"Run along a minute, will you?" he said to Maria without looking at her.
The girl walked away out of hearing and sat down, her hands clasped over her ankles.
"You see," Sordo said.
"In that there is no problem.
But to leave afterward and get out of this country in daylight presents a grave problem"
"Clearly," said Robert Jordan.
"I have thought of it.
It is daylight for me also."
"But you are one," El Sordo said.
"We are various."
"There is the possibility of returning to the camps and leaving from there at dark," Pilar said, putting the glass to her lips and then lowering it.
"That is very dangerous, too," El Sordo explained.
"That is perhaps even more dangerous."
"I can see how it would be," Robert Jordan said.
"To do the bridge in the night would be easy," El Sordo said.
"Since you make the condition that it must be done at daylight, it brings grave consequences."
"I know it."
"You could not do it at night?"
"I would be shot for it."
"It is very possible we will all be shot for it if you do it in the daytime."
"For me myself that is less important once the bridge is blown," Robert Jordan said.
"But I see your viewpoint.
You cannot work Out a retreat for daylight?"
"Certainly," El Sordo said.
"We will work out such a retreat.
But I explain to you why one is preoccupied and why one is irritated.
You speak of going to Gredos as though it were a military manceuvre to be accomplished.
To arrive at Gredos would be a miracle."
Robert Jordan said nothing.
"Listen to me," the deaf man said.
"I am speaking much.
But it is so we may understand one another.
We exist here by a miracle.
By a mixacle of laziness and stupidity of the fascists which they will remedy in time.
Of course we are very careful and we make no disturbance in these hills."
"I know."
"But now, with this, we must go.
We must think much about the manner of our going."
"Clearly."
"Then," said El Sordo.
"Let us eat now.
I have talked much."
"Never have I heard thee talk so much," Pilar said.
"Is it this?" she held up the glass.
"No," El Sordo shook his head.
"It isn't whiskey.
It is that never have I had so much to talk of."
"I appreciate your aid and your loyalty," Robert Jordan said.
"I appreciate the difficulty caused by the timing of the blowing of the bridge."
"Don't talk of that," El Sordo said.