"
Alice turned from him to her husband. "Tell me what they've done today,
Benito."
Windham's eyes shone. "You should see Will Coleman. Ah, he's a leader
incomparable. We've got nearly 6,000 men. Infantry, artillery, cavalry.
A police force, too, for patrolling the streets day and night."
"And what is the other side doing?" Alice asked.
"They've got the Governor wobbling," said Benito. "Sooner or later he'll
call out the militia...."
"But they've got no ammunition, no guns, I understand," responded
Broderick. "Sherman tried to commandeer those flintlock muskets from the
Mexican war--several thousand of them--but Coleman got them first."
"Yes," affirmed Benito. "The Sheriff's seized some scattered arms. But
that is not what Coleman fears. It's Federal interference. They're
trying to get General Wool to give them rifles from the arsenal at
Benicia, perhaps a gunboat from the navy yard."
"That means--civil warfare," Broderick said, aghast.
Alice Windham rose and the two men with her. She took an arm of each.
"Come," she pleaded, "let us put it all away--this turmoil of men's
hatred ... let us walk here in the sweet-scented evening and forget.
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