Page 17 - Murder on the Dirigible

Murder on the Dirigible

METCALF: Hmm, definitely a sign of the criminal mind. Is that all
you can say, Miss Peabody?

PEABODY: Well, you asked.

OGLETHORPE: Wait a minute. I remember now. Miss MacAllister
was explaining something about the airship, and this Mr. Gross
chimed in with his two cents’ worth. He’s quite an authority on
blimps—or so he says.

GROSS: Not that is what I said.

METCALF: You stay out of this, Gross. You’re not talking. Now, do
go on, Mister—what did you say your name was?

OGLETHORPE: I didn’t, but it’s Oglethorpe. Well, I can’t repeat
his exact words, but he claimed the Germans invented dirigibles and
we Americans would get gas pains if we didn’t do it their way.

METCALF: That does sound like a lot of hot air.

GROSS: Intolerable is this! About the national leadership in the field
of aeronautics no doubt is able to be held: it belongs to the
Fatherland. Ersatz is this ship—an imitation merely is it of the great
Zeppelin dirigible by the Kaiser surrendered—jah, forced to give to
you Americans--at the Great War conclusion.

METCALF: And what makes you so sure of that?

GROSS: In the design of the gondola and in the shape of the main
transverse frames obvious it is.

METCALF: Of course, it would take an expert to know that.

GROSS: Ach! You are a trickster being! No more will I say.

MACALLISTER: Excuse me, Mr. Metcalf. I must tidy up around
here. (picks up object from Fisk’s seat) That’s a funny-looking thing.

OGLETHORPE: (runs to her side, pushing Metcalf aside) Stop!
Don’t touch that thing! Put it down!

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