"And I said,
'As soon as the priest finishes.'
"'And the priest?'
"'I don't know,' I told him and I saw his face working and the sweat coming down on his forehead.
'I have never killed a man,' he said.
"'Then you will learn,' the peasant next to him said.
'But I do not think one blow with this will kill a man,' and he held his flail in both hands and looked at it with doubt.
"'That is the beauty of it,' another peasant said. 'There must be many blows.'
"'_They_ have taken Valladolid. _They_ have Avila,' some one said.
'I heard that before we came into town.'
"'_They_ will never take _this_ town. _This_ town is ours.
We have struck ahead of them,' I said.
'Pablo is not one to wait for them to strike.'
"'Pablo is able,' another said.
'But in this finishing off of the _civiles_ he was egoistic.
Don't you think so, Pilar?'
"'Yes,' I said.
'But now all are participating in this.'
"'Yes,' he said.
'It is well organized.
But why do we not hear more news of the movement?'
"'Pablo cut the telephone wires before the assault on the barracks.
They are not yet repaired.'
"'Ah,' he said.
'It is for this we hear nothing.
I had my news from the roadmender's station early this morning.'
"'Why is this done thus, Pilar?' he said to me.
"'To save bullets,' I said.
'And that each man should have his share in the responsibility.'
"'That it should start then.
That it should start.'
And I looked at him and saw that he was crying.
"'Why are you crying, Joaquin?' I asked him.
'This is not to cry about'
"'I cannot help it, Pilar,' he said.
'I have never killed any one.'
"If you have not seen the day of revolution in a small town where all know all in the town and always have known all, you have seen nothing.
And on this day most of the men in the double line across the plaza wore the clothes in which they worked in the fields, having come into town hurriedly, but some, not knowing how one should dress for the first day of a movement, wore their clothes for Sundays or holidays, and these, seeing that the others, including those who had attacked the barracks, wore their oldest clothes, were ashamed of being wrongly dressed.
But they did not like to take off their jackets for fear of losing them, or that they might be stolen by the worthless ones, and so they stood, sweating in the sun and waiting for it to commence.
"Then the wind rose and the dust was now dry in the plaza for the men walking and standing and shuffling had loosened it and it commenced to blow and a man in a dark blue Sunday jacket shouted
'Agua!
Agua!' and the caretaker of the plaza, whose duty it was to sprinkle the plaza each morning with a hose, came and turned the hose on and commenced to lay the dust at the edge of the plaza, and then toward the center.
Then the two lines fell back and let him lay the dust over the center of the plaza; the hose sweeping in wide arcs and the water glistening in the sun and the men leaning on their flails or the clubs or the white wood pitchforks and watching the sweep of the stream of water.
And then, when the plaza was nicely moistened and the dust settled, the lines formed up again and a peasant shouted,
'When do we get the first fascist?
When does the first one come out of the box?'
"'Soon,' Pablo shouted from the door of the _Ayuntamiento_.
'Soon the first one comes out.'
His voice was hoarse from shouting in the assault and from the smoke of the barracks.
"'What's the delay?' some one asked.