Carmen nodded. She remembered well. All Spain had heard of it.
"Then why should not Rey, too, be given this chance?" asked Pedro. "Why should he not be spared if he answers a call?"
"You," answered Pedro. "You, with your castanets."
"Like this," said Carmen, and she started to play.
Softly she played, then more and more loudly, until the great bull appeared at the other end of the field. He stood looking at the boy and the girl and, all at once, he started toward them, like a big, friendly dog.
"You see!" exclaimed Pedro joyfully. "Now on Sunday, when I am fighting with him in the arena, you, from the audience, will play your castanets as you just did. If he turns and goes to you, I am sure that the judges will spare his life."
"This is a wonderful plan, Pedro," smiled the lovely little Carmen. "And I am certain that it will succeed, because, you see--" She hesitated for a moment. Then she continued, "Because these castanets are enchanted!"
"Enchanted?" Pedro laughed. "That cannot be! Yet when you play them, it is I who am enchanted, my Carmen!"
Carmen did not laugh, however. She looked down soberly at her castanets.
"Legends are told in our family," she said, "about the magic power of these castanets. Whenever one of us has lost or sold or given them away, misfortune has overtaken us."
"_Castanets, with magic spell, Never lose or give or sell; If you do, then grief and strife Will follow you through all your life._"
"Then whatever happens, do not lose them before next Sunday," warned Pedro, smiling.
As the young couple arose to go, Carmen gave a start.
"Did you see a figure sneak out from behind that tree and disappear?" she asked Pedro.
"No, I did not," he answered. "And you are full of mystery today, little Carmen!" He was laughing at her again. "Come. Let us go home now before you see a ghost."
But Carmen had been right. There had indeed been a figure behind that tree--someone with very sharp ears, who had listened to all they had said.
He was no mystery--this figure--but a very real person. He was another torero, jealous of Pedro, who had won the love of Carmen--jealous, too, because Pedro had won popularity as a fighter, while he had not.
Carmen thought she recognized this man. Yet she was not altogether sure, and on the way home, Pedro talked her out of her fears.