The morning was wearing on; there were already

ption, currents and eddies in the crowd.

were seeking the shade of the walls and under tlu- t rrrs of the Alann : i Horsemen spurred through, shouting; groups <>i -onilirems. set level on heads against the vertical sun, were drifting away into the Itreets, where the open doors of pulperias revealed an enticing gloom resounding with the gentle tinkling of guitars The National Guards were thinking of siesta, and the eloquence of Gamacho, their chief, was ex-

ed. Later on. when in the cooler hours of the

afternoon they tried to assemble again for further con- sideration of public affairs, detachments of Montero's dry camped on the Alameda charged them with- out parley, at s{>eed, with long lances levelled at their flying backs, as far as the ends of the streets. The National Guards of Sulaco were surprised by this eding, but they were not indignant. No Costa- guanero had ever learned to question the eccentricities of a military force. They were part of the natural order of things. This must be, they concluded, some kind of administrative measure, no doubt. But the motive of it escaped their unaided intelligence, and their chief and orator, Gamacho, Commandante of the National Guard, was lying drunk and asleep in the bosom of his family. His bare feet were upturned in the shadows repulsively, in the manner of a cor; loquent mouth had dropped open. His youngest daughter, scratching her head with one hand, with the other waved a green bough over his scorched and peel-

ing face.