“Saints! Concepcion says there has been one beyond Cienaga, and all the insurgentes have been killed.”
“Who told him?”
“A man who fought in the battle, señor, a man who was there. Pedro is hiding him in the cafetaria.”
“Why?”
“Quien sabe? Pedro says he is frightened. And there is no fresh milk. Little Mother of God, that cow was exhausta . . .”
“Be quiet. Give me my boots again.”
For all his tiredness, Fellowes dropped out of the hammock lightly enough. If there really had been a battle, and the insurgentes really had been wiped out, then the victorious troops would probably straggle back to the Town for rest and refreshment. In that case the Company must be warned, and the Company’s loose property swept up and secured. “Damn all governments, anyway,” said Fellowes, as he struggled with the boots, and wondered where he might lay hand on one of his foremen.
After the heat of the lighted room behind the nettings, the dusk was almost cool as he plunged into it. A storm was coming, and the sun had dropped early into dark cloud. Sky and forest were so much of a blackness that it looked as if the trees had suddenly and silently surged upward and swallowed the day. The foul little roads were dim and deserted; only the square flared with uncertain light. The church seemed at one moment to waver near the ground; the next, it flickered aloft, striking into the inverted pits of dark like a reflection in a well. Only in front of the café a compact and sweating crowd fought and screamed whole-heartedly, tiny by contrast of the night.
A man whirled from the outskirts of the crowd as Fellowes paused, and caught him by the coat. “There is a man!” he shrieked above the din. “One who has seen the battle!” Fellowes shook him off, lowered his head, and drove through the mob by sheer weight of bone. They took his charge with perfect good-temper. Brown hands caught at him, eyes gleamed and darkened, and half the mouths in the Town screamed at him in unison.
“There is a man in the café. A man who saw the battle! Little Mother of God, a man who was there!”