other and Guavera were applauding, too, but
their applause did not have the quality of Senor Roca's. Valera's face
was still hidden by her fan. Cogan looked to the matador. He seemed to
be limp, apathetic. 'The reaction,' Cogan thought, and Torellas, being
so young and such a high-strung fellow, maybe it was only natural, and
yet, thinking a moment later, it had come rather soon for an athlete in
his fine condition.

"In the sand lay the sword with which he had killed the bull, and while
the people were cheering, stamping, hurling words of applause,
endearment, love, at Torellas, he picked it up. Already the President of
the Republic was standing up in his box with the cloak and hat of the
master, to hand them back to him with words of appreciation, and to him
and the crowd Torellas was bowing.

"Cogan, with eyes only for Torellas and the Rocas, did not see the
beginning of what happened next. He first heard a cry, then a loud voice
or two, then a hundred, a thousand voices. He turned. The gate which
held the next bull in confinement had been opened or else it had burst
out. The gateman was there, but with despairing hands on high, and
across the ring the fresh bull was coming. Torellas was standing with
his back to the gate, and not twenty feet from it, almost in the spot
where he had killed his bull, and wiping the sword blade in a fold of
Cogan's cape, which he was now holding loosely. He was looking up at the
Rocas and seemed at first not to hear the cries. He turned--slowly, with
horrible slowness, Cogan thought, when he recalled how fast he could
move when he wanted to.

"He turned too slowly. The bull caught him sideways, and when he came
down, it was astraddle of the bull's back, from which he fell to the
sand beside the bull, who had wheeled and was waiting. He must have been
stunned when he landed, for the sword and cape had fallen from him, and
he lay motionless. The bull lunged like lightning. The horn went into
the left thigh, just above the knee, and, not done then, the bull ripped
on upward with that same horn until it came out under the matador's left
breast.

"The white tights turned red. The bull was lowering his head to gore him
again, but Ferrero had leaped from his place of refuge. Cogan was with
him. Ferrero picked up the cape and flouted it in the bull's eyes. The
bull lifted his head from Torellas, looked at the cape, and charged. And
as he did, Cogan snatched up the matador's sword and waite