Networking like this turned out to be fun. The first hour was spent making decisions or listening to updates on what had occurred with all of our new prizes thus far. There was a lot going on and I was glad for Clara’s help; it would have been a mess without her. Within an hour, I managed to get though the entire list or defer items until tomorrow. I think the entire crew felt better with those tasks handled. Some things had to wait, like the people and the livestock. Those were things that would be properly sorted the next day. All were well situated for the night.

We had even managed to procure enough tents for the new slaves and guards to protect them at night. The guards mostly came from our crew, with the promise of a bonus in the morning if they protected these people overnight. It was handy to have Sheriff around to speak to that group and remind them that the guards were to protect them. He also reminded them of Missouri law and the price for running. He was honest, telling them that it would be better to wait until they saw this new situation. I wasn’t there to hear exactly what he said, but I heard back from Amos that Sheriff had been most impressive.

With all of my work handled and most of the long day behind me, I sat back to enjoy my evening. Apparently I was going to meet a lot of people because there was a small queue built up. I looked to Clara with some trepidation. “They will all want to buy us a drink. We need a way out of that. Any ideas?”

She thought for a bit and replied, “There happens to be an orphan children’s fund. Perhaps we could accept donations to that, instead of a drink?”

Well, that seemed like a decent idea, so I sent her to ask Mrs. Bryne for a jar and any small change they had. Giving her some quarters to buy the change, I also gave her two St. Louis paper dollars to prime the jar. Clara wrote up a quick little paper sign and with that we started to welcome guests.

I made an accidental time error during this process and ordered fries. Not thinking clearly and feeling peckish, I innocently asked for an order to snack on. French fries or Pomme Frittes wouldn’t be offered until the World's Fair around the turn of the century. I tried to back out but Mrs. Byrnes reminded me that she knew I was well-travelled and this would be a great favor to her. So I went to the kitchen and showed her.

She had a large pan of oil, hot and ready to fry chicken. Of course, she had potatoes. The recipe is easy and I walked her through the steps in a few short minutes. She was thrilled with the result and set to making one full order. I looked for sauces and could only find a pan of brown gravy available, so I took a bowl of that out.

We had barely seated our first guests when out came our fries so I had no choice but to invite our guests to sample the hors d’oeuvre. He was the Mayor, after all. Well the Mr. Mayor’s plump and hoity-toity wife seemed to love them, particularly covered in gravy. I tried to ignore her, salted a few fries from my pinch bowl and paid attention to the prominent politician. As usual, he was the typical politician and really had nothing to say except to invite me to come back and auction at their annual fall fair. They had never heard anything like me. Well, of course they hadn’t. I’d even thrown some rap lyrics in there when I was getting bored. I agreed to consider it and we managed to shoo them away, but not before Mrs. Mayor ordered fries for her own table. I simply told Mrs. Byrne just to keep them coming as long as I had table visitors. They couldn’t talk as much when they were eating.

The well-wishers kept coming after that. The majority of them were really nice people who just wanted to say hello. The donation jar got a fair share of attention, which made Clara happy. At some point, her husband showed up, but he sort of sulked behind us until I pulled him aside and asked him to sit close to his wife. None of us wanted unfounded rumors spread about. He actually turned out to be useful with his knowledge of who was who and I turned over introductions to him.

We eventually had the process down pat and managed to meet all comers, while putting off the people who should be ignored. There were a few grifters who he didn’t even allow to sit. Eventually we had seen everyone and a huge sigh of relief went up. I finally had a chance to order us each a proper drink. We had a relaxed conversation and got to know each other.

Peter was actually a certified engineer, stamp and all. The problem was the stamp was good in Austria only and he was still waiting for Missouri to approve him. So for now, he did labor. I told him they’d probably figure it out sooner or later, and then casually added that we had no problems like that up in Rulo. His Austria stamp would be perfectly valid with us. In fact, we were looking for a dedicated schoolteacher as well.

Naturally, my next step was to introduce the rules of Rulo to them and watch their reactions. That was always a fun exercise and gave me a chance to smoke a cigarette. As best as I could tell, they went through them three times, speaking between themselves in German. Outwardly, I ignored them. Naturally, I was paying rapt attention regardless of my outward demeanor. A teacher and an engineer would be an incredible set of acquisitions.

There was a lot I still needed to learn about them. Many of the puzzle pieces just didn’t fit right. Their being on the frontier was one of them. I also had to remember to take chances on people from the genteel part of society as well. It was a coin flip for me, so I surreptitiously spun a coin on the table under a covering hand and it came up with an answer. Take the risk.