‘And your personal bank balance, of course,’ said Collis.

The Senator paused. Then he said, ‘Yes,’ and chuckled.

Theodore beckoned Collis to bend his head nearer as the Senator began to play more of Eberl’s symphony in E-flat. ‘Two years,’ he whispered. ‘How can we get our surveys together in two years? We don’t even know if we can find a suitable pass!’

Collis sat up straight again. ‘We’ll find it,’ he said, under his breath. ‘You’ve always believed it’s there, and so it must be.’

‘You’ve never seen those mountains! It could take us years!’

‘Yes, it could,’ said Collis. ‘So we’ll just have to start looking straight away, won’t we? The day we get back to Sacramento.’

Senator Stride stopped playing. He looked at Collis for a while, as if he was thinking deeply. ‘Do you still believe I killed your father?’ he asked.

Collis finished his brandy. He set down the glass on the small wine table beside him.

‘I’d like to reserve judgement on that,’ he said quietly.

Senator Stride stood still for a while, saying nothing. Then he gave a little nod. ‘You’re beginning to learn, aren’t you, Mr Edmonds? You’re really beginning to learn.’

Chapter Ten

They reached Sacramento on 21 April 1858. They were both ill with the grippe, and with intestinal influenza, and for the first week back they were nursed by Annie Jones at Theodore’s house on R Street. She brought them chicken broth, and hot sourdough bread, and as many eggs as she could possibly afford, and by the following Sunday they were beginning to lose their Panama isthmus pallor, and to stay around to talk for whole hours at a time without suddenly shuffling off to the privy at the back of the yard. The sun was warm, and the days were long, and they sat outside the house under the shade of the trees, Collis whittling a whitewood stick and Theodore smoking his pipe, and you could have mistaken them for two old contented men in retirement. The only difference was, they talked between themselves of the Sierra Nevada, and how they were going to find their way through. They spoke of Johnson’s Pass, and Slippery Ford, and Steam Boat Springs. They scratched maps in the dust at their feet, and went over and over the valleys and the passes that Theodore had explored when he was surveying wagon roads to the silver mines in Nevada.