‘I shall,’ said Ed. ‘But you know as well as I do that the Federal Insurance Programme only covers the cost of re-planting.’

‘Name me an insurance policy that covers anything else,’ demanded Senator Jones. ‘You could be Cartier-Bresson, and every photograph you ever took could make you ten thousand dollars, but if the laboratory fogs one of your films, what can you claim? The price of the film, that’s all. And it’s the same with crops.’

‘I’m aware of that,’ said Ed. ‘But since this blight is so damaging, and so completely unknown, I was wondering if there might be a possibility of further aid from the Department of Agriculture.’

‘No,’ said Senator Jones.

‘Is that a refusal to help, or an admission that you don’t have the clout to help?’

‘That’s a refusal to help. What’s the matter with you farmers? You get deficiency payments, you get guaranteed floor prices, you get nationwide federal insurance. What more do you want? You want me to come out there and harvest your crop for you? You want me to ride a tractor?’

‘Senator Jones, the way this blight is spreading, there isn’t going be any crop.’

‘Well, you’ll just have to grin and bear it. I’m sorry, Mr Hardesty, but farming’s tough, and there’s nothing that you or I can do about it.’

Ed drew a breath. ‘Listen, Senator Jones, my daddy may have been a tough and wily old turkey, and he may have built up one of the most successful wheat farms in south Kansas, but he was heavily overstretched on his spending. When I took over this farm, it was right on the verge of financial collapse. Sure – we were harvesting a regular, high-quality crop, and we had all the latest techniques. But we were overmanned, and we’d relied too much on credit, and too much on favours, and the simple fact was that we had a super-efficient farm that wasn’t quite super-efficient enough to meet its interest payments.’

‘I hope you realise you’re breaking my heart,’ said Senator Jones.

‘I hope you realise I was lying when I said I wasn’t a blackmailer.’

Senator Jones sniffed. ‘This doesn’t sound like a Hardesty talking. Your daddy was one of those men who always stood on his own two feet. He’d expect a favour from his friends, sure. But he never crawled for anything.’

‘I’m not crawling, Senator Jones. I’m asking. My daddy did you a favour, and now I want you to do him a favour in return. Because if this farm goes bankrupt, which it surely will if we don’t get more than a federal insurance payment, then my daddy’s name is going to be dragged all over the Kansas papers like dirt.’

‘Hunh,’ said Senator Jones.