No! She sat there like a rooted tree, and with her lance she held the bull at bay. It was a marvel of strength and science. The animal bellowed and struggled to get at the horse, but the lance held him off.
Then the crowd went wild again. They laughed, they yelled, they clapped their hands with delight.
“It is wonderful!” muttered Frank, still watching the girl through his glasses. “How she does it I cannot tell. And she smiles again!”
“Gol derned ef she ain’t a corker!” came admiringly from Ephraim. “It’s wu’th comin’ jest to see her do that air little trick.”
At last, finding all his efforts in vain, the bull turned and rushed away. In a twinkling the banderilleros were around him, and again those maddening darts were planted in his neck and shoulders.
As he felt the fourth dart, the bull uttered a terrible roar, and charged after one of the fleeing men. The fellow was but a short distance in advance of those crimson horns, and he was running for his life.
The barrier was reached, and the man made the leap, but the bull leaped with him, and both went over into the walk between the two barriers.
Again were the spectators given an opportunity to shriek:
“He is killed! He is killed!”
It seemed that the bull had fallen upon the man, but such was not the case, and the banderillero scrambled to his feet and was dragged over the second barrier in time to escape death on those frightful horns.