‘I admire your integrity, Mr Melford,’ he said. ‘I only wish I could admire those prejudiced and self-serving interests which you so mistakenly believe are “principles” — the subjugation of the Negro against all humanitarian credenda, and the deliberate isolation of a whole people from the benefits of modern progress for the sake of two or three profiteering monopolies.’

Laurence Melford’s self-control almost broke. He held up his fork in his white-clenched fist, and he bent it as if it were made of the cheapest zinc, instead of steel. The maître d’ turned away, and with one deft tilt of his head, drank Collis’s second stone fence himself.

‘Mr Melford,’ Collis said, ‘you can make up the fifty-thousand dollars in five ten-thousand-dollar sacks, and have them delivered once a month by messenger to myself at 54 K Street, Sacramento. Do you know how many calotypes there are?’

‘The letter said ten,’ said Laurence Melford tightly.

‘Very well.’ Collis nodded. ‘When each sack of gold is delivered, two of the calotype negatives will be returned to you in a sealed envelope. I expect you can understand my reasons for delivering them up so parsimoniously.’

‘I will have you hanged for this one day,’ Laurence Melford said. ‘You just remember that.’

‘And you just remember that I could have blown your son’s head off, and that you thanked me for saving him, in writing; and that your daughter is safe and well, whether it was I who arranged her abduction or not. And one thing more. These fifty-thousand dollars will go towards railroad bonds, which will be made up in your name, and sent to you along with the negatives, so that when the railroad eventually prospers, you will prosper too, even though you don’t deserve to.’

Collis leaned forward and put his head very close to Laurence Melford’s. ‘I have destiny on my side, Mr Melford. It’s sweeping me along, and everybody who comes near me gets swept along too. It’s not your fault if you’ve failed, so why don’t you finish your lunch with Mr Crawford and thank the Lord for small favours.’

Collis didn’t give Laurence Melford the chance to reply. He nodded to the maître d’, to Andrew Crawford, and walked quickly out.

Back in Sacramento, a month later, he received a long letter from Theodore. Theodore’s tone was unusually warm and friendly, and he told in detail of his moderate success in stirring up political support from Congressmen and Senators, and how it now looked likely that he was going to be appointed clerk of both House and Senate committees investigating railroad routes to the Pacific.

‘I have talked for an hour to Mr Lincoln,’ Theodore wrote.