Tell the president Lieutenant Halsey Hutchinson requests a moment of his time.”

“Well, son, the president’s off inspectin’ the forts across the river. Won’t be back till noon. If you have dispatches, leave them with me.”

At noon, Halsey would be escorting a young woman to the Smithsonian. He was not about to miss that. So he considered surrendering the diary to McManus. But he had decided that he would put the president’s private thoughts into the president’s hands and nowhere else. So, with the diary still in his breast pocket, he turned and headed down the other side of the carriage drive.

He was halfway to Pennsylvania Avenue when he heard his name.

“Halsey! Halsey, old boy! Halsey Hutchinson!” A slender man in his late thirties was hurrying down the walk. He wore a checkered suit, polished brown boots, and a fresh-trimmed Vandyke: John Charles Robey, distant cousin.

Halsey wished that he had kept walking.

“I heard that you’d been wounded, Halz.”

“You heard right.” Halsey let his voice croak a bit more than usual.

“But you’re looking excellent. And still aiding in the war effort, I see.”

Halsey started walking again. “And what is it that you’re up to?”

“I’m aiding the war effort, too.”

“I’ll bet you are.”

“Once more into the breach, dear friends.” Halsey’s cousin was fond of quoting Shakespeare in a big honking voice and bad British accent.

The family called him John Charles, to distinguish him from Plain John, another cousin. Plain John owned a newspaper in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and was a radical Abolitionist, the sort who believed that Lincoln was a malingerer on the question of race. The family believed that John Charles was a malingerer in general, a fast-talking buck-passer whose presence in the patronage line meant that he saw an opportunity for himself, not for the nation.

At least he was no Abolitionist. Those people gave Halsey an itch.

“I’ve been trying for a week, Halz, but I haven’t gotten beyond the first landing. And if what I just heard is true—that the president won’t be back till noon—I’m for a leisurely breakfast. Care to join me?”

“Not particularly.”

“I’ll buy. In exchange, you can offer me a few pointers for when I meet the Original Ape.”

“Original Ape?”

“Why, Lincoln, of course. That’s what the papers are calling him, even in the North.”

“Calling him that won’t get you very far in the patronage line.” Halsey picked up his pace. “As my father says, he’s the only president we’ve got, so we should speak well of him.”

“Your father’s a wise man. But I’ve heard that Lincoln spends a lot of time in the telegraph office. So my favorite cousin must get to speak to him, as well as of him.”

“I speak only when spoken to,” answered Halsey.

“When you speak, could you just mention your cousin and his fine shoe factory in Brockton, Massachusetts?”

“Why?”

“Because there are shoe factories all across the goddamn Union, Halz, all vying for government contracts.”

They reached Pennsylvania Avenue.

The trees in Lafayette Park were leafing out. Carriages and horses were clattering by. And somewhere in the distance, drums were thrumming. But in Washington, drums were always thrumming. They set up a constant cadence that echoed off the buildings around the park and bounced back to create a counterpoint, so that everyone on the street seemed to be moving to one beat or the other.

Halsey turned east and went with the cadence.

John Charles followed on the counterpoint. “This war is the chance of a lifetime, Halz.”

“Tell that to the boys in the lime pits around Shiloh.”

“Shiloh? Oh, yes. Terrible thing, that. But … but you know what I mean.”

“Not really.”

“Well, you must hear things.”

“Things?”

“Conversation. Talk. The president and the secretary, putting their heads together over some telegram or better yet, some requisition for shoes. That sort of thing.”

If you only knew, thought Halsey.

“Or maybe you just hear the president thinking out loud.”

If you only knew, thought Halsey again.

“And if you were to tell such as myself what you hear, I might be able to use it to the advantage of the family.”

Halsey had to laugh.