War Department office

The War Department office in Washington, D.C., serves as the stage for one of the most revealing encounters between Cyrus Trask and his son Adam. It is the place where Cyrus's elaborate public fiction—the story of a private soldier who was a trusted advisor to generals and to Lincoln—is put to its most severe private test. Adam, a serving cavalry private, is ordered to report there not through normal channels but by his father's direct intervention, a demonstration of the very influence Cyrus has built on a foundation of lies about his military service.

Cyrus's Summons and Adam's Arrival

While waiting to change trains in Kansas City after re-enlisting, Adam receives a message ordering him to report to the office of the Secretary of War. He obeys without question, having learned in the army never to wonder at the orders of the "high far gods in Washington." In the anteroom, his father finds him. Adam takes a moment to recognize Cyrus, who has transformed into a great man: he wears a black broadcloth coat and trousers, a wide black hat, an overcoat with a velvet collar, and carries an ebony cane he makes seem a sword. His speech is slow and mellow, his gestures wide, and new teeth give him a "vulpine smile." Most startlingly, Cyrus's wooden leg has been replaced by a mechanical one with a hinge and a spring, so that he barely limps. Adam feels a faint distaste; something about this man is not true. The speed with which doors open for Cyrus, the obsequious respect of Colonel Wells, and the words "The Secretary will see you now, sir" do not remove Adam's feeling. When Cyrus presents him to the Secretary of War as "a private soldier—just as I was," Adam corrects him, saying he was discharged a corporal. Adam thinks to himself that the Secretary cannot see that his father is play-acting.

The Confrontation in Cyrus's Hotel Room

Cyrus takes Adam to his small hotel, where he has not only a bedroom but a sitting room and a toilet in a closet. The hotel clerk bows to Cyrus, calls him "Senator," and offers to give Adam a room even if he has to throw someone out. In his room, Cyrus pulls up his trouser leg to reveal the contraption of iron, leather, and hard wood. He unlaces the leather sheath holding it to his stump and stands the "travesty-on-flesh" beside his chair. With the leg off, he becomes himself again—the self Adam remembers, bringing back childhood fear, respect, and animosity. Cyrus asks why Adam re-enlisted, and Adam admits he did not want to go home. Cyrus offers to get Adam into West Point, but Adam refuses. When Cyrus asks if he is defying him, Adam answers, "Yes, sir." Cyrus then boasts of his power—he can throw the Grand Army at any candidate, make and destroy men, pick appointments like apples. Adam knows Cyrus is defending himself with threats. When Cyrus offers to have Adam assigned to Washington, to teach him his way about, Adam says he would rather go back to his regiment. He sees the shadow of loss darken his father's face. Cyrus accuses him of learning the dumb resistance of a soldier and says he will rot in barracks. Adam asks why Cyrus does not bring Charles to Washington, and Cyrus replies that Charles is better where he is. Adam remembers his father's tone and how he looked—lonely and alone, and knowing it.

The Office as a Symbol of Fabricated Authority

The War Department office is the physical embodiment of Cyrus Trask's fabricated career. It is the place where his lies about his military service—that he was at Gettysburg, that he advised Grant and McClellan, that he was one of Lincoln's closest friends—are given institutional validation. The Secretary of War himself receives Cyrus with respect, and the doors of the military bureaucracy open at his command. Yet within this space of official power, Adam sees through the performance. He recognizes that his father is not the great man he pretends to be but a "very strong-willed and concentrated little man wearing a huge busby." The office, which should be a place of truth and authority, becomes instead a stage for Cyrus's most elaborate act, and the site where Adam, by refusing to play his assigned role, begins his long, slow separation from his father's world.