Smithers. Good night."

Retreating footsteps sounded outside and then the door was shut as a tall, burly man with a heavily sunburned face stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.

He moved to a wall shelf behind whose gleaming twin rails stood a carafe and glasses and poured himself a drink. He wore khaki trousers, a khaki shirt, open at the neck, with four little stars at the collar, and a strange headgear, like a skullcap with a long crimson brim.

He poured himself a glass of water, drank it with relish, put the glass down, turned—and saw his visitor.

"Omigosh!" he exclaimed, passed a hand over his eyes and looked again. He came halfway across the room, staring as if at a ghost.

"Omigosh!" he breathed again. "Are you real?"

"I begin to wonder," said the little man, rising from his chair. "Who are you?" The unconscious arrogance of years of command was in his voice.

"Since this is my cabin, who in hades are you?" Then, after a silence that endured while the burly man in khaki studied the pale face of the man before him, the stringy ash-blond hair, the tarnished blue coat with its white facings and pinned-up right sleeve he muttered. "Don't tell me. I know."

"I have not the honor," Horatio Nelson replied. "And if you were in any way responsible for plucking me from the admiral's walk of the Victory on the eve of battle, I should greatly appreciate an explanation."

The big man with the stars on his collar came swiftly forward, put a hand on Nelson's shoulder as if to make sure that he was real, and stared at him. As an afterthought he pinched himself hard.

"Square rigged ships in the light of the blast—and Horatio Nelson in my cabin!" he muttered.

"Since you know my name, why do you persist in doubting my reality?" the one-armed admiral asked with a trace of impatience.

Without answering the other went to a wall cupboard, opened it and took out a bottle. He got the pitcher and glasses from the railed shelf and put the collection down on the table in the center of the room.

"Say when," he said. "I think we both need this. I'm Admiral Edward Kirkham of the United States Navy. Your health, Admiral. And don't bother to drink mine. 

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