Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 150 — page 6: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

6 erchoted and the arm straight at aa Then, when my savings were nearly gone, I came here to search for my Carmelita, and I found > you follow her?” — because 1 am infatuated with She is ‘p coquette, and I am jealous, but ly. coquettish, and she is so beautiful.” frie, But beauty is only skin deep.” " to proverbs. I want you to 9 ‘ All right. ‘As T said, I am ready.” “La oing to try and see Carmelita. Her father keeps her in the house except when she out in public in Guartiola’s company, and I Fave no chance except at a ball, but I knowa way. I hi climb up from the garden to her window, if you will watch below.’ The doctor laughed heartily. ‘With pleasure. And I havea scheme of my own, While you meet the senorita up- stairs, I will have my little affair down-stairs,” fl With whom?—Excuse me, I did not mean to ask—never mind.” And Olaf laughed at his slip of manners. Doctor Brown smiled. “Tt is no secret. Don Ramon Garcia, the Prime Minister, has a daughter too, and. she is teaching me Spanish. I can’t learn from a master, so I’m trying a mistress. Ill take a Spanish lesson in the garden, andif any one comes, he can look out for squalls.” en the plaza began y 8) an the two at ring BS friends strolled see the bull-fight, which turned out to be as the doctor had said, a ‘‘ complete sell,” as far as re- ded excitement and danger, compared with he real thing as carried on at Madrid or even _ Havana, the bulls being tame and stupid, with little capecit to fight. Indeed Olaf was so scornful of the whole busi- ness that he cried out in Guartiola’s hearing: “Bah! call those men torreadores ! be- lieve I could kill such bulls as they have here ge tan ~ ntly the President turned his evil face to- ward him and sneered: “ You killa bull! Bah! I will bet you twenty thousand dollars you dare not stay in the ring when the bull makes for you in earnest.” ‘*T'll take the bet,” cried Olaf recklessly, and Guartiola eagerly snapped out: ‘Done! Vl have the bull ready next Sunday, and then take care of yourself, my bold Rubio.’ The swordmaster bowed and said in a low tone to Brown: “They don’t back our race down, do they?’ To which the young Briton answered: ‘“‘The blooming Greaser will try to put up a job on y ou, colonel. See if he doesn’t.’ iola glanced iciously at them, for ich enderibood no English, but he made no re- mark, and the crowd soon after broke up when Olaf and Brown repaired to the former’s quar- ters and the Dane said gravely: “Now, my friend, I shall really need your help. Inever was ina ball ang in my life, and I have only a week in which to study bull anatomy and the science of the torreador. To- morrow morning we must take a ride to old Garcia’s estancia and get our first lesson.” “ Agreed,” said Brown cordially. ‘‘ But how about our little interviews in the garden to- night. Do they go on?” | f shook his head dryly. “One thing at a time. e love-making can wait; the bulls won’t wait.” CHAPTER VI. A LESSON IN KILLING COWS. Just as the early streaks of dawn hung gray over the summit of Monte Balboa in the east, two men on handsome little horses drew rein before a long stone building some miles from Tegucigalpa, and the biggest of the two shouted in fits roken Spanish b : *“Holloa! Pedrillo! Venga, venga—what the deuce du you call it—come out here! venaca ! venaca! We want a cow, a bull, an ox. Vaca! vaca |” A little shriveled Indian came out with a on his face, saying: ‘“* Como ptt rigs senor, como lo pasa? Su criado de d. Que quiere vuesa merced?” {How are you, sir, how are you? Your wor- ship’s servant. does your worship want?] was Olaf who answered : ~ “We want to learn how tokill a bull, my friend. How much will you charge to let us Old Indian looked astonished. “To killa bull! But your worship is not a ‘butcher or a bull-fighter. ‘* Never mind. How do you sell your cattle?” “Two dollars apiece, senor. Do you wish it tied or loose?” Pedrillo realized that he had before him an original. “Tied for pay and I need your help,” was the answer. ‘I'll buy three beasts af once, no matter what kind.” The two men dismounted and tied their horses, while the old Indian jumped on a pony close by, went down to the open fields round the estancia, and presently came back dragging a vicious looking red cow atthe end of a lasso, full tilt. The two Anglo-Saxons had to scamper out of the way as the beast came up, for it made a vicious dash at them as it passed and Pedrillo cried out: “Here is your animal, senores. Kill it and welcome.” ‘The grinning old scoundrel is trying to fool us,”. growled Brown. ‘Tell him to take the brute to the killing wheel.” Olaf obeyed the injunction and Pedrillo gal- loped ite dragging the cow after him till he came to a huge wheel with asmall barrel, round which was coiled a stout rope with a noose at the end, “* Throw the noose over, senores,” he shouted. Olaf ran forward, picked up the noose as the Indian dragged the cow near the wheel and cast it over the horns of the struggling animal, just in time to escape a dig of her sharp horns. h a malicious grin at the clumsiness of the ‘*Gringos,” Pedrillo let go the other lasso from the horn of his saddle and away went the cow Jumping and shaking her head to the end of the second lasso, the wheel whizzing round till she reached the end of the lasso, then stopping with a shock that tested the heavy framework severely. Then the animal went ramping around at the end of the lasso, while Pedrillo sat on his horse laughing, and the two Gringos stood look- ing doubtfully on. ey “that bloomin say,” observed Brown g ‘brute isn’t so easy to kill, is she? If that’s the ne a cows & on, old man, what will you do Olat s pressed his lips. f com : “*T have a job bofore bee” he said. ‘‘ Itis like learning anew weapon. But I'll master it ina week. See if I don’t.” He called to Pedrillo angrily. ‘Stop your grinning and come here, tell us what we are to do.” “Why, kill the cow, of course, senores.” Pedrillo was civil but sly. Olaf drew out a revolver. ‘‘That’s easily done, my friend, but I don’t want to use this. Show me how you would go to work yourself to kill her.” Pedrillo grinned. ‘* Me, senor? Oh, if I wanted to kill that cow I would wind her up first and then give her the matador stab.” Olaf drew out a couple of dollars. ‘*Go to work and do it.” Instantly Pedrillo was off like a shot. He jum from his horse, ran in, nimbly evading a side rush of the cow and in another moment was turning the huge wheel as hard as he could turn it. The cow, seeing an enemy, came plunging in with a slack rope, and thus was wound up short without any trouble, till she came to the wheel, when she was checked in trying to get round it at the Indian, and both stuck fast. “Tease her out, senores, or I can’t get her wound up,” cried Pedrillo, impatiently. ‘* Don’t you understand?’ Olaf ran in and yelled at the angry cow, which instantly turned on him and cleared herself of the wheel. No sooner was the lasso stretched again than the old Indian commenced winding it up again; and in a few seconds, thanks to the tremendous power of the wheel, the r cow was wound up with her head against the barrel of the machine, kicking and bellowing but powerless. Pedrillo quietly put the check rope on one of the spokes of the wheel and said to Olaf: “ There is your cow, senor, kill her” ‘* Show me how to do it first,” said the Dane. Pedrillo grinned again and walked over to the barrel of the wheel. “You see the cow’s neck?’ he said. ‘‘ Just here, where the shoulders begin is one place, and here at the root of the horns is another, Shall 1 kill her or will you?” “J will try,” said Olaf, and he drew his sword. ‘‘ Which is the place to strike in a bull- fight?” | ar Here,” replied Pedrillo. ‘‘ With full force and let the sword pierce the heart.” The swordmaster plunged the blade into the bound animal, and Pedrillo nodded. ‘“Good! I could not have done better myself. You see she is dead,” And it was true, for the cow had dropped as if struck by lightning, and when they let down the rope not a quiver could be seen in the car- cass. “We will try another cow, Pedrillo,” said the swordmaster quietly. ‘“ Bring her up and Ill try her without the wheel.” edrillo did not grin any more as he set out. **’Your worship learns quickly,” he said. Now El Rubio Bravo, King of the Swordsmen. Presently he brought up a young r wilder than the cow, and drag it to » plunging and kicking, when the Dane, Ma exertion of all his agility and watchfulness rushed in and tried to inflict the fatal stab. But he found that a lively steer even at the end of a rope, is not so easy to kill and it was only at the third attempt, and after having twice wounded the poor creature that he was able to plant the stab of the matador. “That is enough for to-day, doctor,” he ob- served. “The sun is getting up, and we want to be. back in Tegucigalpa before they find out. where we have been.’ ‘“‘That’s the ticket,” responded Brown in his most sententious manner. ‘‘Don’t let the Greasers know how you know or what you know. Keep dark, till the bull-fight.” They paid Pedrillo for his cattle with strict injunctions to keep secret the fact of their being there, and rode back to the city. As ap oe into the plaza, they saw Don Ramon rcia, owner of the estancia to which they had just been, coming out of the President’s palace and saluted him cordially. ‘* Beautiful morning for a ride, Don Ramon.’” “Beautiful, senores. But I prefer my bed,” CHAPTER VII. TROPICAL EVENINGS. Mer THE night before the bull-fight in which El Rubio Bravo was to kill his tl] on a bet with the President, was full moonlight. nse The city was full of excitement at the’pro of a novelty, and it was whispered ¢ the President had sent to one of his o' . haciendas, far up in the mountsins, for a fier bull, who was said to be a sequidor. | A sequidor or “ follower” is the most f cious and dangerous of his kind, and much feared by the boldest bull-fighters. The ordinary bull, when he is teased by the ptcadors and banderilleros—prickers and flag- men—exhausts himself in a series of straight rushes and shuts his eyes at the moment he thinks he can hit his enemy. This is the salvation of the torreador—bull- man, a name including all kinds engaged in the sport. He has only to spring to one side to be safe, and long practice gives him wonderful skill and daring in waiting for the last moment. But there are bulls now and then which do not shut their eyesand which turn on a single tor- reador, following him up and not retin the others to divert their attention : a vic- tim. These sequidors are justl rumored that Guartiola had secured such a. beast to fight the boasting Americano, . “Serve him right,” growled one of the regular’ staff of the bull-ring. “He must needs come round here, bragging about what he has seen and calling our bulls fools. We'll see if he can kill one or whether the bull will him. He'll find it’s not as as it looks.” Master Pepe Gomez, sitting upin bed and coughing horribly in a spasm heard the news and ground his teeth with great satisfac-. tion. ‘* Maybe the bull will avenge mebefore I can. et news to my brothers. Why is it I cannot, d a man to go to them?” The wounded espadachin was worn to a. shadow of his former confident, hectoring ’ under thé drain of his lung wound, and had little money left. a As he lay looking from the window he saw the erect, lithe figure of the Dane cross the p . in the cool of the evening, arm in arm wit ) burly English doctor and he cursed him hearti- ly as he shook his fist in impotent rage. ‘“What is it senor? Why do you curse so?” asked a gentle oleaginous sort of voice at that moment. Pepe Gomez looked round and saw thesmooth face of Don Ramon Garcia. ‘‘T am tied here hand and foot,” he ned ‘and I cannot get word to my brothers of where I am.” ‘‘That is very sad,” said Ramon soothingly. ‘‘T am told that you have seven brothers.” “Six and my cousin, Isidoro Bragamonte,” was the eager answer, for Pepe began to sus- pect that the Prime Minister of Honduras had not entered bis hovel for nothing. It was only a hovel, where Gomez was waited on by a single Indian servant, and yet here was: Don Ramon Garcia stealing in as softly as a. cat, to sit by the bedside of a dying espadachin. ‘Six and Bragamonte?” he repeated musing- ‘They are all good men with the sword?” ‘As good as I, senor. Bragamonte is, how- ever, better than any of us.” Don Ramon looked cautiously round to see: that no one was rt py, Bag then said: “You were wounded you want revenge. Is it not so?” “Yes. But how am I to get it?’ ‘* How could you get it?’ “Tf I could get word to my brothers.” “ Write a letter then, and f will send it,” Pepe looked confused. ‘* Senor, I cannot—cannot write.” “Tcan. Tell me what you want to say,” dreaded and it was. y the Americano, and. | JOOKS (ECO NMIE (E(@)