CHAPTER V.ZORRO TAKES THE TRAIL.
Barbados had saved thecasaof Don Diego Vega for the last. He had kept an eye upon it, however, while his men were looting the town, but had seen nothing to indicate danger from that quarter. And now he remembered Captain Ramón’s commands, and it pleased him to carry them out.
Don Diego’s was the finest house in the village, and seemed to promise rich loot. Barbados placed four of his men outside to guard against the unexpected return of the soldiers, and led the remainder straight to the front door.
They hesitated there for a moment, gathered closely together, then Barbados gave the word, and they rushed through the door and hurled themselves inside, to go sprawling over the rich rugs and carpets and stop in astonishment and confusion. Barbados swore a great oath as he strove to maintain his balance.
Before them was a wonderful room lavishly furnished. To one side was a wide stairway that led to the upper regions of the house, and priceless tapestries were hanging from a mezzanine. But what engaged the attention of Barbados and his crew the most was the big table in the middle of the room and some score of richly dressedcaballerossitting around it.
Here was the unexpected, which Barbados always feared. He came to a stop, thrust forward his head, and his little eyes began glittering. The soldiers were gone from the town, but here were a score of youngcaballeroswho were fully as good as soldiers in a fight, and who loved fighting. Barbados had seen such young blades handle swords and rapiers before.
The entrance of the pirates had followed closely upon the announcement of their presence in the town to Don Diego by the servant. And when they tumbled through the door, showing their evil faces in the strong light, thecaballerosstruggled to get to their feet, reaching for their blades, the smiles swept from their faces and expressions of grim determination showing there instead. But the calm voice of Don Diego quieted them.
“Ha!” Don Diego said. “What have we here?Señores, it is the night before my wedding, and most persons are welcome to partake of my hospitality. But this happens to be a select gathering of my close friends, and I really cannot remember of having sent you invitations.”
“Have done!” Barbados bellowed, his voice ringing with a courage he scarcely felt. “Have done, fashionable fop! We are men who sail under the black flag, terrible alike on land and sea!”
Don Diego Vega threw back his head and laughed lightly.
“Did you hear that, Audre, my friend?” he asked Ruiz. “This fellow says that he and his comrades are terrible alike on land and sea.”
Don Audre entered into the spirit of the occasion, as he always did. “Diego, I did not know that you were such a wit,” he said. “Have you hired these fellows to come here and give us a fright? Ha! It is a merry jest, one that I’ll remember to my last day! For a moment I was ready to draw blade.”
“Jest, is it?” Barbados cried, lurching forward almost to the foot of the table. “’Twill be considered no jest when we have stripped you of your jewels and plaything swords and this house of what valuables it contains! Back up against that wall,señores, and the man who makes a rash move will not live to make another!”
“I have made a multitude of rash moves, and I still live,” Don Audre Ruiz told him. “Diego, it is indeed an excellent jest! I give you my thanks!”
“Pirates!” Don Diego said, laughing again. “In reality, I did not hire them to come here and furnish us with this entertainment. But since they have been so kind, it is no more than right that I pay them!” He sprang to his feet, bent forward with his hands upon the table, and glared down the length of it at Barbados. “You are the chief bull pirate?” he asked.
“I am the king of the crew!” Barbados replied. “Back against that wall, you and your friends!”
Don Diego Vega laughed lightly again. And then the laughter fled his face, and his eyes narrowed and seemed to send forth flakes of steel.
“Sí!You must be paid!” he said. “But there are many ways of making payment!”
The sword of Señor Zorro was beneath his hands. And suddenly it was out of its scabbard, and he had sprung upon the table and had dashed down the full length of it, scattering goblets and plates, drink and food.
Off the other end he sprang, and struck the floor a few feet in front of Barbados, who had recoiled and was struggling to get his cutlass out of his belt. The sword of Zorro flashed through the air, describing a gleaming arc.
“Pirate, eh?” Don Diego Vega cried. “You have come to collect riches, have you, Señor Pirate?”
“What is to prevent?” Barbados sneered. “You and your pretty toy of a sword?”
“Ha! You insult a good blade!” Don Diego cried. “The insult shall not go unpunished! Look you here!”
Don Diego Vega whirled suddenly to one side, his sword seemed to flash fire, and its point bit into a panel of the wall once, twice, thrice! Barbados looked on in amazement, his lower jaw sagging. His little eyes bulged, and he looked again. Scratched on the panel of the wall was a Z.
“That mark!” the pirate gasped. “You are Zorro! That mark—the same thecommandantewears on his forehead—”
Don Diego had whirled to face him again. “How know you there is such a mark on the forehead of Captain Ramón?” he demanded. “So! Thecommandantedeals with pirates, does he? That is how it happens that my friend, Sergeant Gonzales, and his soldiers are not here! Ha!”
Barbados blustered forward, his cutlass held ready, striving to regain the mastery of the situation. “Give us loot, or we attack!” he thundered.
“Attack, fool?” Don Diego cried. “Do you imagine that you hold the upper hand here? Up with your blade!”
The last thing Barbados wished to do was to fight acaballerounder such circumstances. He had the fear of the mongrel for the thoroughbred. But here was a thing that could not be avoided unless his leadership of the pirates suffer.
Thecaballerossprang from their chairs, drawing their swords, shouting in keen anticipation of a break in the deadly monotony of their lives. They rushed to the right and the left, and engaged the pirates as they rushed forward. Don Diego Vega found himself at liberty to engage Barbadosonly, a thing he relished and which he did with right good will.
Barbados fought like a fiend, mouthing curses, puffing out his cheeks, but he did not understand this style of fighting. Don Diego Vega seemed to be wielding half a dozen blades that sang about his head and threatened to bury themselves in his throat. His cutlass seemed heavy, useless, his strokes went wild.
Back toward the wall went Barbados, while Don Diego grinned at him and taunted him, played with him as a cat does with a mouse.
“Pirate, eh?” Don Diego said. “Terrible on either land or sea? ’Tis a jest, Señor Pirate! A thin jest!”
Barbados sensed that the termination of this combat was not to be to his liking. He got a chance to glance once around the big room. What he saw staggered him. Two of thecaballeroswere stretched on the floor, blood flowing from their wounds. But, aside from those two, thecaballeroswere getting much the better of the combat. The pirates were retreating toward the front door. Their heavy cutlasses were of no avail against flaming, darting light swords, especially when the men who handled those swords refused to stand and be cut down, but danced here and there like phantoms.
But Barbados did not have time to contemplate the scene long. Don Diego Vega pressed his attack. Back against the wall went the pirate chief. He crouched, fought his best. But suddenly he felt a twinge of pain in his wrist, and his cutlass left his hand and shot through the air, to fall with a crash in a corner.
Barbados stared stupidly before him and then came alive to his immediate peril. For Don Diego Vega was standing before him, smiling a smile that was not good to see.
“Payment shall be made!” Don Diego said.
His blade darted up and forward, and Barbados gave a little cry of pain and fear and recoiled. On his forehead, it seemed, was a streak of fire. Again the sword of Zorro darted forth, and there was a second streak of fire, and yet a third time. And then Don Diego Vega took a step backward and bowed mockingly.
“You wear my brand,” he said. “It is an honor.”
Terror had claimed Barbados for the moment. Now he slipped a short distance along the wall, while Diego followed him, and suddenly he shrieked his commands and darted toward the door. Into the plaza tumbled the pirates, with thecaballerosat their heels.
Barbados shrieked more commands, and the pirates ran with what speed they had. Those left behind in the plaza gathered the horses they needed and the loot, and those coming from thecasaof Don Diego rushed toward the horses now. For the greater part, those horses were fine-blooded stock and belonged to Don Diego’s guests, mounts used to traveling at a rapid rate of speed between somehaciendaand the town.
Barbados urged his men to haste. Only compact loot could be carried. They sprang to the backs of the horses and dashed away. Thecaballerospursued on foot until the plaza had been crossed. And then they stopped and gathered around Don Diego.
“There can be no pursuit,” Diego said. “They have made away with your horses, my friends, the soldiers are not here, and the only mounts remaining in town are not fit forcaballerosto ride.”
“Yet they must be pursued,” said a voice at his side.
Don Diego whirled to find ancient Fray Felipe standing there.
“They have stolen the sacred goblet,” Fray Felipe said in a calm voice. “I have taken a vow to regain it.”
“The goblet!” Diego gasped.
“Don Diego, my friend, you will help me in this?” Fray Felipe asked. “I have known you since you were a babe in arms. I have loved you—”
“To-morrow I wed,” Don Diego said. “But I shall do everything in my power. We’ll get horses as soon as possible and pursue. I’ll open my purse, and up and down El Camino Real men will go, seeking where these pirates touch shore again. We’ll get the goblet!”
“I have more faith in your sword arm than in your purse, my friend,” Fray Felipe said. “But do what you can.”
Thecaballeroshad gathered now. Men and women were pouring from the houses, telling of what had befallen them. Barbados and his men had been merciful, for pirates. They had taken wealth, but they had taken few lives.
Don Diego Vega started back across the plaza toward his house, his friends around him.
“For a moment I was Señor Zorro again,” he said. “Those drops of blood you mentioned grew hot for a time, Audre, my friend.”
“Glorious!” Audre Ruiz breathed. “I would we had horses and could follow them—even a ship to follow them out to sea. Don Diego, my friend, your bachelor supper is a great success.”
“Then let us return and conclude it,” Don Diego said. “We have a couple of wounded friends in the house. Let us attend them.”
“Let us bathe their wounds in wine,” Audre suggested.
They hurried into the house. The frightened servants came forward again and began putting things to rights. The two woundedcaballeroswere in chairs already, and men working to bandage them. Once more Don Diego sat at the head of the table, and thecaballerosdropped into their chairs, and the servants made haste to fill the goblets. Don Diego put the sword of Zorro on the table before him and proposed that they toast it again.
There came a sudden commotion at the door, and a man stumbled in. Don Diego was on his feet instantly, for he knew the man. He was a leading workman at thehaciendaof Don Carlos Pulido. A horrible fear gripped Don Diego’s heart.
The man was exhausted. He staggered forward, and would have fallen had not Diego grasped him and braced him against a corner of the table.
“Señor!” he gasped. “Don Diego—young master!”
“Speak!” Diego commanded.
“Pirates attacked thehaciendamore than an hour ago, while others were attacking here—”
“Tell it quickly!”
“Don Carlos is sorely wounded,señor! Many of the buildings are burned. The house was looted!”
“Theseñorita?” Don Diego questioned.
“Do not strike me when I speak, young master!”
“Speak!”
“They carried away theseñorita. They slew six who would have saved her—”
“Carried her away!” Don Diego cried.
“Toward the sea,” the man gasped. “I heard one of the pirates shout that she was to be treated gently—that she was to be the prize of some great man—”
Don Diego Vega tossed him aside, and once more the blade of Zorro was in his hand. His friends were upon their feet and crowding forward.
“A rescue!” Don Audre Ruiz cried. “We must save theseñorita!”
“They have stolen the bride of Don Diego, the fools!” another shouted.
“Worse than that, for them!” Audre screeched. “They have stolen the bride of Señor Zorro!”
Don Diego Vega seemed to recover from the shock.
“You are right, my friends!” he cried. “This is touch enough to turn my blood hot again. Don Diego Vega is dead for a time; Señor Zorro takes the trail! Audre, get me the best horse you can! You others, wait!”
He dashed up the stairs as Audre hurried through the front door. The others waited, talking wildly of plans for reaching the shore of the sea. Frightened servants stood about as though speechless.
In a short space of time Don Diego returned to them. But he was Don Diego no longer. Now he wore the costume he had worn when as Señor Zorro he had ridden up and down the length of El Camino Real. And in his face was a light that was not good to see.
Don Audre hurried in. “I’ve got one good horse,” he said.
“I go!” Don Diego cried. “I follow them to the sea. The two forces will meet there.”
“We are with you in this!” Don Audre cried. “With you as when you were Zorro before. With you, my friend, until we have the littleseñoritasafe again!”
Their naked blades flashed overhead in token of allegiance.
Don Diego thanked them with a look.
“Then follow me to the sea!” he cried. “A trading ship is due there in the morning. Mayhap we’ll have to take it and trace them across the waves. I go! Zorro takes the trail!”
He dashed to the door, the others following. He sprang into the saddle of the mount Don Audre had procured. He drove home the spurs cruelly, and rode like a demon through the bright moonlight and up the slope, then taking the shortest trail to the sea.