icates the pasturage from which each bull comes. This
knot of ribbon is fastened into the bull's hide with a sort
of hook, and it is considered the very height of gallantry
to snatch it off the living beast and present it to a woman.

"The bull avenged me. Lucas was knocked down, with his horse on his
chest, and the bull on top of both of them. I looked for Carmen, she had
disappeared from her place already. I couldn't get out of mine, and I
was obliged to wait until the bull-fight was over. Then I went off to
that house you already know, and waited there quietly all that evening
and part of the night. Toward two o'clock in the morning Carmen came
back, and was rather surprised to see me.

"'Come with me,' said I.

"'Very well,' said she, 'let's be off.'

"I went and got my horse, and took her up behind me, and we travelled
all the rest of the night without saying a word to each other. When
daylight came we stopped at a lonely inn, not far from a hermitage.
There I said to Carmen:

"'Listen--I forget everything, I won't mention anything to you. But
swear one thing to me--that you'll come with me to America, and live
there quietly!'

"'No,' said she, in a sulky voice, 'I won't go to America--I am very
well here.'

"'That's because you're near Lucas. But be very sure that even if
he gets well now, he won't make old bones. And, indeed, why should I
quarrel with him? I'm tired of killing all your lovers; I'll kill you
this time.'

"She looked at me steadily with her wild eyes, and then she said:

"'I've always thought you would kill me. The very first time I saw you I
had just met a priest at the door of my house. And to-night, as we were
going out of Cordova, didn't you see anything? A hare ran across the
road between your horse's feet. It is fate.'

"'Carmencita,' I asked, 'don't you love me any more?'

"She gave me no answer, she was sitting cross-legged on a mat, making
marks on the ground with her finger.

"'Let us change our life, Carmen,' said I imploringly. 'Let us go away
and live somewhere we shall never be parted. You know we have a hundred
and twenty gold ounces buried under an oak not far from here, and then
we have more money with Ben-Joseph the Jew.'

"She began to smile, and then she said, 'Me first, and then you. I know
it will happen like that.'

"'Think about it,' said I. 'I've come to the end of my patience and my
courage. Make up your mind--or else I must make up mine.'