 Colonel Weed and Major Mitchell identify an enemy weapon brought back by the survivors as belonging to the Thuggee, a murder cult that had been suppressed 50 years previously.Weed intends to send MacChesney and Cutter back with a larger force, in order to retake the town and complete the telegraph repairs.Ballantine, however, is due to muster out of the army in a few days; Weed orders Sgt.