“Great!  Cogan could hear them all about him saying how noble and affecting.  And it was—­believe me, it was.  And again that fine band arose to play the ‘Star-Spangled Banner,’ but this time our brave blue-jackets also arose, four thousand strong, in the beautiful muster white suits, and yelled as one—­’Oh, cut it out, cut out any more music and bring on the bull.’  And they brought on the bull.

“But first a bugle call rang out, and into the ring came the mounted capeador.  And it was Juan, and he was riding his Argentine roan.  And he took his station in the middle of the ring, and there he waited, in his left hand the reins, and in his right, drooping below his stirrup, a scarlet cape.  Great cheers greeted him; and all around the ring Cogan could hear the residents from the high one in the box with the American admirals, from the President down, explaining that this was their famous mounted capeador, Juan Roca, and to have an eye out for Juan’s unparalleled skill and his bravery—­and did they notice that Juan wore no iron, nor even leather protection to his legs?  Everyone called him Juan, as though he was an old friend.  Cogan remembered how, on that night in Colon, the hat dealer was as proud as could be of his brother; but no more proud, he now saw, than was everybody here in Lima.

“A barrier of light boarding was raised, and there was the bull, a big, chocolate colored fellow, with heavy shoulders and horns that must have spread three feet.  Again Cogan could hear the residents explaining to their American guests that this was one of a famous lot of bulls bred especially for the ring, from the ranch of Don Vicente Guillen, and for this afternoon’s sport the government had provided six of these bulls, paying fifteen hundred pesos—­about fifteen hundred dollars—­in gold for them, and also that the bulls had been fed on half rations for the past forty-eight hours to make them of a high eagerness for this most widely advertised combat.

“Back there in the half light under the shed, Cogan could see the big bull weaving his head from side to side and swaying on his forelegs as he looked out on the ring.  The sudden light probably blinded him, for he didn’t seem to see, not for a few seconds at least, the scarlet cape Juan was holding up.  But when he did!  Out he came, head on, for Juan.  And Juan stayed there with not a move, until Cogan thought the bull surely had him hooked.  But no.  At arm’s length, and in front of the flaming eyes, Juan flirted the cape, and still in front of the blazing eyes he held it, and behind him, past his horse’s withers, he whipped it, and with that, with but a single word, and drawing in on his reins, he seemed to lift his horse off the ground, to whirl him on his hind heels, almost without moving from his tracks; and the bull rushed on by.