CHAPTER XIX.DOUBLE-FACED.
There was a moment of astonishment for all three of them. Then the Señorita Lolita gave a little cry of mingled fright and despair, and recoiled against the wall. Señor Zorro dead, the pirates winning the battle against thecaballeros, and before her the man she loathed and feared! The future seemed very dark, indeed.
“Dios!” she breathed.
But the woman Inez, after blinking her eyes at the unexpected apparition, screeched her rage and darted to a corner, where she picked up a heavy bar of iron. She whirled toward the intruder, the bar raised to strike. But Captain Ramón laughed and held up his hand.
“Do not be afraid of me, hag!” he told the woman. “I wear the uniform of the Governor’s soldiery, it is true, but I am the good friend of Barbados! I am Captain Ramón, of Reina de Los Angeles!”
“Ha!” the woman gasped. She dropped the bar of iron and stood with arms akimbo. “So you are Captain Ramón?”
“Sí!”
“That must be true, else you would not have lived to get to this building,” Inez said. “And why are you here?”
“To see the little lady standing behind you,” Ramón said, smiling. “She has been kept safe, I see.”
“You are to claim her?”
“What else?”
“Ha!” Inez gasped. It flashed through her mind, now, that Barbados really had no personal interest in theseñorita, and she believed, also, that she had almost been tricked into aiding an important prisoner to escape. A glance at theseñorita’sface confirmed her suspicion, for Lolita was not acting now. Inez realized that she would have to speak quickly to save herself.
“You come in good time,” she declared to the captain. “The wench has been kept in the storeroom. But an instant ago, hearing no sounds within, I unbarred and opened the door. And she had enlarged the window, and dressed in those rags. She intended escaping,señor! Had it not been for me now she would be gone.”
“You have done well,” Ramón declared. “That is the door to the storeroom?”
“Sí!” Inez answered. She dropped the bar and threw the door open. Captain Ramón peered inside, then turned and smiled again, first at the hag, and then at theseñorita.
“It is indeed well,” he said. “Señorita, you might have been injured on the outside, for men are fighting. And your present garments are scarce suited to your station in life. Your dainty face is streaked with dirt, too, and your hands soiled.”
“Your presence soils me more!” theseñoritasaid.
“You prefer pirates,señorita?”
“There are several grades of depravity,” she said, “and pirates may not be the lowest.”
“Ha! A biting tongue in a sweet face!” 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. “Whatcaballerosare not dead have been taken prisoners. And the women and children are mocking them. Go, hag, and mock with the others! I’ll guard theseñoritawell.”
He leered at the woman as he spoke, and she grinned and shuffled from the building. She was eager to get at Barbados and tell him how theseñoritahad attempted an escape, and how she, the loyal and faithful Inez, had prevented it.
“Into the storeroom,señorita!” Captain Ramón commanded when they were alone.
“I prefer this,señor.”
“Quickly!” he commanded. “We’ll close the door. We do not wish to be overheard!”
“What mean you?”
“Can you not understand?” the captain cried. He thrust her before him into the storeroom, and closed the door behind him. He darted across to the window and looked out, acting mysteriously.
“If you would rid me of your foul presence—” theseñoritabegan.
Captain Ramón whirled toward her. On the long, hot ride from Reina de Los Angeles, which had taken him the better part of two days, and during which he had not spared mounts, he had thought out everything.
He was playing a sort of double game, this Captain Ramón. He wished to reinstate himself in the good graces of better men, he wanted to make theseñoritabelieve that he had rendered her a great service and try to win her regard openly, and he wished to aid his master, the Governor, in acquiring credit in the southland, where he had small credit now.
He had heard, on his way to the pirate camp, that Señor Zorro had walked the plank. He could take the helplessseñoritanow 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? He had had ample time to think it out. And so, as he faced theseñorita’sscorn, he pretended surprise that she did not understand.
“Foul presence,señorita?” he said. “After I have risked so much to be of service to you?”
“Of service to me?” she cried. “When I was abducted by your orders, when my home was burned and my father cut down?”
“Have the beasts told you that?” Ramón asked. “That is because Barbados knew I was infatuated with you. He believed I would thank him for doing such a thing.”
“You are allied with pirates!” she accused.
“Listen,señorita, for the love of the saints!”
“The saints are better off your lips,señor!”
“Attend me!” he commanded again. “It is a game we have been playing.”
“A sorry game!”
“Señorita, by your gentle blood I ask you to give me your ear! I have but pretended friendship with these pirates, that the soldiers may take them later, and hang them all.”
“What monstrous falsehood is this?” she asked.
“I beg your attention,señorita! Some of them may be coming soon. I have pretended to be in league with them. They raided Reina de Los Angeles while I and my soldiers were gone. I have followed swiftly to rescue you. They think that I am a friend. But now, assured of your safety, I can act speedily. Let them continue thinking, for the time being, that I accept you as a prize. I shall ride away to San Diego de Alcála, which is but a fewmiles, fetch the troopers from there, rescue you, release thecaballerosnow held as prisoners, and wipe out this pirate brood!”
“But why—” she began.
“It was the only way,señorita. The soldiers are few, and the pirates have been able to strike the coast where there were no troopers handy. It is a trap that we have arranged for them. Perhaps it may not seem a gentle thing to do—but one cannot be gentle with pirates.”
“I wish that I could believe you,” she said.
“Believe me,señorita! I love you so much—”
“I am betrothed,” she said simply.
“But I have grave news for you. I have been told that Don Diego Vega is no more, that these beasts forced him, as Señor Zorro, to walk the plank.”
“I was there,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. “I saw it. Nevertheless, I am betrothed to him,señor, now and forever, in life and in death!”
“That is because your grief is new,” the captain said. “You are young,señorita, you have a life to live. If you would live it with me—”
“Señor!” she warned.
“I can understand why you dislike me a bit,” he said. “Perhaps, in the past, I did some things that a gentleman should not do. But it was because of my great love for you, because I was afraid of losing you.”
“Señor, let us talk of other things, if we must talk,” theseñoritabegged.
“Do you not realize,señorita, that, if I wish it, you are in my power?”
“Now you are showing your true colors!” she said.
“Not so! I am showing you that I am not taking advantage of the situation,” he declared. “I intend rescuing you and the friends these pirates now hold as prisoners. I am risking my life to do it. And, if I succeed, cannot you look upon me with some favor?”
“If I have misjudged you,señor, I am indeed sorry,” she replied. “But it is useless to talk of such things. My heart is with Don Diego Vega, in life and in death!”
“Perhaps in the future—”
“There can be no hope,señor!”
Captain Ramón’s face flushed and his eyes blazed for an instant. But he still had his game to play, the many-sided game that he hoped would result in great fortune.
“If you could only believe me!” he said.
“Perhaps—after you have demonstrated your loyalty.”
“Then I go now to talk to Barbados, then to San Diego de Alcála for the troopers. Guard yourself well until my return. I must pretend that I wish you watched, kept from escaping. A false move,señorita, and all of us are lost!”
“I can only do as you say,” she said. “I will be guarded in any case.”
“Come into the other room. I’ll call the hag! And I’ll return to you before I ride for San Diego de Alcála, if there are more plans you should know.”
Captain Ramón opened the door, bowed low as she passed through it, and looked after her with the corners of his lips curled. Then he hurried toward the front, calling for Inez.