Truly, that did not look as if the senorita had prayed for Jose!  The Senor Allen had kept the rose.  Look you!  It was a token, and he would doubtless wear it upon his breast in the fight, where he hoped later to wear the medalla oro—­but where the hands would be folded instead while the padres said mass for him; if indeed mass could be said over a dead gringo!  There was laughter to follow that conceit.  And so they talked, and made the tedious time of waiting seem shorter than it was.

Late comers looked for seats, found none, and were forced to content themselves with such perches as neighboring trees and the roofs of the outbuildings might afford.  Peons who had early scrambled to the insecure vantage-point of the nearest stable roof, were hustled off to make room for a group of Salinas caballeros who arrived late.  This was merely the bull-fighting coming now; but bull-fighting never palls, even though bigger things are yet in store.  For there is always the chance that a horse may be gored to death—­even that a man may die horribly.  Such things have been and may be again; so the tardy ones climbed and scurried and attained breathlessness and a final resting-place together.

Came a season of frenzied yelling, breathless moments of suspense, and stamping that threatened disaster to the seats.  Two bulls in succession had been let into the corral, bellowed under the shower of be-ribboned barbs and went down, fighting valiantly to the last.

Blood-lusting, the great crowd screamed importunities for more.  “Bring out the bear!” was their demand.  “Let us see that she-bear fight the big bull which has been reserved for the combat!”

Now, this was ticklish work for the Picardo vaqueros who were stage-managing the sport.  From the top of the corral above the bear-cage they made shift to slide the oaken gate built across an opening into the adobe corral.  Through the barred ceiling of the pen they prodded the bear from her sulking and sent her, malevolent and sullen, into the arena. (Senoras tucked vivid skirts closer about stocky ankles and sent murmurous appeals to their patron saints, and senoritas squealed in trepidation that was at least half sincere.  It was a very big bear, and she truly looked very fierce and as if she would think nothing of climbing the adobe wall and devouring a whole front seat full of fluttering femininity!  Rosa screamed and was immediately reassured, when Teresita reminded her that those fierce gringos across the corral had many guns.)

The bear did not give more than one look of hatred at the flutter above.  Loose-skinned and loose-jointed she shambled across the corral; lifted her pointed nose to sniff disgustedly the air tainted with the odor of enemies whom she could not reach with her huge paws, and went on.  Clear around the corral she walked, her great, hand-like feet falling as silently as the leaf shadows that splashed one whole corner and danced all over her back when she passed that way; back to the pen where her two cubs whimpered against the bars, and watched her wishfully with pert little tiltings of their heads. (Teresita was confiding to Rosa, beside her, that they would each have a cub for a pet when the mother bear was killed).