In the Land of the Long White Cloud

but…”
    Fleur shook her head. The night before, she had not only experienced entirely new pleasures in the realm of love, but had also considered the situation from the ground up. There was no way she was going to put her father’s money into the hopeless enterprise of a mine. First, however, she had to make that clear to Ruben—as diplomatically as possible.
    “Listen up, boys, there’s no point in going through with the mine,” she began carefully. “You said it yourselves: the material conditionsare insufficient. Do you think that’s going to change now that there’s a little more money?”
    Stuart sniffed. “Not a chance. That Ethan fellow is going to keep selling us that useless junk.”
    Fleur nodded. “So let’s strike while the iron is hot. You’re a smith. Can you tell good tools from bad tools? Not just when you’re working with them, but when you’re buying them?”
    Stuart nodded. “That’s what I mean to say! If I had my choice—”
    “Good,” Fleur interrupted. “So in Queenstown we’ll rent a wagon or just buy one outright. We can hitch up the cobs; together they’ll be able to pull a lot. And then we’ll head to…what is the next big town? Dunedin? Then we’ll go to Dunedin. And there we’ll buy tools and other things the prospectors need here.”
    Ruben nodded in amazement. “Great idea. The mine won’t be going anywhere. But we won’t need a wagon straightaway, Fleur. We can load up the mule.”
    Fleurette shook her head. “We’re going to buy the biggest wagon the cobs can pull and load it down with as much stuff as we possibly can. We’ll haul the whole lot back to Queenstown and sell it to the miners. If it’s true that they’re all unhappy with Ethan’s store, we should be able to make a tidy profit.”

    That afternoon, Queenstown’s justice of the peace married Fleurette McKenzie and Ruben O’Keefe, formerly Kays, who reverted to using his real name. Fleurette wore her cream-colored dress, which was not crumpled even after her journey. Mary and Laurie had insisted on ironing it before the wedding. The two of them also eagerly decorated Fleur’s hair with flowers and hung wreaths on Niniane’s and Minette’s bridles for the ride to the pub, where the wedding took place due to the lack of a church or other gathering place. Stuart was Ruben’s witness while Daphne answered for Fleurette. Mary and Laurie were so emotional they could not stop weeping.
    Ethan handed Ruben all his letters from the past year as a wedding present. Ron walked around, his chest swollen with pride, because Fleurette had told everyone the happy reunion with her husband only took place thanks to his outstanding memory for horses. Finally, Fleurette opened up her purse and invited all of Queenstown to celebrate her wedding—not entirely without ulterior motives, as it offered not only an opportunity to get to know the locals but also to sound them out. No, no one had ever found gold in the area around Ruben’s claim, confirmed the barber, who had lived there since the founding of the town and who had also originally come as a prospector.
    “But there’s not much to be earned here anyway, Mrs. O’Keefe,” he explained. “Too many people, too little gold. Sure, every once in a while someone finds a giant nugget. But then he wastes most of the money straightaway. And how much is it even worth? Two, three hundred dollars maybe, for the really lucky devils. That’s not even enough for a farm and a few animals. Not to mention that the fellows all go crazy then and put all the money into more claims, more sluice boxes, and more Maori helpers. It’s all gone soon enough, but there’s no new money coming in. As a barber and surgeon, however…there are thousands of men in the area, and all of them need their hair cut. And everyone hits his leg with a pickax or gets in a fight or gets hurt somehow.”
    Fleurette took a similar view. The questions she asked the prospectors, a dozen of whom had found their way to Daphne’s Hotel and were helping themselves to copious amounts of free whiskey, almost started a riot. The very mention of Ethan’s tool deliveries brought their tempers to a boil. By the end, Fleur was convinced she could not only become rich by founding the hardware store she had in mind but would also be saving a life: if someone didn’t do something soon, the men would end up lynching Ethan.
    While Fleurette made her inquiries, Ruben spoke with the justice of the