Johnston McCulley

“ A fray insults me—and I cannot fight a man who wears a gown! Meal mush and goat’s milk! But wait until we meet up with these pirates! Let a pirate but insult me, and—ha! My blade shall be bathed in blood!”
Sergeant Gonzales turned away abruptly to nurse his wrath, and Fray Felipe smiled and his eyes twinkled. He waited a moment, then touched the sergeant on the shoulder.
“Soldiers and frailes alike are needed in the world,” Fray Felipe said. “There are times when a hardy soldier should be gentle—and even there are times when a fray should fight. Let us be friends!” ”

“ Captain Ramón declared.
“More biting than the blade you wear at your side, señor! Why do you not show your true colors? Why not go out and fight with your friends, the pirates and thieves and murderers, against men of gentle blood?”
Captain Ramón bowed in mockery. “If you will be kind enough to glance through the open door, señorita, you will perceive that the fighting is at an end,” he replied. “What caballeros are not dead have been taken prisoners. And the women and children are mocking them. Go, hag, and mock with the others! I’ll guard the señorita well.” ”

“ Señor Zorro fought with what skill he could, keeping a wide circle with his flashing blade. He heard the voice of Sergeant Gonzales roaring in the distance. He heard, also, the thunderous voice of Barbados.
“Alive! Take them alive!” the pirate chief was screeching. “There will be rich ransom! Ransom and torture! Take them alive, fiends!”
Sanchez echoed the command, and the pirates shrieked in answer that they understood. And Señor Zorro and his friends understood also. The pirates would have rare sport baiting caballeros who were not ransomed speedily enough to suit them. ”

“ Barbados warned him. “Enough of this! Pick the men who are to land, and get ready the boats!”
An hour later the anchor had been dropped, and the pirate craft had swung with the tide and was tugging at her chains like a puppy at a leash. Over the sides went the boats, Barbados growling soft curses at the noise his men made.
“We have nothing to fear, fools and devils!” he said. “But there will be no surprise if some converted native sees us and carries to Reina de Los Angeles word of our arrival. There is many a hacienda in these parts where pirates are detested. Silence, rogues! ”

“ Sanchez cried. “We are lost before we commence.”
Barbados seemed to come to himself and shake off his terror in part. He instantly was eager to win free from the trading schooner. He did not fear the caballeros, who were greatly outnumbered now, but he did fear the supernatural. He forgot the chance for murder and loot, and wanted only to get away.
Barbados shrieked his commands, and the half-stupefied pirates ran to execute them. The pirate craft swung away from the schooner, so that men could not spring from one ship to the other. ”

“ Señor Zorro, you are a man! I, who have fought you, say it! Your blade is too true, señor, to be buried in a foul carcass such as that!”
The moonlight came again, touching the sea with glory and showing the trading schooner running up the coast before the breeze. Those of the crew who had been left aboard handled her well, and the caballeros gave aid.
Away from the scene of carnage the little ship rushed, the water hissing at her bows. Fray Felipe was polishing his beloved goblet. Don Audre Ruiz and his caballeros were dressing their hurts in the cabin. ”

“ Reports of firearms came to his ears, bullets whistled among the troopers, and some of them fell from their saddles. And from the huts and buildings of the pirate camp poured the motley crew of Barbados, screeching their battle-cries, eager to wipe out the soldiery that would have tricked and slain them.
Captain Ramón cursed and began shouting commands. The troopers fired their pistols, drew their blades, and prepared for bloody and more intimate work. From behind the largest adobe building dashed a number of mounted pirates, Barbados and Sanchez riding at their head. ”

“ She needed the blood of the Pulidos to aid her now. Stooping, she reached out a hand and grasped the hilt of the dagger in the dead man’s belt. She drew it out, shuddered, turned her head away for a moment, faint at the sight of the blood.
“Courage!” Zorro’s whisper reached her ears. “And make haste, señorita! Some man may come!”
Now came the thing that tested her courage. But she felt that the eyes of Señor Zorro were upon her. Again she bent forward, and she bathed the blade of the dagger in the pool of blood upon the floor. ”

“ Sanchez observed. “But I like not this talk of ghosts.”
“Here is the jest, fool and friend! It develops after a time that this terrible Señor Zorro is nothing but a caballero out to have a bit of fun and protect the weak. There is a waste of time for you—protecting the weak. And other sundry caballeros joined hands with him and punished minor officials who sought to steal and deal crookedly. That is right and proper. If a thief, be a thief! If a pirate, be a pirate! But do not play at being an honest man and try to be thief and pirate at the same time.” ”

“ The man scurried away along the deck, and Barbados, his courage returning, whirled around and issued a volley of commands. From the darkness Señor Zorro hurled another small bolt, and for the third time the bell sent forth its ringing message.
Barbados whirled around again, his face suddenly white. He was within six paces of the bell, and he knew that no other man was nearer it than that. He felt the eyes of the terror-stricken crew upon him, and knew that he must show courage now, else lose his control over his men.
“Some one is playing a trick,” Barbados said. ”

“ The craft of ill-omen cannot get far before we are upon her heels again. She is running out to sea once more. She would lose sight of us before she turns toward the accursed spot where they have their land rendezvous. Their behavior astounds me; they acted as if they had seen a ghost!”
“And so did I!” Don Audre declared. “I’ll swear that, for an instant, I saw Señor Zorro standing at the butt of the bowsprit—and then he was gone!”
“By the saints, I saw him myself!” Sergeant Gonzales shouted. “He was here to aid us! Man or spirit, I know not—but he was here! And now he has disappeared!” ”

“ He tossed her back upon the bunk, where she braced herself against the wall, gasping, weeping, expecting that now he would make an end of her.
But the pirate chief merely slipped the dagger into his belt, glanced at his wounded arm, swore again, and then stepped back to the door.
“A wench with spirit, eh?” he said. “Ha! I would not be this Captain Ramón and have the taming of you! Glad will I be when I turn you over to him! I have battles enough on my hands without fighting women! I’ll send a man soon with food. Such a female warrior must eat to conserve her strength!” ”

“ 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!” ”

“ Barbados, with a cry, sprang backward, and the señorita slumped to the deck at the foot of the mast. And Señor Zorro realized in that instant that he had stepped forward too far and had been seen. Sanchez gave a cry and started toward him. The pirates whirled from the rail to look. Barbados saw him.
“’Tis Señor Zorro!” Barbados shrieked. “After him! Fetch him to me alive! An extra share of loot to the man who gets him!”
It was the promise of loot that drove them on. They shrieked and rushed forward. Señor Zorro put the blade of his sword between his teeth and darted up into the rigging. ”

“ The other caballeros rallied and followed.
“The ghost!” one of the pirates shrieked. “It is the ghost from the sea!”
“Ha!” Señor Zorro cried, and cut down another man. “Ha, scum! So you fear ghosts? Have at you—”
“Pirates, eh?” Sergeant Gonzales was crying, puffing and blowing out his great cheeks as he fought. “Stand, pirates, and fight like men! Is this a fight or a test of speed, dolts and fools? Meal mush and goat’s milk!”
“A ghost!” another man shrieked.
Barbados whirled around in time to see Sanchez, a look of terror in his face, about to retreat. ”

“ 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.” ”

“ We have drunk toasts to everything of which we could think, and there still remains an abundance of rare wine that has not been guzzled. A toast to the sword of Zorro!”
“Ha! A happy thought!” Don Audre Ruiz cried. “Caballeros, a toast to the sword of Zorro!”
They drank it, put down their golden goblets, and sighed. They glanced at one another, each thinking of the days when Señor Zorro had ruled El Camino Real for a time. And then they dropped into their chairs once more, and Don Diego Vega sat down also, the sword on the table before him. ”

“ He had heard, on his way to the pirate camp, that Señor Zorro had walked the plank. He could take the helpless señorita now for his own, but if he did that he would have to become a renegade forever, live like an outcast. And Captain Ramón loved his uniform, and wealth and power.
So why not play the pirates and honest men against each other and make a double winning? ”

“ Señor Zorro declared. “Be brave of heart! Our friends are at hand, señorita! If Don Audre Ruiz is aboard that ship he will know how to save you—and how to avenge me.”
Again they kissed, and then the two pirates jerked her roughly backward.
Barbados laughed like a fiend.
“Practice for the other man!” he roared. “When Captain Ramón—”
“So it is Ramón?” Zorro cried.
“Sí! And a lot of good the knowledge will do you now.”
“This much good—that I shall not die!” Zorro answered.
“If you do not, then indeed are you a man! With a weight on your lashed wrists— Enough!” he exclaimed. ”

“ Barbados forgot the señorita for a moment and turned to look.
Behind, and bearing down upon them swiftly, came another ship. Señor Zorro knew, as did the pirates, that she had put out from the land before the dawn and far to the south of where the pirate ship had been at anchor.
Hope beat suddenly in Zorro’s breast. She was a trading schooner, he could tell even at that distance. If only she carried Audre Ruiz and his friends! It was a question what would happen. If she was some honest vessel, perhaps she would fall victim to the pirate craft. She might not be prepared to fight. ”

“ There is a precious pair, the Governor and his man!” said Barbados, laughing raucously. “Pirates and rogues we may be, but we can take lessons in villainy from some of the gentry who bear the names of caballeros, but have foul blood in their veins!”
“The thing has an evil look,” Sanchez was bold enough to assert. “I like not a task too easy. By my naked blade, that which looks easy often is not! ”

“ Your story will avail you nothing, Señor Zorro. The lieutenant already is planning to ride to the rescue of his men. But you will remain here, a prisoner in the guardroom, in a maniac’s shirt—”
“Ha!” Señor Zorro shrieked. “Lieutenant, make no mistake about it. This Captain Ramón may outrank you, but he is a traitor, and I would have all honest men know it. He is in league with the pirates himself.”
“You scarcely can expect me to believe that,” the lieutenant replied, smiling.
“It is the truth, by the saints! He is planning to lead your men into an ambush, no doubt!” ”