Back when the war was going on between the north and the south, strange soldiers were created to fight in the civil war. The people of the north grew to fear the strange soldiers and their corrupting influence, and so war was fought between these distant soldiers and the people in the south. When the war ended, these strange soldiers returned to the north. The daughter of one of these soldiers, Nancy Shawcroft, came to visit her father and find out who killed her father. She asks the strange man if he brought back bacon from the new highway. The strange man tells her that he has been hearing reports of loaded wagons being attacked on the highway. He says that if he allowed those who knew to be able to survive to stay here, he would allow them to do so. Nancy says that this is the true form of the strange soldier and that he will be buried in this town. She tells him that he was a kind man and that his presence in the town will make everyone back home able to live easier lives. She says that she would have been happy if she had never come back to the war, but that she is happy that she has been able to help him.