"You're proud, ain't you? Have I been so mean that you don't even wantto talk to me?"
"Why do you say that, Camilla? You've been extremely kind to me; why,you've been more than a friend, you've taken care of me as if you weremy sister. Now I'm about to leave, I'm very grateful to you; I'llalways remember you."
"Liar!" Camilla said, her face transfigured with joy. "Suppose I hadn'tcome after you?"
"I intended to say good-bye to you at the dance this evening."
"What dance? If there's a dance, I'll not go to it."
"Why not?"
"Because I can't stand that horrible man ... Demetrio!"
"Don't be silly, child," said Luis. "He's really very fond of you.Don't go and throw away this opportunity. You'll never have one like itagain in your life. Don't you know that Demetrio is on the point ofbecoming a general, you silly girl? He'll be a very wealthy man, withhorses galore; and you'll have jewels and clothes and a fine house anda lot of money to spend. Just imagine what a life you would lead withhim!"
Camilla stared up at the blue sky so he should not read the expressionin her eyes. A dead leaf shook slowly loose from the crest of a treeswinging slowly on the wind, fell like a small dead butterfly at herfeet. She bent down and took it in her fingers. Then, without lookingat him, she murmured:
"It's horrible to hear you talk like that.... I like you ... no oneelse.... Ah, well, go then, go: I feel ashamed now. Please leave me!"
She threw away the leaf she had crumpled in her hand and covered herface with a corner of her apron. When she opened her eyes, LuisCervantes had disappeared.
She followed the river trail. The river seemed to have been sprinkledwith a fine red dust. On its surface drifted now a sky of variegatedcolors, now the dark crags, half light, half shadow. Myriads ofluminous insects twinkled in a hollow. Camilla, standing on the beachof washed, round stones, caught a reflection of herself in the waters;she saw herself in her yellow blouse with the green ribbons, her whiteskirt, her carefully combed hair, her wide eyebrows and broad forehead,exactly as she had dressed to please Luis. She burst into tears.
Among the reeds, the frogs chanted the implacable melancholy of thehour. Perched on a dry root, a dove wept also.
XV
That evening, there was much merrymaking at the dance, and a greatquantity of mezcal was drunk. "I miss Camilla," said Demetrio in a loudvoice. Everybody looked about for Camilla.
"She's sick, she's got a headache," said Agapita harshly, uneasy as shecaught sight of the malicious glances leveled at her.
When the dance was over, Demetrio, somewhat unsteady on his feet,thanked all the kind neighbors who had welcomed them and promised thatwhen the revolution had triumphed he would remember them one and all,because "hospital or jail is a true test of friendship."
"May God's hand lead you all," said an old woman.
"God bless you all and keep you well," others added.
Utterly drunk, Maria Antonia said: "Come back soon, damn soon!"
On the morrow, Maria Antonia, who, though she was pockmarked andwalleyed, nevertheless enjoyed a notorious reputation--indeed it wasconfidently proclaimed that no man had failed to go with her behind theriver weeds at some time or other--shouted to Camilla:
"Hey there, you! What's the matter? What are you doing there skulkingin the corner with a shawl tied round your head! You're crying, Iwager. Look at her eyes; they look like a witch's. There's no sorrowlasts more than three days!"
Agapita knitted her eyebrows and muttered indistinctly to herself.
The old crones felt uneasy and lonesome since Demetrio's men had left.The men, too, in spite of their gossip and insults, lamented theirdeparture since now they would have no one to bring them fresh meatevery day. It is pleasant indeed to spend your time eating anddrinking, and sleeping all day long in the cool shade of the rocks,while clouds ravel and unravel their fleecy threads on the blue shuttleof the sky.
"Look at them again. There they go!" Maria Antonia yelled. "Why, theylook like toys."
Demetrio's men, riding their thin nags, could still be descried in thedistance against the sapphire translucence of the sky, where the brokenrocks and the chaparral melted into a single bluish smooth surface.Across the air a gust of hot wind bore the broken, faltering strains of"La Adelita," the revolutionary song, to the settlement. Camilla, whohad come out when Maria Antonia shouted, could no longer controlherself; she dived back into her hut, unable to restrain her tears andmoaning. Maria Antonia burst into laughter and moved off.
"They've cast the evil eye on my daughter," Agapita said in perplexity.She pondered a while, then duly reached a decision. From a pole in thehut she took down a piece of strong leather which her husband used tohitch up the yoke. This pole stood between a picture of Christ and oneof the Virgin. Agapita promptly twisted the leather and proceeded toadminister a sound thrashing to Camilla in order to dispel the evilspirits.
Riding proudly on his horse, Demetrio felt like a new man. His eyesrecovered their peculiar metallic brilliance, and the blood flowed, redand warm, through his coppery, pure-blooded Aztec cheeks.
The men threw out their chests as if to breathe the widening horizon,the immensity of the sky, the blue from the mountains and the freshair, redolent with the various odors of the sierra. They spurred theirhorses to a gallop as if in that mad race they laid claims ofpossession to the earth. What man among them now remembered the sternchief of police, the growling policeman, or the conceited cacique? Whatman remembered his pitiful hut where he slaved away, always under theeyes of the owner or the ruthless and sullen foreman, always forced torise before dawn, and to take up his shovel, basket, or goad, wearinghimself out to earn a mere pitcher of atole and a handful of beans?
They laughed, they sang, they whistled, drunk with the sunlight, theair of the open spaces, the wine of life.
Meco, prancing forward on his horse, bared his white glistening teeth,joking and kicking up like a clown.
"Hey, Pancracio," he asked with utmost seriousness, "my wife writes meI've got another kid. How in hell is that? I ain't seen her sinceMadero was President."
"That's nothing," the other replied. "You just left her a lot of eggsto hatch for you!"
They all laughed uproariously. Only Meco, grave and aloof, sang in avoice horribly shrill:
"I gave her a penny That wasn't enough. I gave her a nickel The wench wanted more. We bargained. I asked If a dime was enough But she wanted a quarter. By God! That was tough! All wenches are fickle And trumpery stuff!"
The sun, beating down upon them, dulled their minds and bodies andpresently they were silent. All day long they rode through the canyon,up and down the steep, round hills, dirty and bald as a man's head,hill after hill in endless succession. At last, late in the afternoon,they descried several stone church towers in the heart of a bluishridge, and, beyond, the white road with its curling spirals of dust andits gray telegraph poles.
They advanced toward the main road; in the distance they spied a figureof an Indian sitting on the embankment. They drew up to him. He provedto be an unfriendly looking old man, clad in rags; he was laboriouslyattempting to mend his leather sandals with the help of a dull knife. Aburro loaded with fresh green grass stood by. Demetrio accosted him.
"What are you doing, Grandpa?"
"Gathering alfalfa for my cow."
"How many Federals are there around here?"
"Just a few: not more than a dozen, I reckon."
The old man grew communicative. He told them of many important rumors:Obregon was besieging Guadalajara, Torres was in complete control ofthe Potosi region, Natera ruled over Fresnillo.
"All right," said Demetrio, "you can go where you're headed for, see,but you be damn careful not to tell anyone you saw us, because if youdo, I'll pump you full of lead. And I could track you down, even if youtried to hide in the pit of hell, see?"
"What do you say, boys?" Demetrio asked them as soon as the old man haddisappeared.
"To hell with the mochos! We'll
kill every blasted one of them!" theycried in unison.
Then they set to counting their cartridges and the hand grenades theOwl had made out of fragments of iron tubing and metal bed handles.
"Not much to brag about, but we'll soon trade them for rifles,"Anastasio observed.
Anxiously they pressed forward, spurring the thin flanks of their nagsto a gallop. Demetrio's brisk, imperious tones of order brought themabruptly to a halt.
They dismounted by the side of a hill, protected by thick huizachetrees. Without unsaddling their horses, each began to search for stonesto serve as pillows.
XVI
At midnight Demetrio Macias ordered the march to be resumed. The townwas five or six miles away; the best plan was to take the soldiers bysurprise, before reveille.
The sky was cloudy, with here and there a star shining. From time totime a flash of lightning crossed the sky with a red dart, illuminingthe far horizon.
Luis Cervantes asked Demetrio whether the success of the attack mightnot be better served by procuring a guide or leastways by ascertainingthe topographic conditions of the town and the precise location of thesoldiers' quarters.
"No," Demetrio answered, accompanying his smile with a disdainfulgesture, "we'll simply fall on them when they least expect it; that'sall there is to it, see? We've done it before all right, lots of times!Haven't you ever seen the squirrels stick their heads out of theirholes when you poured in water? Well, that's how these lousy soldiersare going to feel. Do you see? They'll be frightened out of their witsthe moment they hear our first shot. Then they'll slink out and standas targets for us."
"Suppose the old man we met yesterday lied to us. Suppose there arefifty soldiers instead of twenty. Who knows but he's a spy sent out bythe Federals!"
"Ha, Tenderfoot, frightened already, eh?" Anastasio Montanez mocked.
"Sure! Handling a rifle and messing about with bandages are twodifferent things," Pancracio observed.
"Well, that's enough talk, I guess," said Meco. "All we have to do isfight a dozen frightened rats."
"This fight won't convince our mothers that they gave birth to men orwhatever the hell you like...." Manteca added.
When they reached the outskirts of the town, Venancio walked ahead andknocked at the door of a hut.
"Where's the soldiers' barracks?" he inquired of a man who came outbarefoot, a ragged serape covering his body.
"Right there, just beyond the Plaza," he answered.
Since nobody knew where the city square was, Venancio made him walkahead to show the way. Trembling with fear, the poor devil told themthey were doing him a terrible wrong.
"I'm just a poor day laborer, sir; I've got a wife and a lot of kids."
"What the hell do you think I have, dogs?" Demetrio scowled. "I've gotkids too, see?"
Then he commanded:
"You men keep quiet. Not a sound out of you! And walk down the middleof the street, single file."
The rectangular church cupola rose above the small houses.
"Here, gentlemen; there's the Plaza beyond the church. Just walk a bitfurther and there's the barracks."
He knelt down, then, imploring them to let him go, but Pancracio,without pausing to reply, struck him across the chest with his rifleand ordered him to proceed.
"How many soldiers are there?" Luis Cervantes asked.
"I don't want to lie to you, boss, but to tell you the truth, yes, sir,to tell you God's truth, there's a lot of them, a whole lot of 'em."
Luis Cervantes turned around to stare at Demetrio, who feignedmomentary deafness.
They were soon in the city square.
A loud volley of rifle shots rang out, deafening them. Demetrio's horsereared, staggered on its hind legs, bent its forelegs, and fell to theground, kicking. The Owl uttered a piercing cry and fell from his horsewhich rushed madly to the center of the square.
Another volley: the guide threw up his arms and fell on his backwithout a sound.
With all haste, Anastasio Montanez helped Demetrio up behind him on hishorse; the others retreated, seeking shelter along the walls of thehouses.
"Hey, men," said a workman sticking his head out of a large door, "gofor 'em through the back of the chapel. They're all in there. Cut backthrough this street, then turn to the left; you'll reach an alley. Keepon going ahead until you hit the chapel."
As he spoke a fresh volley of pistol shots, directed from theneighboring roofs, fell like a rain about them.
"By God," the man said, "those ain't poisonous spiders; they're onlytownsmen scared of their own shadow. Come in here until they stop."
"How many of them are there?" asked Demetrio.
"There were only twelve of them. But last night they were scared out oftheir wits so they wired to the town beyond for help. I don't know howmany of them there are now. Even if there are a hell of a lot of them,it doesn't cut any ice! Most of them aren't soldiers, you know, butdrafted men; if just one of them starts mutinying, the rest will followlike sheep. My brother was drafted; they've got him there. I'll goalong with you and signal to him; all of them will desert and followyou. Then we'll only have the officers to deal with! If you want togive me a gun or something...."
"No more rifles left, brother. But I guess you can put these to someuse," Anastasio Montanez said, passing him two hand grenades.
The officer in command of the Federals was a young coxcomb of a captainwith a waxed mustache and blond hair. As long as he felt uncertainabout the strength of the assailants, he had remained extremely quietand prudent; but now that they had driven the rebels back withoutallowing them a chance to fire a single shot, he waxed bold and brave.While the soldiers did not dare put out their heads beyond the pillarsof the building, his own shadow stood against the pale clear dawn,exhibiting his well-built slender body and his officer's cape bellyingin the breeze.
"Ha, I remember our coup d'etat!"
His military career had consisted of the single adventure when,together with other students of the Officers' School, he was involvedin the treacherous revolt of Feliz Diaz and Huerta against PresidentMadero. Whenever the slightest insubordination arose, he invariablyrecalled his feat at the Ciudadela.
"Lieutenant Campos," he ordered emphatically, "take a dozen men andwipe out the bandits hiding there! The curs! They're only brave when itcomes to guzzling meat and robbing a hencoop!"
A workingman appeared at the small door of the spiral staircase,announcing that the assailants were hidden in a corral where they mighteasily be captured. This message came from the citizens keeping watchon housetops.
"I'll go myself and get it over with!" the officer declared impetuously.
But he soon changed his mind. Before he had reached the door, heretraced his steps.
"Very likely they are waiting for more men and, of course, it would bewrong for me to abandon my post. Lieutenant Campos, go there yourselfand capture them dead or alive. We'll shoot them at noon wheneverybody's coming out of church. Those bandits will see the exampleI'll set around here. But if you can't capture them, Lieutenant, killthem all. Don't leave a man of them alive, do you understand?"
In high good humor, he began pacing up and down the room, formulatingthe official despatch he would send off no later than today.
To His Honor the Minister for War, General A. Blanquet, Mexico City.
Sir:
I have the honor to inform your Excellency that on the morning of ... arebel army, five hundred strong, commanded by ... attacked this town,which I am charged to defend. With such speed as the gravity of thesituation called for, I fortified my post in the town. The battlelasted two hours. Despite the superiority of the enemy in men andequipment, I was able to defeat and rout them. Their casualties weretwenty killed and a far greater number of wounded, judging from thetrails of blood they left behind them as they retreated. I am pleasedto state there was no casualty on our side. I have the honor tocongratulate Your Excellency upon this new triumph for the Federalarms. Viva Presidente Huerta! Viva Mexico!
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"Well," the young captain mused, "I'll be promoted to major." Heclasped his hands together, jubilant. At this precise moment, adetonation rang out. His ears buzzed, he--
XVII
"If we get through the corral, we can make the alley, eh?" Demetrioasked.
"That's right," the workman answered. "Beyond the corral there's ahouse, then another corral, then there's a store."
Demetrio scratched his head, thoughtfully. This time his decision wasimmediate.
"Can you get hold of a crowbar or something like that to make a holethrough the wall?"
"Yes, we'll get anything you want, but ..."
"But what? Where can we get a crowbar?"
"Everything is right there. But it all belongs to the boss."
Without further ado, Demetrio strode into the shed which had beenpointed out as the toolhouse.
It was all a matter of a few minutes. Once in the alley, hugging to thewalls, they marched forward in single file until they reached the rearof the church. Now they had but a single fence and the rear wall of thechapel to scale.
"God's will be done!" Demetrio said to himself. He was the first toclamber over.
Like monkeys the others followed him, reaching the other side withbleeding, grimy hands. The rest was easy. The deep worn steps along thestonework made their ascent of the chapel wall swifter. The churchvault hid them from the soldiers.
"Wait a moment, will you?" said the workman. "I'll go and see where mybrother is; I'll let you know and then you'll get at the officers."