The sergeant reached for a pile of sheets held together by a metal ring. "Name?"

Charles had thought about that carefully. He wanted a name close to his real one, so he'd react naturally when addressed. "Charles May."

"May, May —" The sergeant leafed through the sheets, finally set them aside. In response to Charles's quizzical stare, he said, "Roster of West Point graduates. Division headquarters got it up." He eyed Charles's shabby clothes. "You don't have to worry about being mistook for one of those boys, I guess. Now, any former military service?"

"Wade Hampton Mounted Legion. Later —"

"Wade Hampton is enough." The sergeant wrote. "Highest rank?"

Taking Duncan's advice made him uncomfortable, but he did it. "Corporal."

"Can you prove that?"

"I can't prove anything. My records burned in Richmond."

The sergeant sniffed. "That's damned convenient for you rebs. Well, we can't be choosy. Ever since Chivington settled up with Black Kettle's Cheyennes last year, the damn plains tribes have gone wild."

The sergeant's "settled up" didn't fit the facts as Charles knew them. Near Denver, an emigrant party had been slain by Indians. An ex-preacher, Colonel J. M. Chivington, had mustered Colorado volunteer troops to retaliate against a Cheyenne village at Sand Creek, though there was no evidence that the village chief, Black Kettle, or his people were responsible for the killings. Of the three hundred or so that Chivington's men slew at Sand Creek, all but about seventy-five were women and children. The raid had outraged many people in the country, but the sergeant wasn't one of them.

The dentist's patient shrieked again. "No, sir," the sergeant mused, his pen scratching, "we can't be choosy at all. Got to take pretty near whoever shows up." Another glance at Charles. "Traitors included."

Charles struggled with his anger. He supposed that if he went ahead — and he had to go ahead; what else did he know besides soldiering? — he'd hear plenty of variations on the tune of traitor. He'd better get used to listening without complaint.