CHAPTER XXII.
A PRICE TO BE PAID.
The face of Captain Ramón turned livid as he struggled to get his sword from its scabbard. There was a look of fear in his countenance, too.
“Zorro!” he cried. “Señor Zorro, eh?”
“Sí! Zorro!” came the answer. “There is not water enough in all the sea to drown me while there remains something to be avenged. We have crossed blades before, señor, and I have marked you. But this time shall be the last. A fatal wound this time, capitan! It is an honor that I do not cut you down without giving you the chance to defend yourself!”
Captain Ramón finally had his sword out, and now he was on guard. But he could not forget that once before in his life he had crossed blades with Señor Zorro, and Zorro had played with him as a cat plays with a mouse, and finally had left him for dead after marking him on the forehead.
And so the captain grew desperately afraid, feeling that he had small chance against the better sword play of the other. He sprang back toward the door to the front room, but found Señor Zorro before him blocking the way.
“Are you a coward and would run?” Zorro taunted. “A pretty soldier, by the saints!”
“Ha! Señor Zorro is here!” the commandante shouted at the top of his lung power. “Zorro is here! To me, pirates!”
He had no time to say more. Señor Zorro’s face assumed an expression of grim determination, and he advanced swiftly. But Captain Ramón had found another method of protection for the time being. He sprang back beside the señorita, grasped her roughly and held her before him, shielding his body with hers. And he continued his shouting, hoping to attract the attention of Barbados and his men.
“Poltroon!” Zorro sneered. “Coward and dog!”
“Fly, Diego!” the señorita begged. “The pirates will be here and take you.”
“When I have slain this arrant coward and rescued you, and not before!” Señor Zorro declared.
He danced toward Captain Ramón again, but the commandante was back in a corner now, holding the señorita close before him, and Señor Zorro was afraid to attempt a thrust. The señorita made a struggle to get free, but found that she could not.
In the other room the woman Inez had heard the tumult and the words. She had dared to open the door a crack and peer inside, and then she had closed the door again and barred it quickly, and hurried into the open.
“Barbados!” she shrieked. “Sanchez! Fiends of hell! Señor Zorro is here trying to kill the captain! Come and take him!”
Barbados heard and understood her shrieks, as did some of the others near. They rushed across the open space and crowded into the front room of the building. From the storeroom came the sound of Señor Zorro’s voice.
“Hide behind a woman, eh, coward? Come out and fight, poltroon! Come out, renegade! Is there no insult strong enough to bring you forth?”
Barbados motioned with one hand. Inez unbarred the door and threw it open. Into the storeroom tumbled the pirates, their blades held ready.
“Take him alive!” Barbados thundered. “Catch me this land pirate unhurt!”
Señor Zorro whirled to confront them. He darted to a corner and threw up his blade. He sprang forward a few steps, wounded a man, retreated again.
But he knew that the weight of numbers was against him in such cramped fighting quarters, and he could not get to the window and make an escape. They hurled themselves upon him, buried him beneath their combined weight, disarmed him, and forced him to his feet again. They lashed his hands behind his back, and Barbados, now that it was a safe thing to do, stalked forward and spat at him.
“So, Señor Zorro, we have you in our hands again!” Barbados said. “This time it will be fire or steel instead of water, since you seem to swim so well! And this time, señor, we make a real ghost out of you!”
Captain Ramón lurched forward, his face purple with wrath. “Do with him as you will,” he said to Barbados. “But let me have a hand in it!”
“Ha! You had your chance, capitan, a moment ago, and did not make much of it!” Barbados replied, grinning. “I’ll have him put in the other adobe building with the caballeros. Fiends of hell, take him away!”
The señorita made an attempt to get forward, but the pirates thrust her back. They took Señor Zorro away, and the grinning Barbados followed them. The captain turned to face the señorita once more.
“Señorita, you must try to understand,” he said. “I could not act or speak in any other manner. The pirates must still think that I am one of them, else I cannot get to San Diego de Alcála and fetch the soldiers.”
“There is small need of further pretense, señor,” she replied with much scorn in her manner. “I know you for what you are!”
“You are inclined to show bravery, now that you know this Señor Zorro is alive, eh?” he said. “But will he live long, in the hands of these pirates, some of whose friends he has slain? This Barbados loves ransom money, but Don Diego Vega is one man who never will be ransomed. For Barbados loves vengeance, too!”
“I cannot endure your presence longer,” she said. “Leave me alone with my sorrows!”
“Nor can I endure your scorn much longer,” Captain Ramón replied. “Has it occurred to you that you are in my power completely, if I will it so?”
“Now you show your true colors again, señor. And there is always death!”
“And torture!” Captain Ramón added. “That will befall this Señor Zorro, no doubt!”
“Torture?” she cried.
“Ha! Real torture, such as only these beasts of pirates know how to inflict!” he declared. “No man can stand against such a thing for long. He will beg and shriek for the release of death when the pain begins.”
“No—no!” she cried.
“And you will be forced to watch it, no doubt!” the commandante continued. “Barbados, his men say, is a master hand at torture of all kinds. They’ll chip at him with their knives, sear his flesh with white-hot brands—”
“Señor, for the love of the saints—”
“You do not like the picture? Wait until you see the reality, which will be much worse than words could paint!”
“If I could save him—give my life for his—”
The captain looked at her sharply. “Perhaps there may be a way,” he said.
“What mean you?”
“I can have speech with this fiend of a Barbados and coax him to delay the torture until he has accounted for the troopers from San Diego de Alcála. The troopers will account for him and his men instead, of course, and then Señor Zorro and the caballeros will be released.”
“And you will do this?” she cried. “Ah, señor, if only you would!”
“I can do it, señorita—at a price!”
“And what—is the price?” she asked.
“You are the price yourself, señorita.”
“Beast!”
“Is that a way to save Señor Zorro by calling me a beast?” the captain asked. “All that I ask is an immediate marriage. Would it be an ill thing to wed with one of his excellency’s officers?”
“I cannot! My heart is not my own!”
“Can you hesitate?” the captain asked. “One way, you will be my wife, and Señor Zorro will be saved from torture and will be set free. The other way, señorita, he will be tortured until he dies—and you will come to me unwed!”
“Oh!” she gasped. “That a man could be such a fiend—”
“Love drives men to do strange things, señorita.”
“Love!” she cried. “You know not the meaning of the word! To love is to be gentle, to cherish and protect!”
“I know the meaning as it appeals to me,” the captain declared. “And I have scant time, if you are to agree. Fray Felipe is in the camp, and he can wed us. Barbados is afraid to affront a fray and will not see Felipe harmed. So he lets him roam around, though he is watched.”
“I cannot!”
“Very well, señorita. It is for you to make the decision. But I am afraid that the pirates will have their way. And their way will not be a gentle one!”
“Can you not be a proper man?” she cried. “Can you not save him without exacting such a payment? For once in your life, señor, can you not show yourself a caballero?”
“Save him and let him claim you?” Ramón asked. “You are asking far too much!”
“Is there no other way?”
“None!” he replied. “There are certain things that you must do—be my wife, and I will save Señor Zorro by fetching the troopers from San Diego de Alcála. And afterward you must say that I did but trick the pirates, and that you wed me in gratitude for saving you from them.”
“Such a falsehood would not come easily from my lips, señor,” she said. “And how can I trust you? How do I know that you would fetch the troopers?”
“I am not afraid to make the bargain,” he told her. “You need not wed me until after the pirates are defeated and the caballeros are released. That is fair enough for both, is it not? But how, on the other hand, may I be assured that you will not forget your part of the bargain, once I have done my share?”
“Señor!” she cried, her face flaming. “Would a daughter of the Pulidos break her given word?”
“Then you give it?” he asked.
“Not yet!” she replied firmly. “There are to be certain stipulations, señor.”
“And they—” he questioned.
“I must see Señor Zorro alone and speak to him, and explain just what I intend to do. I would tell him the truth—that you will save him and the others if I wed you. I would not have him think that my heart is one that can change so easily.”
“Ha! After that you would have to save him against his will. He would not accept the sacrifice.”
“Then will I save him despite himself,” she declared. “And you need not fear for the future in such case, señor. Once we were wed, Señor Zorro would not raise his hand against you if I asked him not to do so.”
“Perhaps it may be arranged,” Captain Ramón said.
He was plotting more, even as he spoke. He did not see how he could lose in this game. If he fetched the troopers, and the pirates were wiped out and the caballeros saved, the señorita would keep her word if she had given it. Men might despise him for taking advantage of a situation, yet would he be safe. And perhaps, for a small sum, he could have this Señor Zorro killed yet.
And if the pirates through some fortune of war managed to be victorious over the troopers, then Captain Ramón could do the other thing—simply seize the señorita, give Señor Zorro up to torture, and remain a renegade, perhaps even become a pirate chief himself in the future.
“I will speak to no other man, señor—only Zorro,” she said, as he seemed to hesitate. “I will not betray your double-dealing to the pirate crew, for that would defeat all our ends and mean death for Señor Zorro and the caballeros, and much worse for me. But I must speak to Señor Zorro a moment before I give you my decision in the matter.”
“I will try to arrange it with Barbados,” Captain Ramón replied. “Come into the other room and let the woman guard you until I return. You must play the game well if you would be successful. And there is scant time. I should start my ride to San Diego de Alcála as quickly as possible.”