“Thou art crazy. Get thee back now.”
“I am crazy,” she said. “I love thee.”
“Then get thee back.”
“Good. I go. And if thou dost not love me, I love thee enough for both.”
He looked at her and smiled through his thinking.
“When you hear firing,” he said, “come with the horses. Aid the Pilar with my sacks. It is possible there will be nothing. I hope so.”
“I go,” she said. “Look what a horse Pablo rides.”
The big gray was moving ahead up the trail.
“Yes. But go.”
“I go.”
Her fist, clenched tight in his pocket, beat hard against his thigh. He looked at her and saw there were tears in her eyes. She pulled her fist out of his pocket and put both arms tight around his neck and kissed him.
“I go,” she said. “Me voy. I go.”
He looked back and saw her standing there, the first morning sunlight on her brown face and the cropped, tawny, burned-gold hair. She lifted her fist at him and turned and walked back down the trail, her head down.
Primitivo turned around and looked after her.
“If she did not have her hair cut so short she would be a pretty girl,” he said.
“Yes,” Robert Jordan said. He was thinking of something else.
“How is she in the bed?” Primitivo asked.
“What?”
“In the bed.”
“Watch thy mouth.”
“One should not be offended when–”
“Leave it,” Robert Jordan said. He was looking at the position.
22
“Cut me pine branches,” Robert Jordan said to Primitivo, “and bring them quickly.”
“I do not like the gun there,” he said to Agustín.
“Why?”
“Place it over there,” Robert Jordan pointed, “and later I will tell thee.”
“Here, thus. Let me help thee. Here,” he said, then squatted down.
He looked out across the narrow oblong, noting the height of the rocks on either side.
“It must be farther,” he said, “farther out. Good. Here. That will do until it can be done properly. There. Put the stones there. Here is one. Put another there at the side. Leave room for the muzzle to swing. The stone must be farther to this side. Anselmo. Get thee down to the cave and bring me an ax. Quickly.”
“Have you never had a proper emplacement for the gun?” he said to Agustín.
“We always placed it here.”
“Kashkin never said to put it there?”
“No. The gun was brought after he left.”
“Did no one bring it who knew how to use it?”
“No. It was brought by porters.”
“What a way to do things,” Robert Jordan said. “It was just given to you without instruction?”
“Yes, as a gift might be given. One for us and one for El Sordo. Four men brought them. Anselmo guided them.”
“It was a wonder they did not lose them with four men to cross the lines.”
“I thought so, too,” Agustín said. “I thought those who sent them meant for them to be lost. But Anselmo brought them well.”
“You know how to handle it?”
“Yes. I have experimented. I know. Pablo knows. Primitivo knows. So does Fernando. We have made a study of taking it apart and putting it together on the table in the cave. Once we had it apart and could not get it together for two days. Since then we have not had it apart.”
“Does it shoot now?”
“Yes. But we do not let the gypsy nor others frig with it.”
“You see? From there it was useless,” he said. “Look. Those rocks which should protect your flanks give cover to those who will attack you. With such a gun you must seek a flatness over which to fire. Also you must take them sideways. See? Look now. All that is dominated.”
“I see,” said Agustín. “But we have never fought in defense except when our town was taken. At the train there were soldiers with the máquina.”
“Then we will all learn together,” Robert Jordan said. “There are a few things to observe. Where is the gypsy who should be here?”
“I do not know.”
“Where is it possible for him to be?”
“I do not know.”