The Luminaries

associate to turn his mind to practical matters on his, Lauderback’s, behalf.
    Akaroa. 22 Aug.
    My dear Tom—
    I expect you know already of my ambition to run for the Westland seat; but if this news comes as a surprise to you, I have enclosed an article from the
Lyttelton Times
that explains the announcement, and my reasons for it, in more detail than I have time for here. You can be sure that I am eager to see the fine sights of West Canterbury with my own eyes. I plan to arrive in Hokitika by 15 January, an estimate dependent upon weather, as I will make the journey overland, rather than by sea, in order to follow and inspect the future Christchurch-road. I prefer to travel light, as you know; I have arranged for a trunk of personal effects to be transferred from Lyttelton in the last days of December. Might the
Virtue
collect the trunk in Dunedin prior to her departure on the 10th of January, and convey it to the Coast? As a West Canterbury foreigner I shall defer to your expertise on questions of Hokitika lodging, dining,coach hire, club membership &c. I trust fully in your good taste and capability, and remain,
    Yours, &c.,
    A. LAUDERBACK

MOON IN LEO, NEW
    In which Mannering, driving Anna Wetherell to Kaniere, perceives in her a new quality, a hardness, a kind of distance; an observation that moves him, internally, to pity, though when he speaks, some three miles after this observation is first made, it is not to console her, the intervening miles having wrought in him a hardness of his own.
    ‘Misery won’t do. Misery is bad for business, whatever the business. A man won’t bet on it, and a man won’t bet against it—and it has to be one or the other, you see, in our line of work. Do you see?’
    ‘Yes,’ Anna said. ‘I see.’
    He was driving her to Chinatown, where Ah Sook was waiting with his resin and his pipe.
    ‘I’ve never had a girl murdered, and I’ve never had a girl beat,’ he said.
    ‘I know,’ she said.
    ‘So you can trust me,’ he said.

SUN IN LEO
    In which Staines confides in Mannering to the extent that he admits regret in having entered into a sponsorship agreement with Mr. Francis Carver, explaining that the initial opinion that he, Staines, formed of Carver’s character and history was and is grievously in error, his opinion now being that Carver is a villain of the first degree, and one not at all deserving of good fortune; to which Mannering, chuckling slightly, proposes a somewhat thrilling, because dastardly, solution.
    ‘There’s only one true crime upon a goldfield,’ said Mannering to Staines as they stamped through the undergrowth towards the southern edge of the Aurora claim. ‘Don’t you bother your head about murder, or theft, or treason. No: it’s fraud that’s the crime of crimes. Making sport of a digger’s hopes, you see, and a digger’s hopes are all he has. Digger fraud has two varieties. Salting a claim is the first. Crying a duffer is the second.’
    ‘Which is considered to be the more grievous?’
    ‘Depends on what you call grievous,’ said Mannering, swiping away a vine. ‘Salt a claim and get caught, you might get murdered in your bed; cry a duffer and get caught, you’re liable to get lynched. Cold-blooded, hot-blooded. That’s your choice.’
    Staines smiled. ‘Am I to do business with a cold-blooded man?’
    ‘You can decide for yourself,’ said Mannering, throwing out his arm. ‘Here it is: the Aurora.’
    ‘Ah,’ said Staines, stopping also. They were both panting slightly from the walk. ‘Well—very good.’
    They surveyed the land together. Staines perceived a Chinese man, squatting some thirty yards distant, his panning dish loose in his hands.
    ‘What’s the opposite of a homeward-bounder?’ said Mannering presently. ‘A never-going-homer? A stick-it-to-Mr.-Carver?’
    ‘Who’s that?’ said Staines.
    ‘That’s Quee,’ said Mannering. ‘He’ll stay on.’
    Staines dropped his voice. ‘Does he know?’
    Mannering laughed. ‘“Does he know?” What have I just told you? I’m not keen on getting murdered in my bed, thank you.’
    ‘He must think this a terribly poor enterprise.’
    ‘I haven’t the first idea what that man thinks,’ said Mannering, scornfully.

ANOTHER KIND OF DAWN
    In which Ah Quee, placing his hands upon the armoured curve of Anna’s bodice, makes a curious discovery, the full significance of which he will not appreciate until eight days later, when the complete rotation of