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“How many men is that?”

“He brought the fuses!” Antônio Vilanova exclaimed, squatting on his heels, eagerly examining the contents of the crate. He beamed with satisfaction as he discovered, in addition to the packets of fuses, tablets for diarrhea, disinfectants, bandages, calomel, oil, and alcohol.

“There’s no way to repay Father Joaquim for what he does for us,” he said, lifting the crate onto the counter. The shelves were full of canned goods and bottles, lengths of material and all manner of wearing apparel, from sandals to sombreros, and sacks and cartons were sitting about everywhere on the floor, with the Sardelinha sisters and other people walking about among them. Lying on top of the counter, a long plank resting on barrels, were several black ledgers, of the sort used by hacienda bookkeepers.

“Father Joaquim also brought news,” Abbot João said. “Could a regiment be a thousand men?”

“Yes, so I’ve heard, an army’s coming.” Antônio Vilanova nodded, setting the things the priest had brought out on the counter. “A regiment? More than a thousand men. Two thousand maybe.”

Abbot João realized that Antônio’s mind was not on how many soldiers the Can was sending against Canudos this time. He watched the fat, slightly bald, bushy-bearded storekeeper putting packages and bottles away in his usual brisk, efficient way. There was not the slightest trace of anxiety, or even interest, in his voice. “He has too many other things to do,” Abbot João thought, as he explained that it was necessary to send someone to Monte Santo right away. “He’s right; it’s better for him not to have to worry about the war along with everything else.” Because Antônio was perhaps the person who, for years now, had slept the least and worked the most of anyone in Canudos. In the early days, just after the Counselor arrived, he had gone on with his work of buying and selling merchandise, but gradually, with the tacit agreement of everyone, he had taken on in addition the task of organizing the society that was aborning, a responsibility that now occupied most of his time. Without him it would have been hard to eat, sleep, survive as the waves of pilgrims began pouring into Canudos from all over. He was the one who had parceled out the land so that they could build their dwellings and put in their crops, advised them what to grow and what livestock to raise, and it was he who took charge of bartering in the villages round about, exchanging the things Canudos produced for the things it needed, and when donations began to come in, it was he who decided how much would be set aside for the Temple of the Blessed Jesus and how much would go for the purchase of arms and supplies. Once the Little Blessed One gave them permission to stay permanently, the newcomers then went to Antônio Vilanova for help in getting settled. The Health Houses for the old, the sick, and the disabled were his idea, and at the time of the engagements at Uauá and O Cambaio, he was the one who took charge of storing the captured weapons and distributing them, after consulting with Abbot João. He met with the Counselor almost every day to give him an account of everything and learn of his wishes. He had not gone back to traveling all about, and Abbot João had heard Antônia Sardelinha say that this was the most amazing sign of the change that had taken place in her husband, that man once so possessed by the demonic urge to be forever on the move. It was Honório who traveled all over on community business now, and no one could have said whether the elder brother’s stay-at-home habits were due to his many important duties in Belo Monte or to the fact that he was thus able to be in the Counselor’s company almost every day, if only for a few minutes. He came away from these meetings with renewed energies and a profound peace of heart.

“The Counselor has agreed that there should be a corps of guards to protect him,” Abbot João said. “He also agreed that Big João should be the head of it.”

This time Antônio was interested in what he had to say