‘That’s right,’ said Senator Stride. ‘The first Pacific railroad has to be built south of the Thirty-eighth Parallel, in my view, unless this nation wants to see itself politically and economically torn apart.’

‘So you want to stop me?’

Senator Stride frowned. ‘Stop you? Why should I want to stop you? From what I’ve been hearing, you’re determined, and raring to go, and you’ve got the best engineer for the job.’ He glanced at Theodore. ‘When he’s sober, at least.’

‘He only got drunk because he was disappointed,’ said Collis. ‘It didn’t seem there was anybody in Washington willing to listen.’

‘That doesn’t surprise me. But I’m willing to listen. In fact, I’m willing to go further than that. I’m willing to put up money to help you form a railroad company.’

Collis peered at the Senator narrowly. ‘I’m not sure that I can believe what I’m hearing.’

The Senator looked amused. ‘What you’re hearing is good sense. I can’t pretend that I wouldn’t prefer to see the first transcontinental railroad run westwards out of St Joseph, or Memphis, or even Vicksburg. But there’s heavy industrial money in the North, and they’re going to need a Pacific railroad some day, even if it’s not the first. I’d rather have a share of that railroad than not.’

Collis stared at the Senator for a long, silent moment. Then he turned to Theodore. ‘Did you hear that? The Senator wants to back us.’

Theodore lifted his head.

‘That’s right,’ said Collis, ‘you heard me correctly. The Senator wants to back us.’

‘What does he want in return?’ asked Theodore slurrily.

Senator Stride reached out and tickled his ginger tomcat under the chin. ‘A share,’ he said. ‘That’s all.’

There was silence. The logs stirred and suddenly collapsed in the grate, sending a shower of sparks up the chimney.

‘I’ll lay out ten thousand dollars to start with,’ the Senator went on. ‘That should cover the expense of this trip, and give you enough to go back to California and form a company.’

‘What about a survey?’ Theodore wanted to know. He was very much the worse for drink, but he hadn’t lost his engineer’s sense of priorities. ‘It’s going to cost us thirty-five thousand dollars just to map our trace through the Sierra Nevada.’

‘You should raise that yourselves,’ said Senator Stride. ‘It would be far too blatant if I financed that for you. But your company stockholders should be able to lay out most of it.’