262 WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 



manoeuvres, but now the guitar is going and the skipper 

 has thanked the artist for handling that nasty rough, rusty 

 wire hawser against time, and expressed somewhat flattering 

 surprise at his knowing how to make a simple fisherman's 

 bend in a hurry ; and again we are in open, quiet waters 

 and open ice, with a hundred yards between each floe, and 

 everyone frightfully cheerful. For some of us at least knew, 

 though our Spanish friends apparently did not, the grim 

 possibilities. Also we are all the better of the efforts in a 

 small boat and the work of shifting cargo, barrels of salt, 

 etc. I guess and bet Svendsen will not take any more 

 unnecessary chances of dodging through too narrow lanes 

 between this time and the next. 



By late aften-mad we have quieted down, and have a 

 beautiful display of the bull ring. Chee Chee, our young 

 Gordon setter (or collie ; it's a little of both), does the bull, 

 Don Luis Herrero de Velasquez does our espada, and other 

 bull-ring functionaries all to perfection, with a foil for the 

 espada and a sack for the Vueltu, this on our upper deck 

 in the ten o'clock P.M. sun, everyone applauding and the 

 steward's guitar joining in below. His music is very 

 cheap music, in such a contrast to Gisbert's old airs, 

 half Spanish, half African, that go away down to the 

 depths. 



