This is the tenth volume of the Flashman papers If only Flashman had got on with his dinner and ignored the handkerchief dropped by the flirtatious hussy in a Calcutta hotel, American history would have been different Lincoln might never have entered the White House, an elderly farmer would probably not have been hanged in his carpet slippers, a disastrous civil war might have been avoided and Flash Harry himself would have been spared a hair raising adventure