le the veterans,
exhausted in a hundred battles, now incapacitated for work, the
veterans who had set out as simple privates, were still simple
privates. The few remaining officers among Demetrio's friends also
grumbled, because his staff was made up of wealthy, dapper young men
who oiled their hair and used perfume.

"The worst part of it," Venancio said, "is that we're gettin'
overcrowded with Federals!"

Anastasio himself, who invariably found only praise for Demetrio's
conduct, now seemed to share the general discontent.

"See here, brothers," he said, "I spits out the truth when I sees
something. I always tell the boss that if these people stick to us very
long we'll be in a hell of a fix. Certainly! How can anyone think
otherwise? I've no hair on my tongue; and by the mother that bore me,
I'm going to tell Demetrio so myself."

Demetrio listened benevolently, and, when Anastasio had finished, he
replied:

"You're right, there's no gettin' around it, we're in a bad way. The
soldiers grumble about the officers, the officers grumble about us,
see? And we're damn well ready now to send both Villa and Carranza to
hell to have a good time all by themselves.... I guess we're in the
same fix as that peon from Tepatitlan who complained about his boss all
day long but worked on just the same. That's us. We kick and kick, but
we keep on killing and killing. But there's no use in saying anything
to them!"

"Why, Demetrio?"

"Hm, I don't know.... Because ... because ... do you see? ... What
we've got to do is to make the men toe the mark. I've got orders to
stop a band of men coming through Cuquio, see? In a few days we'll have
to fight the Carranzistas. It will be great to beat the hell out of
them."

Valderrama, the tramp, who had enlisted in Demetrio's army one day
without anyone remembering the time or the place, overheard some of
Demetrio's words. Fools do not eat fire. That very day Valderrama
disappeared mysteriously as he had come.

V

They entered the streets of Juchipila as the church bells rang, loud
and joyfully, with that peculiar tone that thrills every mountaineer.

"It makes me think we are back in the days when the revolution was just
beginning, when the bells rang like mad in every town we entered and
everybody came out with music, flags, cheers, and fireworks to welcome
us," said Anastasio Montanez.

"They don't like us no more," Demetrio returned.

"Of course. We're crawling back like