Just short of a narrow bridge, their column was herded into a ditch to make way for a detachment of soldiers escorting a dozen bedraggled Spanish prisoners. As they passed, the officer, a lieutenant, glared down from his saddle. Ellis, flush with excitement and patriotic zeal, stood up outside the rank and saluted, a big grin lighting his face. The lieutenant reined in and looked up and down the length of the column, taken aback at three hundred Negro soldiers marching down a road in Asia. His horse turned circles in the grit in front of Ellis, still standing at attention. The officer returned the salute, touched the brim of his hat with his riding crop. "I heard you smokeys were coming over here, but I didn't believe it."

"Yes, sir. We're surely here."

The officer frowned, his thin hard face displayed the arrogance of a southern aristocrat. "I can see you're here, Nig. Just what do you think you're going to accomplish?"

Ellis hitched up his trousers. "Well, sir, I'd be happy if we can just take up some of the white man's burden."

"You're an insolent bastard," the officer snarled. "You looking for trouble?"

"No sir. No offense, sir." Wounded, Ellis considered the officer's disdain uncalled for. "I only meant we'd be proud to fight those Spanish devils right alongside you, sir."

"For your information, Nig, those Spanish devils are already whipped. Your best course of action is to get back on the boat and go home to your plantation. There's plenty of fighting left to do, but we don't need any coloreds to do it for us. Besides, I'm told the gugus here prefer dark meat in their stewpots." The lieutenant spurred his horse and rejoined his detachment.

Ellis saluted the officer's back and called after him, "Yes, sir. I thank you very much, sir."

Ellis played easily the part of the shuffling nigger, but Fagen couldn't - refused even to try. He was furious at the officer for his sneering superiority and angry with his cousin for his naiveté. "Why'd you do a stupid thing like that?"

Too much going on, Fagen's question flew over Ellis' head. "Davey, what's a gugu?"

A young soldier next to them spat in the dirt. "It means nigger, you fool."

Ellis winced, didn't like being talked to that way by another private soldier. "Who are you to know so much?"

"I'm Otis Youngblood, and a man don't have to know much to know more than you, cottonback. You can tell by the tone of his voice. He was probably talking about Filipinos, but he meant nigger. They're all the same to him." He spat again. "Looks like Uncle Sam and Jim Crow arrived in the Philippines at the same time."