At the Volscian army's camp in the Carpathian Mountains, a group of men is looking for a safe place to hide. One of the men, a colonel named Alexandro, tells the group's leader, a man named John Burges, that he's looking for "little item" , but "overrated" . The colonel tells the man that if he sends argyle troops to fight in the war, they'll be able to find a safe hiding place in the mountains. He also tells the captain that the way John handled the "thorpe affair" proves that John is a very good spy. The captain tells the colonel that he was born in the area before the "nazis" came and divided it according to the whims of the people. He asks the colonel if he is a mountain goat, and the colonel tells him that he is. He then asks the captain if he has a secret, and he says that he does, and that he has been born in a place where the people pass by every half hour on their way to the war. He says that the place where they pass is where they divide their land according to what they want, and they will be right behind them with the equipment they need. Alexandro's father, the colonel's brother, comes to see him, and asks him if he was involved in "the thorpe affair." The colonel says that his father was involved, too, but that he moved the remains of his brothers to give the captain a place to stay. He tells Alexandro that he will be replacing Petrescu as the colonel, and Alexandro thanks him. He's glad to see his father, and tells him about how the girl was able to control the will of someone for two hours without telling him of