Cogan could not help looking up
to Valera and her father after he had done his good turn, and was
thrilled to see them both cheering and smiling at him.
"So far it was clever, neat work on the part of the capeadors, but
nothing wonderful, nothing to match Juan's work on the horse. The crowd
wanted livelier action, and there were cries of 'Torellas! Torellas!'
The bugle sounded, and Torellas came. 'Ah-h,' sighed they--you could
hear them--'now we shall see something.' Torellas, holding the red cape
before him, lured the bull, turned him skilfully, and, spinning on his
heel, tempted the bull to wheel and charge again, and when the bull did
so, and yet again and again, Torellas, holding him always at arm's
length, swung him back and forth, himself retreating a step at a time,
and with every step the bull plunging on after him. It was just as if he
were snapping the bull on the end of the cape, snapping him back and
forth across his path, as he made his way backward. Torellas was never
so far away but what the bull, with one unexpected lunge, would get him.
But Torellas kept the bull too well in hand for any accidental lunge. At
short range he kept him going, drawing him half way across the ring at
one time, until at last the bull himself, seeming to understand that he
was being fooled, stopped short, and Torellas pulled up, too, and let
his cape hang loosely by his side; but as he did so, instantly and at
full tilt at Torellas went the bull again; but that seeming carelessness
on the part of Torellas was part of his play.
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