U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [53]
"That's Cuatro Milpas. . . that means four corn-fields . . . that's a song of the peons everybody's singing now," said Perez.
"I'm pretty hungry I'd like to get a little some-thing to eat somewheres," said Mac. "I haven't eaten since morning when I had a cup of coffee and a doughnut in El Paso."
"We wil eat at the house of our comrade," said Perez.
"Please . . . this way."
They went in off the street, now black and empty,
through a tal door hung with a bead curtain, into a white-washed room brightly lit by an acetylene flare that smelt strong of carbide. They sat down at the end of a long table with a spotted cloth on it. The table gradual y fil ed with people from the meeting, mostly young men in blue workclothes, with thin sharp faces. At the other end sat an old dark man with the big nose and broad flat cheek-bones of an Indian. Perez poured Mac out two glasses of a funnytasting white drink that made his head spin. The food was very hot with pepper and chile and he choked on it a little bit. The Mexicans petted Mac like a child at his birthday party. He had to drink many glasses of beer and cognac. Perez went home early and left him in charge of a young fel ow named Pablo. Pablo had a Colt automatic on a shoulder strap that he was very proud of.
-127-He spoke a little pidginenglish and sat with one hand round Mac's neck and the other on the buckle of his holster. "Gringo bad . . . Kil him quick . . . Fel ow-worker good .
. . internacional . . . hurray," he kept saying. They sang the International several times and then the Marseillaise and the Carmagnole. Mac was car-ried along in a peppery haze. He sang and drank and ate and everything began to lose outline.
"Fel owworker marry nice girl," said Pablo. They were standing at a bar somewhere. He made a gesture of sleep-ing with his two hands against his face. "Come." They went to a dancehal . At the entrance everybody had to leave his gun on a table guarded by a soldier in a visored cap. Mac noticed that the men and girls drew away from him a little. Pablo laughed. "They think you gringo . . . I tel them revolucionario internacional. There she, nice girl . . . Not goddam whore not
pay, she nice working girl . . . comrade."
Mac found himself being introduced to a brown broad-faced girl named Encarnacion. She was neatly dressed and her hair was very shinyblack. She gave him a bright flash of a smile. He patted her on the cheek. They drank some beer at the bar and left. Pablo had a girl with him too. The others stayed on at the dancehal . Pablo and his girl walked round to Encarnacion's house with them. It was a room in a little courtyard. Beyond it was a great expanse of lightcolored desert land stretching as far as you could see under a waning moon. In the distance were some tiny specks of fires. Pablo pointed at them with his ful hand and whispered, "Revolucion."
Then they said good night at the door of Encarnacion's little room that had a; bed, a picture of the Virgin and a new photograph of Madero stuck up by a pin. Encarna-cion closed the door, bolted it and sat down on the bed looking up at Mac with a smile.
-128-THE CAMERA EYE (12)
when everybody went away for a trip Jeanne took
us out to play every day in Farragut Square and told you about how in the Jura in winter the wolves come down and howl through the streets of the vil ages
and sometimes we'd see President Roosevelt ride by
al alone on a bay horse and once we were very proud because when we took off our hats we were very proud because he smiled and showed his teeth like in the news-paper and touched his hat and we were very proud and he had an aide de camp but we had a cloth duck that we used to play with
on the steps until it began to get dark and the wolves howled ran with little children's blood dripping from their snout through the streets of the vil ages only it was summer and between dog and wolf we'd be put to bed
and Jeanne was a young French girl from the Jura where the wolves howled ran through the streets and when