JUANITA'S ELOPEMENT 



299 



back and "jouncing" him with her 300 

 pound weight every time he yelled. 

 Juanita was evidently not in the least 

 angry, but seemed to regard the situa- 

 tion as part of a wrestling frolic and 

 to be enjoying it humorously. Johnny 

 was unhurt but horribly frightened, and 

 when Trimble pulled Juanita away he 

 scrambled to his feet and fled in blind 

 panic from the place, the Texan shout- 

 ing after him that the "bailie" had only 

 just begun and to come back and take 

 his partner for the fandango. 



Johnny was bereft of his bravo pseu- 

 donym from that night, and for a time 

 was "Juanita's dancing master," but 

 that was too long, and soon was con- 

 densed into "the Professor," from which 

 was evolved the legend that a former 

 teacher of Greek at Harvard was a 

 hack-driver in a New Mexican town. 



In due time Juan was discharged 

 from the hospital cured and went to the 

 butcher to reclaim Juanita. Trimble 

 presented a bill for her board and re- 

 fused to give her up until it should be 

 paid. Juan protested that he had no 

 money, and proposed to take Juanita 

 on the road and earn some. Without 

 her, he explained, he could not get 

 money enough in a year to pay the bill. 

 Trimble was obdurate. "Go and dig 

 up the dinero," he said, "and come back 

 for the bear. No dinero, no oso; sabe?" 



So Juan bade Juanita a tearful 

 "adios" and went away. 



When winter came, Juanita made a 

 bed of old sacks and sawdust in a dark 

 corner of the shed, and spent most of 

 the time dozing upon it. The weather 

 was not cold enough to impel her to hi- 

 bernate. There was just enough chill 

 in the air to make her feel sluggish and 

 to stir faintly the bear instinct to seek 

 seclusion. Trimble did not know that 

 Juanita came of a breed that lived in 

 the region of the deep snows, and he 

 attributed her lethargy to lack of ex- 

 ercise. So he took her out to the plaza 

 one sunny afternoon, ran her around for 

 the benefit of her health, and put her 

 through a performance for the amuse- 

 ment of a crowd. 



Juanita repeated her tricks listlessly, 

 and a bottle of soda was given to her 

 as reward. She stood erect, holding the 

 bottle against her chest with one paw, 

 and pushed in the stopper. Standing 

 at full height, she could see over the 

 heads of the crowd, and when she threw 

 back her head to drink, she saw some- 

 thing across the plaza that absorbed 

 her attention and caused her to forget 

 the soda. She let the bottle fall to 

 the ground, stretched to her full seven 

 feet and gazed intently. Trimble 

 twitched the chain to recall her atten- 

 tion, but she paid no heed to the signal. 

 Trimble could not see the figure that 

 interested Juanita, and with an impa- 

 tient jerk of the chain he pulled her 

 head around sharply. 



"Never mind those burros," said 

 Trimble. "Show the folks how kind 

 you are. Kiss me, Juanita !" and he 

 turned his cheek and leaned toward her, 

 smiling at the crowd. Juanita was 

 thinking neither of burros nor of Trim- 

 ble, but of the figure that had just van- 

 ished around the corner, and the sharp 

 jerk at her chain made her sensitive 

 nose tingle. She put her muzzle out to 

 meet the man's face, and snapped sud- 

 denly. One sharp tooth sunk into the 

 angle of his jaw, and the upper canine 

 fang made a hole just under the cheek- 

 bone. She did not retain her hold nor 

 tear away the flesh, but let go instantly 

 and fell to all fours. The dark blood 

 welled from the wounds and poured 

 down Trimble's face, but he never so 

 much as put up his hand to feel his in- 

 juries. Without a word he strode 

 across the street to his shop, dragging 

 Juanita by her chain, his jaws set 

 grimly and his one eye glowing bale- 

 fully. 



Juanita shuffled along behind, her 

 head lowered like a scolded dog's and 

 her ears laid back. Her demeanor said 

 plainly: "Now I'm in for it good and 

 plenty." And Trimble meant that she 

 should be. He chained her securely to a 

 post and started to beat her with an ax- 

 handle, but he forgot her skill at box- 

 ing, and at the first blow the stick was 



