In an America that might have been, two war orphans from a divided nation, one in the north and one in the south, meet across a vast battlefield, striking out to forge a future together in the west. It's 1892, the fourth and bloodiest year of the Ci...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The general had taken over the best hotel in town, with the lobby as his command center. Deke's eyes took a few moments to adjust to the dim lamp light after the bright sun of the street. He could see the general himself talking to other officers off to the side of the lobby. Jake led him over to a young man in a smart uniform. Jake actually saluted, so Deke did to.
"Colonel McDonald," Jake said.
"Jake," McDonald greeted him with a smile.
"We're going out to scout that troop concentration."
The man's smile got bigger. "That's good news. I'm glad they sent you."
"This here's Deke," he said, dragging Deke forward. "He's our courier and he needs papers."
Colonel McDonald smiled a tight smile at Deke and held out his hand. After a second of confusion, Deke held out his and they shook. "A pleasure," he said. Deke wondered if it really was.
"Time is short. We can have those cut immediately." He turned and yelled, "Baker!" A short, older, bald man popped up, as if from thin air as best as Deke could tell. "This man needs courier papers immediately."
"Sir!" the man barked, and then he motioned for Deke to follow. They went into the office behind the hotel front desk and from there into rooms in the back that had been converted into work rooms. Deke thought that maybe someone used to live there because there were dark rectangles in the faded wall paper where pictures had hung. Baker led Deke to a man sitting at a desk. The desk was stacked with books and loose paper. Baker, as stiff as before said, "This man needs courier papers."
The elderly, bespectacled man behind the desk looked up with a bored look. "Does he? Well, we can do that." He carefully pulled a book from under a stack of paper and paged through it until he found the end. "Name?"
"Deke Hayden." He had to spell it out for him.
"Unit?"
"Rangers," Deke replied.
"Rangers?" the man frowned.
"The Scouts," Baker said.
"Oh, the Scouts. Yes."
"Duration?"
This stumped everyone for a minute.
Finally Baker said, "Give it three weeks. We can cut him new ones if he needs it."
"Three weeks," the clerk said, and he scribbled it in his book.
"Commanding officer?"
"Jake Hayes," Baker replied.
"Jake?" The man harrumphed and reached behind to a bookshelf and pulled down a book. "That isn't right," he said, as he thumbed through the pages. "Ah, here he is." He put the book back and turned back to the desk.
