41
Pablo stopped and dismounted in the dark. Robert Jordan heard the creaking and the heavy breathing as they all dismounted and the clinking of a bridle as a horse tossed his head. He smelled the horses and the unwashed and sour slept-in-clothing smell of the new men and the wood-smoky sleep-stale smell of the others who had been in the cave. Pablo was standing close to him and he smelled the brassy, dead-wine smell that came from him like the taste of a copper coin in your mouth. He lit a cigarette, cupping his hand to hide the light, pulled deep on it, and heard Pablo say very softly, “Get the grenade sack, Pilar, while we hobble these.”
“Agustín,” Robert Jordan said in a whisper, “you and Anselmo come now with me to the bridge. Have you the sack of pans for the máquina?”
“Yes,” Agustín said. “Why not?”
Robert Jordan went over to where Pilar was unpacking one of the horses with the help of Primitivo.
“Listen, woman,” he said softly.
“What now?” she whispered huskily, swinging a cinch hook clear from under the horse’s belly.
“Thou understandest that there is to be no attack on the post until thou hearest the falling of the bombs?”
“How many times dost thou have to tell me?” Pilar said. “You are getting like an old woman, Inglés.”
“Only to check,” Robert Jordan said. “And after the destruction of the post you fall back onto the bridge and cover the road from above and my left flank.”
“The first time thou outlined it I understood it as well as I will ever understand it,” Pilar whispered to him. “Get thee about thy business.”
“That no one should make a move nor fire a shot nor throw a bomb until the noise of the bombardment comes,” Robert Jordan said softly.
“Do not molest me more,” Pilar whispered angrily. “I have understood this since we were at Sordo’s.”
Robert Jordan went to where Pablo was tying the horses. “I have only hobbled those which are liable to panic,” Pablo said. “These are tied so a pull of the rope will release them, see?”
“Good.”
“I will tell the girl and the gypsy how to handle them,” Pablo said. His new men were standing in a group by themselves leaning on their carbines.
“Dost understand all?” Robert Jordan asked.
“Why not?” Pablo said. “Destroy the post. Cut the wire. Fall back on the bridge. Cover the bridge until thou blowest.”
“And nothing to start until the commencement of the bombardment.”
“Thus it is.”
“Well then, much luck.”
Pablo grunted. Then he said, “Thou wilt cover us well with the máquina and with thy small máquina when we come back, eh, Inglés?”
“Dela primera,” Robert Jordan said. “Off the top of the basket.”
“Then,” Pablo said. “Nothing more. But in that moment thou must be very careful, Inglés. It will not be simple to do that unless thou art very careful.”
“I will handle the máquina myself,” Robert Jordan said to him.
“Hast thou much experience? For I am of no mind to be shot by Agustín with his belly full of good intentions.”
“I have much experience. Truly. And if Agustín uses either máquina I will see that he keeps it way above thee. Above, above and above.”
“Then nothing more,” Pablo said. Then he said softly and confidentially, “There is still a lack of horses.”
The son of a bitch, Robert Jordan thought. Or does he think I did not understand him the first time.
“I go on foot,” he said. “The horses are thy affair.”
“Nay, there will be a horse for thee, Inglés,” Pablo said softly. “There will be horses for all of us.”
“That is thy problem,” Robert Jordan said. “Thou dost not have to count me. Hast enough rounds for thy new máquina?”
“Yes,” Pablo said. “All that the cavalryman carried. I have fired only four to try it. I tried it yesterday in the high hills.”
“We go now,” Robert Jordan said. “We must be there early and well hidden.”
“We all go now,” Pablo said. “Suerte, Inglés.”
I wonder what the bastard is planning now, Robert Jordan said. But I am pretty sure I know. Well, that is his, not mine. Thank God I do not know these new men.