hen
the athletic prowess of the young men had been fully exploited, came the
great spectacle, the bull-fight, and of this it will be necessary to
speak somewhat particularly.

The pen, or corral, as it might more properly be called, was a circular
enclosure of fifty yards in diameter, the ring being formed of stout
post-and-rail fence. The victim, a wild bull, was first turned
blindfolded into the enclosure and baited by the dogs until excited to
frenzy. Then half a dozen of the bolder youths would vault into the ring
armed only with their throwing-knives, and the real sport would begin.
The master of the ring, having provided himself with a long pole to
which a sharp knife-blade had been bound, would watch his opportunity to
cut the thong that secured the blind-cloth about the animal's eyes. Woe
now to him who was dull of eye or laggard of foot!

The object of the game was, of course, to strike the fatal blow; but,
skilled as were the young Stockaders in the art of throwing the knife,
it often happened that a bull would be bleeding from a hundred wounds
and still keep his feet. Commonly, too, he would manage to score upon
one or more of his adversaries before succumbing, for while it was
permissible for a contestant to leave the ring, he could only do so
after he had thrown his knife and as a last resort against the bull's
charge. When the animal's attention had been diverted by an attack from
another quarter, the disarmed contestant would vault again into the ring
and recover his weapon. Here, indeed, was a game that might well stir
the coldest blood, since life itself was the stake for which it was
played.

The company had gathered about the bull-pen, pressing closely against
the barrier, that they might lose no part of the show. It should be a
spectacle worth more than ordinary attention, for the bull was an animal
of exceptional size and of a temper to correspond; the knowing ones
opined that the contest would be a protracted one, and expatiated
gravely upon the animal's strong points to their less-informed brethren.
Wagers were being booked; there were endless arguments, asseverations,
questionings; the smoke from innumerable pipes hung like a blue haze
above the heads of the throng, and here and there a fretful child lifted
up complaining voice. Already the sun hung in the zenith, and it was
time to begin if the sport were not to encroach upon the dinner hour.

At the north end of the enclosure a wooden galle