The Luminaries

the ocean already, a dull, pitchless sound, and above it, the infrequent cry of a sea-bird, the call floating thin and weightless above the sound of the rain.
    The two men were conversing in Cantonese.
    ‘There is no gold in the Aurora,’ Ah Quee was saying.
    ‘Can you be certain?’
    ‘The claim is barren. It is as if the earth has been already turned.’
    ‘Turned earth can be surprising,’ replied Ah Sook. ‘I know of many men who make their livings out of tailing piles.’
    ‘You know of many Chinese men who make their livings out of tailing piles,’ Ah Quee corrected. ‘And then they are beaten, even killed, by those men whose eyes were not as sharp.’
    ‘Money is a burden,’ said Ah Sook. This was a proverb he quoted often.
    ‘A burden that is felt most keenly by the poor,’ said Ah Quee. He glanced sidelong at the other man. ‘Your trade has also been slow, of late.’
    ‘It has,’ said Ah Sook, evenly.
    ‘The whore has lost her taste for the smoke.’
    ‘Yes. I cannot account for it.’
    ‘Perhaps she has found an alternate supplier.’
    ‘Perhaps.’
    ‘You do not believe that.’
    ‘I do not know what to believe.’
    ‘You are suspicious of the chemist.’
    ‘Yes; among other men.’
    Ah Quee mused a moment, and then said, ‘I do not think that the fortune I uncovered ever belonged to Anna herself.’
    ‘No,’ Ah Sook agreed. ‘That is likely. After all, she did not remark its theft.’
    Ah Quee glanced at him. ‘Do you think of my action as a theft?’
    ‘I do not wish to impugn your honour,’ Ah Sook began, but then he hesitated.
    ‘Your implication goes against your wish, Sook Yongsheng.’
    Ah Sook ducked his head. ‘Forgive me. I am ignorant, and my ignorance shines brighter than my intent.’
    ‘Even ignorant men have opinions,’ said Ah Quee. ‘Tell me. Am I a thief to you?’
    ‘It is the wish for secrecy that defines a theft,’ the hatter said at last, somewhat lamely.
    ‘In saying so, you impugn the honour of more men than me!’
    ‘If I speak untruly, I will swallow back my words.’
    ‘You speak untruly,’ Ah Quee snapped. ‘When a man finds a nugget on the goldfields, he does not proclaim it. He hides it, and speaks nothing to his fellows. Here on the goldfields, every man has a wish for secrecy. Only a fool speaks of his discoveries aloud. You would be no different, Sook Yongsheng, if you came upon a pile.’
    ‘But the gold you speak of was not discovered on the field,’ Ah Sook said. ‘You found your fortune in a woman’s pocket; you took it from her person, not from the ground.’
    ‘The woman had no knowledge of what she carried! She was like a man who camps beside a river rich in gold, and sees nothing, suspects nothing.’
    ‘But the gold in a river does not belong to anyone; nor does it belong to the river.’
    ‘You have said yourself that the gold could not have belonged to Anna!’
    ‘Not to Anna; but what of the tailor’s claim upon it? What of the tailor’s purpose, in hiding such a sum in the folds of a woman’s gown?’
    ‘I had no knowledge of the tailor,’ said Ah Quee hotly. ‘When you come upon a silver penny, do you ask who forged it? No: you ask only who touched that penny last! I am not a thief, for taking something that was lost.’
    ‘Lost?’
    ‘
Lost
,’ said Ah Quee. ‘That fortune had been claimed by no one. It had been stolen before me, and it has been stolen since.’
    ‘Forgive me,’ said Ah Sook. ‘I stand corrected.’
    ‘A whore is not a concubine,’ said Ah Quee. He was getting worked up; evidently this was a subject on which he had desired to defend himself for some time. ‘A whore cannot become respectable. A whore cannot become rich. All the prestige and all the profit belong to the whoremonger, never to the whore. Yes: the only one who truly profits from her trade is the man who stands behind her, purse in one hand, pistol in the other. I did not steal from Anna!What could I have stolen? She owns nothing. That gold was never hers.’
    They heard hoof beats behind them, and turned: a pair of riders, both sitting very low in the saddle, were heading for Hokitika at a canter; both horses were in a lather, and both riders were making very free with their crops, to urge them still faster. The Chinese men stood aside to let them pass.
    ‘Forgive me,’ said Ah Sook again, when they were gone. ‘I was mistaken. You are not a thief, Quee Long.’
    They resumed walking. ‘Mr. Staines is the