Collis called in at the store on K Street every morning, and had dinner with Charles and Mary two or three times a week. Charles was blustery and irritable at first, because he thought that Collis had been taking advantage of his friendship by going off to Washington so soon after buying himself in. But one evening Collis walked around to the Tuckers’s house and rang the bell, and when Charles answered the door Collis had that particular look on his face that meant he wanted to talk.

Charles was in his vest and shirtsleeves, and smoking a cigar. He was looking gingery and hot. He closed the door behind him and stepped out on to the veranda. A couple of puffs of cigar smoke chased each other across the yard. He sat on the veranda rail, his eyes half-closed against the brightness of the sinking sun. ‘You look as if you’ve got something on your mind,’ he said.

‘It’s you, Charles, as a matter of fact. You and Leland.’

‘No problems, are there? Business is going good.’

‘Well, let’s put it this way — you’ve got what you wanted out of my coming out here to Sacramento. Fresh blood, new ideas. That kind of thing.’

Charles inclined his head to show that he certainly conceded that. ‘As long as you don’t make a habit of taking a vacation back East every two or three months, I’d say we’re getting along fine.’

Collis took out a cheroot. ‘As a matter of fact, it’s that “vacation” I want to talk about. I found out a whole lot of hard realities about life on that trip, and I got a measure of just how difficult it would be to get a Pacific railroad built across the Sierras. Politically, I mean, quite apart from actually laying down the track.’

‘Does that mean you’ve gone off the idea?’

‘Are you hoping I have?’

Charles inspected the wet end of his cigar and stuck a piece of stray leaf down with spit. ‘In a way. I’m not saying it wouldn’t do something for Sacramento, as far as business goes. But I don’t really believe that it’s possible, not in our lifetime. I think you’re wasting your time, and your money, on something that ain’t going to happen for twenty years.’

‘Good,’ said Collis.

‘Good?’

‘I’m glad you admit that it might be possible, even if we don’t live to see it. That’s better than damning the whole notion outright. You see, what I want us to do, you and me and Leland, and maybe a couple of other Sacramento merchants, is form a railroad company, and have a pass surveyed through the Sierras.’

Charles looked at him narrowly. ‘You want me to put money into a railroad? That’s like asking me to burn it.’