We were left there alone; groans and cries came from the panic-stricken, struggling mass of people behind us; just beneath us in the emptied corridor stood the bull, snorting with lowered head, pawing the ground; in the arena, the administrador, green with terror and anxiety, shouted commands to the pallid and trembling attendants.

I sat still, holding Suzee.  The bull paused for a moment in front of us, then with his head lowered almost to the ground, made a terrific rush forwards, shattering the woodwork of the platform at our feet to atoms with his horns.  Suzee gave a piercing shriek and fell across me, unconscious.  The animal, startled by the scream, raised its head.

In its rolling eyes I saw nothing but the madness of pain and terror.  As it drew back for a second charge, in its mad effort to dash through the woodwork to liberty, I slipped sideways with the dead weight of Suzee on my arm, into the seats on one side.  It was not an instant too soon.  The next, the bull rushed forwards and our seats were falling in splinters about his head.  Along, sideways, over chair after chair, I slipped, dragging and supporting Suzee as best I could.  I heard screams of terror and suffering all round us as the panic spread amongst the people and they forced themselves in an ever-increasing mass upwards, fighting their way to the exits at the top of the ring.

My mind was made up.  All before me was clear and open, the seats deserted, below me ran the corridor leading to the entrance by which we had come in.  For that I would make.

There was some slight risk, for the bull, tired now of his futile efforts to destroy the wooden barriers in front of him, had turned back into the corridor and started on a mad gallop down it round the ring.

I must drop down into the corridor before I could arrive at the entrance, and unless he were stopped he might meet us in the corridor before I could reach the exit.  But his arc of the circle was a long one, mine to the exit was short, and, anyway, I preferred to chance meeting him to trusting myself to the mercies of my own kind.

I leapt down into the passage, and, lifting Suzee into my arms, passed on rapidly to the wicket.

There was no one there.  I went through, out into the golden sunlight.

Outside, the accident and the panic had not yet become known.  I saw a carriage, with its driver asleep upon the box, close to the main gate.  I went up to it, put Suzee in and spoke to the man.

“The lady has fainted,” I said; “drive us back to the Hotel Iturbide.”

The man, delighted at securing a fare so soon, seized the whip and reins and drove away full tilt before one of the struggling wretches in the bull-ring had succeeded in getting out.

Suzee recovered consciousness just before we reached the hotel, but when she had opened her eyes she closed them again instantly and covered her face with her hands with a cry of terror.