SCENE ELEVEN THE SAME DAY

"Thank you." Artie answered, clearing his throat with just the slightest note of sarcasm. 'the Watch; The Four: The Companies: L Company, First Company, First born, Littlers, Tutors. W Company. Second Company, Second born, Witnesses, Watchers, Pickets. D Company, Third Company, Third born, Defiants, Defenders, Dreamers. V Company, Fourth Company, Last born, Veterans, Novices, and Plebes." He read as before, then as always before a recital closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and went on reading:

"Whisperin' watches for D'artagnan, who watches for Tin Man, who watches for Scout who watches for Whisperin

Notalkinup watches for Quiet Tommy who watches for Turncoat, who watches for Attache, who watches for Notalkinup

Noseein' watches for Blind Beggar, who watches for Seer, who watches for Travis, who watches for Noseein'

Skeered watches for Buckingham, who watches for Richelieu, who watches for Gascon, who watches for Skeered

Genrls Torry watches for West Pointer who watches for Darius who watches for Alexander, who watches for Genrls Torry

Sojer watches for Athos, who watches for Loyalist who watches for Galahad, who watches for Sojer

Wrigglin watches for Youngster who watches of Doubting Thomas, who watches for Dad, who watches for Wrigglin'

M'hundry watches for Porthos, who watches for Headstrong, who watches for AWOL, who watches for M'hundry

Yowlin', watches for Monster, who watches for Vengeful who watches for Innocent, who watches for Yowlin

Foal watches for Lead Agent who watches for Lunatic, who watches for PrinceOTWM, who watches for Foal

Runnin' watches for No hero who watches for His Grace who watches for Black sheep, who watches for Runnin'

Nohearin watches for Protégé who watches for Cassius, who watches for Brutus who watches for Nohearin

Dutafu watches for Campaigner, who watches for Raider, who watches for Cavalry, who watches for Dutafu

Notelldis watches for Johannes, who watches for Subject, who watches for Emissary, who watches for Notelldis

Shad'o watches for Cyrano, who watches for de Guiche, who watches for Baronet, who watches for Shad'o

Genrls Fraancis Maari"in watches for Lafayette, who watches for Tarleton, who watches for Partisan, who watches for GFM,

All fi" nows watches for Chevalier, who watches for Exigent who watches for Orphan who watches for All fi" nows

Fourahalf watches for Mute, who watches for PlayActor, who watches for Horatio who watches for Fourahalf Torry.

Natterin watches for Grampa Jaimey, who watches for Orator, who watches for Torry who watches for Natterin

Horsy's watches for Old Soldier, who watches for Odysseus who watches for Telemachos, who watches for Horsy's

No botherin' watches for SAW, who watches for Federal, who watches for Gallant who watches for No botherin,

Saddest watches for Reckless, who watches for Richman's Grandson, who watches for JimmyR, who watches for Saddest'

Artemus read. But more and more of the listed "brothers' names were catching him off guard and catching at his strong, warm voice as well. Looking away for a moment, the actor blinked hard and swallowed. Then he gratefully accepted and sipped from the flask Jemmy offered him. Miguel had just been wordlessly indicating that none of them should chance drinking the water that had been in either of the wards since the previous evening. "Go, go ahead, Jemmy, go on reading it..." Artie said when he got his voice working again.

The North Carolinian demurred, and in process of taking his own drink, he glanced across the room and almost dropped the flask, gasping. "It's working! Fellows, it's working! Take a gander at that!" Complying, his colleagues were, despite their best hopes, taken aback. AcroSsthe playroom, almost as if they were walking in from the hallway beyond, a crowd of male figures were gathering. And as the ledger page suggested, they were "arriving" in groups of four at a time. They were also of four clearly distinct ages, small children, seeming to be between one and a half and six at first glance, men who looked to range in ages between thirty and fifty, youths who seemed to be anywhere between eighteen and twenty nine, and boys who appeared to range in ages between seven and seventeen.

They owned a greatly varied wardrobe as well. A majority of the younger brothers wore different versions of the kind of clothing boys prefer, well worn, in great need of mending but not ragged, and comfortable with the requisite collection of pockets, for collecting things. Some of the boys and men seemed to be dressed for school, for church, or some formal occasion. Another segment were uniformed, in Regular Army, cavalry mostly, West Point cadet and boarding school style. Another group of the older brothers seemed to be in theatrical costumes, except, Artie, thought, they wore 16th, 17th and 18th century cloaks and tunics, waistcoats and leggings, tricorns, wigs, trews and doublets as if there was nothing odd in the least about it. And the remaining brothers clearly emulated Jim West's "East Coast nabob's grandson' style, except for the jackets which all three colleagues knew he divested himself of at the first opportunity that arose.

And there were other, wider differences in their appearance. They were redheads, sandy blonds, towheads and dark haired, they were wiry, squarish, compactly built in some cases, and tall, broad shouldered, whip thin, even lanky in others. Their features had more in common, in most cases with their Oldest brother's, being sharply drawn, virile and striking, with a decided 'randolph stamp". And while it was harder to tell, their eye color also seemed to run a gamut of a similar, changeable nature to Jim's, Artie thought, looking grey, grey-blue, grey green, green-hazel, and not unexpectedly, 'true Randolph-green, green as grass. There was one more all-inclusive characteristic or behavior they shared.

Standing together, they manifestly looked out for each other. In each four, the youngest held either the hand or the arm of the eldest; while the eldest kept only their eyes on the youths, clearly not wishing to injure their pride. Those youths in their turn monitored the boys standing with them, who seemed leSsthan happy with that. And in their turn, the boys intently guarded the youngest, either with one hand on a small shoulder or by taking an openly defensive stance. Each group of four in fact kept so close together, it was as if an invisible cord ran from one to the next. They gave every impression of being not wholly separate but quadrupled entities. And in each small band, the seeming youngest held the greatest air of authority, while the other three deferred to him in every look and each gesture they made

" Wait, maybe we should stop calling the role for a second." Artemus suggested, still studying the brothers and their wide ranging differences.

"Why?" both Miguel and Jemmy asked, both canting their heads in such a similar fashion it almost made Artie laugh aloud, when he looked their way.

"Because I don't know how we can be seeing what we're seeing, that's why!" the former actor told them. "And as worried sick about Jim as I am right now, as worn out as I am, I'm wondering if I'm having some kind of hallucination. And that's because I really don't know how we CAN be seeing these fellows… You both are seeing them, right?"

"Since Jemison already answered that by calling our attention to the Companies," Miguel replied."I assume you're really asking me that question, Mr. Gordon. Yes, I am indeed seeing the room filling with groups of four male figures, just as the roster suggests. And I'm seeing them as they've described themselve previously, in four distinct age groups. Now, as to the mechanism by which this is occurring. There are any number of possibilities, the least likely of which is the three of us having precisely the same hallucination."

"Or dream, either." Jemmy offered. "I was wondering about that myself, Artemus. But frankly I've never known any group of persons to have exactly the same waking experiences, much less the same experiences when they're sleeping or unconscious."

"But we were all drugged, on top of having that tearing gas thrown at us in the ward." Artie protested.

"And yet the names on the roster are calling up these children, boys, youths and men." Miguel countered. "How could our adversary plan for something we've never thought of and perhaps should have?"

"I don't know that, either." Artie shrugged. "But I'm not sure of much, right now, so don't be surprised to hear me say that, Doctor. I just don't see how…"

" 'top!" the youngest appearing member of the last group of four unhappily shouted, getting all three men's attention. This was a thin, pale faced, strawberry blond child of no more than three and a half, so far as the team could tell. " 'top dis fightin', Temus, Mee-gel, plees! Wees veryiest many much needs yous be readin dat nows!"

"He's right!" the next oldest brother, a wiry copper redhead with blazing green eyes set in a sharp features face in that grouping called out, frowning. "You can't just stop an' get into another danged wrangle when you're not even half done with the rotation lists!"

"We thought you had it figured, damn it, Actor!" the next oldest a pale, sturdy redheaded youth shouted. "You said you knew why we wrote it out and left it where you couldn't miss it! And now you're just stopping, cause you don't get it?"

"They're all right, Artemus." the fourth brother in that group added, a wiry red-chestnut haired, sharp featured man with changeable eyes, shaking his head in a very Westian manner. "You can't stop in the middle of getting this working when we REALLY need this to get working."

"But it looks like I was wrong, which you may or may not know how much I hate admitting." Artie answered, crossing the room to face the fourth of these brothers, who looked like a cross between hazel eyed, sandy haired Jemmy and dark haired, bright eyed Jim. "It looks like I don't understand how this works at all. How on earth can I… can we be seeing all of you? How?"

"We want you to. No, we need you to see us." the fourth brother answered. "It's just that simple and just that complicated, Artemus. We need to be seen by people we can trust not to take us out this madhouse and toss us right into another, sunnier, cleaner one. And all of the Companies agreed we need this now. And you have no idea, just no idea at all how easy it never has been to get the Companies to agree on much of anything, except the Ls' safety, and Oldest', too, of course."

"You need us to call you up. I was pretty sure I got that part of the message in the "bottle"." Artie agreed. "But … "

"Alright, the quick and dirty answer, cause we don't have time for the long one:" the oldest appearing brother nodded. "We've only emerged like this before now when Oldest was sound asleep and not even dreaming. We've almost never taken the chance otherwise. Well, maybe a handful at a time, especially when the Ws knew the Ls really needed some play time. But now we're amongst friends, mostly. Now we need to … be known, to be … real, for lack of a better word, for our friends to see, to understand us better. So we were talking about something like this for quite a few weeks, just lately. And then…"

"All hell broke loose." Artie finished the sentence, the way he was used to doing for Jim. "So you're … Reckless?"

"That's what my L named me." the chestnut haired man nodded. "I'm trying not to live up to that, lately. Can you go back to reading the lists off now?"

"Sure. I just wondered one thing…"Artemus nodded.

"Artemus, you always just wonder one thing!" the Veteran-brother sighed. "What?"

"Why do you all look … different? And why are some of the Veterans … in period costumes?" the agent asked.

"That was TWO things!" the redhead exclaimed, glaring at Artie . "We look the way the Ls see us, mostly. And we look the way we see ourselves. What's your third question?"

"You're apparently different ages because…?" Artie half chuckled.

"Because the idiots in the rest of the world don't get that the Ls were here before any of the rest of us. And even if they got that, they wouldn't get that the Ls look the way they did when the whole shootin' match started. And the Companies never wanted or needed to change that." The D Company brother answered. "Now, will you go on back to reading off the lists?"

"Well, yes I think we'd best continue." Miguel agreed, mentally sitting on his "few thousand questions for them, for now". Nodding, Artie wordlessly passed him the list. Smiling and nodding to the increasing group of "brothers' acroSsthe room, the small doctor began reading:

Dreamin' watches for Doc Miguel who watches for Émigré who watches for Refugee who watches for Dreamin.

P'tectin' watches for Merlion, who watches for Taliesin, who watches for mon Enfant, who watches for P'tectin'.

special Little watches for Scarred who watches for Liar, who watches for Schoolboy, who watches for special Little.

Pocket watches for de Olvidado, who watches for Quixote, who watches for Caballero who watches for Pocket.

Bedien watches for Commanding Gen, who watches for Capt. Torry, who watches for Effective who watches for Bedien.

Wondrin' watches for Subaltern who watches for Adept, who watches for Foursquare who watches for Wondrin'.

Hushin watches for Forgotten who watches for Edmond Dantes, who watches for Missing who watches for Hushin.

Hidin watches for Aristo, who watches for Carton, who watches for Darnay, who watches for Hidin.

No cryin watches for Plebe who watches for Renegade, who watches for Cadet East, who watches for Nocryin.

Wis'fu watches for AALG, who watches for Tough Guy, who watches for Adamech Avishai, who watches for Wis'fu

Rand watches for Horse Handler, who watches for Virginia, who watches for Footracer, who watches for Rand

Huggin' watches for Aramis, who watches for Firebrand, who watches for Bedwyr, who watches for Huggin

Fassest watches for Regular Army, who watches for Hero, who watches for Steadfast who watches for Fassest

Towhead watches for Mourner who watches for Confederate, who watches for Matchless, who watches for Towhead.

… Well, I'm a trifle parched myself, now." Miguel reaching for the flask. "Jemison, I think it falls to you, now to finish the roster."

"Surely, surely." Jemmy said, taking the copied ledger page, glancing at the figures acroSsthe room. Nodding to himself, the North Carolinian began to read in turn:

" C'ntraree watches for Assassin who watches for Liberator, who watches for Radical who watches for

C'ntraree

Noddin watches for Partner, who watches for Deserter, who watches for Colonel, who Watches for Noddin

Prinslin watches for Ailing, who watches for N'Orleans, who watches for Pony who watches for Prinslin,

Fin lookin watches for Ruin, who watches for Dandy, who watches for Cripple who watches for Fin' lookin

Watchfu" watches for Prof, who watches for Stoic, who watches for 12th of 45, who watches for Watchfu"

See"krit watches for Achilles, who watches for Remy, who watches for Boy, who watches for See"krit

Shinin tar watches for JTKR, who watches for Torrance who watches for Tidewater who watches for Shinin 'tar

Annie's watches for Vicar who watches for Circuit Rider who watches for Preacher, who watches for Annie's

Littler watches for Veteran who watches for Defiant, who watches for Witness, who watches for Littler

Littlest watches for Pendragon who watches for Mordred, who watches for Emrys who watches for Littlest

Babyboy watches for Oldest Torry who watches for …what in the very devil?" Jemmy exclaimed and stopped cold, staring at the ledger page copy.

"Jemmy, what's the matter?" Artie demanded. "Jemison, old man, what's wrong, now?"

"You didn't really, really read the whole page, while you were deciphering it, did you, Artemus, m' boy?" Jemmy cracked wise.

"And now you've picked up Mr. Gordon's talent for answering a question with a question?" Miguel asked, in turn. " But I'd much prefer an outright answer, my friend. What is the matter?"

" 'm not exactly, sure I've got the answer, doctor. But I think Jemmy must've set off my alarm clock. Is that what you were just doin', Cousin? And if so, why? I was sound asleep here! No, I was … really, really out… again." A clear, warmly chuckling, voice they all knew exceedingly well and hadn't heard in several months responded, bringing three pairs of eyes back to the cot in the far corner. Laying on his side on the cot, but facing them now, was a bleary eyed, smiling, but barely half awake, Jim West.

"Well, I guess you could put it that way, Torry." Jemison agreed. "We surely haven't had the pleasure of your company, just lately. In fact, I've begun to seriously consider the very real possibility that you're malingering here."

"A fellow takes a little time off, a well deserved vacation, finally, and you want to call it malingerin', Cousin?" Jim asked, still chuckling dryly and shaking his head. All three observers knew what that gesture signaled by heart at this point. But instead of another brother emerging from within Jim's wiry frame, the younger agent simply, literally, fell sound asleep in the next instant. He would have been sleeping on the floor in another moment, but Artie, with the alacrity of long practice, moved to catch his partner and settle him back onto his side. Jim was softly snoring, profoundly asleep but only asleep as all three men were somewhat astonished to see, in another moment.

"We'll not need to share Oldest' instrument again, until and unless we sense the Enemy's presence, gentlemen. And let me say; we are most profoundly grateful for your assistance this morning." A rich, warm voice with a distinct Parisian accent called out, bringing Artie, Jemmy and Miguel's attention back to the crowd of "brothers'. The speaker was an elegantly strong, richly clothed and cloaked in courtier-soldier 17th century style, gentleman of middle years, with somewhat long dark hair, grayed by handsome streaks of silver, a van Dyke beard and dark brown-hazel eyes.

"Pray excuse my boldness in interrupting, but just then, you seemed to be slightly… ummm… bemused, I believe is the Anglais expression. I am Capitaine-Lieutenant Athos, or that is, I am un homage to that fictive persona, from Alexandre Dumas pere's novelles. You will likely be well aware how avidly we've read those adventures, and many more of that genre, messieurs. As for what I wished to clarify just now, we would, par example, revert to the practice of appearing only from within our Oldest brother if we were to detect the presence of some such personage as the likes of Lady de Winter, de Roquefort, or the Cardinal."

"In the presence of our enemies the last thing we'd wish is for Oldest to appear schizophrenic. Bien sur, that would merely bolster their malevolent cause! Therefore, although First Company will keep strict Watch with him, always, Oldest is now, and for the foreseeable future, the only one of our brothers still residing within his frame. Clearly, we utterly failed to afford Oldest and First Company the protection they needed against the attack on him and…indeed on all of you, down in the ward. And I assure you, notre tres cher docteurs-amis Singer et de Cervantes, et notre si brave M'sieur Gordon, we are greatly troubled by that failure!"

"Well, so are we!" Artie couldn't keep from exclaiming, striding closer to confront the cloaked figure. "And frankly, I'm not as sure I understand all of this now, as I was … a quarter of an hour ago! You just got done showing us how your watch-rotation supposedly works. But this time it didn't! You … you've just shown us how many… of you make up the Companies. But this time, not one of you was awake or aware enough to keep the Ls from being terrorized back into that horrid, enforced silence? This whole thing has sounded crazy to me from the beginning, I'll grant you, and I've been working hard to understand it. But now, now I'm completely at a loss, all over again! Can you …help me out here?"

"I'm more than willing to make the attempt, M'sieur Gordon. all the more when you've been such of such immense help to Oldest and all of us, once again. The Company's Enemy, our mutual Enemy, in truth has not made so bold a maneuver against The Watch in a number of months! Indeed, we'd entertained some dim hopes of his withdrawing from the field… We'd had not so much as an inkling of his presence in this bleak and tres dangereuse corner of Perdition since you and your partners and El Senor Doctor de Cervantes began to make your presence known here, as Oldest' protectors. Plainly, our Enemy sought to viciously retake the field, just in the past day or so, by use of his damnable chemical agents and horrific mesmerism! The Enemy knows he will lose physical control over Oldest in the very near future, and therefore made his latest, most desperate, most wicked assault on the Companies and on yourselves."

"Great jumping Balls of Saint Elmo's Fire!" Artie shouted. "You're right! You're absolutely right about that! We were all put under!"

"Well, Mr. Gordon, as much as it would usually dismay me to note, I believe you're correct in that." Miguel answered, with a mischievous smile at the former actor. "I'm afraid our agreement to mostly disagree; that is, our armed truce, is on rather shaky ground these days, Mr. Gordon. But what's to be done?"

"No doubt an entire series of new treaty negotiations will be called for in due time, Doctor." Artie replied, dryly.

"Hey! Hey there! Can't ya fellows stop jawing for even a minute when something needs to get done?" Another voice, younger, harsher and far less controlled than the cloaked Frenchman's shouted. Once again, Artie, Miguel and Jemmy turned to see if they'd woken both Jim West and his black Irish-Welsh temper If anything, they could see Jim was even more soundly asleep, snoring still more loudly. But behind Jim, behind the cot, seeming strangely held in place there, stood a wiry young man with thick, dark red-brown hair, carelessly tossed back to show his knife sharp Randolph-stamped features and blazing, bright blind green eyes. This youth was frowning darkly in the direction of the trio, but most of all, at Jemison, and seemed ready to let loose another tirade. But he said nothing more, and the three men could hardly credit what seemed to be the reason for his abrupt silence.

"Jim's holding him back!" Artie whispered to his Cohorts. "That's Courier! I know it! I spent a just over a week in Baltimore, wondering what the devil was the matter with Jim West. When in fact I was dealing seven-tenths of the time with that young maniac. But look at this, look at them! Jim's absolutely sound asleep. He doesn't even know what's going on, not consciously, and still he's holding that young hothead back!" All three men took a step closer, ignoring the Frenchman and the angry youth, and as soon as they did, Miguel and Jemison saw what Artie already noted. Jim West's strong right hand was fixed like a vise on the redhead's left arm, in such a way that either that hand, or that arm would have to leave its owner, if either moved too suddenly or violently in the opposite direction.

"Ye got that right at least! He surely is! Oldest is holding me back now, just the same damned way he held me back all that week at the Bridgeport in Baltimore! Remember, Playactor?" Courier snarled. "And if Oldest hadn't done that, with all the trouble you were trying to give me, with all you did to try to fuddle me or stop my mission, I would have happily, easily, left you in the county morgue! So count yourself lucky, old man; you could be more than three years dead right now, this minute!"

"No, Courier, no. That's not so." Miguel argued. "You could no more kill Artemus Gordon than you could assassinate Ulysses Grant. We already know, because you told us yourself, some weeks ago. You clearly stated that Oldest Torry, who we have known as Major James West, was the one who prevented your 'mission' from being clearly, if you were capable of overriding the major's loyalty and brotherly affection for Mr. Gordon, you would have made good your threats on any number of past occassions. At any rate, I thought it was Doctor Singer you were truly incensed with, just now. Would you care to clarify that matter for us, Courier? And while you're doing that, would you please explain why it is, that all the while Major West is constraining you, you seem to be doing exactly the same service for Young Jaimey, standing there behind you?"

"He's madder than a wet hen, DocMiguel, cos DocJemm stopped the roll dead in the water, right when he got to Cour. And that left the both of us stuck over here like this. You fellas figured it out real well, that we needed you to call the roster, to call us up. But you ain't… meant to say you haven't finished the job, quite yet. You got all caught up talkin' to Capitaine Athos, there, I've got to figure. That's him, right there, in the fancy cloak an' stuff… the old fellow from Fourth Company you were jawing with, when Cour got mad. Oh, and Captain, you have to know it was Third Company, not Fourth that got things all whopperjawed last night, right?" Youngest Jaimey called out, grinning nervously and peering around Courier's left side.

"Too bad your big mouth never gets stuck, YJ!" Courier said, scowling. "And by the way, Actor, I'm not Lunatic! He's a lot further up the roster, if you didn't take note! All right! C'mon then! Now that you know where you got it wrong; DocJemm, do you suppose you could try to get it right, just this once?"

Jemison fixed his dark hazel gaze on Courier for a moment, wondering how many times in the past he'd endured this youth's acerbic raging, and only thought he was getting a lambasting from his cousin, Torry. "I'd be glad to, Courier, if only so Jaimey can get a break from your not so very agreeable company!" The North Carolinian answered. "Now, I'll just go quietly back over that last 'sentence" on the roster shall I? Babyboy watches for Oldest Torry. And please, Jim, stay asleep this time, you could use it..."

"Wees ken hep wif dat, nows wees ken be runnin' 'round again DockerJemee! Wees ken!" a child's voice called out now. And now the three men were startled all over again, if to a lesser extent, when a sturdy, sunnily smiling, towheaded boy-child, who looked to be no more than two and a half or three years old popped out from under Jim's cot. Next he somberly, considering his seeming age, bent over the still sleeping agent and affectionately, gently laid both his small hands on Jim's forehead. Jim showed no reactions to this, except to sigh in his sleep and retain his strongly clenched grip on Courier's arm.

"Us'ns guddes' Ol'es' weel be stay asleepin', nows. Plees be finish dem rolls fer us'ns Couri an' us'ns Jaimee nows plees." The child whispered, moving his hands to lay them protectively on Jim's right shoulder.

"All right, Littlest…" Jemison agreed and turned back to the ledger page. 'oldest Torry watches for Courier, who watches for Youngest Jaimey, who watches for Babyboy. And that, friends, completes the roll."

"Danged right it does!" Courier announced, and with a great deal of apparent caution, eased his left arm from Jim's grasp, while letting Jaimey go in the same moment.

"Thanks, Littlest, thought for a sec there we were well and truly blocked." Jaimey grinned, once more looking very much like a boyish version of Jim West, while he moved to pat Littlest' thin right shoulder.

"Izz otay nows, Jaimee." Littlest nodded with surprising show of calm authority.

Then Jemison, in the process of handing the ledger sheet to Artie nearly dropped it, exclaiming. "Wait, wait! Hold on. There's another notation here, on the original, in pencil, all the way down in one corner. Artie am I seeing things or aren't I? What is this word, down here?"

Artemus took the ledger sheet and peered at the one word "notation' Jemmy found. At top speed the actor went through his notes on the cipher, going from them to the original, and back. When he looked up, rather than looking weary, saddened, and a bit stunned, Artie was grinning again, from ear to ear. "It's Latakia! Doctors, those new tin soldiers that had us so worried? They were only a cover! They made a pretty good feint at our flanks, wondering how they got here and why the Torrys were so caught up in playing with them. We were supposed to take those tin red herrings and waste all our time tracking them! But this, this is the real culprit, right here, this latakia!"

" It's a type of tobacco, isn't it, from Syria, or Turkey?" Jemison asked.

"From Syria and Cyprus, but no, not Turkey," Miguel told him. "It is a specially treated pipe tobacco, cured over a stone pine or oak wood fire. And that process imparts its signature intense, smoky-peppery taste and smell. Of course like many Levantine tobaccos, Latakia is quite strong, and for most pipe smokers, too strong to smoke by itself."

"Which is why you'll mostly find it used as a "condiment' in blends of pipe tobacco." Artie added. "Especially "English blends'."

"Quite right, Mr. Gordon. Of course you'll know that this type of tobacco gets its name from the main seaport of Syria, on the Mediterranean. Its site is actually the Ra's Ziyarah promontory. And it is quite an ancient city, known to the Phoenicians, as Ramitha, to the Greeks as Leuke Akte. Its present most widely known name is in fact a corruption of Laodicea. And it became a major city of the Seleucid empire following the conquests of Alexander the Great renamed in fact in honor of the mother of one of Alexander's generals, Seleucus I Nicator. " Miguel rattled on, knowing it still somewhat irritated the actor, and just enjoying taking his own not inconsiderable knowledge base 'out for an airing".

"As it happens, Doctor, yes I do know that." Artie frowned, refusing to rise to the bait, despite any and all temptations to the contrary notwithstanding. He would not, however, turn down the chance to match knowledge bases with the small doctor. "The city was a major port and a great importer of wine to the Seleucid empire. It became the capital of Syria in the late second century, and in later eras was destroyed by earthquakes, rebuilt by Emperor Justinian, conquered by the Arabs, then by Crusaders, and in 1188 by Saladin himself who erected a marvelous palace nearby. Subsequently the city was administered by…"

"Artemus!" Jemison finally shouted, rather irritated by both geniuses at the moment, and finally got the actor's still grinning attention.

"Yeah, Jemmy? Oh." Artie blinked, and at least managed to look sheepish.

"Yeah, oh… You said this tobacco, this Latakia is our culprit. And since we've been trying for close to three hours now to find said culprit I'm standing here kinda wondering why you think we've finally found it! "

"Actually, I think this answer requires a finer grasp of physiology, memory and the senses." Artie answered. " Doctor …de Cervantes, this may just be more your field of expertise."

"I believe so, Mr. Gordon, thank you. Jemison, this tobacco, and by it.s nature any tobacco when burning, gives off two separate kinds of aromas, one that stays, for the most part,with the smoker, the other spreading out into his environs. And any long-term pipe smoker is very much aware of that fact. That.s the first point to this answer and this culprit. The second point is this: our olfactory memories are without question the strongest, the most telling and the longest-lived we possess.

This is the reason why scent, more than any other sense-stimuli, will immediately and inescapably conjure up our strongest auditory, tactile, and visual memories, that are by their nature and our own, bound up in one another. Putting those two pieces of well-accepted neuro-physiological data together, we come to an inescapable conclusion: The 'room aroma" of this damnable Syrian tobacco must indeed be what triggered the apparent exodus of Torry's brothers. And what is more, when we find the vile excuse for a human being who purposely smoked it in these environs, we will in that same heinous amalgamation of malevolence, find the Torry's instigating tormentor!"

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