"You," answered Pedro. "You, with your castanets."
"Like this," said Carmen, and she started to play.
Softly she played, then more and more loudly, until the great bull appeared at the other end of the field. He stood looking at the boy and the girl and, all at once, he started toward them, like a big, friendly dog.
"You see!" exclaimed Pedro joyfully. "Now on Sunday, when I am fighting with him in the arena, you, from the audience, will play your castanets as you just did. If he turns and goes to you, I am sure that the judges will spare his life."
"This is a wonderful plan, Pedro," smiled the lovely little Carmen. "And I am certain that it will succeed, because, you see—" She hesitated for a moment. Then she continued, "Because these castanets are enchanted!"
"Enchanted?" Pedro laughed. "That cannot be! Yet when you play them, it is I who am enchanted, my Carmen!"
Carmen did not laugh, however. She looked down soberly at her castanets.
"Legends are told in our family," she said, "about the magic power of these castanets. Whenever one of us has lost or sold or given them away, misfortune has overtaken us."
Whereupon, she recited this verse:
"Castanets, with magic spell,
Never lose or give or sell;
If you do, then grief and strife
Will follow you through all your life."