Some day you shall see—­you shall not depart until you have seen.  Even now he ees in Peru—­yes, sir—­in all South America the supreme matador.  Soon—­we have the assurance of it, senor—­he shall go to Spain, to Madrid, and in the great bull-ring there he shall kill his bulls before the king and queen, and, have no fear, senor, Spain shall also proclaim his superiority.  Already, if he so desires, fifty, seventy-five thousand—­truly, sir—­dollars gold in the year—­shall be his for his splendid genius.  Yes, sir—­and renown without death.  We are proud of him.  Even now he ees with us—­how shall I say it?—­ah, senor, even now, but at twenty years of age he ees with us as the great John L. Sullivano was in United Stat-es when I lived there a leetle boy—­in New Yorrik—­twenty years ago.’

“And Cogan said to himself—­’This Torellas person must surely be some class.’

“’And, senor—­surely’—­Ferrero had only stopped to get his breath—­’it would be criminal not to view Torellas in all his splendor—­not as you have viewed him this mor-rn-ing—­that was play—­but in the full strength of his science, his art—­deliverin-g, senor, the final stroke to the ferocious bull.’

“Cogan also began to see that it would be a crime not to view the great man in action, and he was also told that even more than Torellas the matador they loved Torellas the man, the good comrade.

“Cogan became quite friendly with the bull-fighters.  He inquired further of Ferrero, who in the ring was a banderillo—­that is, one of the people who stick the decorated stakes in the bull’s neck—­possibly Senor Ferrero knew of a mounted capeador by the name of Juan Roca.

“‘Juan?  Who does not?  Yes, sir.  Very much, sir,’ and went on to tell Cogan that Juan, the best mounted capeador in all South America, was that very morning breaking in a new horse on the ranch of Don Vicente Guillen outside the city.

“Ferrero was a most friendly person, and invited Cogan to eat with him, and Cogan went.  Ten or a dozen bull-fighters boarded in one place near the bull-ring—­a large, square, two-story adobe house; a grand house, with walls painted in colors and splendid high rooms arranged around a patio inside.

“It was now high noon, and warm enough in the sunny streets outside, but in the patio it was cool, with a breeze from the Pacific, and after lunch the bull-fighters sat around there and smoked cigarettes and played stringed instruments, all but a few wild ones who went leaping and springing about the garden walks.  Cogan could not hide his interest in this jumping exercise, and Ferrero, seeing it, invited him to join in, which Cogan did, and beat everybody there jumping.  He did so well that Ferrero asked him if he could jump over a horse, and he said he’d try it.  So they went out and got a horse, and Cogan jumped over it.  And then they brought in another and placed the two side by side, and Cogan jumped over the pair of them, at which they all shouted ’Bueno, bueno, Americano!’ and Ferrero slapped him on the back and told him he must stay with them and practice bull-fighting.