The finding of the pianola suggested that we give another _baile_ that night, in the portico of the Casa Grande itself. Candles were stuck upon the pillars, the faint light flickering upon broken walls, burned and blackened doorways, the riot of wild vines that had twisted unchecked around the roof-beams. The entire patio was crowded with blanketed men, making holiday, even yet a little uncomfortable in the great house which they had never been allowed to enter. As soon as the orchestra had finished a dance, the pianola immediately took up the task. Dance followed dance, without any rest. A barrel of _sotol_ further complicated things. As the evening wore on the assembly got more and more exhilarated. Sabas, who was Pablo’s orderly, led off with Pablo’s mistress. I followed. Immediately afterward Pablo hit her on the head with the butt end of his revolver, and said he’d shoot her if she danced with anyone else, and her partner too. After sitting some moments meditating, Sabas rose, pulled his revolver, and informed the harpist that he had played a wrong note. Then he shot at him. Other _compañeros_ disarmed Sabas, who immediately went to sleep in the middle of the dance-floor.
The interest in Meester’s dancing soon shifted to other phenomena. I sat down beside Julian Reyes, he with the Christ and Virgin on the front of his sombrero. He was far gone in _sotol_—his eyes burned like a fanatic’s.
"No," I said. "I am a correspondent. I am forbidden to fight."
"It is a lie," he cried. "You don’t fight because you are afraid to fight. In the face of God, our Cause is Just."
"Yes, I know that. But my orders are not to fight."
"What do I care for orders?" he shrieked. "We want no correspondents. We want no words printed in a book. We want rifles and killing, and if we die we shall be caught up among the saints! Coward! Huertista!..."
"That’s enough!" cried someone, and I looked up to see Longinos Güereca standing over me. "Julian Reyes, you know nothing. This _compañero_ comes thousands of miles by the sea and the land to tell his countrymen the truth of the fight for Liberty. He goes into battle without arms, he’s braver than you are, because you have a rifle. Get out now, and don’t bother him any more!"