Summary
As expected, Andres is delayed at the Loyalist outpost. He is repeatedly asked whether he is alone and has to give the same assurance again and again until he is finally allowed to enter. As he explains his story to the post commander, who differs little from his crazy men, Andres learns they have never heard of Pablo's guerilla band, or El Sordo's, for that matter. Finally, they take his carbine from him and take him to see Golz.

Analysis
The tension mounts as Andres has to put up with a filthy band of inept wild soldiers. They are ignorant of what the Cause is all about and indeed what is happening, or why it is happening. They are ignorant idiots, but Andres is at their mercy. His brother, Jordan and the others are relying on him to see Golz in an effort to call off blowing up the bridge, and all these nasty child-like people can do is hector and berate him. He is beyond frustration: "Andres smelt the foulness the defenders of the hillside had made all through the bracken on the slope" (376). Hemingway in this manner criticizes what he considers stereotypical Spanish characteristics.