Johnston McCulley

“ What are you doing here, Captain Ramón?"
"And what do you here?"
"I heard a lady's scream, which is warrant enough for caballero to enter any place, señor. It appears to me that you have broken all the conventions."
"Perhaps the lady has broken them also."
"Señor!" roared the highwayman. "Another thought like that and I cut you down where you stand, though you are a wounded man! How shall I punish you?"
"Despensero! Natives!" the captain shouted suddenly. "Here is Señor Zorro! A reward if you take him!"
The masked man laughed. "'Twill do you small good to call for help," he said. ”

“ They will think that you came to rob Don Diego. And turn honest, señor, for my sake. Turn honest, I say, and claim me. No man knows your face, and if you take off your mask forever, none ever will know your guilt. It is not as if you were an ordinary thief. I know why you have stolen—to avenge the helpless, to punish cruel politicians, to aid the oppressed. I know that you have given what you have stolen to the poor. Oh, señor!"
"But my task is not yet done, señorita, and I feel called upon to finish it."
"Then finish it, and may the saints guard you, as I feel sure they will. ”

“ Then Captain Ramón, disregarding the presence of the lady, cursed, once and loudly, for Señor Zorro stood before him.
He did not pretend to know how the highwayman had entered the house; he did not stop to think of it. He realized that he was without a blade at his side, and that he could not use it had he one, because of his wounded shoulder. And Señor Zorro was walking toward him from the corner.
"Outlaw I may be, but I respect women," the Curse of Capistrano said. "And you, an officer of the army, do not, it appears. ”