‘She?’ asked Ed.

‘Mrs Della McIntosh,’ Peter explained. ‘Right up until Monday, she was Washington correspondent for the Kansas City Herald-Examiner. But when she saw how strongly Shearson felt about the blight, and what he was going to do for the wheat farmers, she quit her job on the spot and offered to help. Shearson Jones has that kind of effect on people.’

‘I see,’ said Ed, uncertainly. ‘All right – I’ll expect her.’

‘Shearson himself will be down at Fall River by Sunday. I guess he’ll want to meet you. Meanwhile – good luck with the crop.’

‘The crop?’ asked Ed. ‘There isn’t any crop left.’

‘Well, I know,’ said Peter, slightly flustered. ‘What I meant was, good luck with the insurance, and the compensation, and whatever you need good luck with. I’ll talk to you later.’

Ed put the radio-telephone down, and stood thoughtfully beside the helicopter for a few moments. Willard said, ‘Who was that? Is anything wrong?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Ed. ‘I’ve had experience of loan sharks, arid phoney accountants, and speculators. But I’m out of my depth when it comes to politicians. They talk a whole lot of bullshit – or at least you think it’s bullshit. It’s only when you think about it for a long time afterwards that you realise the calculated importance of every single damned rubbishy word they spoke.’

‘Shearson Jones?’

‘His sycophantic sidekick. But at least he had some reasonable news. Shearson’s set up a special compensation fund, and it looks like we may be able to save South Burlington.’

Willard couldn’t help grinning. ‘Well, that’s something to celebrate. You want to come back to my place and sink a couple of beers?’

Ed looked around the black, rot-flattened crops. The sun had almost gone now, and the silence over the wide plains of Kansas was enormous. Ed remembered walking out into the fields when he was a boy, on a dark and windless night, and believing that he was the only person left in the whole world. People from Kansas know what you mean when you describe that feeling; only a city-dweller will go ‘huh?’

Ed said, ‘Yes. I think we ought to celebrate.’

‘Is your mother still staying with you?’ asked Willard, as they climbed back into the helicopter.

‘Just for a couple of days. She thought she ought to take over the house now that Season’s gone.’

‘She’s a strong woman, your mother.’

Ed clipped up his lap-belt. ‘We’re all strong, here on South Burlington. But it didn’t protect us from this, did it?’

‘We’ll get through it. You wait and see.’