Cap

See Narrator

The Colonel

See John B. Hackett

The Commodore

The Expressman

See Thompson

The Gen'rul

See John B. Hackett

The Governor

See John B. Hackett

John B. Hackett

John B. Hackett is the narrator's deceased friend, whose body the narrator attempts to transport from Cleveland, Ohio, to Hackett's parents in the fictional town of Bethlehem, Wisconsin as part of Hackett's last wishes. Although the narrator and his train's expressman think that Hackett's body is in a box in their car, through a case of mistaken identities, Hackett's body ends up in transit to Peoria, Illinois while the narrator and the expressman are actually transporting a box of guns. The lack of this knowledge eventually leads to the illfated death of the narrator and, one assumes, the expressman. The expressman refers to Hackett's body by several military and civil titles: Colonel, Gen'rul (an abbreviated...