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I will begin. My gift to the Princess Briar-Rose is the gift of Beauty. She shall have eyes like stars, and hair as bright as the sunshine of the spring day on which she was born, and cheeks as fresh and fair as the petals of the flower from which she takes her name. None shall surpass her in loveliness."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "After Beauty, Wit. The Princess shall be cleverer than any ordinary mortal could ever hope to be."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I give her Virtue,"
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Have you all finished? said she."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Hear, then, my wish. On the day when she reaches her fifteenth birthday, the Princess shall prick her finger with the spindle of a spinning-wheel, and shall immediately die!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, no! Have pity! she cried."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Call down your dreadful fate on my head if you will, but do not harm this innocent child."
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Stay your hand, O King, lest even worse befall. No mortal may strike at a fairy and go unpunished. And, for the rest, take comfort, for your daughter shall not die!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My gift is still to come, she continued."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "As far as I can, I will undo the mischief which my sister has done. It is true that I have not the power to prevent altogether what she has decreed. The Princess shall, indeed, prick her finger with the spindle of the spinning-wheel on the day when she attains her fifteenth year; but instead of dying she shall fall into a deep sleep; and this sleep shall last for a hundred years, and when that time is past, a King's son shall come to waken her."
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, said he,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I have, answered the venerable wizard."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My arts have not failed me!"
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, of course! said he."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How is it that I did not myself think of such a simple solution? It seems to me, Wizard, that you have easily earned your thousand crowns!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ah, Majesty, the wizard made answer,"
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Bring out your spinning-wheels. Bring out your spinning-wheels!"
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I've had my wheel for twenty years, said one woman,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Five silver crowns my wheel cost my good man last Candlemass, said another,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What is a wheel if the burning of it saves our little Princess? quoth a third."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Come, cheer up, Mother, the King has reason for what he does and he will not see us want."
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Come, come, my love, said the King,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How can I help thinking about it? the Queen answered."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have not been able to get it out of my mind for fifteen years, and now that the day has come I am afraid."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Make your mind easy, said the King."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Nothing is going to happen. Why, there's not a spinning-wheel within a hundred miles. I have taken good care of that!"
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good-morrow, Motherkin, said the Princess."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What are you doing?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am spinning, my pretty child,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Spinning? asked the Princess."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, do let me see! What is that thing which goes round so merrily?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That is the spinning-wheel, said the old woman."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, child, you speak as though you had never seen such a thing before."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Indeed, I have not, said the Princess."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How interesting it is! I wonder whether I could do it as well as you. Will you let me try?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why, of course, said the old woman,"
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, no, said a third."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That castle is the home of a giant, and all the people in these parts are very much afraid of him, so I have been told, because he steals their cattle and their crops, and even carries off their children to be his servants. And they cannot go to the rescue of those he has imprisoned in this way, because of the forest all round the castle, which is so dense that nobody can force his way through."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Fifty years ago, my Prince, said he,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My father said that years before he himself was born a King and Queen lived in the castle with their daughter, the most beautiful Princess that ever was seen. In some way or other they angered the fairies, who put a spell upon the place and upon every one within it, so that they fell into a deep sleep. My father said that this sleep would last a hundred years, but at the end of that time a King's son should come and waken the beautiful Princess and make her his bride."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Show me the way to the castle, for I will take this adventure upon me."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I have not yet told you all, my Prince. Many are the young men who have tried to force their way through the thick wood that guards the enchanted castle. Each of them thought that he, and he alone, was destined to awaken the Sleeping Beauty, and each of them set out with high hopes; but none of them all came back, and their bones, whitened by the wind and rain, lie among the thorns of the thick hedge, a fearful warning to the venturesome. I pray you, therefore, my Prince, do nothing rash, but think well before you take upon yourself this perilous quest."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What, cried the Prince with flashing eyes,"
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Have I come so far to turn back now? he thought."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "These others who have died were brave men, and though they failed, with a courage as great as theirs I may succeed."
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Is it you, my Prince? she said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How long you have kept me waiting!"
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Take that, cried the cook, giving the scullion the clout she had promised a hundred years before."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Take that for a lazy knave."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Goodness, yawned the maid who had been plucking the black hen;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I wonder what made me drop off to sleep like that? Well, well, it's to be hoped the cook didn't see me!"
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Dear me! said the servant who was washing the dishes;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I do believe I have been to sleep with this crock in my hand. It's a mercy I didn't let it fall!"
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It was the heat, they all said to each other."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The sun is very hot for this time of year."
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Your Majesty was saying . . . ?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I was saying . . . said the King."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What was I saying? And he stretched out his arms and yawned."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I crave your pardon, my lords. I do believe I've been asleep. Heigho! but my joints are stiff."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It was but an after-dinner nap, said the Prime Minister."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Your Majesty is overspent with the hard hunting yesterday. Is it your Majesty's will that we should proceed with our business, or shall the Council rise until to-morrow?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Go on, my lords, go on, cried the King heartily."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My little nap has wonderfully refreshed me. What say you, shall we pass that bill we were discussing a few minutes ago?"
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How great their courage was, she sighed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, if only I could bring them back to life."
}
]
|
25451 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Bless my soul! bless my soul!"
}
]
|
312315 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What's the matter?"
}
]
|
501239 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She is wondrous gentle with the sick, Benedict--"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I Am the Master's!"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Captain Alden"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Labbayk!"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Sons of the Prophet, Slay!"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Where There Is None but Allah."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Thálassa! Thálassa!"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Business! he growled."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The business could have gone on without me! he added, bitterly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And, after all, what's any business, compared to _life_?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "A little more money, maybe, when I don't know what to do with what I've got already! A few more figures on a checkbook--and the heart dying in me!"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Rrisa!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Bring the evening food and drink,"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Tell me, Rrisa, he commanded, still speaking in Arabic,"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How dost thou name that place, Rrisa?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I cannot say, Master,"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Master, I cannot say."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Thou knowest the name of the place where thou wast born?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, what is it?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "A tent, a hut? A village, a town, a city?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A city, Master. A great city, indeed. But its name I may not tell you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The map, here, shows nothing, Rrisa. And of a surety, the makers of maps do not lie,"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thou wilt not say they lie, son of Islam, eh?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Not of choice, perhaps, _M'almé_, the Mussulman replied."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But if the camel hath not drunk of the waters of the oasis, how can he know that they be sweet? These _Nasara_ (Christian) makers of maps, what can they know of my people or my land?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Dost thou mean to tell me no man can pass beyond the desert rim, and enter the middle parts of Arabia?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I said not so, Master,"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not all men, true, the Master resumed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The Turks--I know they enter, though hated. But have no other foreign men ever seen the interior?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Of course. But I am speaking now of men of the _Nasara_ faith. How of them? Tell me, thou!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You are of the _Nasara, M'almé!_ Do not make me answer this! You, having saved my life, own that life. It is yours. _Ana bermil illi bedakea!_ (I obey your every command!) But do not ask me this! My head is at your feet. But let us speak of other things, O Master!"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It is my will that thou speak to me and declare this thing, Rrisa, said he, decisively."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Say, thou, hath no man of the _Nasara_ faith ever penetrated as far as to the place of thy birth?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ah, so? exclaimed the Master, a touch of eagerness in his grave, impassive voice."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Who were they?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Two of the French blood, Master, and one of the Russian."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And what happened to them, then?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They--died, Master."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Thou dost mean, thy people did slay them?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They died, all three, repeated Rrisa, in even tones."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The jackals devoured them and the bones remained. Those bones, I think, are still there. In our dry country--bones remain, long."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hm! Yea, so it is! But, tell me, thou, is it true that in thy country the folk slay all _Nasara_ they lay hands on, by cutting with a sharp knife? Cutting the stomach, so?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Since you do force me to speak, against my will, _M'almé_--you being of the _Nasara_ blood--I will declare the truth. Yea, that is so."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A pleasant custom, surely! And why always in the stomach? Why do they never stab or cut like other races?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There are no bones in the stomach, to dull the edges of the knives, _M'almé_."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Quite practical, that idea!"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Your God is not my God, Master, said he, impersonally."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, the God of your people is not the God of mine. We have our own; and the land is ours, too. None of the _Nasara_ may come thither, and live. Three came, that I have heard of, and--they died. I crave my Master's bidding to depart."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Presently, yea, the Master answered."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But I have one more question for thee. If I were to take thee, and go to thy land, but were not to ask thy help there--if I were not to ask thee to guide me nor yet to betray any secret--wouldst thou play the traitor to me, and deliver me up to thy people?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My head is at your feet, _M'almé_. So long as you did not ask me to do such things as would be unlawful in the eyes of Allah and the Prophet, and seek to force me to them, this hand of mine would wither before it would be raised against the preserver of my life! I pray you, _M'almé_, let me go!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I grant it. _Ru'c'h halla!_"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "TO PARADISE--OR HELL"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There's where it is, he muttered."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Not five miles from here! It's there, and I've got to have it. There--a thing that can't be bought! There--a thing that must be mine!"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The Chicago mail-plane, just getting in, he commented."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "In half an hour, the Paris plane starts from the Cortlandt Street aero-tower. And beyond Paris lies Constantinople; and beyond that, Arabia--the East! Men are going out that way, tonight! And I--stick here like an old, done relic, cooped in _Niss'rosh_--imprisoned in this steel and glass cage of my own making!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Number, please?"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "By Allah! This sort of thing's not going to go on any longer! Not if I die stopping it!"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hello, hello! called he."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That you, Bohannan?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, sounded the answer."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Of course I know who _you_ are. There's only one voice like yours in New York. Where are you?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "In prison."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No! Prison? For the Lord's sake!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No; for conventionality's sake. Not legally, you understand. Not even an adventure as exciting as that has happened to me. But constructively in jail. _De facto_, as it were. It's all the same thing."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Up there in that observatory thing of yours, are you?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes; and I want to see you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "When?"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's a concession, isn't it? The sealed gates that no one else ever passes, at night, are opened to you. It's very important. Be here in fifteen minutes you say? First-rate! Don't fail me. Good-bye!"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "By Allah! he exclaimed, new notes in his voice."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What if--what if it _could_ be, after all?"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "M.M., a Médaille Militaire. A third showed him the"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "D.F.C.,"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "After these, he mused,"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We've been through some wonderful times together, old pal, you and I, said he."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We thought it was all over, didn't we, for a while? But it's not! Life's not done, yet. It's maybe just beginning! We're going out on the long trek, _again_!"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Bohannan! God, but I'm glad to see you!"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, what's doing now? demanded he, fixing blue eyes on his host. He produced a cigarette and lighted it, inhaled smoke deeply and blew a thin gray cloud toward the ceiling."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Something big, eh? by the way you routed me out of a poker-game where I was already forty-seven dollars and a half to the good. You don't usually call a fellow, that way, unless there's something in the wind!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There is, now."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Big?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Very."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "So? The newcomer's eyes fell on the pistol."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, that looks like action, all right. Hope to heaven it _is_! I've been boring myself and everybody else to death, the past three months. What's up? Duel, maybe?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes. That's just it, Bohannan. A duel."
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Duel? Lord's sake, man! With whom?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "With Fate. Now, listen! The Master's tones became more animated. A little of the inward fires had begun to burn through his self-restraint."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Listen to me, and not a word till I'm done! You're dryrotting for life, man. Dying for it, gasping for it, eating your heart out for it! So am I. So are twenty-five or thirty men we know, between us, in this city. That's all true, eh?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Some!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes! We wouldn't have to go outside New York to find at least twenty-five or thirty in the same box we're in. All men who've been through trench work, air work, life-and-death work on various fronts. Men of independent means. Men to whom office work and club life and all this petty stuff, here, is like dish-water after champagne! Dare-devils, all of them, that wouldn't stop at the gates of Hell!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The gates of Hell? demanded Bohannan, his brow wrinkling with glad astonishment."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What d'you mean by that, now?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Just what I say! It's possible to gather together a kind of unofficial, _sub rosa_, private little Foreign Legion of our own, Bohannan--all battle-scarred men, all men with at least one decoration and some with half a dozen. With that Legion, nothing would be impossible!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We've all done the conventional thing, long enough. Now we're going to do the unconventional thing. We've been all through the known. Now we're going after the unknown. And Hell is liable to be no name for it, I tell you that!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Tell me more! he commanded."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What are we going to do?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Going to see the stuff that's in us, and in twenty-five or thirty more of our kind. The stuff, the backbone, the heart that's in you, Bohannan! That's in me! In all of us!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Great, great! That's me! Bohannan's cigarette smoldered, unheeded, in his fingers. The soul of him was thrilling with great visions."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'm with you! Whither bound?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "To Paradise--or Hell!"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Major Bohannan and I have chosen you and have invited you here because we believe every man in this room is precisely the kind of man I have been defining. We believe you are like ourselves, dying of boredom, eager for adventure; and willing to undergo military discipline, swear secrecy, pledge honor and risk life itself, provided the adventure be daring enough, the reward promising enough. If there is anyone here present who is unwilling to subscribe to what I have said, so far, let him withdraw."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Go on! Go on--tell us more!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Absolute obedience to me is to be the first rule, continued the Master."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The second is to be sobriety. There shall be no drinking, carousing, or gambling. This is not to be a vulgar, swashbuckling, privateering revel, but--"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I did not bring you up, sir, the Arab was saying, in broken English."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You cannot come in! How did you get here?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'm not in the habit of giving explanations to subordinates, or of bandying words with them, replied the man, in a clear, rather high-pitched but very determined voice. The company, gazing at him, saw a slight, well-knit figure of middle height or a little less, in aviator's togs."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'm here to see your master, my good fellow, not you!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Let him come in!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If he comes as a friend and helper, uninvited though he be, we welcome him. If as an enemy, traitor, or spy, we can deal justice to him in short order. Sir, advance!"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Your name, sir?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Captain Alfred Alden, of the R.A.F."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Royal Air Force man, eh? Are you prepared to prove that?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If you're not, well--this won't be exactly a salubrious altitude for you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I have my papers, my licenses, my commission."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "With you here?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, sir."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Very well, answered the Master,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I will examine them in due time. English, American, or--?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am a Canadian. answered the aviator."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I have seen nearly two years' active service. I rank as an ace. I bear three wounds and have been cited several times. I have the Distinguished Service Cross. What more need I tell you, sir?"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How did you come here? It's obvious my man didn't bring you up."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I came in my own plane, sir, the stranger answered, in a dead hush of stillness."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It just now landed on the roof of this building. If you will draw the curtains, there behind you, I believe you can see it for yourself."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I heard no engine."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I volplaned in. I don't say this to boast sir, but I can handle the average plane as accurately as most men handle their own fingers."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Were you invited to attend this meeting by either Major Bohannan or by me?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, sir, I was not."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Then, why are you here?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why am I here? For exactly the same reason that all the rest are here, sir! The aviator swept his arm comprehensively at the ranks of eagerly listening men."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "To resume active service. To get back to duty. To live, again! In short, to join this expedition and to share all its adventures!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hm! Either that, or to interfere with us."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Not the latter, sir! I swear that!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How did you know there was going to be an expedition, at all?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I know many things. Some may be useful to you all. I am offering you my skill and knowledge, such as they may be, without any thought or hope of reward."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Because I am tired of life. Because I want--must have--the freedom of the open roads, the inspiration of some great adventure! Surely, you understand."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, if what you say is true, and you are not a spy. Show us your face, sir!"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What does all this mean, sir? demanded the Master, sharply."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why the mask?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Is that a necessary question, sir? replied the aviator, while a buzz of curiosity and suspicion rose."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You have seen many such during the war and since its close."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Badly disfigured, are you?"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We can't tolerate what disgusts, even if its qualities be excellent. In exposing myself to you, sir, I should certainly be insuring my rejection. But what you cannot see, what you can only imagine, will not make you refuse me."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Is it so very bad, sir?"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Unmasked, I bear no resemblance whatever to a man, but rather to some ghastly, drug-inspired dream or nightmare of an Oriental Dante. The fact that I have sacrificed my human appearance in the Great Cause cannot overcome the shrinking aversion that normal men would feel, if they could see me. I say only this, that my mutilation is indescribable. As the officer and gentleman I know you to be, you won't ask me to expose this horror!"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "In case of my death, the authority falls on Major Bohannan. He is today the only man who knows my plans, and with whom I have had any discussion. If we both are killed, then you can elect your own leader. But so long as either of us lives, you have no authority and no redress. I hope that's perfectly understood. Does any man wish to withdraw?"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I shall examine his credentials. If he turns out to be a spy--well, life will be short, for him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You are now one of us, sir. You become the thirtieth member of a little group of as brave men, as daring and determined fighters as can be found in America or in the world--all tried and tempered by the fires of war; all decorated for conspicuous valor; all ready to follow me to the ends of the earth and die, if need be; all eager to share in an undertaking as yet unknown to them, but one that promises to be the most extraordinary adventure ever undertaken on this planet. You understand all that, sir?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I do!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Raise your right hand, sir."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "All the others, too!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Swear allegiance to me, fidelity, secrecy, courage, obedience. On the thing you hold most dear, your honor as fighting-men, swear it!"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Commissary will be furnished. Each man is to wear his campaign equipment--his uniform and such kit as he can store in a rucksack. Bring small-arms and ammunition. In addition, I will furnish bombing material and six Lewis guns, with ammunition, also other materials of which I shall now say nothing. These things will be transported to the proper place without labor on your part. I think I have made the outlines of the matter reasonably clear to every man present."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Our orders, sir? asked a voice with a French accent, down the table."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Are we to have no precise orders before leaving this room?"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Come forward now, as I call your names, and receive what I shall give you."
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Adams--Auchincloss--Brodeur--Cracowicz--Daimamoto--Emilio--Frazier--"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Have you no orders for me, sir?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "None, sir."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "All the others--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You are different. The Master set hands on his hips, and coldly studied this strange figure."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The others have had their orders carefully worked out for them, prepared, synchronized. You have come, so to speak, as an extemporization, an auxiliary; you will add one more unit to the flyers in the expedition, of which there are nine aces, including Major Bohannan here. The others are now on their way to their lodgings, to study their instructions, to memorize, and prepare to carry them out. You are to remain here, with Major Bohannan and with me."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Until what time, sir?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Until we start. You will be under continual surveillance. If you make any attempt to communicate in any way with anyone outside my apartment, it will be the last thing you will ever do. You will receive no other warning. Tomorrow night you will accompany us. Till then, you remain my--guest."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Very well, sir, he accepted."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But, my machine?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I will attend to your machine."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I should hate to leave it there on the roof."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It will not be left on the roof."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I don't understand, exactly--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There will be very many things you do not understand before this expedition is over and done with. I need say no more."
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now, said he,"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A on your map. Put on rucksack and discard suit-case, which, of course, is to have no identifying marks. Proceed along path to point"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "B,"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Even now, as your partner in this enterprise--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My lieutenant,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "As second in command, amended Bohannan, irritably,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'm not wholly convinced this is the correct procedure. He spoke in low tones, covered by the purring exhaust of the launch and by the hiss of swiftly cloven waters."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It looks like unnecessary complication, to me, and avoidable danger."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It is neither, answered the man at the wheel."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What would you have done? What better plan could you have proposed?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You could have built your own flyer, couldn't you? Since money's no object to you, and you don't even know, accurately, how much you've got--nobody can keep track of figures like those--why risk legal interference and international complications at the start, by--"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Again, news of any such operations would have got out. My plans would possibly have been checkmated. In the third place, what you propose would have been tame sport, indeed, as a beginning! Three excellent reasons, my dear Major, why this is positively the only way."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Perhaps. But there's always the chance of failure, now. The guards--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "After your own experience, when that capsule burst in the laboratory, you talk to me about guards?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Suppose one escapes?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And the alarm is sure to be given, in no time. Why didn't you just buy the thing outright?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's not for sale, at any price."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Still--men can't run off with three and a half million dollars' worth of property and with provisions and equipment like that, all ready for a trial trip, without raising Hell. There'll be pursuit--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What with, my dear Bohannan?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's a foolish statement of mine, the last one, I admit, answered the major, as his companion swung the launch a little toward the Jersey shore."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Of course nothing can overhaul us, once we're away. But you know my type of mind weighs every possibility, pro and con. Wireless can fling out a fan of swift aerial police ahead of us from Europe."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How near can anything get to us?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I know it all looks quite simple and obvious, in theory. Nevertheless--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'm beginning to doubt my own wisdom in having chosen you as next in command. There's a bit of doubting Thomas in your ego. It's not too late, yet, for you to turn back. I'll let you, as a special concession. Brodeur will jump at the chance to be your successor."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I stick! he growled."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I've said the last word of this sort you'll ever hear me utter. Full speed ahead--to Paradise--or Hell!"
}
]
|
12265 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Three quarters speed,"
}
]
|
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