The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1908-09-10
AN IMPROMPTU
BULL-FICHT
By MAIA BURNHAM
(Copyright.)


capital, and agents had been securing
the immediate suburbs in search OF
bulls-young and sufficiently untamed
to meet the requirements of the Cor.
rida. The principal source of supply
was drawn from che Maxine Gomez,
a half-breed cattle owner who had
earned local fame years before and
who was now recuperating, in meas
| ure, the gayly scattered earnings of
his youth by raising cattle, from which
he separated each year number of
bulls that were especially adapted to
the requirements of the bull ring.
This season, however, had been an
unusually unlucky one, inasmuch as
disease had killed off a very large
number of the cattle in that region,
and Gomez had been one of the heavi-
est losers. Standing under the one
shade-tree that his corral afforded he
took a last disconsolate inventory of
the thin and dropping animals brows-
ing outside, and turned over in his
hand the agents letter-equally de
iectedsloOking from its frequent jour
neys in and out of a not too immacu-
late blouse-pOcket, which served also
as the repository for a filthy tobacco
pouch.
The man seemed to take a dismal
satisfaction in reading and re-reading
a document that promised prompt pay
ment for the immediate delivery of
Err ole hui Il hol
the entire day in vain endeavor to
convince himself that he could fill the
order, at least in part, and he had
finally been forced to admit that he
did not possess a single animal that
any selfrespecting matador would toll
crate in the ring. And what was
worse, none of his neighbors had any
bulls to sell The only man who
might, if he would, help him out of
the matter was Don Pedro Benavente.
a rich rancher, whose territory ran
parallel with Gomez at the western
boundary. But Don Pedro had prin-
ciples of his own, and would not sell
bulls to the agents of the Plaza de
Toros, nor would he. for similar rea-
sons. have any business dealings with
Maxine Gomez.
STOPPING, he caught up the lasso
that he had thrown down in final dis
gust, and was about to leave the corral
when short, deep below in the dis
lance attracted his attention. Re
stopped and listened, Presently he
heard it again, this time little
nearer.
He walked toward the gateway and
waited. In few moments the ami
NAL appeared, crashing through the
shrubbery that bordcred the clearing,
| and Gomez saw that it was not one
| evidently strayed through some break
in a neighbours fence and, attracted
| by the lowing of the nearby cattle,
| had found its way to Gomez corral
The man stood perfectly still until
| it came near enough, then his arm
scribed three circles over his head.
| falling neatly around the neck of the
startled animal He tied the rope to
a fence-bar and inspected his prize.
| 1t was a splendiJ animal, and, az he
| had suspected, it bore the curious and
| unmistakable brand of Benavente.
| For long while he stood considering,
and pulling nervously at his black
mOuStache Not that he was harasSed
| by any conscientious sCruples, nor that
| he was wasting any thought on the
ethics of the case, but he knew that
convicted cattle-thief was dealt with
summarily and most unpleasantly in
that region, and so he weighed most
carefully his chances of GLIDING dis
covery BY leaving the ranch at dawn
he could have the animal well out of
| the district before it would be oven
missed, and once delivered to the
agent, who was not abnormally curl
Gus in matters of this kind all trace
of the bull would be speedily lost.
The sound of his horses retreating
| hoots had scarcely died away when
| The scattered cattle turned their heads
in the opposite direction, where a
great disturbance in the underbrush
| had suddenly begun. With much
cracking OF broken twigs and sway
ing of foliage a horse and rider
| emerged into the open The horse
was an ordinary broncho, but the
rider could not have been duplicated
anywhere between that ranch and
| tho Prontier If was n fact n remark
ably pretty girl in Fashionable shirt
waist and correct riding skirt, glove
less and hatless, her heavy golden
h,aids coled round and round on her
shapcly head.
She Immediately spied the solitary
bull in the corral.
"Jh, you young sinner she called
out gayly. What a chase you've
given me! But you see, these people
have found out and shut you up in
there to keep you for us; and now |
sra going to take you home,"
Riding round to the gate, she dis
mounted, and managed with some
dolcalty, to lower the bars; the i'm
prisoued bull, meanwhile, standing
with irritably twitching tail, and
watching the proceedings with sus-
r,ctous and unfricndly eye. His neck
SUI smarted from the viciously
tightening tug of Gomez lasso, and he
was in a mood to resist any further
bullying
| Wbap tho newcomer rodn into the