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.
"Oh, Treevor, that awful bull; where is it now? It can't get at us, can it?"
"No, poor brute," I answered. "You are safe enough now, Suzee; you are miles away from the bull-ring."
She was trembling so much she could hardly walk up the stairs to our room, and when we got there I made her go to bed while I sat by her putting cold compresses on her head. She complained of such pain in it, I was afraid that the fright and shock would do her serious harm.