Now, the moment seemed near and everyone, Nan and her friends, and the more than twenty thousand other people in the great ring stood up, cheering for the finish.
The fighter closed in and then drew back to make the lunge, but there was blood on the ground beneath his feet and he slipped. The bull gave a mighty roar and went toward him, his horns lowered. The fight had turned. There could be only one possible end now. Death for the fighter.
But wait. That fighter is clever. He gracefully pulls aside so the menacing horns glance across his arm. He jumps up from the ground, pulls his arm back, and before the bull has had a chance to recover from his surprise, that fighter is, with one mighty thrust, plunging the spear straight through the bull's heart.
There, it's over now. The fighter has fought the fight that will surely bring him the trophy, a pair of little gold ears. The throng, wild with excitement, throws hats, scarfs, pillows, everything loose that it can lay its hands on into the ring as the hero of the hour slowly walks around and bows with arms thrown out wide as though to embrace the whole cheering multitude.
Everything is gay and happy now. Even the man that follows after the hero and picks up the hats, scarfs, and pillows that litter the ground and tosses them lightly back to the owners above is laughing. Yes, even the man that pushed the wheelbarrow in the grand opening procession is happy, basking in reflected glory, as he trundles his burden around the ring, sprinkling sawdust over the blood spots.
It was not until the monosabios, "wise monkeys", came to drag out the bull, destined now for food for a nearby hospital, that Bess again tried to attract Nan's attention.
"Nan, I tell you that that's Linda Riggs down there below us," she said insistently this time. "Look at the way she's tossing her head and talking to that man that's next to her. You would think that he was a prince, a handsome prince, the way she is acting."
"Why, Bess, you're right. That is Linda." Nan at last drew her eyes away from the ring and looked at the girl Bess was pointing to.
"Yes, and I'm sure she saw us a while ago," Laura contributed. She too had been watching the girl that the Lakeview crowd had grown to dislike so cordially. "You know the way she always looks around her to see whether there is anyone she really ought to be decent to, anyone that might be able to do something for her. Well, she did that when she first came in. I saw her, but I wasn't going to say anything because I didn't want to spoil the fun we were having."