Kolyan held up a golden box.
“This is my tribe’s jewel box. It is covered with precious and rare
stones. It even plays a gypsy tune.” Kolyan opened the box up and let
it play. “It’s worth much more than three hundred dollars.” 
The
sheriff was un-sympathetic, however. He told Kolyan that this wasn’t a
pawn shop. He wanted cash. Kolyan walked up to the cell and looked
quietly at Jason. Jason thanked him, but told him he couldn’t fight with
the law, especially when Shields changed it every day. “You can’t stay
in here. I know how it feels. I’ve been stuck in here many times, and
for less reason than you.”
Jason told him he couldn’t raise
that much money. He didn’t know when he could pay it back anyhow.
Kolyan thought for a moment, then he smiled. “I’ll find the money.”
“You have Shields after you
Kolyan…you’ll be in here with me!” Jason warned. Kolyan didn’t agree.
Shields needed him to break his horses.
So Kolyan went to see Robin,
Shields’ daughter. She gave him the money and told him to get Jason out
of jail. Kolyan gave her the jewel box. Robin said she couldn’t take
it, but he assured her that was the only way he could take her money.
The debt was his to pay. She thanked him with a kiss and told him to
go. He started to leave, but suddenly rushed back into her arms where
they embraced again. After one more kiss, he obeyed her and left.
So, Kolyan paid the bell and
freed Jason. They rode back into camp, causing much excitement among
the gypsies. “He’s free!” Kolyan declared. “And he’s gonna stay free
like a bird! So tonight, we celebrate!” They were going to bring out
the best wine .
Even Lisa was happy.
She walked
up to Jason and touched my arm. “Welcome, gaucho. Welcome home.”
Jason teased her that she had touched him…right in front of everybody!
Then he hugged her.
Meanwhile, Shields was very
upset. He wanted to know why the sheriff had let Jason out of jail.
“You must be tired of your job, Marsh.” The sheriff announced “the
gypsy” had come up with his bail. “Where would he get that kind of
money?”
The sheriff was pretty scared to
talk “Well, I had the notion…”
“Spit it out!” Shields demanded.
“I talked to one of your hands.
He saw that gypsy high-tail it out of here just before he brought me the
money.”
Shields slowly walked up to the
Sheriff . “Are you saying that gypsy got that money from my daughter?”
No answer. 
Louder this time, Shields asked, “Are you saying my daughter
gave three hundred of MY dollars to that gypsy trash???” The sheriff
was too afraid to even look at Shields. “Get out of here!” Jud Foley
was sitting in the room. Shields muttered, “Every time I pull them
apart, that McCord brings them together again!” He ordered Foley to take
the men and ride out to the gypsy camp and tell them he wanted the
horses in the morning. “Tell them anything! But make sure McCord is
there! And make sure you get him mad enough to fight!” Foley assured
Shields they’d take all the fight out of Jason that night.
Well, they were having quite a
party at the gypsy camp. One of the women was dancing around. Jason
was really enjoying it. At one point, he began enjoying it a little too
much when the dancer started to get a bit personal with him. Lisa
jumped up and put her in her place really fast! Lisa started dancing.
She put her scar around Jason’s neck and sat down on his lap. Her
brother laughed and told Jason he was a true gypsy now.
Back at the Shields ranch, Robin
was sitting in a chair listening to the gypsy music from the jewel box.
Her father came over and accused her of giving “that gypsy” three
hundred dollars in exchange for that box. “What else happened between
you?” Robin turned and looked at her father, then stood and walked away
from him.
Jason and Lisa were getting
pretty cozy. They were talking softly to each other in the moonlight.
Jason held her face with his hand and they stared longingly into each
other’s eyes.
At the ranch, Shields tried to
apologize to his daughter for being short-tempered. He could hear the
music playing from behind her closed door. When she didn’t answer, he
opened her door. The music box was open on the bed, but she was gone.
He hurried to her open window and looked out. She was nowhere in
sight. “The gypsies…” he realized then. Suddenly, another realization
hit him. “Foley!” I dropped the box and hurried from the room.
Kolyan was playing the violin as
Robin watched from the shadows. Everyone was enjoying the music, but
Kolyan stopped when he realized Shields’ men were there. He turned and
looked at them. “Don’t stop…We don’t want to spoil your fun,” Foley
said as he came forward. “Just thought we’d stop and check if those
horses were going to be ready for delivery n the morning.” Kolyan told
him they would be ready. Foley came further into the camp. He
commented on the music, then pointed to Lisa and commented that she was
good at dancing.
Foley grabbed
Lisa by her wrist
while Jason watched. That’s all it took. Jason started punching him.
A fight suddenly broke out. They really tore up the place, knocking
down the tents, putting out fires, breaking tables…When Shields’ men
realized
they were being licked, they wanted to get out of there. Jason
punched Foley out though. Everyone else rode away. Jason and Kolyan
felt pretty proud of themselves.
Kolyan put his knife in the fire
and started heating it up while Lisa watched. Foley was coming to now.
Foley asked him what the knife was for. “I’m going to put an end to the
roving of your luscious eye.” That made Foley scared, and Jason and
Robin weren’t too pleased to hear his announcement either.
Kolyan walked toward Foley with
the red-hot knife. “I ask myself over and over again…what makes people
like you hate us. You say because we are different.” He was now bent
down in front of Foley. How are we different? From you?” Kolyan
grabbed Foley’s hair and started shaking his head angrily. “Thank God
we are different from you!”
Robin rushed forward and grabbed
Kolyan’s arm. “What are you doing? You’re an animal!” she cried. She
begged him not to do it. Kolyan softly explained to her that it was a
gypsy law. He was doing it for his sister.
“We have bigger laws to handle
things like this, Kolyan,” Jason stated.
Kolyan turned and glared at him.
“Which law, Almighty Shields’ law? You saw his law.”
Shields rushed in then and
hurried to his daughter side. He helped her to her feet, making sure
she was okay. “Jud started the trouble. He attacked Kolyan’s sister,”
Robin told her father.
“You attacked a woman,” Shields
accused. “I sent you here on man’s work. I ought to leave you here
with these animals!” Foley declared he hadn’t done a thing. Jason drew
on him, he said.
“Let him up,” Shields suggested
softly.
Kolyan didn’t budge. “Kolyan,
let him up,” Jason said firmly. Kolyan told Foley he’d let him go for
his friend.
Shields told Kolyan to deliver
the horses first thing in the morning.
The next morning, Kolyan was
given the money. Shields assured him it was all there as Kolyan stuffed
it in his pocket. Shields reminded Kolyan that he and his “bunch” have
no business around there. He expected them to move out immediately.
“Oh, it’s good to expect something like this,” Kolyan declared. “Keeps
a man young at heart and full of hope!”
“You’ve been warned.”
“Always. Many times, wherever we
go! It’s ‘hello gypsy…welcome gypsy…work for me like a dog gypsy…are
you finished, gypsy…get out gypsy’”
Shields was not amused by his
sarcasm. “I’ll still tack your high and mighty pelt to the wall,” he
warned.
Kolyan felt victorious as he
jumped on his horse and rode out of town.
That night, Jason told Lisa he
was worried about Kolyan. It was getting late. He should have been
back hours ago. She suddenly jumped to conclusions. She glared at him
as she put her hands on her hips. “Ah…I know what you think, gaucho!
You think Kolyan has run off, huh?”
“Well?”
“Well, we think Shields as harmed
him,” Lisa answered. “And if he ain’t back by morning, we’ll go to
Shields’ ranch and take BACK the horses!”
Jason went to question Shields.
“I’m sick of the gypsies, and I’m sick of you, McCord!” Shields declared
as Robin came down the stairs. “I gave Kolyan that money and he took
off. If he’s not back by now, he ran out!” Jason said that was
ridiculous. He wouldn’t leave his tribe. “Your friend’s a gypsy,
McCord. He’d run out on his own mother!”
“Shields, you know you have an
Empire, but you haven’t got any title,” Jason shot back. “Kolyan is a
king. He cares about his people.”
“He’s a king of pigs! You’ll
find him wallowing about a thousand miles from here like a pig. A pig
with all that money.” Shields and Foley turned to walk away.
But Jason wasn’t done yet. “For
your sake, Shields, I hope we don’t find him somewhere around here
dead.”
Robin hurried down to Jason,
wondering if Kolyan could really leave his people. Jason stared at
her. “Are you beginning to believe your father?”
“Where is he? He promised to
meet me before they left. I waited and waited…” Jason stopped her and
questioned her on what she had just said. He asked her where they were
supposed to meet. “Well, at the Oak Grove…after he got the money from
my father.” Jason said that was the opposite direction of the gypsy
camp.
Jason hurried from the house.
Lisa was angry and was speaking
to the other gypsies at the camp. “Your king..my brother…has been
harmed by Shields and his men! Our money has been stolen! We have
delivered the horses, but that we can fix! We ask for only what is
ours! Kolyan would say ‘RIDE! RIDE for the horses!” The men cheered.
They took off towards Shields’ house.
Meanwhile, Jason was
investigating Kolyan’s disappearance. He found Kolyan. He was sitting
under a tree very drunk. Jason demanded to know what had happened.
Kolyan laughed and told him something about his horse running away. “Do
you know we’ve been looking all over for you? Robin finally told me she
was supposed to meet you out here in the Oak Grove.” Kolyan laughed,
stating someone had missed him.
“You were missed alright,” Jason
declared. “So much they may be killing each other right now.”
The next morning, Shields and his
men were ready for the gypsies who were just about to storm his ranch.
He had his fun cocked and ready for action. Shields men lined up in
front of the Lisa and her men. “Don’t come any closer or we shoot,” he
warned. Lisa told him they came for the horses. Shields assured her he
didn’t still anything. Her brother ran out on them. “Now get off this
ranch and out of the territory!”
Lisa turned and spoke something
to her men. Then the turned their horses around. They turned, and at
her commanded started charging.
Suddenly, shots were heard.
Everyone froze as Jason hurried up with Kolyan behind him on the
saddle. Lisa told the men to lower her brother to the ground. She was
afraid Shields’ men had done it to him. Kolyan assured her they
hadn’t. Robin kneeled in front of him, wanting assurance he was
alright. He told her he’d be able to break many more horses.
“And I’ll cook for you and tend
to your wagon and…”
He hushed her. “Now you’re
telling a fable. Fables are for dreaming, not for living.” He told her
that he didn’t belong with her. They were too different.
Maybe she knew all along it was
just a fable. “A wish…Wishes do come true sometimes.”
Her father stepped forward and
gently pulled her to her feet. “Wishes come true when men stop dreaming
and work for them,” he said gently.
“Well, they have a better chance
of coming true when men stop hating each other for no reason.” Jason
smiled at the group. “You know, Mr. Shields, people may look different,
act different, talk different, but if you look inside them deep enough,
you’ll see yourself.”
Shields thought on that for a
moment. “McCord, how would you like to forge about your surveying and
take over as the foreman of Chimney view? Jud Foley’s out.” Jason was a
bit taken aback. Then Shields added: “You can take over my empire…you
and Robin.”
“Mr. Shields, she’ll pick the
right man one day, but let her do it!”
Shields looked at his
daughter,
then back at Jason. “McCord…it’s a shame we didn’t meet a long time
ago. We might have both skirted a couple of mistakes.”
Shields and Robin walked away.
Jason bent down in front of Kolyan. He took Jason’s hand. “Friendship
for always.” Jason said it back to him.
He had to say goodbye to Lisa as
well. She gave him the scarf and tied it around his neck. They kissed,
then Jason mounted his horse. She asked Jason to cut the cards. Jason
told her they already knew their future, but she wanted him to cut
anyhow. Jason cut the cards, and then rode away. The card, Jason never
knew about..it was the queen of hearts.
