When we left our story Jancy Hall was preparing to swear her allegiance to the union while her lover Tonio had pledged to destroy the next member of The California Seven.
* * * *
With her right hand on the Bible, Jancy was requested to swear that she would always be faithful to the Union.
Chester let out a sigh of relief, but as he moved away from the closed door, a fellow office worker lumbered up and thumped him on the back. Bud Adams couldn't wait to tell him the joke of the day. "They're saying that the South's economy is so bad they're planning to lay off a dozen spies here at the War Department."
Bud was tall and slick, fast with a comb and fast to confiscate any material deemed detrimental to the war effort. At the moment, he had his usual batch of photographically doctored pictures under his arm and was about to toss them into the parlor stove.
As the first photograph was about to reach the flames, Chester's hand came in to stop it. Pictured was the President standing next to a young girl wearing a pair of men's black boots. The only other thing she wore was a black beret on her head. Chester was quick to comment. "Do you think Mrs. Lincoln is going to put up with this?"
Bud became annoyed. "Don't be stupid. It's just trick photography. Somebody put two pictures together. It just looks as if the two of them were having a sexual relationship. Presidents don't have sexual relationships! What the heck is wrong with you?"
Meanwhile, the door to Sergeant Pokorski's office opened, and Jancy came out in a daze as the rotund soldier kept chatting away. "Believe me, Miss Jancy, people around here are concerned about what General Lee has been saying about winning the war by this summer. He plans to have his Confederate troops in Philadelphia by August."
Jancy wasn't listening, but Chester was. As she walked away, he felt compelled to reply to Pokorski. "Now that's something to worry about. Any guy who wants to be in Philadelphia in August must really want to win this war."
Jancy pulled Chester away before he added something that could get him into trouble. Now together, they entered the Professor's office.
When Jancy spotted Tonio's workbook on the desk, the Professor immediately secured it and explained that it had been given to him to study.
He opened the book and noted the illusions Tonio depicted contained personal statements. "In this sketch, for example, he is posed in the togaed majesty of the Roman Empire and in this other sketch with the naked majesty of his Indian Ancestry."
As Jancy moved closer to the book, the Professor made sure he kept possession of it. "Page after page is filled with multiple images that seem to have crowded together from Tonio's past experiences."
The Professor kept turning. "More pages, more sections depict ancient weapons, flaming arrows, different types of bombs."
Then as some notations appeared, scribbled in Italian, the Professor translated. "Tonio says that on the death of his mother he was exposed to the random collisions of life. He writes, 'Orphaned, I was reared by Indian Shamen who concealed my identity until they could raise me no longer. I was then taken from the Indian holy men to an order of Italian priests and into a monastery where I continued to live in a womb of mystical existence. Struggling to master English, I groped for a new language, one of my own, one expressed best in art and illusion.'"
When tears came to Jancy's eyes, the Professor closed the book. To distract her mind from its contents, he handed her a list of the illusions he felt would be needed in dealing with Sir Richard.
Chester leaned over to read what the Professor had noted. "Illusions and tricks to be used: resurrecting a dead chicken, turning a human into a ghost, sawing a man in half-permanently, and catching a bullet between the teeth."
Chester couldn't believe what he had read. He turned to the Professor. "Have you lost your mind as well?"
The Professor couldn't help but smile. "Trust me! The illusions I have listed are all possible. We shall use them in an attempt to persuade Sir Richard to hire Tonio to enhance his production of Hamlet, thus giving us easier access to whatever records Sir Richard may have concerning the remaining members of Commodore Whitehead's California Seven."
Chester shook his head. "Isn't there some easier way for Tonio to eliminate these men?"
Jancy protested the remark. "Tonio doesn't want to kill them. He wants them to live with memories of his revenge."
The Professor offered a half smile. "I understand that, my dear."
"Then why must you put Tonio's life in such danger?"
The Professor looked deeply into Jancy's eyes. "Dear Child, I have nothing to do with Tonio's being in danger. Once he attacked one of the Seven, his fate was sealed. The six surviving men now know that Tonio is in search of them, so they will be in search of him."
There was a knock at the door and an officer entered. When the Professor nodded that he needed a private moment in his office, Chester and Jancy closed the door behind them.
As they strolled away, they passed the Telegraph Room of the War Office. President Lincoln could be seen through the glass divider, pacing the floor between a dozen operators who were working the keys.
As the President checked the messages coming in from the battlefields, a young messenger brought him a tall glass of blue liquid.
Jancy thought it looked like poison, but Chester said it was Blue Mass and that the President got it from the drugstore down the avenue. "He drinks it all the time to help with his constipation."
As the President sipped the liquid, two young boys came out carrying a dead floor battery from a telegraph. One said, "Old Abe keeps waiting for word about any movement on the front side." The other boy laughed. "Another sip of the blue stuff and he'll get plenty of movement on the backside."
Distressed with the frankness of the boys' comments, Jancy turned to the other direction, only to see the President coming straight at them. She grabbed Chester and they quickly ducked into the waiting room of the nearest office, that of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.
No sooner had the President entered the same office than he lowered himself flat on the couch. Just as suddenly, Secretary Stanton staggered out into the hallway where he sought to overcome one of his frequent wheeze-and-sneeze asthma attacks.
Unaware of Stanton's exit, the President took out his penknife, sharpened his pencil, and started to write. But he stopped to ask, "Edwin, tell me again how you spell emancipation." With no one around except the two of them, crouching in the corner, Jancy poked Chester to answer. "One 'C', one 'P', and one 'T'."
The President nodded without turning. As Jancy eased Chester away from the door, they heard Mr. Lincoln's polite reply. "I thank thee."
Scurrying out of the office, Jancy and Chester were re-joined by Professor Jordan, who took them to his carriage as he explained why the officer had come into his office.
"I have been ordered to meet with Sir Richard Bumgardner at the ruins of Major Raithburn's mansion. Sir Richard thinks my explanation of the Major's death navigated around the facts and that there was no mention of a half breed being involved."