In the Land of the Long White Cloud

to spend all the goldyou find right away by celebrating at an establishment like Daphne’s.” He laughed. “Naturally, in the goldfields here I was looking for your husband. Only to find out that he now lives on Main Street, throwing the book at harmless travelers.” He winked at Fleurette. Before seeing his daughter, he had met with Ruben and was very pleased with his son-in-law.
    “What’s going to happen now?” Fleurette asked. “Will they send you back to Australia?”
    James sighed. “I hope not. I could pay for the passage. That’s no problem…now, now, don’t give me that look, Ruben. I earned it all honestly! I swear. I didn’t steal a single sheep over there. It would have been another waste of time. Of course I was going to come back with different papers. I won’t go through something like I did with Sideblossom again. But I would have had to keep Gwyn waiting for so long if I had stayed in Australia. And I’m sure she’s tired of waiting—just like I am.”
    “False papers aren’t a solution, either,” Ruben said. “They would be fine if you wanted to live in Queenstown, on the West Coast, or somewhere on the North Island. But if I’m understanding you correctly, you want to ride back to the Canterbury Plains to marry Gwyneira Warden. It’s just that—every child knows you there!”
    James shrugged. “Also true. I would have to abduct Gwyn. But I don’t have any scruples about that!”
    “It would be better to make you a legal citizen,” Ruben said sternly. “I’ll write to the governor.”
    “But Sideblossom will be doing that already!” Fleurette seemed to be on the verge of bursting into tears again. “Mr. McDunn already said he was raving like a madman because my father’s being handled like a prince here.”
    John Sideblossom had come by the police station around midday when the twins had been in the midst of serving both the guard and the prisoner a glutton’s feast. He was livid when he saw how the prisoner was being treated.
    “Sideblossom is a rancher and an old scoundrel. If it’s his word against mine, the governor will know what to do,” Ruben said,appeasing her. “I will describe the situation to him in detail—including your father’s secure financial situation, his family connections, and his marriage plans. In addition, I will stress his services and qualifications. So he stole a few sheep. He also discovered the McKenzie Highlands, where Sideblossom now pastures his sheep. He should be grateful to you, James, instead of planning your demise. And you’re an experienced shepherd and sheep breeder, a definite gain for Kiward Station, especially now, after the death of Gerald Warden.”
    “We could also offer him a job,” Helen joined in. “Would you like to be manager of O’Keefe Station, James? That would be an alternative, should dear Paul throw Gwyneira out on the street anytime soon.”
    “Or Tonga,” Ruben remarked. He had studied Gwyneira’s legal status in the conflict with the Maori and was not very optimistic. From a legal perspective, Tonga’s demands were justified.
    James McKenzie shrugged. “O’Keefe Station is as good as Kiward Station to me. It’s all the same to me as long as I can be with Gwyneira—though I suspect that Friday will want a few sheep.”

    Ruben sent his letter off to the governor the next day, but no one expected a swift response. So James struggled with his boredom in jail while Helen spent a wonderful time in Queenstown. She played with her grandchildren, and watched, with an anxiously beating heart, as Fleurette set little Stephen on the pony for the first time. Helen, meanwhile, tried to comfort little Elaine, who cried in protest. Prepared for the worst, she inspected the little school that had just opened. Perhaps she could make herself useful there, so that she could stay in Queenstown forever. At the time, however, there were only ten students, and the young teacher, a likeable girl from Dunedin, handled them perfectly well on her own. There was not much for Helen to do in Ruben and Fleurette’s shop either, and the twins fell all over themselves in their desire to keep their beloved former teacher from having to lift a finger. Helen finally heard Daphne’s whole story.She invited the young woman to tea, even though it might set the respectable women in Queenstown to gossiping.
    “First thing after I had taken care of that brute, I went to Lyttelton,” Daphne said of her flight from the