Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 150 — page 8: what you’re looking at

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

— utmost pe began to feel more and more uneasy every ‘And now it was nearly four in the afternoon, and the shadow of Monte del Matador fell on the plaza, and the people round the bull-ring began to stamp and shout: Ei toro, el toro!” (The bull, the bull.] They were impatient to begin. After a little more delay there was a sound of «drums and trumpets; the gates to the ring flew -open, and in rode the four picadors on lean -~worn-out old horses, only fit to die. The men were dressed in gay silk jackets and ‘peribboned hats, their legs and thighs to the waist protected by heavy leathern guards, and ‘they carried long spears in their hands. They rode round twice and were followed by the banderilleros, a score of clean-built, active young fellows, in gay silk jackets, short breeches and stockings, with the lightest of slippers, who bounded into the ring, with little red flags, and ‘bundles of small darts carrying long streamers of ribbon. Then the procession passed out, and the cry of ‘‘ El toro i was renewed, louder than ever. Presently the trumpets sounded again, the tes were flung open and into the ring, followed Es a spitting shower of crackers, dashed a hand- some red bull, with a lean wiry look about him that portended a good fight, and made the peo- ple roar with delight at the sight. Not for long did they remain pleased, how- ever. The bull ramped up and down, smelt at the barriers all round as if to find a way to es- gape, one finally uttered a low bellow of dissat- on Then the people howled out: ** Los picadores! Los picadores |” The bleadoree or pikemen took the hint and rode in, when the bull being a good fighter charged them at once. There were four picadors, and each tried to divert the bull from his comrades by pricking him in the rear whenever he charged one of the number. They could not divert this bull, however. He red one horse the first rush, and then knelt on = carcass to jab his horn into the struggling rider. When the other picadors stabbed him in the rear he only went more fiercely at the fallen man, and they had to call in all the banderilleros together to attract his attention elsewhere and save the life of the victim of his fury. Then he dashed away at the other and gored a second horse and a thir than two minutes. The last picador was glad to get off his horse and climb over the barrier to escape. Then the banderilleros began to play about the bull, throwing darts into his skin and try- ing hew close they could come to his horns without beiag gered. But the fact of this bull being a sequidor or ** follower” was soon plainly visible, for he chased individual banderilleros so fiercely that one by one he drove them out of the ring and people began to roar again: ‘‘ Kl Matador! El Matador !” Doctor Charley Brown, who had looked on at the bull-fight so far with much indifference, now begin to manifest a great deal of uneasiness. e made his way down to the edge of the bull-ring, where he suddenly produced a pair of ) revolvers, from which all the neighbor- shrunk back, and laid them on the railing beside him, where he sat with his legs dangling over, ready to gs down into the ring. The cries of ‘ Matador!” (The Killer) icadors im less ' Went on, and presently the trumpets sounded again, and into the ring walked El Rubio Bravo himself, in his usual dress, carrying a drawn sword and a broad square flag of bright scarlet. The banderilleros made a grand rush at the bull as soon as Olaf entered, yelling at the beast, flinging showers of darts, most of which bad lighted squibs at the hinder end, and gen- erally using ali their endeavors to excite the ble burst of rage, In this they were completely successful, for the bull was not by any means exhausted, and it was only by working in perfect concert in his rear that they succeeded in saving one of their number from death. Then came a second blast of trumpets and all scattered and leaped over the barriers, leaving the bull and the matador face to face. Olaf was just bowing to the President’s box where were seated Carmelita and Pepita side by side, when the bull caught sight of bim, ut- tered a low bellow and came for him on a rush, The Dane did not alter one iota of the pro- fundity of his salute till it was completed and the bull was within ten feet of him, when he turned and flapped his red banner into the ani-* mal’s face with a step to one side that brought down the house, so coolly was it done. The foiled bull rushed on only a few feet when it turned again and made a second savage Flap came the scarlet banner in his face and in he was foiled. ; ut this time he turned inwards on Olaf and the next moment was following the Dane closely round the ring, step for step, the man spring from side to side behind the red flag; the bull shaking his head, lunging denpecebely and coming closer all the time. The people howled and shouted with glee, for they saw the bull was getting the better of the man, and théir sympathies were against the boastful foreigner whose brag had been magni- fied by hundreds of envious tongues. “* Bravo, toro, bravo!” they roared, and Olaf who had all he could do to keep out of the way of the furious bull, heard the cry, and felt for the first time, a sensation very like d . He found that bull-fighting, even in Honduras, was not such an easy affair after all and that the position of a matador, though only requiring him to deliver a single blow, was yet one re- quiring more skill and nerve than all the rest. He could see the spot where he knew the sword must be plunged plain enough, but the trouble was to get the bull to hold still long enough to enable him to plant the thrust. And in:the mean time he had to keep out of the way of the bull’s horns, which were shak- ing and stabbing within a few inches of his body, while the people were hooting and jeer- ing and he knew that Guartiola was smiling to think how his plan had succeeded. Doctor Charley Brown saw the danger and he picked up and cocked both his pistols, shout- ing defiantly: * Give him fair play! I'll shoot the first man that interferes!” Then came a roar from the cow oe as the matador’s foot slipped and he nearly fell. In most cases such an accident would have pro- _ | voked a rush of torreros_to the rescue, but the eee was against Olaf, and the populace only jeered. Olaf heard the jeer and it stung him to the core, for he was an intensely vain man. ‘He ran several feet to one side making for the bull’s tail, thereby securing nearly a second of time and held the banner before him with the left, while he poised the sword with his ht. "Italie the second the bull was on him and there was no chance to escape. e -~was in its face, but the horns were touching the Dane’s body when he fell for- ward on the bull’s neck, burying the sword up to A 9 ve oe soa 1 “yank he b ro as if struck by lightning. The impetus it Mad acquired pitched it on its knees and head, but that was all. It was stone dead before it reached the ground. The Dane’s sword had made a masterstroke, dividing the spinal marrow apd splitting the heart in twain. Half-incredulous himself of his own good luck, he was yet quick-witted enough to em- brace and turn it to advantage, so he turned to the box where Guartiola sat and saluted it with a low bow and a wave of the sword toward the dead bull, executed with distinguished grace. For a moment the people were silent, and then they burst into a perfect whirlwind of applause. “ El Rubio Bravo! El Rey Espado !” The Dane had conquered them, and no one but himself knew how nearly he had fallen in the effort. As it was, they attributed his previous con- duct before the bull, not to awkwardness or fear but simply to a deliberate provocation to iacrease the excitement and suspense. They swarmed over the barriers, invaded the ring, seized the triumphant matador and car- ried him on their shoulders to the President’s box, where he was received by Guartiola with distinguished civility in presence of so Dy people, though the half-breed’s heart was in- wardly raging over the renewed triumph of one he began to hate as his rival in love. Moreover, he had just lost’ twenty thousand dollars, for Olaf had killed the bull as he had said he would and as Guartiola had bet he would not. And that made thirty-six thousand dollars which the Scandinavian swordsman had beat- en out of Guartiola from first to last. True, they were only Honduras doll 80 debased as to be worth only twelve-and-a-half cents apiece; but even so there were forty-five hundred good solid gold dollars involved in the swordmaster’s winnings, and the loss was more than Guartiola could afford. He paid over the money with a sour face, but from that moment Olaf saw that his doom was sealed if he remained in the city of Tegucigalpa, and he began to cast about him for means of escape. CHAPTER IX. BRAGAMONTE, THREE weeks after the bull-fight in which Olaf had so astonished the natives, he was lying in bed in the early dawn of the morning, hal asleep, when his door was burst violently open, and in rushed a tall, dark man, with a ferocious mustache on his face and a drawn sword in his hand. The swordmaster’s room was on the — floor—in fact most Central American ouses are of one story on account of earth- quakes—and the door opened on the plaza. “Come out, and fight me,” roared the man with the huge mustache, and as he spoke he El Rubio Bravo, King of the Swordsmen. = drew back his sword as if to make a thrust at the recumbent Dane. But Olaf was not used to carry his life in his hand for nothing, and the door had hardly opened before the revolver under his pillow was cocked and leveled, while he growled: ‘*Stay where you are or—! The sight and sound of the clicking lock over- awed the other who recoiled to the door and the Dane went on: ‘Who are you? What do you want?” ‘*] am General lsidoro Bragamonte, chief of cavalry to the State of Guatemala and I chal- lenge you to follow me to the plaza and give me a chance to avenge my honor and that of | family.” he dark man roared this in a tone that would have overawed most men, but he did not advance on the pistol. Olaf smiled composedly. ‘You do not want me to go out in my shirt, I su , Bragamonte?’ ‘“No matter how. You must come or I will proclaim you a coward who has wounded my cousin Gomez by foul play,” bellowed Braga- monte, flourishing his sword furiously. ‘Get out of that!” dere 5 Bs om the Dane and he started up in bed and looked so danger- ous behind his pistol that the dark man went through the door like a shot. Olaf ran to the doorway and fired a bullet through his hat when he took to his heels, and the Dane rapidly on his trowsers and boots and went out. He saw Bragamonte in the middle of the plaza and heard him yelling: “The sword! the sword! You dare not face my sword, coward of a Rubio!” Rubio Bravo saw a crowd of men gather- ing to watch the antics of this seeming madn_an, and noticed his friend Charley Brown burryin a him with his inevitable revolver in eac and. He stalked back into his quarters, picked up his sword and came out again. ‘See fair play, Charley,” was all he said to the young Briton. ‘‘This is Bragamonte, that Pedrillo told us of.” Charley nodded and waved his pistols in such a way that scattered the creole crowd in.a mo- ment, when Olaf stalked up to Bragamonte with the curt salute: ‘*)’m ready. Come on!” He had heard of Bragamonte from Don Ramon’s vaquero, Pedrillo, who had listened to the interview between his master and Gomez and knew that although a furious braggart, he was also counted the most dangerous man in uras. No sooner did Bragamonte see him than he rushed at him and began’to cut in. the same wild, furious way which marked the practice of the ordinary espadachin, but without as much leaping as had marked the play of his cousin mez. Olaf watched him closel had watched Pepe, keeping his point to the other’s face and presently Bragamonte tried to confuse him by a high feint at his head ending in a furious cut down at his very toes. The Dane felt himself cut and the sting made him savage. He made a furious blow at the other’s head which was parried in carte, then beat over in tierce. The moment he did so Bragamonte drove his own blade high in air and madea clutch at the Dane’s sword-wrist with his left hand. “* Aha!” Olaf uttered a savage shout and the next moment had drawn his sword out of danger, owres the other’s sword- wrist like a flash and riven bis blade through the center of the bully’s body a foot beyond his back. Bragamonte uttered a choking roar of rage ow and despair and fell back on the laf leaping back holding his bloody sword an crying out: ‘Take care all. Don’t come near us yet.” But if he had thought the duel not over he was mistaken, for there lay the once Braga- monte in a pool of blood, his face pale, bis eyes glassy, and the Dane remarked grimly: **One more of the Terrible not so terrible after all.” Then he turned and went back to his quarters, while the people came and picked up Braga- tere ieee ene _ to the same hut in omez was lyin l - phen ying partially conval As for El Rubio Bravo he looked gloomy and depressed as he went back with his friend Brown, and he remarked as soon as they were out of omen di - Doctor, this is only the beginning. I never re killed a man ina duel but I shall have to ill seven before these fellows will let me alone. I am going to leave Tegucigalpa.” “With all my heart,” returned the doctor in a tone that showed he meantit. ‘I’ve turned my money into gold and diamonds. How’s yours?” ‘“‘The same. I am an old campaigner and always ready to travel. How many horses have you?” **One and three mules.” ‘* Let us be off, then. I have four horses and udin ” that will carry all we need, including— in the same way he even, and he is GOMIGEDOOKS (E() 4