The World For Sale, Volume 1.

ere was rejoicing at Lebanon, followed by dismay and indignation at Manitou, for one of the smaller merged railways had its offices there, and it was now removed to Lebanon; while several of

fice of the merged railway from Manitou, and he saw it quickly

seriously hurt, and feeling ran high. Ingolby's eyes opened wide when he saw Marchand's ugly game. He loathed the dissolute fellow, but he realized now that his foe

he went pig

on with the day's spoil, while he loitered through the woods, a gun slung in the hollow of his arm. He had walked many miles, but there was still a spring to his step and he hummed an air with his shoulders thrown b

y once, and that was but for a moment at a Fete for the hospital at Manitou

ew attitude towards herself, a more understanding feeling. At the Fete when she and Ingolby met face to face, people had immediately drawn round them curious and excited. These could not understand why the two talked so lit

she said to Monseigneu

ere would be work here

ey were not t

sked the old white-headed priest, h

she must be a heretic, that

owards her, but something in her look held him back. He realized that Fleda did not wish to speak with him, and

it wholly with Ingolby as Madame Thibadeau had done. He had lived so long among primitive people that he was more accustomed to study faces than find the truth from words, and he had always been conscious that this girl, educated and ev

e priest said to himsel

bright and shy, but gr

ween the railway-men and the river-drivers, and t

d which was hidden from him. He ma

s house, he recalled one striking phrase used by the aged

camp, put out the fi

to himself as the words

ught for a moment, he s

loud with uplifted head. "I struck camp, but I didn'

camp-fires. That which had been done by the River Starzke came again in its appointed time. The untended, unguar

through this wood. It belonged in greater part to Gabriel Druse, and in lesser part to the Hudson's Bay Company and the Government; and as the land was not valuable till it was cleared, and there was plenty of prairie land to be had, from which neither stick nor stump must be removed, these woods were v

rrying towards where he was with head bent, a brightly-ribboned hat swinging in her fingers. She seemed part of the woods, its wild simplicity, its depth, its colour-already Autumn was crimsoning the leaves, touching them with amb

was like some creature of an ancient wood with its own secret and immemorial history which the world could never know. There was that in her face which did not belong to civilization or to that fighting world of which In

ent atom in the mass of the world's breeding. Perhaps it was consciousness of the dynamic quality in

thought a true one, then tragedy would await her. Yet in this quiet wood so near to the centuries that were bef

ht flash out of his vision as a mere fantasy of the mind. There shot through him the strangest f

make the hardest fight of his life if he meant not to have more of her than this brief acquaintance, so touched by sensation and romance. He was, maybe, somewhat sensational; his career had

invited him; nor hers the first eyes which had sparkled to his glances;

with a singular confidence, an involuntary enclosing friendliness; and now as he watched her listening -did s

apids, for that adventuress was full of a vital force like

er face clouded, and the rapt look gave way to an immediate distress. The fantasy of the wood-nymph underwent translation in I

ok them away again to make sure that it was really singing and not his imagination; and when he saw Fleda's face again, there was fresh

though remembering something she must do. He stepped out into the path and c

ady herself. He had broken suddenly upon her intent thoughts, he had startled her as she had been seld

Sagalac," she said with a ha

oth sides of the Sagalac, I want both sides to belong to each o

rchand's side," she i

e!" snapped the fighter

on, and tied the ribbons loosely under her

ang for saying he belon

ulky meaning. "Won't you sit down?" he added quickly, in a more sprightly tone, for he saw she was abo

he sat down, burying her

lix Marchand?" she

Do

r courage, and he blinked more quickly than is needed with a health

she answered firmly; yet her colour rose slightly, and he thought h

ferently at Carillon not

wered calmly. "He was drunk, an

ked quickly. He did not mean to be quizzical,

th a little ring of defiance

e queried

retorted. "In Le

ening like a nymph for the song of the Spirit of the Wood! Now she

ingly. "In Manitou when men get drunk, the people get

s of Manitou are straig

," she

ve needles," he rejoined, me

as that?" she asked,

the point when I can'

tion of conceit. "Of course if you live in Leba

ou have me,"

ed provokingly. "Certainly not-on

n to that which

t me?" he asked i

rt you? I owe you what I can not pay back. I owe you my life; but

like," he rejoined in a ton

pleased? Did he think that because he had done her a great service, he could say casually what belonged only to the sacred moments of existence? She looked at him with rising indignation,

y," he answered presently. "Yet ther

had rushed over her that he had got nearer to her than any man had ever done. Then-even then, she felt the thing which all lovers, actual, or in the making, feel-that they must do something for the being who to them is more than all else and all others. She was not in love with Ingolby. How could she be in l

s-a look of rebellion or of protest. Presently she r

d Lebanon?" she asked after a pause in whi

-you don't know?" he ask

twist of his mouth, which always showed when he was keenly roused-as though everything that really meant anything was part of a comet-like comedy-had caused her mer

ave heard things, but I should like to lea

om field to field, from common to moor, from barn to city wall. A Romany tent or a Romany camp, with its families, was the whole territory of their enterprise, designs and patriotism. They saw the thousand places where cities could be made, and built their fires on the sites of them, and

the Romany life, had there come habits of mind in tune with the women of the Sagalac, who were helping to build so much more than their homes? Since the incident of the Carillon Rapids she had changed, but wha

oing to give up rice, and eat the wheaten loaf; there's the U. S. A. with its hundred millions of people-it'll be that in a few years-and its exhausted wheat-fields; and here, right here, is the bread-basket for all the hungry peoples; and Manitou and Lebanon are the centre of it. They will be the distributing centre. I want to see the base laid right. I'm not going to stay here till it all happens, but I want t

tarted those factories?"

d for the right people that had the money and the brains, and I let them sweat-let them sweat it o

good; but they say you are a s

ought to be supported. I don't mind what they call m

he three railways was a good scheme, and I was the schemer," he continued. "It might mean monopoly, but it won't work out

the offices but on the whole railway system, and they d

se," he answered. "But

won't represent waste a

s everybody in the end.

e cry of 'wol

ay it now," she answe

t. He is against you,

!" he answered. "That's a fire easily lighted; though it sometimes bur

king against you in Manitou-wo

ly don't know all. Have you

ong the men. They are going on strik

ou?" he asked abrupt

l order," he said sharply. "Both

ke is what he calls

the new game of the modern labour agitator! Marchand has been travelling in France," he added disdainfully, "

she replied gravely. "I

g to stop the troubl

ked. "What were

th them. I don't think the priests will be able to help much in the end, a

swered grimly; and he moved the gun about on his knees

rchand means you ha

onal

es

" he rejoined, his jaw hardening; "and I can take care of myself.

s has been lucky in a way, this meeting. Please don't treat what I've said lightly. Your plans are in danger and you also." Was the psychic and fortune-telling instinct of the Romany alive in her and working involuntarily, doing that fai

where you got your inform

deau, who is a friend of mine. I talk with her more than with any one else in Mani

t. She is a character. She w

you spoke of having the instinct of your race, or something like that. What is your race? Is

n there had been, she had never been obliged to tell any one of what race she was. She spoke English with no perceptible accent, as she spoke Spanish, Italian, French, Hungarian and Greek;

a Gorgio in her daily existence as this man be side her. Manitou was as much home-nay, it was a thousand t

n so, until the fateful day when she ran the Carillon Rapids. That day saw her whole horizon alter; that day saw this man bes

d, tempestuous longing was gone. She was as one who saw dan

ld counts things, not dishonestly; for more than one great minister in a notable country in Europe had commissioned him, more than one ruler and crowned head had used him when "there was trouble in the Balkans," or the "sick man of Europe" was worse, or the Russian Bear came prowling. His service had ever been

rn his face away in disgust? What had she a right to tell? She knew well that her father would wi

oked him in the eyes, the

?" she asked quietly, though h

than anything else, e

," he said admirin

n me," she answered s

rian

sly, as she watched him so intently th

origin defiantly, now her courage failed her. Sh

cause there's something unusual and strong in you, not

d a little defiantly. "I got some verses by post the other day from one of your friends in Leba

atching for some sign of shock or disdain on his part; yet in truth he cared no more whether sh

s a disease at college we called adjectivitis. Your poet friend had it. He could have left

under the compliment, and

-she had more money than any one else thereabouts, anyhow. It was the tallest kind of a holiday when Charley and I walked out to the big white house-golly, but it was white-to visit her! We didn't eat much the day before we went to see her; and we didn't eat much the day after, either. She used to feed us-I wish I could eat like that now! I can see her brown eyes following us about, full of fire, but soft and kind, too. She had a great temper, they said, but everybody li

e meals were banquets. The first time I ever ate hedgehog was at her place. A little while ago, just before you came, I thought of her. A hedgehog crossed the path here, and it br

rd for hedgehog?" Fled

plied instantly. "Tha

her eyes had a far-away look, but th

ny?" she added a l

I heard Aunt Cynthy use now an

e history of

e country at the time-who used to buy and sell horses, and travel in a big van as comfortable as a house. The old man sudd

n; but she did not like him less for that, though she seemed to feel a chasm between them still. The new things moving in her were like bre

her. The Past dogged her footsteps, hung round her like the folds of a garment. Even as she

t. She had been on her way to the Hut in the Wood, and now the dread of the visit to Jethro Fawe had diminished. The last voice she would hear before she entered Jethro

t that instant there came distinctly through the wood a faint, trilling sound. Her face paled a little, and the words died upon her li

d I thought from your look you heard it,

singing," s

f the heathen fro

the heathen,

i got a lodg

here in th

ll-was that where you were g

here. I am a heathe

ow me how; if you think I'd pass for one. I

say good-bye. "Mayn't I

answered slowly, repeating a line from t

go with you I mustn't, but my respects to Robinson Crusoe." He slung the

," she answ

through the woods,

ike a call,"

e answered-"the ca

th a look half-smiling, half- forbid

," he said eagerly, and he t

r plans are in danger- don't forget Felix Marc

ter her. "No, I'll not forget monsieur," he added sharpl