Then, While The Instrument Was Being Tuned And Barboza Began To Sway
His Body About, And Talking Ceased, A Gaucho
Named Marcos but usually
called _El Rengo_ on account of his lameness, pushed himself into the
crowd surrounding the great
Man and seated himself on a table and put
his foot of his lame leg on the bench below.
El Rengo was a strange being, a man with remarkably fine aquiline
features, piercing black eyes, and long black hair. As a youth he had
distinguished himself among his fellow-gauchos by his daring feats of
horsemanship, mad adventures, and fights; then he met with the
accident which lamed him for life and at the same time saved him from
the army; when, at a cattle-parting, he was thrown from his horse and
gored by a furious bull, the animal's horn having been driven deep
into his thigh. From that time Marcos was a man of peace and was liked
and respected by every one as a good neighbour and a good fellow. He
was also admired for the peculiarly amusing way of talking he had,
when in the proper mood, which was usually when he was a little
exhilarated by drink. His eyes would sparkle and his face light up,
and he would set his listeners laughing at the queer way in which he
would play with his subject; but there was always some mockery and
bitterness in it which served to show that something of the dangerous
spirit of his youth still survived in him.
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