"A barrier of light boarding was raised, and there was the bull, a big,
chocolate colored fellow, with heavy shoulders and horns that must have
spread three feet. Again Cogan could hear the residents explaining to
their American guests that this was one of a famous lot of bulls bred
especially for the ring, from the ranch of Don Vicente Guillen, and for
this afternoon's sport the government had provided six of these bulls,
paying fifteen hundred pesos--about fifteen hundred dollars--in gold for
them, and also that the bulls had been fed on half rations for the past
forty-eight hours to make them of a high eagerness for this most widely
advertised combat.
"Back there in the half light under the shed, Cogan could see the big
bull weaving his head from side to side and swaying on his forelegs as
he looked out on the ring. The sudden light probably blinded him, for he
didn't seem to see, not for a few seconds at least, the scarlet cape
Juan was holding up. But when he did! Out he came, head on, for Juan.
And Juan stayed there with not a move, until Cogan thought the bull
surely had him hooked. But no. At arm's length, and in front of the
flaming eyes, Juan flirted the cape, and still in front of the blazing
eyes he held it, and behind him, past his horse's withers, he whipped
it, and with that, with but a single word, and drawing in on his reins,
he seemed to lift his horse off the ground, to whirl him on his hind
heels, almost without moving from his tracks; and the bull rushed on by.
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