"If I had started the railroad company, I would never have thought about founding a virtually government-owned company. I would have tried to raise the funds with private investors. What would we have now? Perhaps a hundred lawsuits of people who don't want to give us the right of way.

"This is not the Wild West," he said, smiling at the memory of his own Wild West adventure. "It's a more or less civilized area. We can't send the cavalry to kill the Indians; the people out there have more cavalry than we do."

Marshall took a deep breath. "And the same with the technical aspects. At the moment, your youngsters know enough of what can be done, and nothing of what we think can't be done. That's the whole point. So perhaps one of them experiments and finds a way to propel our engines with air and dung; there's lots of both in this place and time.

" Iwouldn't try that, would you? Do you know how many good ideas in the last centuries were simply forgotten, because they had as much cheap steel and oil as they needed?”

Marshal took another deep breath. Then a mournful expression appeared on his face. "Do you know how many great men live out there who are too young to have their life's work even begun and now will never do, because we Americans can simply tell them? Do you know that Vauban would have been born next month? The greatest technical author of the seventeenth century; what would he have written now?"

"Okay, okay." Ambrose lifted his hands. "You have a point there. I have no objection. We'll make a trip to your ' Lokschuppen' in Jena next month, and you can show them what you've got there."

Author's notes:

Quotes from the English translation of Don Quixote by John Ormsby (1829–1895), who did the notable task to translate the original of Don Quixoteonce and for all into English.

The first German translation was done in 1621 but not published before 1648. The subtitle of this issue says: Buy me and read me, if you regret, eat me or I'll pay you.

If I remember right, there was nowhere stated in the six million words of the 1632verse howfragmented Thuringia was. Apart from the four Wettin duchies (and Saxe-Altenburg alone consisted of seven separated parts), the two Schwarzburg counties and Gleichen, most were not even mentioned. The two Reu? families with a total of four different Herrschaftenfor example are partially in the grid, but never used. Big parts of "Thuringia" still belong to Saxony, or to several other distant owners.

The only map I found showing and naming all the different parts can be found here. You may count and prove my numbers stated in the story wrong.

Yes, the sentences Melchior uses in his letter are unnecessarily long and complicated, and yes, he uses Latin words unexpectedly, and yes, he announces his sovereign with an abbreviation (Y.H. = Your Highness). This is exactly the style the Germans of this time wrote their letters.

The Kramerbruckein Erfurt was first built as a wooden bridge (first mentioned in 1117) which was already used as a market. Then it repeatedly burned down and was rebuilt. Finally in 1325 they rebuilt it from stone; they also built two churches, one at each end of the bridge. After another fire in 1472 houses were built on the bridge.

Neither of the two Bechstedts mentioned is the one near the Ring of Fire; they are both near Erfurt. The one with the historical Bockwindmuhle(open trestle post mill) is called Bechstedtstra? today.

Each farm in Germany had a name, normally arising from its original purpose. So the Waidbauerhof(woad farm) was once called after its primary product Farberwaid(this produced the natural indigo used for blue jeans) and afterwards every owner of this farm automatically gets the name ' der Waidbauer.' A potential son will be ' dem Waidbauer sein Hans' and afterwards possibly have the official name 'Hans Waidbauer' registered, regardless of whether the farm still produces woad or not.

"Bill Bo" is originally the main character of a German TV-show from 1968. It's the story (played by puppets on strings) of a robber chief in the Thirty Years' War, who wants to capture a castle with his gang.

The daughter of the duke dresses as a boy to enter the gang and spy on the bandits.

Bill Bo has his homepage here.

If you're interested in railroads and specifically in model railroads, there are two places in Germany you definitely should visit:

The first one is the DB Museum in Nuremberg, near the main station. It is the oldest train museum of the world, opened in 1899. The model railroad was opened in 1960, and that's the place where Marshall Ambler fell in love with model trains, when he lived in Nuremberg.

The second one is the Miniatur-Wunderland in Hamburg, the largest model railroad of the world with one room dedicated to American railroads.

To be continued.

Art Director's Note: Thanks to Rainer for providing the interior art for this story.

Port Looking Glass, December 15th, 1635

"They what?" Pam shouted, her voice like sharp metal.

Ulf, the Swedish marine who had brought her the bad news flinched, hoping that the American saying about "shooting the messenger" really was just a saying.

"They escaped, Captain Pam, in the night. They all got away, including the officers and that brute who had helped kidnap you." Ulf's voice was heavy with professional embarrassment. Even though the strapping young soldier had a full foot and a hundred pounds on her, he shrank back as Pam began pacing around her cabin in the grip of rage.

"How?"Pam tried not to shriek at the poor fellow, fighting to keep her voice even. Gerbald, Doctor Durand, and Lundkvist, the newly-minted captain of their captured French warship, Effrayant, looked on, all staying sensibly near the door.

"One of the French trustees did it. We haven't been watching them that closely since the doctor vouched for them." This made the good doctor wince painfully. Ulf gave him an apologetic shrug before continuing. "It turns out this one was still loyal to that Toulon bastard. He snuck up to the prison and cut a hole in the back wall. It was only made of bamboo. The civilians on guard duty were all asleep." At least he had managed to get that particular buck passed. Incompetent farmers trying to do a soldier's work, and failing completely!

Pam scowled mightily. Hot, stinking DAMN!Their real military guys were stretched pretty thin right now, with a harbor full of ships and a town to attend to, so it wasn't that big a surprise; even seasoned soldiers were known to fall asleep on guard duty, and it wasn't exactly a Sing Sing they had been running. Two more days and that evil bastard would have been hanging high. She had intended to pull the lever herself!

Doctor Durand looked miserable, his long mustache drooping tragically. "Captain Pam, I am most terribly embarrassed. I hold myself completely responsible. It was I who thought we could trust the man who did this. He appeared to be an honest young sailor to my eyes, pressed into service against his will as I was."

"It isn't your fault, Doc. You're not a mind reader. That snake Toulon must havemade the kid an offer he couldn't refuse." She turned back to the sweating Marine, who looked somewhat relieved that his captain had grown calmer. "What happened next, Ulf?" she asked him, patting his hand in a comforting manner. He breathed out a nervous breath, and continued.