Having thought this out he waited until Maria came up walking with Pilar and Rafael and the horses.
“Hi, guapa,” he said to her in the dark, “how are you?”
“I am well, Roberto,” she said.
“Don’t worry about anything,” he said to her and shifting the gun to his left hand he put a hand on her shoulder.
“I do not,” she said.
“It is all very well organized,” he told her. “Rafael will be with thee with the horses.”
“I would rather be with thee.”
“Nay. The horses is where thou art most useful.”
“Good,” she said. “There I will be.”
Just then one of the horses whinnied and from the open place below the opening through the rocks a horse answered, the neigh rising into a shrill sharply broken quaver.
Robert Jordan saw the bulk of the new horses ahead in the dark. He pressed forward and came up to them with Pablo. The men were standing by their mounts.
“Salud,” Robert Jordan said.
“Salud,” they answered in the dark. He could not see their faces.
“This is the Inglés who comes with us,” Pablo said. “The dynamiter.”
No one said anything to that. Perhaps they nodded in the dark.
“Let us get going, Pablo,” one man said. “Soon we will have the daylight on us.”
“Did you bring any more grenades?” another asked.
“Plenty,” said Pablo. “Supply yourselves when we leave the animals.”
“Then let us go,” another said. “We’ve been waiting here half the night.”
“Hola, Pilar,” another said as the woman came up.
“Que me maten, if it is not Pepe,” Pilar said huskily. “How are you, shepherd?”
“Good,” said the man. “Dentro de la gravedad.”
“What are you riding?” Pilar asked him.
“The gray of Pablo,” the man said. “It is much horse.”
“Come on,” another man said. “Let us go. There is no good in gossiping here.”
“How art thou, Elicio?” Pilar said to him as he mounted.
“How would I be?” he said rudely. “Come on, woman, we have work to do.”
Pablo mounted the big bay horse.
“Keep thy mouths shut and follow me,” he said. “I will lead you to the place where we will leave the horses.”