CHAPTER XVI.SINGING CABALLEROS.
Barbados was like a maniac after the pirate craft swung away from the trading schooner. He shrieked at his men to make sail, and they needed but little urging. The fear of the supernatural was upon them, superstition ruled their minds.
Gradually they crept away from the schooner, but Barbados continued to watch her closely. He saw the new sails going aloft, and realized that there would be a pursuit. So he turned out to sea and began running for it.
He did not attempt to explain things to himself. He knew that his men outnumbered those on the schooner, and he felt reasonably sure that, in an engagement, the pirate crew would emerge victorious. Yet something seemed to tell him that theproper thing was to avoid the engagement if possible.
“We will lose that sorry craft in the wide waters,” he told Sanchez, “and then we will turn and go to the rendezvous. There we’ll unload and apportion the loot, and care for the wench until the man comes to claim her. If we are followed, we can outfight thecaballeroson land. The ghost of a man drowned in the sea is powerless on land, I have heard.”
“And, if they follow us ashore—” Sanchez questioned.
“Then we fight them, fool,” Barbados said. “You are still shaking like a child! A pirate—you? Ha! By my naked blade, you are no better than a woman in this business!”
“Men are men, but it is not in my mind to fight with ghosts,” Sanchez told him. “We are bedeviled for some reason!”
“Ha!” Barbados gasped. “That reminds me!” He turned away and walked the length of the deck, and finally came across the man he sought, and drew him aside. “You have the thing yet?” he asked.
“The goblet?Sí, señor!If the captain wishes it—”
“Do not even show it to me!” Barbados commanded. “I would have you toss it into the sea, save that such an act might bring worse luck yet. So long as you retain it, perhaps you draw all the ill fortune to yourself. Spawn of hell, if ever you come face to face with that oldfray, in flesh or in spirit, have a look to yourself! For you have done an evil thing!”
Barbados passed on, and descended to the cabin where Señorita Lolita had been returned a prisoner.
She was as a woman stunned. She had fainted when Señor Zorro had plunged into the sea, and Sanchez had carried her below. And when she regained consciousness she remained on the bunk and groaned and prayed by turns.
And now, when Barbados opened the door, she sat up quickly, a look of agony in her face. One thing she had done—picked up from the floor of the cabin the dagger that had belonged to the man Señor Zorro had slain through the crack. She had cleaned it, and thrust it in the bosom of her dress, where it was out of sight, but where she could reach it instantly.
Barbados looked at her for a moment, and then spoke.
“In your right mind again, eh wench?” he said. “We are running away from your friends, and there can be no hope of rescue. It would be proper for you to make the best of it. The man for whom we have stolen you perchance will be kind.”
“Foul beast and murderer!” theseñoritasaid.
“Ha!” Barbados gasped. “I have been called worse things than that—things that you do not know exists, wench! Think you to hurt my tough hide with words?”
“Have you no manhood?” she asked. “Is it an honor for a score of men to take a girl captive? You struck down my father and burned my home! You sent to his death the man I love—”
“There are other men,” said Barbados, “and other homes. And I did not strike down your father—Sanchez did that. From what he tells me, the blow was not a fatal one.”
“You are the chief of murderers and thieves, the one responsible,” she said.
“Words do not hurt my tough hide, I have said. It were best for you to be calm.”
“Calm?” Theseñoritacrept from the bunk, weak and staggering, her face white, her lips trembling, a suspicion of tears in her eyes. “Calm?” she repeated. “And how can you expect me to be calm? What is there in the future for me, save dishonor or death? When the moment comes, it will not take me long to choose!”
“Ha! When the moment comes, you may change your mind!”
“He whom you sent to death in the sea was worth ten score of you!” she cried, stepping closer to him. “And each of his friends who follow in that other ship are worth ten score of you! Do you think that you can escape them forever?”
“I can have them wiped from the face of the earth!” Barbados replied.
“Escape them, possibly—but not me!” she cried. “I have seen you kill the thing I love! And so—”
She clutched at her breast and drew forth the dagger. She gave a cry of rage, and struck out wildly. Barbados, caught unaware, lurched quickly to one side, but the blade struck his arm and tore away flesh and skin and brought a gush of blood.
“By my naked blade—” he swore.
He whirled as she struck again and missed, grasped her, and tore the dagger from her hand. 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!”
He laughed at her, mocked her, went out and closed the door, and she heard the heavy bar shot into place and the sounds of his feet retreating. She collapsed on the bunk and gave way to a tempest of tears.
“Diego!” she breathed. “Diego, beloved!”
Barbados ascended to the deck, bathed the wound in his arm, and said nothing when Sanchez questioned him. Throughout the day he gave his attention to the sailing of the ship, but he could not shake off the schooner which followed.
Then came the night, and once more Barbados cursed the bright moon. For, though his craft showed no lights, yet could she be seen from the schooner. Back and forth Barbados sailed, but always failing to shake off the other ship. And when there came the dark hour before dawn he changed his course abruptly, and ran before the breeze.
But when the dawn came there was the schooner, a greater distance away, but still in sight. And so Barbados put off to sea again, for he wished, if it were possible, to go to the land rendezvous without drawing his foes there. Else he slew all of them, news of the pirates’ headquarters would leak out, and they would have to move.
He ran before the wind, he tacked, he beat in toward the shore, out to sea, to the north and the south and the west. Now he gained, and now the schooner gained upon him. He cursed and drove his men, but they could accomplish nothing.
And finally he started running down the coast, intent upon reaching the rendezvous. If the men of the schooner dared follow him to land, they would be annihilated, he promised. Once or twice he felt like turning and forming an attack, but thoughts of the ghost of Señor Zorro deterred him.
“A sea ghost cannot fight on land!” Barbados told himself. “On land I have them at my mercy!”
The day started to die, and the pirate craft rushed down the coast with the schooner in close pursuit. It was almost nightfall when Barbados and his men guided the ship into the little bay. The schooner was some miles behind.
The anchor dropped, the ship swung broadside to the shore. From the land came sounds of a tumult, and down into the surf rushed men and women and children. The pirates’ stronghold could be seen back some distance from the water.
There was a wide expanse of beach, a deep open space fringed with stubby trees and brush. Hills landlocked the scene. A score of huts dotted the edge of the flat. Fires were burning on the shore, stock ran wild among the habitations.
Overside went the boats, and the pirates commenced handing down the loot. Shrieks and calls came from the women and children on the shore, from the men who had been left behind as guards.
Barbados went ashore in the first boat, and began issuing his commands. The camp was to be put in a state for defense, he explained. Guards were to be established on the three land sides, and other men would watch the sea. The ship was warped closer to the shore, so that she could be defended easily.
Just as the night descended, the trading schooner sailed across the mouth of the bay, and presently she returned, fartherout to sea. Barbados boarded the ship again, and took theseñoritafrom her cabin. Sanchez lashed her wrists behind her.
“You go ashore, wench!” Barbados said. “And there you are to be held until such a time as this Captain Ramón comes to claim you. Why he should want you is more than I can explain to myself. You are a pretty wench, it is true, but too much of a spitfire!”
He watched her closely when she was in the boat. And when they landed the pirates’ women and the ragged children rushed forward to jeer at her as she passed beside the flaming fire. Barbados took her to a large adobe building, the best structure in the camp. He opened the door and thrust her inside.
A woman cooking over an open fire whirled to look at him. She looked at theseñorita, too, and her eyes flamed.
“What is this?” she demanded, her fists against her hips. “Is it a younger and prettier woman?”
“It is, indeed, Inez,” Barbados laughed. “She is a share of the loot!”
“Your share, eh? And you dare to fetch her here?”
“Why not?” Barbados asked.
“To my face?” the woman screeched. She was of middle age, a creature hideous in a way. “So! It has come at last, has it? I am to be tossed aside for a comely wench you have stolen from some richhacienda!”
“Jealousy is a foolish thing,” Barbados observed. “Think you, Inez, to hold my love for life?”
“None other shall have it!” the woman screeched. She flashed forward, her hand raised to strike, her nails ready to tear into theseñorita’sfair face. But Barbados seized her and tossed her roughly aside.
“Peace!” he cried. “I want none of the wench! She is to be kept a prisoner until claimed. A share of the loot she is, but not my share. She was stolen for a great man!”
“This is the truth?” the woman asked.
“Do I generally speak falsehood?” Barbados thundered. “Enough! Put her in the storeroom, and feed her well. Treat her gently. She must be in prime condition when she is claimed. We were followed by a schooner upon which arecaballerosstriving to rescue her. She must not be rescued!”
The woman grinned horribly. She opened the door of a room adjoining and motioned for theseñoritato enter. She stepped aside, and Lolita Pulido, looking straight ahead, her eyes fixed and glistening, went into the storeroom without speaking, her head held proudly.
Barbados hurried outside again. The black night had descended, but soon the moon was shining. Guards were sent into the fringe of woods, and a watchman to the summit of a hill in the rear. Men were posted on the ship, men walked around the huts, alert, ready to repel an attack.
But there came no attack during the night. The trading schooner had run down the coast and back, and then anchored two miles north of the bay.
“I know the place,” the captain told Don Audre Ruiz. “Once some years ago I ran in there during a storm. Their camp must be in the open, and there will be no advantage in the attack. There can be no surprise, of course.”
“What is your good advice?” Don Audre asked.
“That you land here with yourcaballeros, approach the camp and wait for the dawn. I’ll land as many of my crew as can be spared from the ship, and let them circle the camp to attack from the other side. There must be men enough held here to get the schooner to sea for a run if the pirate craft comes out at us.”
“That is agreed!” Don Audre said.
“But it will be a sorry business, Don Audre! You will be outnumbered three to one. And you may be sure that there are men in the camp who were not on the pirate ship. They may have a few pistols they have captured from ships, but it will be hand to hand work with blades. Three to one, at least, Don Audre!”
Don Audre Ruiz drew himself up. “Three beasts to onecaballero,” he said. “It is an equal affair. There can be no hesitating,señor. Señorita Lolita Pulido is held a captive by those beasts. And I am not forgetting what happened to Don Diego,my friend! There is but one thing to do—attack! At least, we can die!”
There was a short conference, and then the boats began carrying the men to the shore. Thecaballerosapproached to within a mile of the pirate camp and stopped to rest, sending scouts on ahead. The men of the crew circled to the other side.
Some of thecaballerosslept, sprawled on the sand. But Don Audre Ruiz sat beside a tiny fire he had kindled, his knees drawn up and nursing them with his hands.
“At least we can die, Diego!” he said, softly. “And we can strive mightily before we do that!”
The black hour came, and then the first finger of the dawn. Don Audre arose and stretched himself, and walked for a time up and down the beach. Thecaballerosshook off their sleep, bathed their faces at the edge of the sea, exercised their muscles, whipped out their blades and fanned the air.
Sergeant Gonzales, who had snored throughout the night, snorted as he bathed his face and hands, and then strode down to Don Audre and confronted him.
“Señor, you are in command of this enterprise,” the sergeant said. “There are orders?”
“Only that every man is to do his best,” Don Audre replied. “Theseñoritais to be rescued if it is possible, and returned to the schooner.”
“And the pirates are to be hanged?”
“Any that do not fall by our swords and are captured.”
“Ha! It is a nuisance to hang a man!” Gonzales declared: “We would have to go to the ship for a rope. The blade is better! Fray Felipe!”
“Señor?” the fray questioned. He approached them.
“You are yet my friend,” Gonzales said. “If you get into the thick of it, stand you behind me, that I may protect you. But a battle is not a place for afray. Stay you behind, and say your prayers!”
“There is the matter of the goblet,” Fray Felipe replied, softly.
“By the saints, I take it upon myself to get the goblet for you,fray!”
“Do so, and I call you son!”
Sergeant Gonzales bared his head for an instant. He looked at Fray Felipe as though embarrassed, and then returned his hat to his head and gulped. “I have been an evil man in my time,” he said, “but I trust that the saints will forget it for this day at least. I would have added strength to this good right arm of mine! Don Audre, I am ready!”
Don Audre Ruiz led the way along the shore. They crept nearer the camp of the pirates, spread out fan fashion, and approached boldly. They reached the crest of a slope, and saw the camp spread before them in the first rays of the morning sun.
The pirates seemed to be more numerous than even Don Audre Ruiz had expected. It looked to be a hopeless task, this attack. But there was something to urge them on.
They stopped to look at one another. In silks and satins and plumes they were, with their jeweled swords at their sides. And before them the stronghold, with the ragged, dirty pirates there ready to give battle.
“If Señor Zorro were only here to lead us!” Don Audre Ruiz said, with a sigh. “But he is not—and let us remember why he is not—and strike the harder because of our remembrance! If you are ready—”
He whipped out his gleaming blade and waved it above his head, and thecaballerosdrew blades in turn, and answered him with their cheers.
And so they advanced to the attack—slowly, carefully, in a perfect line. And Don Audre Ruiz, because he wanted to give himself and the others added courage, and because he felt that it was fitting, sang lustily a song of old:
“Singingcaballeros, going forth to die!Laughing in the face of grinning Death!Facing task that’s hopeless, ready yet to try!Singing with the last of earthly breath!”
“Singingcaballeros, going forth to die!Laughing in the face of grinning Death!Facing task that’s hopeless, ready yet to try!Singing with the last of earthly breath!”
“Singingcaballeros, going forth to die!
Laughing in the face of grinning Death!
Facing task that’s hopeless, ready yet to try!
Singing with the last of earthly breath!”
Thecaballerostook up the refrain and sang it through to the end, their voices ringing across the sea and the land. And, the song at an end, they were grim and silent again, intent upon the bloody business before them. The pirates were preparing, they could see. In a very few minutes the clash would come.
And suddenly, from the distance, fromthe slope between the two attacking forces, came a solitary voice, also raised in song:
“Atención!Acaballero’snear—”
“Atención!Acaballero’snear—”
“Atención!Acaballero’snear—”
They glanced up, astounded. Running down the slope toward them came a figure they knew well. Don Audre Ruiz gave a great cry of joy and thankfulness. Thecaballeroscheered, and wept unashamed. For well they knew the singer and the song.
“Zorro!” they cried. “Zorro!”
And so they rushed to the attack!