en the next bull
comes on there will be horses and picadors-you know, the men who carry
lances and ride the horses."

"The bull is doomed from the first," said John Harned. "Are the horses
then likewise doomed!"

"They are blindfolded so that they may not see the bull," said Luis
Cervallos. "I have seen many horses killed. It is a brave sight."

"I have seen the bull slaughtered," said John Harned "I will now see the
horse slaughtered, so that I may understand more fully the fine points
of this noble sport."

"They are old horses," said Luis Cervallos, "that are not good for
anything else."

"I see," said John Harned.

The third bull came on, and soon against it were both capadors and
picadors. One picador took his stand directly below us. I agree, it was
a thin and aged horse he rode, a bag of bones covered with mangy hide.

"It is a marvel that the poor brute can hold up the weight of the
rider," said John Harned. "And now that the horse fights the bull, what
weapons has it?"

"The horse does not fight the bull," said Luis Cervallos.

"Oh," said John Harned, "then is the horse there to be gored? That must
be why it is blindfolded, so that it shall not see the bull coming to
gore it."

"Not quite so," said I. "The lance of the picador is to keep the bull
from goring the horse."

"Then are horses rarely gored?" asked John Harned.

"No," said Luis Cervallos. "I have seen, at Seville, eighteen horses
killed in one day, and the people clamored for more horses."

"Were they blindfolded like this horse?" asked John Harned.

"Yes," said Luis Cervallos.

After that we talked no more, but watched the fight. And John Harned was
going mad all the time, and we did not know. The bull refused to charge
the horse. And the horse stood still, and because it could not see it
did not know that the capadors were trying to make the bull charge upon
it. The capadors teased the bull their capes, and when it charged them
they ran toward the horse and into their shelters. At last the bull was
angry, and it saw the horse before it.

"The horse does not know, the horse does not know," John Harned
whispered to himself, unaware that he voiced his thought aloud.

The bull charged, and of course the horse knew nothing till the picador
failed and the horse found himself impaled on the bull's horns from
beneath. The bull was magnificently strong. The sight of its strength
was splendid to see. It lifted the horse clear into the ai