"Adiós, Señor Don Augusto."
"We all jumped, his voice was so different, and the corporal of my squad stepped out and saluted. 'You will be the Señor's escort as far as he goes,' my teniente said. 'You will need only your revolver.' He stopped a moment, and then he said: 'José, you must be very careful that he does not escape.'
"You know what that order meant then? Jos knew, and his face went like ashes—he was a baby anyway—and he could hardly say 'Si, mi teniente.' And that big fat pig of a Don Augusto, he knew, and he dropped all together, as if he had no bones, and he went down on his knees. But my teniente only laughed, and said: 'A pleasant journey to you, Señor Don Augusto de los Reyes, and a relief from comedies.'
"And then he took the commissary reports and wrote on them till José came back. José was shaking and green and my teniente looked at him. 'You are back quickly,' he said. 'What is the matter?'
"'The prisoner tried to escape, mi teniente,' José said.
"'That was very foolish of him,' said my teniente. 'Where is he now?'
"'Across the river, mi teniente,' José answered.
"'Sergeant,' said my lieutenant, 'send two men across the river with shovels,' and then he tossed José a peseta to buy vino, and then he went on with the commissary reports."
Fermin Majusay had forgotten everything else in thinking of his hero, and the fire was almost out. He brought it to a blaze and lay down on his blanket again. "That night while we whispered together in barracks, and that chicken-hearted José sat by himself and muttered prayers and drank vino out of his bottle, we named our teniente El Diablito—the Little Devil. Not because he was little, but because we loved him. You know Angel Bantiling calls his wife Chiquita—Tiny One—and she is big as a carabao. El Diablito, I named my teniente, and we were afraid. If he had come down-stairs that night, we would all have run away. But what would you have? That Don Augusto was in the way, so my teniente took him off the board just like one of Don Antonio's little men of chewed bread. That is the game. If one is afraid of it, there are other games one can play. One does not have to be a soldier. But he made us afraid, just the same.