The World For Sale: Chapter 27

Chapter 27

THE WORLD FOR SALE

As though by magic, like the pictures of a dream, out of the horizon, in
caravans, by train, on horseback, the Romany people gathered to the
obsequies of their chief and king. For months, hundreds of them had not
been very far away. Unobtrusive, silent, they had waited, watched, till
the Ry of Rys should come back home again. Home to them was the open road
where Romanys trailed or camped the world over.

A clot of blood in the heart had been the verdict of the doctors; and
Lebanon and Manitou had watched the Ry of Rys carried by his own people
to the open prairie near to Tekewani's reservation. There, in the hours
between the midnight and the dawn, all Gabriel Druse's personal
belongings--the clothes, the chair in which he sat, the table at which he
ate, the bed in which he slept, were brought forth and made into a pyre,
as was the Romany way. Nothing personal of his chattels remained behind.
The walking-stick which lay beside him in the moment of his death was the
last thing placed upon the pyre. Then came the match, and the flames made
ashes of all those things which once he called his own. Standing apart,
Tekewani and his braves watched the ceremonial of fire with a sympathy
born of primitive custom. It was all in tune with the traditions of their
race.

As dawn broke, and its rosy light valanced the horizon, a great
procession moved away from the River Sagalac towards the East, to which
all wandering and Oriental peoples turn their eyes. With it, all that was
mortal of Gabriel Druse went to its hidden burial. Only to the Romany
people would his last resting-place be known; it would be as obscure as
the grave of him who was laid:

"By Nebo's lonely mountain, On this side Jordan's wave."

Many people from Manitou and Lebanon watched the long procession pass,
and two remained until the last wagon had disappeared over the crest of
the prairie. Behind them were the tents of the Indian reservation; before
them was the alert morn and the rising sun; and ever moving on to the
rest his body had earned was the great chief lovingly attended by his own
Romany folk; while his daughter, forbidden to share in the ceremonial of
race, remained with the stranger.

With a face as pale and cold as the western sky, the desolation of this
last parting and a tragic renunciation giving her a deathly beauty, Fleda
stood beside the man who must hereafter be, to her, father, people, and
all else. Shuddering with the pain of this hour, yet resolved to begin
the new life here and now, as the old life faded before her eyes, she
turned to him, and, with the passing of the last Romany over the crest of
the hill, she said bravely:

"I want to help you do the big things. They will be yours. The world is
all for you yet."

Ingolby shook his head. He had had his Moscow.

His was the true measure of things now; his lesson had been learned;
values were got by new standards; he knew in a real sense the things that
mattered.

"I have you--the world for sale!" he said, with the air of one discarding
a useless thing.

THE END.

    GLOSSARY OF ROMANY WORDS
    Bosh----fiddle, noise, music.
    Bor----an exclamation (literally, a hedge).
    Chal----lad, fellow.
    Chi----child, daughter, girl.
    Dadia----an exclamation.
    Dordi----an exclamation.
    Hotchewitchi----hedgehog.
    Kek----no, none.
    Koppa----blanket.
    Mi Duvel----My God.
    Patrin----small heaps of grass, or leaves, or twigs, or string, laid
        at cross-roads to indicate the route that must be followed.
    Pral----brother or friend.
    Rinkne rakli----pretty girl.
    Ry----King or ruler.
    Tan----tent, camp.
    Vellgouris----fair.

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