"Er, pardon me Mr General sir, but it's Mr Edison. Well, Professor Edison actually," says the scientist nervously holding his hat.
"Absolutely, Mr Anderson. Now I sure have heard a lot about your work and let me tell you, I am super excited. Booth tells me you've invented some sort of tele-portation device?"
"Tele-port?" his eyes widen and he chuckles under his breath. "No sir, General Sir, not a thing. Rather, you can transport... well, you can transport your voice from one room... um... to another."
"From one room to another? Now what in the blue blazes would I need a device to do that for me? I can square do that'n already! Watch... Booth, BOOTH! BOOTH!"
A wooden chair scrapes against the floor in the next room across. There's the tinkling of china as it rattles against the floor and then a voice curses, muffled through the cartoon wall.
"Sir, I don't mean the next room," says Cartoon Thomas Edison hurriedly. "I mean if one room were in New York..."
"Sir, yes sir!" Booth bursts through the wooden double doors and immediately salutes Cartoon General Robert E Lee.
"...and the other were in Chicago..."
There's a moment of silence. Cartoon John Wilkes Booth is frozen mid-salute. The general is standing motionless by the window.
"...in Chicago you say."
"Yes sir, general, sir."
"At ease soldier."
Booth relaxes the salute and stands with his hands behind his back, eyes fixed on the enormous Confederate flag that hangs above the general's desk.
"It er uses phono... wires to transmit an electrical signal across..."
"Booth, the professor here says he can connect up two signalmen in two locations, hundreds of..."
"Maybe thousands."
"Maybe thousands of miles apart with his machine. That sure is something! Why, with this new device... we could transport hundreds of men, not just signallers... from Memphis to Washington in the blinking of an eye..."
"No sir, it's not a..."
"We could move an army! The Yankees won't know what happened..."
"It's information, it's not..."
"We'll move on the White House!"
"On the White House sir!" repeats Booth, excitedly.
"Lincoln'll be out of his mind as to how we did it. Imagine it Booth! Hundreds of men suddenly surrounding the White House. No time to muster a defense, no time to even load a musket! Ha! Victory Booth, sweet Confederate victory."
"Sir, I really must tell you..."
"Oh Anderson, don't worry! Your name will sure go down in history with the rest of us. And we'll make sure of it."
"But sir, general, sir!"
"Booth, would you escort Mr Anderson back to his residence? We got ourselves work to do."
"Sir, yes sir," says Cartoon Booth grabbing the professor by the arm. "We got ourselves a war to win, professor."
Cartoon Thomas Edison grips his hat as he's shuffled out of the room and back to his lab.
General Lee rubs his hands together excitedly, watching the breeze ripple through the badly drawn Autumn trees outside.
"Yes sir," he says to himself quietly. "Yes sir."
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