"But what?"
"Nothing.
I had a moment of weakness.
I went away but I am come back."
He turned to Robert Jordan. "_En el fondo no soy cobarde_," he said.
"At bottom I am not a coward."
But you are very many other things, Robert Jordan thought.
Damned if you're not.
But I'm glad to see you, you son of a bitch.
"Five was all I could get from Elias and Alejandro," Pablo said.
"I have ridden since I left here.
Nine of you could never have done it. Never.
I knew that last night when the _Ingles_ explained it.
Never.
There are seven men and a corporal at the lower post.
Suppose there is an alarm or that they fight?"
He looked at Robert Jordan now.
"When I left I thought you would know that it was impossible and would give it up.
Then after I had thrown away thy material I saw it in another manner."
"I am glad to see thee," Robert Jordan said.
He walked over to him.
"We are all right with the grenades.
That will work.
The other does not matter now."
"Nay," Pablo said.
"I do nothing for thee.
Thou art a thing of bad omen.
All of this comes from thee.
Sordo also.
But after I had thrown away thy material I found myself too lonely."
"Thy mother--" Pilar said.
"So I rode for the others to make it possible for it to be successful.
I have brought the best that I could get.
I have left them at the top so I could speak to you, first.
They think I am the leader."
"Thou art," Pilar said.
"If thee wishes."
Pablo looked at her and said nothing.
Then he said simply and quietly,
"I have thought much since the thing of Sordo.
I believe if we must finish we must finish together.
But thou, _Ingles_. I hate thee for bringing this to us."
"But Pablo--" Fernando, his pockets full of grenades, a bandolier of cartridges over his shoulder, he still wiping in his pan of stew with a piece of bread, began.
"Do you not believe the operation can be successful?
Night before last you said you were convinced it would be."
"Give him some more stew," Pilar said viciously to Maria.
Then to Pablo, her eyes softening,
"So you have come back, eh?"
"Yes, woman," Pablo said.
"Well, thou art welcome," Pilar said to him.