AFTER THE FIGHT.
As soon as they could escape, Professor Scotch and Ephraim Gallup left
the bull ring. They tried to discover where Frank had been taken, but
were unsuccessful. They were met with black looks and were given scant
courtesy. Some of whom they sought information declared that the boy
would be imprisoned.
As they marched back to the hotel Ephraim raged and raved as if he had
quite lost his head. He vowed that Frank should have a square deal. He
vowed that the United States would wipe Spain off the face of the earth
if Frank were harmed. He was stared at in astonishment by the wondering
people they passed. It was well for him that English was not understood
by those Spaniards who overheard him. It is certain that he would have
been arrested and imprisoned, if nothing more serious had happened to
him.
The professor was on the verge of tears.
“It’s all that daring boy’s fault!” he declared. “He is continually
getting into scrapes! Oh, my! oh, my! What shall we do?”
“Do?” cried Ephraim. “Why, we’ll apply to the United States Consul. By
chaowder! we’ll find aout ef a citizen uv the United States can be put
inter prison like a caow in a pound jest because he saved the life uv a
gal!”
“I’m afraid——”
“Well, I ain’t, b’gosh! We was fools to come inter this air heathen
country; but, naow I’m here, I ain’t afraid uv anything!”
“Be careful! We may get into trouble. Look out what you say.”
“Jee thutter! I’m a Yank, an’ I’m a Yank to the backbone! I won’t be
muzzled!”
“But it is best to be cautious. If Frank had said he was English——”
“I’d jumped him, an’ I’d never had anything to do with him arterward.
The English may be all right; but that ain’t any reason why a Yankee
should be ashamed to say what he is. You’d never ketch an Englishman
sayin’ he was anything else, by gum! They’re praoud because they’re
English, but there ain’t one uv them that’s a darn bit praouder uv it
than I be because I’m a Yankee.”
“Policy, my boy——”
“Policy be gol derned!”
“You know the English say that Americans boast too much.”
“Don’t keer ef they do! I’ve seen some Englishmen in America that didn’t
do a thing but brag.”
“How did you like it?”
“Why, I thought they was fools!”
“Well, then, you should see what is thought of an American who goes
abroad and proclaims himself boastfully everywhere. He makes a fool of
himself, just as the boasting Englishman in America does.”
“B’gosh! I never thought uv that.”
“You see that it is true?”
“Wal,” drawled Ephraim, rather reluctantly, “I s’pose it is.”
“It is, certainly. It would be well for the American if he would learn a
little reserve from his English cousin. There is a beautiful trick of
keeping one’s mouth closed.”
Ephraim thought this over a minute, and then he burst out:
“That’s all right; but when I’m asked ef I’m English, I’m goin’ to say,
‘Not by a dern sight! I’m Yankee clean to the bone, an’ don’t ye forgit
it!’ Ef Frank Merriwell had said he was English when they asked him——Oh,
say! it’s no use to talk abaout that! I know Frank! He’s got Yankee
Doodle and Hail Columby blood runnin’ in ev’ry vein.”
“But we are in a country that entertains a hostile feeling toward the
United States just at present, and the people here are very
fiery-tempered and dangerous. There is such a thing as diplomacy, and——”
“Hang diplomicy ef a feller’s got ter have it at ther cost uv his honor.
Frank done right, an’ I’ll back him up.”
The professor was in despair.
“You do not seem to comprehend that we may not have a chance to back him
up. He may be carried off and imprisoned, and we may never see him
again. We may be warned to get out of the country—or we may be
arrested.”
Scotch gasped out the final words in a manner that showed he was alarmed
beyond measure by what had taken place. It was with no small difficulty
that Ephraim repressed a feeling of contempt for the agitated little
man.
The blood of the boy from Vermont was thoroughly aroused, and, boylike,
he could not be easily suppressed. His respect, admiration and love for
Frank were unbounded. To him Frank’s arrest by the civil guards seemed
one of the greatest outrages ever committed.
To the professor it also seemed an outrage, but the little man dared not
express himself after the manner of the boy. Scotch, who was naturally
timid, had read much of the Spaniards, and he feared them. What he had
seen that day caused him to fear them still more.
“Be quiet—do be quiet!” he urged, as Ephraim continued to express his
feelings. “If some one should hear you—some one who understood English!”
“Wal, what ef they did?”
“They are a dreadful people! Think how they delight in shedding blood!
Think of the spectacle we witnessed this day! Why, they seem to revel in
gore. Women and children laugh and shout to see horses ripped open! And
their delight seemed the greatest when it appeared that the bull had
killed one of his tormentors, or was about to do so.”
“Wal,” confessed Ephraim, “I be hung ef I didn’t feel ez ef I’d kinder
like ter see ther critter sail in and kill ther hull gang.”
“But your feeling was entirely different from theirs. You felt that way
because they were torturing the animal—because it seemed brutal to you,
and it enraged you. The Spaniards felt that it would be a satisfaction
to see some of the poor wretches killed because they had bungled in
their acts. It was not from a feeling of sympathy for the bull or the
poor horses.”
Ephraim knew this was true, and he felt a great contempt for the
Spaniards because of it.
“At skewl,” he said, “it alwus turned aout that the biggest bully was
the biggest coward. Jest as long as he felt sure he could lick everybody
else he seemed gol dern brave, but when he found anybody else could lick
him and dast stan’ up to him, he squelched right daown. The Spanish act
to me like a nation uv bullies. They’ve got the swelled head, an’ they
think they kin lick everybody else; but when they find aout diffrunt,
they’ll squelch mighty sudden.”
The professor shook his head.
“I am not so sure of that. With all their bullying propensities, they
are very proud, and I fancy they are a people who would rather die
fighting than give up. They cannot be easily conquered.”
“Neither kin a bully; but once yeou git him daown, he’s daown for good.”
“Which is not at all true with the Spanish. Although they may play the
bully, they do not like to stay down when they have been beaten.”
“Wal, I don’t keer a gol dern abaout that. All I want is for ’em to let
up on Frank, and let up sudden.”
This discussion continued all the way back to the hotel. Ephraim urged
the professor to do something at once, but Scotch declared that he must
have time to think it over, and they went to their room.
When they arrived there, they met a great surprise.
Frank Merriwell was there, seated in an easy-chair, calmly looking over
the _Buletin de los Toros_!
Both Ephraim and the professor came near fainting. They stopped in the
doorway and stared, open-mouthed, at the boy.
“Come in,” called Frank, cheerfully. “I trust you have enjoyed
yourselves very much?”
“Whoop!” shouted the boy from Vermont. “It’s him!”
“It is!” roared the professor, delightedly. “It certainly is!”
Ephraim lunged forward and caught the hand of his companion and friend,
giving it a squeeze that flattened Frank’s fingers.
“Hang my eyesight!” he cried. “We never expected to find yeou here!”
“We thought they had carried you to prison,” said Scotch.
Frank laughed.
“And so they might but for Señorita Zuera,” he declared. “She interceded
for me, declaring that I had saved her life, and I was released on one
condition.”
“What was that?”
“That I would leave the country immediately.”
“We can’t leave it any too quick to suit me, b’gosh!” cried Ephraim.
“We will start immediately—at once,” fluttered the professor.
Finding Frank was at liberty, Ephraim seemed quite changed. He declared
that they would be foolish to remain where they were in danger of being
stabbed in the back at any time. Once more his former fear of the
Spaniards came over him, and the professor was astonished by his altered
manner and language.
“Oh, there is no great rush,” smiled Frank. “They finally gave me
forty-eight hours in which to leave Madrid.”
“It’s too much,” declared Professor Scotch. “We will go as soon as we
can get a train.”
“That will not be to-night.”
“Is there no train out of Madrid to-night?”
“Oh, yes; but we have no time to bundle up and rush away on it. Besides
that, I want a good night’s rest. We have done nothing but hustle around
since coming here, and I mean to be fresh when we start out.”
The professor was eager to get away, but Frank would not stir, and the
professor found it quite useless to argue.
“Well,” he sighed, “I suppose you will stay, and the chances are that
you will get into some other scrape before I can get you away.”
“Ah!” cried Ephraim; “that was a great trick yeou done, Frank! Haow in
the world did you ever kill that bull with one jab?”
“It was an accident,” was the modest reply. “I had to do something, and
I caught up the sword to defend myself. When the bull rushed at me, I
drove the sword for his neck, and I happened to hit the vital spot. A
fortunate accident, that’s all.”
“It was nerve and skill, b’gosh!” cried the lad from Vermont. “Can’t
make me b’lieve it was any accident.”
There came a knock at the door. The professor and Ephraim looked at each
other in alarm.
“I told you!” gasped the little man. “They’ve come to arrest you now!”
“Ephraim, open the door,” directed Frank.
Ephraim suddenly braced up, strode across the room and flung open the
door.
Señorita Zuera stood there!
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