For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway [134]
“No te apures,” he whispered to Agustín. “Do not worry. They will pass as the others.”
They came into sight trotting along the edge of the timber in column of twos, twenty mounted men, armed and uniformed as the others had been, their sabers swinging, their carbines in their holsters; and then they went down into the timber as the others had.
“Tu ves?” Robert Jordan said to Agustín. “Thou seest?”
“There were many,” Agustín said.
“These would we have had to deal with if we had destroyed the others,” Robert Jordan said very softly. His heart had quieted now and his shirt felt wet on his chest from the melting snow. There was a hollow feeling in his chest.
The sun was bright on the snow and it was melting fast. He could see it hollowing away from the tree trunks and just ahead of the gun, before his eyes, the snow surface was damp and lacily fragile as the heat of the sun melted the top and the warmth of the earth breathed warmly up at the snow that lay upon it.
Robert Jordan looked up at Primitivo’s post and saw him signal, “Nothing,” crossing his two hands, palms down.
Anselmo’s head showed above a rock and Robert Jordan motioned him up. The old man slipped from rock to rock until he crept up and lay down flat beside the gun.
“Many,” he said. “Many!”
“I do not need the trees,” Robert Jordan said to him. “There is no need for further forestal improvement.”
Both Anselmo and Agustín grinned.
“This has stood scrutiny well and it would be dangerous to plant trees now because those people will return and perhaps they are not stupid.”
He felt the need to talk that, with him, was the sign that there had just been much danger. He could always tell how bad it had been by the strength of the desire to talk that came after.
“It was a good blind, eh?” he said.
“Good,” said Agustín. “To obscenity with all fascism good. We could have killed the four of them. Didst thou see?” he said to Anselmo.
“I saw.”
“Thou,” Robert Jordan said to Anselmo. “Thou must go to the post of yesterday or another good post of thy selection to watch the road and report on all movement as of yesterday. Already we are late in that. Stay until dark. Then come in and we will send another.”
“But the tracks that I will make?”
“Go from below as soon as the snow is gone. The road will be muddied by the snow. Note if there has been much traffic of trucks or if there are tank tracks in the softness on the road. That is all we can tell until you are there to observe.”
“With your permission?” the old man asked.
“Surely.”
“With your permission, would it not be better for me to go into La Granja and inquire there what passed last night and arrange for one to observe today thus in the manner you have taught me? Such a one could report tonight or, better, I could go again to La Granja for the report.”
“Have you no fear of encountering cavalry?”
“Not when the snow is gone.”
“Is there some one in La Granja capable of this?”
“Yes. Of this, yes. It would be a woman. There are various women of trust in La Granja.”
“I believe it,” Agustín said. “More, I know it, and several who serve for other purposes. You do not wish me to go?”
“Let the old man go. You understand this gun and the day is not over.”
“I will go when the snow melts,” Anselmo said. “And the snow is melting fast.”
“What think you of their chance of catching Pablo?” Robert Jordan asked Agustín.
“Pablo is smart,” Agustín said. “Do men catch a wise stag without hounds?”
“Sometimes,” Robert Jordan said.
“Not Pablo,” Agustín said. “Clearly, he is only a garbage of what he once was. But it is not for nothing that he is alive and comfortable in these hills and able to drink himself to death while there are so many others that have died against a wall.”
“Is he as smart as they say?”
“He is much smarter.”
“He has not seemed of great ability here.”
“Cómo qüe no? If