The further adventures of Zorro

Captain Ramón, hurrying outside, found Barbados in the open space before the other adobe building. The pirate chief, it was easy to see, had been drinking heavily of rich, stolen wine. Among the pirates slain were some of Barbados’s particular friends, and he was trying to drown his sorrow at their untimely taking off.

He turned as the commandante approached and greeted him with a shout.

“Ha!” he cried, lurching drunkenly. “So you have not started for San Diego de Alcála yet, capitan? You have just come from the little señorita—sí? Yet your face does not bear the marks of her nails, which is strange. I would not want the taming of her. By my naked blade, I would not!”

“Attend me!” the captain commanded, grasping the pirate chief by the arm. “Is it your intention to torture this Señor Zorro your men have taken?”

Barbados cursed loudly, breathed heavily, and squinted his eyes until they were only two tiny slits. “I shall make him squirm and squeal!” he declared loudly. “And then I shall turn him into a proper ghost!”

“Death is nothing to a man like that,” Captain Ramón told him. “But torture is a different matter.”

“Then I’ll see to it that he is prettily tortured!” Barbados declared.

“There are two sorts of torture, Barbados—the physical and the mental,” said the captain.

“Mental? I do not understand such things!”

“Torture to the mind,” the captain explained. “That is the worst kind by far. If you would have some sport with this Señor Zorro, whom we both hate, listen to me. The señorita, who was to have been his bride, is afraid that you will torture and slay him. I have told her that I will save him by fetching the troopers from San Diego de Alcála—if she will wed with me.”

“Ha! Is this treason?” Barbados cried.

“Are you a fool?” questioned the captain. “And am I one? There must be no talk of treason between us. Attend! She will go to this Señor Zorro and explain to him what she intends doing. Just think of that, Barbados! There is torture for you! He, who loves her so much, will think that she is to become the bride of another man. Ha! He will squirm and squeal indeed! A prisoner, and unable to prevent it! Ha!”

“Ha!” Barbados cried, understanding finally, and grinning to show his appreciation.

“And we will taunt him with it,” the commandante continued. “We’ll watch him squirm!”

“But it appears to me, capitan, that in this affair you are acting the part of an ass,” Barbados dared to say. “Why work so hard to get the wench to agree to wed you when you can take her at your pleasure?”

“Because it will hurt this Señor Zorro a great deal more to know that she gives her consent,” the captain replied. “We’ll taunt him about it, and then I’ll ride for the soldiers. And your men will sweep them off the earth and then ride to San Diego de Alcála and loot the place. As for this Señor Zorro—having tortured him mentally, you will proceed to torture him physically when you celebrate your victory.”

“It appeals to me!” Barbados declared suddenly. “He slew some of my closest friends. Yet I would not wait too long! Some of these fine enemies must be tortured soon, while I am in the proper mood for it!”

“And there can be more mental torture,” the captain said. “Do not touch him until the very last. Make him watch as some of his friends are being tortured. Let him hear their shrieks of pain. Let him see Don Audre Ruiz, his boon companion, suffer. That will hurt him as much as being tortured himself.”

“Ha! By my naked blade, capitan, you should have been born a pirate!” Barbados shrieked.

“Then it is agreed?”

“Sí! It is agreed!”

“I will get the señorita and let her tell Señor Zorro what she intends to do.”

“There are two rooms in that adobe building,” Barbados explained. “This Señor Zorro is alone in the front one, for I thought it best not to put him with the others. The door between has a heavy lock, and I have the key. You can let the señorita go in there, and we’ll listen at the window and enjoy his pain when she tells him. Ha! I say it again, capitan—you should be a pirate! You are wasted in the army!”

Captain Ramón hastened back to the señorita, whispered that he had been able to arrange things as she wished, grinned at old Inez, and then conducted the daughter of the Pulidos across the open space and toward the adobe building where Señor Zorro and the caballeros were being held prisoners.

Barbados was waiting. He leered at the girl, then called one of his men to his side, and commanded that he unfasten and open the door. Señor Zorro, his wrists still lashed behind his back, was pacing around the room. From the room adjoining came the voices of the caballeros.

“Señor Zorro, here is a pretty wench who has some words for your ears,” Barbados called. “She is not so pretty as she was, having dirtied herself in an attempt to escape, but possibly she will serve. I give you a few minutes in which to hold speech. Do not abuse the privilege.”

“Whatever you may do in the future, I thank you for this, Señor Pirate!” Zorro said.

Barbados laughed and withdrew, and closed the door behind him. The señorita stepped forward slowly, her hands held at her breast, a look of anguish in her sweet face. Señor Zorro was smiling down at her.

“The saints are good, señorita!” he whispered. “That I may see you again—”

“Diego, my beloved, it is a sad errand!” she interrupted. “Yet I had to come.”

His face was grave for an instant, and then he smiled at her once more.

“So they have sent you to tell me that I must die?” he asked. “I could not receive a warrant of death from sweeter hands. My one regret is that I have failed in your rescue. I do not fear the coming of death. It will be only another adventure. It is for you that I fear.”

“Fear not for me!” she said. “Nor fear the coming of death, either. It is not a warrant of death that I bring you, Diego. I have come to tell you that you are to go free.”

“Free?” Señor Zorro gasped. “Have pirates turned kind? Has old Fray Felipe demonstrated to them the error of their ways? Is the devil going to mass these days? Señorita, you are trying to make the sentence lighter by saying it in a kind manner. Speak out! Don Diego Vega is not afraid to learn the truth, and most certainly Señor Zorro is not.”

“I know that you are not afraid, Diego. I dread to tell you this thing, though it means your life.”

He stepped closer to her suddenly, and looked down into her eyes. “What are you trying to tell me?” he asked kindly. “Do not be afraid to speak.”

“That you are to go free, Diego,” she replied, failing to meet his glance.

“And how may that be?” he asked.

“Captain Ramón is to arrange it.”

“Put not your trust in Ramón!”

“Ah, Diego, but there is naught else to do!” she said. “He tells me that he is tricking the pirates. He will ride to San Diego de Alcála and return with the troopers from the presidio there. The pirates will be slain or captured, and you and the caballeros will be saved.”

“Ramón will do this?” Señor Zorro cried. “Is there some hidden spark of gentlehood in the beast?”

“He will do it, Diego—for a price.”

“Ha! I might have known it! Well, I can pay the cur! What is the price?”

“Not money, Diego, beloved! The price is that I wed him.”

Señor Zorro sucked in his breath sharply and bent quickly over her.

“You wed with him?” he said. “Wed with a snake like Captain Ramón?”

“Only to save you, Diego! Ah, do not think that I am untrue! He but asks my word—the word of a Pulido! And the wedding is not to take place until he returns with the troopers, the pirates are slain, and you are free.”

“Señorita—”

“There will be torture and death for you, else,” she was quick to add. “And I will remain true, Diego. I shall but promise to wed him, understand. And after the ceremony, before he can claim me as his bride, I—I shall die!”

“And do you think that I would accept such a sacrifice?” Señor Zorro asked. “Could I live and see you the bride of another man? And could I live knowing that you had taken your own life for me? No, señorita!”

“If I do not, they will torture and slay you!”

“Then let them torture and slay!” he said. “You cannot do this thing! You—a daughter of the Pulido blood! Think of the blood in your veins!”

“I could not be his wife, except in name, but I can die!” she said. “Only a thrust of the dagger after the ceremony! The blood of the Pulidos tells me to do that!”

“I command you—entreat you—”

“Can I see you die?” she asked. “And, if I refuse, there will be nothing except death for me as well as for you. For Ramón will try, then, to make me his by force.”

“Better to die in defense of your honor, señorita, than have your fair name linked with his even for a moment!” Señor Zorro declared. “I demand that you refuse to do this thing! Ah, señorita, all hope is not gone! They have taken my sword, and they have bound my hands, but I am not helpless entirely. The spirit of Zorro still burns in my breast! Given but a little time, and I’ll win through!”

“Diego!”

“If we could work for time—” he said.

“Perhaps I can hold him off for an hour,” she whispered. “But no longer than that, I am sure. And—there may be a way. I have thought of something!”

“What is it?”

“Whisper,” she commanded. “I am sure that they are listening outside the window. Pretend that all is agreed between us. Let me embrace you!”

Barbados and Captain Ramón not only were listening, but also they were peering through the window. And they saw her go up close to him, press against him, saw her arms go around him, as though in a last embrace. But her back was toward the window, and they could not see all.

For, as she pressed against him, the little señorita took from her bosom the dagger that the woman Inez had given her when she had attempted to make an escape, and which had been forgotten afterward. And she reached around him even as she buried her head against his breast, and sawed with the sharp dagger at the cords that bound his wrists.

“Careful!” she warned. “Hold the ends of the ropes, so they will not know that you are free!”

“Sí!” he breathed. “Never in all the world was there ever a señorita like you! Hope sings within me again!”

“Do not let it show in your face!” she warned.

Her hands crept to the front again, and she slipped the dagger into the sash around his waist. She knew that he felt it, and knew that it was there. And then she stepped back, and raised her voice so that those at the window could hear.

“It is the only way, Diego!” she said. “I must leave you—I cannot endure this scene longer! Take my lips, Diego—for the last time!”

She raised her head, and her eyes closed. He bent forward, their lips touched. And then she gave a little cry as though of pain, and rushed back toward the door. And Señor Zorro remained standing against the wall, anguish in his countenance.

Barbados opened the door and let the señorita out of the room, then closed and fastened the door again. Captain Ramón hurried up to her.

“You have decided, señorita?” he asked.

“Almost am I ready to give you my sacred word, but not quite,” she replied. “It is a terrible thing for me, señor. Give me but one little hour. Let me go to old Fray Felipe and have him pray with me.”

“I am growing tired of waiting!” Captain Ramón said. “I should be on my way already. Why not decide now?”

“You will have ample time to return with the troopers long before nightfall,” she whispered quickly, as Barbados turned away to howl an order to some of his men. “Give me only an hour—perhaps less!”

“Very well—an hour!” said the captain. “But no longer! I’ll find the fray for you, and put you both in one of the huts under guard until you can make up your mind.”