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Page 25
"You said a mouthful, Louie," Venancio the barber
put in enthusiastically. "A mouthful as big as a church!"
"As I was saying," Luis Cervantes resumed, "when
the revolution is over, everything is over. Too bad that so
many men have been killed, too bad there are so many
widows and orphans, too bad there was so much blood-
shed.
"Of course, you are not selfish; you say to yourself:
'All I want to do is go back home.' But I ask you, is it
fair to deprive your wife and kids of a fortune which God
himself places within reach of your hand? Is it fair to
abandon your motherland in this solemn moment when
she most needs the self-sacrifice of her sons, when she
most needs her humble sons to save her from falling
again in the clutches of her eternal oppressors, execu-
tioners, and caciques? You must not forget that the thing
a man holds most sacred on earth is his motherland."
Macias smiled, his eyes shining.
"Will it be all right if we go with Natera?"
"Not only all right," Venancio said insinuatingly, "but
I think it absolutely necessary."
"Now Chief," Cervantes pursued, "I took a fancy to
you the first time I laid eyes on you and I like you more
and more every day because I realize what you are
worth. Please let me be utterly frank. You do not yet
realize your lofty noble function. You are a modest man
without ambitions, you do not wish to realize the ex-
ceedingly important role you are destined to play in the
revolution. It is not true that you took up arms simply be-
cause of Senor Monico. You are under arms to protest
against the evils of all the caciques who are overrunning
the whole nation. We are the elements of a social move-
ment which will not rest until it has enlarged the destinies
of our motherland. We are the tools Destiny makes use of
to reclaim the sacred rights of the people. We are not
fighting to dethrone a miserable murderer, we are fight-
ing against tyranny itself. What moves us is what men call
ideals; our action is what men call fighting for a prin-
ciple. A principle! That's why Villa and Natera and Car-
ranza are fighting; that's why we, every man of us, are
fighting."
"Yes ... yes ... exactly what I've been thinking my-
self," said Venancio in a climax of enthusiasm.
"Hey, there, Pancracio," Macias called, "pull down
two more beers."
XIV
"You ought to see how clear that fellow can make
things, Compadre," Demetrio said. All morning long he
had been pondering as much of Luis Cervantes' speech
as he had understood.
"I heard him too," Anastasio answered. "People who
can read and write get things clear, all right; nothing
was ever truer. But what I can't make out is how you're
going to go and meet Natera with as few men as we
have."
"That's nothing. We're going to do things different
now. They tell me that as soon as Crispin Robles enters
a town he gets hold of all the horses and guns in the
place; then he goes to the jail and lets all the jailbirds
out, and, before you know it, he's got plenty of men, all
right. You'll see. You know I'm beginning to feel that
we haven't done things right so far. It don't seem right
somehow that this city guy should be able to tell us
what to do."
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