When he had finished his work with the muleta and was ready to kill, the crowd made him go on. They did not want the bull killed yet, they did not want it to be over. Romero went on. It was like a course in bull-fighting. All the passes he linked up, all completed, all slow, templed and smooth. There were no tricks and no mystifications. There was no brusqueness. And each pass as it reached the summit gave you a sudden ache inside. The crowd did not want it ever to be finished.
The bull was squared on all four feet to be killed, and Romero killed directly below us. He killed not as he had been forced to by the last bull, but as he wanted to. He profiled directly in front of the bull, drew the sword out of the folds of the muleta and sighted along the blade. The bull watched him. Romero spoke to the bull and tapped one of his feet. The bull charged and Romero waited for the charge, the muleta held low, sighting along the blade, his feet firm. Then without taking a step forward, he became one with the bull, the sword was in high between the shoulders, the bull had followed the low-swung flannel, that disappeared as Romero lurched clear to the left, and it was over. The bull tried to go forward, his legs commenced to settle, he swung from side to side, hesitated, then went down on his knees, and Romero’s older brother leaned forward behind him and drove a short knife into the bull’s neck at the base of the horns. The first time he missed. He drove the knife in again, and the bull went over, twitching and rigid. Romero’s brother, holding the bull’s horn in one hand, the knife in the other, looked up at the President’s box. Handkerchiefs were waving all over the bullring. The President looked down from the box and waved his handkerchief. The brother cut the notched black ear from the dead bull and trotted over with it to Romero. The bull lay heavy and black on the sand, his tongue out. Boys were running toward him from all parts of the arena, making a little circle around him. They were starting to dance around the bull.
Romero took the ear from his brother and held it up toward the President. The President bowed and Romero, running to get ahead of the crowd, came toward us. He leaned up against the barrera and gave the ear to Brett. He nodded his head and smiled. The crowd were all about him. Brett held down the cape.
«You liked it?» Romero called.
Brett did not say anything. They looked at each other and smiled. Brett had the ear in her hand. «Don’t get bloody,» Romero said, and grinned. The crowd wanted him. Several boys shouted at
Brett. The crowd was the boys, the dancers, and the drunks. Romero turned and tried to get through the crowd. They were all around him trying to lift him and put him on their shoulders. He fought and twisted away, and started running, in the midst of them, toward the exit. He did not want to be carried on people’s shoulders. But they held him and lifted him. It was uncomfortable and his legs were spraddled and his body was very sore. They were lifting him and all running toward the gate. He had his hand on somebody’s shoulder. He looked around at us apologetically. The crowd, running, went out the gate with him.
We all three went back to the hotel. Brett went upstairs. Bill and I sat in the down-stairs dining-room and ate some hard-boiled eggs and drank several bottles of beer. Belmonte came down in his street clothes with his manager and two other men. They sat at the next table and ate. Belmonte ate very little. They were leaving on the seven o’clock train for Barcelona. Belmonte wore a blue-striped shirt and a dark suit, and ate soft-boiled eggs. The others ate a big meal. Belmonte did not talk. He only answered questions.
Bill was tired after the bull-fight. So was I. We both took a bullfight very hard. We sat and ate the eggs and I watched Belmonte and the people at his table. The men with him were tough-looking and businesslike.
«Come on over to the cafй,» Bill said. «I want an absinthe.»
It was the last day of the fiesta. Outside it was beginning to be cloudy again. The square was full of people and the fireworks experts were making up their set pieces for the night and covering them over with beech branches. Boys were watching. We passed stands of rockets with long bamboo stems. Outside the cafй there was a great crowd. The music and the dancing were going on. The giants and the dwarfs were passing.
«Where’s Edna?» I asked Bill. «I don’t know.»
We watched the beginning of the evening of the last night of the fiesta. The absinthe made everything seem better. I drank it without sugar in the dripping glass, and it was pleasantly bitter.
«I feel sorry about Cohn,» Bill said. «He had an awful time.» «Oh, to hell with Cohn,» I said.
«Where do you suppose he went?» «Up to Paris.»
«What do you suppose he’ll do?» «Oh, to hell with him.»
«What do you suppose he’ll do?» «Pick up with his old girl, probably.» «Who was his old girl?»
«Somebody named Frances.» We had another absinthe.
«When do you go back?» I asked. «To-morrow.»
After a little while Bill said: «Well, it was a swell fiesta.» «Yes,» I said, «something doing all the time.»
«You wouldn’t believe it. It’s like a wonderful nightmare.» «Sure,» I said. «I’d believe anything. Including nightmares.» «What’s the matter? Feel low?»
«Low as hell.»
«Have another absinthe. Here, waiter! Another absinthe for this seсor.» «I feel like hell,» I said.
«Drink that,» said Bill. «Drink it slow.»
It was beginning to get dark. The fiesta was going on. I began to feel drunk but I did not feel any better.
«How do you feel?» «I feel like hell.» «Have another?»
«It won’t do any good.»
«Try it. You can’t tell; maybe this is the one that gets it. Hey, waiter! Another absinthe for this seсor!»
I poured the water directly into it and stirred it instead of letting it drip. Bill put in a lump of ice. I stirred the ice around with a spoon in the brownish, cloudy mixture.
«How is it?»
«Fine.»
«Don’t drink it fast that way. It will make you sick.» I set down the glass. I had not meant to drink it fast. «I feel tight.»
«You ought to.»
«That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?»
«Sure. Get tight. Get over your damn depression.» «Well, I’m tight. Is that what you want?»
«Sit down.»
«I won’t sit down,» I said. «I’m going over to the hotel.»
I was very drunk. I was drunker than I ever remembered having been. At the hotel I went up-stairs. Brett’s door was open. I put my head in the room. Mike was sitting on the bed. He waved a bottle.
«Jake,» he said. «Come in, Jake.»
I went in and sat down. The room was unstable unless I looked at some fixed point. «Brett, you know. She’s gone off with the bull-fighter chap.»
«No.»
«Yes. She looked for you to say good-bye. They went on the seven o’clock train.» «Did they?»
«Bad thing to do,» Mike said. «She shouldn’t have done it.» «No.»
«Have a drink? Wait while I ring for some beer.» «I’m drunk,» I said. «I’m going in and lie down.» «Are you blind? I was blind myself.»
«Yes,» I said, «I’m blind.»
«Well, bung-o,» Mike said. «Get some sleep, old Jake.»
I went out the door and into my own room and lay on the bed. The bed went sailing off and I sat up in bed and looked at the wall to make it stop. Outside in the square the fiesta was going on. It did not mean anything. Later Bill and Mike came in to get me to go down and eat with them. I pretended to be asleep.
«He’s asleep. Better let him alone.»
«He’s blind as a tick,» Mike said. They went out.
I got up and went to the balcony and looked out at the dancing in the square. The world was not wheeling any more. It was just very clear and bright, and inclined to blur at the edges. I washed, brushed my hair. I looked strange to myself in the glass, and went down-stairs to the dining-room.
«Here he is!» said Bill. «Good old Jake! I knew you wouldn’t pass out.» «Hello, you old drunk,» Mike said.
«I got hungry and woke up.» «Eat some soup,» Bill said.
The three of us sat at the table, and it seemed as though about six people were missing.
BOOK THREE
19
In the morning it was all over. The fiesta was finished. I woke about nine o’clock, had a bath, dressed, and went down-stairs. The square was empty and there were no people on the streets. A few children were picking up rocket-sticks in the square. The cafйs were just opening and the waiters were carrying Out the comfortable white wicker
