America’s Last Emperor: Vigilance
Chapter Six
May 15th, 1851
Norton moved all operations to an office at First and Howard in the wake of the fire. Business was brisk in the days after, and he had extended credit to innumerable fellow businessmen to alleviate some of the suffering they’d endured from the terrible fire. The hotel emerged with merely a blistering of paint on the outside, protected by the mud and sweat and blood of the volunteer fire department. Norton had a few drinks since the fire with Mr. Sawyer, trying to forget the images in his head of smoke, tornadoes made of fire, horses with flaming manes, and molten gold found next to skeletons in the ashes.
Whatever happened, nobody knew where Mr. Robertson was.
In the end, work banished the images from his head, and he threw himself into that. Ships still arrived constantly, and he was in one of the best positions in the city to take advantage of that. His temporary offices at First and Howard were close to the Genesee Warehouse, as the sign on the beached ship now proclaimed. His water lots were right next to the new Pacific Mail Steamship Terminal, which turned his advantage to downright criminal in his mind. He was now almost the first in the city to get any mail or news off the steamships that came every fortnight with mail from the East Coast.
