The Shadow - 305 - Malmordo by Maxwell Grant

Author:Maxwell Grant
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Street & Smith
Published: 1946-07-21T22:00:00+00:00

“Kai baro kralis th’arakas?”

The Shadow was asking where he could find their great leader, which to Panjo and Thalla meant King Dakar, so lately reported out of the city.

Eagerly,

Panjo and Thalla conducted him past the turkey red curtain, where Panjo rapped at a door beyond. The door opened and The Shadow found himself facing King Dakar, a gentleman whose surprise diminished rapidly when Panjo, and Thalla chattered to him in gypsy talk.

“Yek Ushalyin!” Panjo exclaimed. “Laskoro Romeskero!”

“Ov hin Rom!” added Thalla. “Na gajo!”

The title ‘Yek Ushalyin’ was Panjo’s way of saying “The Shadow.”

Translated literally it meant ‘a shadow’ but in Romany, the indefinite article

‘a’ also meant ‘one’. In defining the visitor as ‘One Shadow’, Panjo was seeking to confer a distinction upon so notable a guest.

Also, Panjo had added that Yek Ushalyin was of the gypsies and Thalla had supplemented the claim by declaring: “He is gypsy, not a foreigner,” for the term Rom meant someone of the gypsy race, while gajo signified any non-gypsy.

From there on, The Shadow took up the conversation and King Dakar, hearing

his speech, bowed low. To term Dakar a ‘king’ seemed ludicrous, for he was a drab, sunken sort of man, whose broad, droopy face was so weather-beaten that it had lost its natural color. Nevertheless, if The Shadow deserved a title, so

did King Dakar.

For after he heard The Shadow declaim in pure Romany, Dakar did likewise.

The language that they talked showed that Panjo and Thalla were limited in gypsy-speech to a hodge-podge of varied dialects.

It was a pleasure, Dakar told The Shadow, to hear some one speak the lacho

romano chib, or pure gypsy, and not the posh romani toward which so many of Dakar’s people trended. They were even forgetting their romnipen, or gypsy ways.

The Shadow inquired if that applied to a Rom named Gregor and Dakar was startled. When The Shadow wanted to learn the connection between Gregor and Malmordo, Thalla became terrified and even Panjo was shaken. Then, Dakar standing speechless, The Shadow calmly expressed himself in English, interspersed with gypsy terms, to clarify the purpose of his visit and how he had arrived here.

“At the pier, I learned that Panjo was Rom,” declared The Shadow. “When he

saw me, he cried ‘Vourdalak’ and ‘Nosferadu’ meaning he mistook me for a vampire, which any Rom might. Yek Rom, seeking birds, such was Panjo. Why should he want chirikla? Because birds are used for telling fortunes. Bring your chirikla, Panjo.”

Panjo went to get the birds.

“On the boat was a gajo who died very suddenly,” The Shadow told Dakar.

“He said three words: ‘Malmordo - morto - noktomezo.’ Do you understand those words, Dakar?”

Dakar’s expression had gone rigid. As it relaxed, he nodded slowly.

“I know who Malmordo is,” said Dakar. “But those other words” - he shook his head - “they are in the language that we do not understand.”

“The words meant death and midnight,” declared The Shadow. “I knew of the Cafe de la Morte and assumed that the man might refer to it. I went there and saw Madame Thalla, a fortune teller.

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