CHAPTER XX.
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!