“Then you obviously need to get inside your opponent’s head,” I said.

“And how would I go about that?” he asked.

“By reading his mind,” I said.

The following day we went to the quartermaster’s storehouse and picked up a ladder. We took a ledger from the stationery department and then selected a fine black and blue cockerel from the barracks farm. For my pièce de résistance I went to the pharmacy and ordered a special cocktail that I would pick up later. That night, Captain Jame invited the traveling general to the new mess building.

“How have you been?” the general asked.

“I knew you would say that, sir,” said Jame.

“What?”

“I knew what you were going to say,” said Jame. “I’ve been seeing a local shaman and he has taught me how to read people’s minds and see the future.”

“Nonsense,” said the general.

“Then how could I know what you were going to say when you arrived?”

The general laughed heartily.

“Captain Jame,” he said. “‘How have you been?’ is a fairly common greeting, don’t you think? You don’t have to be a mind reader to guess that.”

“Then let’s try something else,” said Jame.

He took the ledger and a pen from his day pack. He opened the ledger, looked into the general’s eyes, and started to write. But as he was writing, his lips curved into a smile. He laughed and closed the book.

“What’s so funny?” asked the general.

Jame opened the ledger and held it up for the general to see. On the page was written, “What’s so funny?”

The general still wasn’t impressed.

“That wasn’t mind reading,” he said. “It was just a trick. You could be certain I was going to say something like that.”

Jame turned the page, looked into the general’s eyes, and started to write.

“You don’t—” the general began, but he was interrupted by the sound of scratchy footsteps on the tin roof.

“What the devil?” said Jame.

The footsteps grew louder then just as suddenly, they stopped. There were a few seconds of silence before they heard an almighty “Cock-a-doodle-doo!”

“There’s a damned chicken on the roof,” said the general.

Jame smiled and held up the ledger and showed the words he’d written: “There’s a chicken on the roof.”

“Now, you know I couldn’t have predicted that unless I had a gift,” said Jame. “I missed the word ‘damned’ but you’ll have to forgive me for that. I’m still a beginner don’t forget.”

Jame could see that the general was swaying but he needed one more example of the one-legged man’s new skills to be convinced.

“Let’s play a few games,” said the general.

“Not tonight,” said Jame. “You aren’t feeling well.”

“I’m feeling just fine,” said the general.

“You can’t fool me, General,” said Jame. “You have an upset stomach. You’re wondering whether you ate something bad at lunchtime. You’re hoping it won’t be a nasty case of diarrhea that will keep you up all night. We can play tomorrow when you’re feeling better. Good evening.”