le."

She stood and looked down at him emptily. "No," she said, "don't get
up. I'm leaving, Major Mauser." He began to rise, to protest, but she
said, her voice curt, "I have seen only one fracas on Telly in my
entire life, and was so repelled that I vowed never to watch again.
However, I am going to make an exception. I am going to follow this
one, and if, as a result of your actions, even a single person meets
death, I wish never to see you again. Do I make myself completely
clear, Major Mauser?"

IX

Marshal Stonewall Cogswell looked impudently around at this staff
officers gathered about the chart table. "Gentlemen," he said, "I
assume you are all familiar with the battle of Chancellorsville?"

No one bothered to answer and he chuckled. "I know what you are
thinking, that had any of you refrained from a thorough study of the
campaigns of Lee and Jackson, he would not be a member of my staff."

The craggy marshal traced with his finger on the great military chart
before them. "Then you will have noticed the similarity of today's
dispensation of forces to that of Joseph Hooker's Army of the Potomac and
Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, on May 2, 1863." He pointed with his
baton. "Our stream, here, would be the Rappahannock, this woods, the
Wilderness. Here would be Fredericksburg and here Chancellorsville."

One of his colonels nodded. "My regiment occupies a position similar
to that of Jubal Early."

"Absolutely correct," the marshal said crisply. "Gentlemen, I repeat,
our troop dispensations, those of Lieutenant General McCord and
myself, are practically identical. Now then, if McCord continues to
move his forces here, across our modern day Rappahannock, he makes the
initial mistake that finally led to the opening which allowed
Jackson's brilliant fifteen-mile flanking march. Any questions, thus
far?"

There were some murmurs, no questions. The accumulated years of
military service of this group of veterans would have totaled into the
hundreds.

"Very interesting, eh?" the marshal pursued. "Jed, your artillery is
massed here. It's a shame that General Jack Altshuler has taken a
commission with Carbonaceous Fuel. We could use his cavalry. He would
be our J.E.B. Stuart, eh?"

Lieutenant Colonel Paul Warren cleared his throat unhappily. "Sir,
Jack Altshuler is the best cavalryman in North America."

"I would be the last to deny it, Paul."

"Yes, sir. And he's fought half his fracases under you, sir."