IV
When they got inside the pasture the boys looked about for the goat. This goat was quite a savage one, and was kept all by himself in a small field. It did not take them long to find him. He was grazing quietly in the shadow of a mesquite[14] tree. As Tonio had the only lasso there was, he knew he [p 74] could have the game all his own way, so he said,—
“I’ll take the first turn with the lasso, Ignacio; you wave your red serape at the goat while Juan stirs him up from behind.”
The goat had his head down, eating grass, and did not notice the boys until suddenly Juan split the air behind him with a fearful roar and prodded his legs with a stick.
“Ah, Toro!” roared Juan at the top of his lungs just as he had heard the matadors do at a real bull-fight, and at the same moment Ignacio shook out his red serape.
The goat looked up, saw Tonio and the red serape, and immediately stood up on his hind legs. Then he came down with a thump on his fore feet, put his head down, and ran at Ignacio like a bullet from a gun. Ignacio waved the serape and shouted, and when the goat got very near, he jumped to one side as he had seen the matadors do, and the goat butted with all his might right into the serape.
When he struck the serape his horn went [p 75] through one end of it. Ignacio had hold of the other end and before he knew what had happened he was rolling backward down a little slope into a pool of water which was the goat’s drinking-place.
Meanwhile the goat went bounding about [p 76] the pasture with the serape hanging from one horn. Every few minutes he would stamp on it and paw it with his fore feet. Ignacio picked himself out of the water, and then all three boys began a wild chase to get back the serape. It would be a sad day for Ignacio if he went home without it.
Serapes are the most valuable things there are in a peon’s hut, and were never intended to be used by goats in this way.
Tonio couldn’t lasso the goat because the serape covered his horns, so the boys all tried to snatch off the serape as the goat went galloping past, but every time they tried it the goat butted at them, and they had to run for their lives.
At last the goat stood up on his hind legs and came down on the serape so hard that there was a dreadful tearing sound, and there was the serape torn clear in two and lying on the ground!
When his horns were free, the goat looked around for the boys. He was a very mad goat, and when he saw them he went for [p 77] them like an express train. Juan ran one way, and Ignacio ran the other. Tonio was a naughty boy, but he wasn’t a coward. He kept his lasso whirling over his head, and as the goat came by, out flew the loop and dropped over his horns!
The goat was much stronger than he, but Tonio braced back with all his might and held on to the rope. Then began a wild dance! The goat went bounding around the pasture with Tonio at the other end of the rope bouncing after him.
It was a sight to see, and Juan and Ignacio were not the only ones who saw it either.