CHAPTER XVIII.HOPE IS CRUSHED AGAIN.
Señorita Lolita Pulido passed into the store room of the adobe building with her head erect and a look of pride in her face, as has been said. But when the heavy door was closed behind her, and she heard a bar dropped into place, she changed swiftly.
For a moment she leaned against the door, listening to Barbados and Inez, his woman. Then Barbados went away, and the woman also, and theseñoritadropped upon a stool that happened to be in one corner of the room, and buried her face in her hands.
There seemed no hope left. Señor Zorro, Don Diego Vega, her beloved, was at the bottom of the sea, she supposed. She was in the hands of these pirates, being kept a prize for a man she detested and loathed. There seemed no way of escape.
But theseñoritahad determined her course. She would die rather than be shamed, she told herself. She would join Don Diego in the land of to-morrow, be his celestial bride. The blood of the Pulidos coursed her veins, and told her to do that.
It was dark in the store room, but presently the door was opened and the woman Inez entered with a small torch made of palm fiber and tallow. She fastened the torch to the wall, went out again, and returned with food. A jug of water, some poorly cooked goat flesh and a pulpy mass, the like of which theseñoritanever had seen before, constituted the meal.
“Eat, wench!” Inez commanded. “Eat, and drink your fill of the water! A dainty morsel you are, but there be some men who like women of a different sort. Ha! ’Twould do you no good to make merry eyes at my Barbados!”
Theseñoritascarcely understood, for she had not been taught to make eyes at any man. She drank deeply of the water, for she was thirsty, and she wanted to eat, but did not like the appearance of the food.
“Too dainty for pirate fare, eh?” Inez sneered, rubbing her fat nose with a forefinger. “Wait until real hunger gnaws at your stomach, pretty wench, and then you’ll eat!”
Theseñoritagot up from the stool suddenly and stepped forward. Her hands were at her sides, her chin was raised, there was pleading in her face.
“You are a woman,” she said, softly. “In your heart there must be some sympathy for other women.”
“Not much,” Inez acknowledged. “Few women have shown sympathy or kindness toward me. I was a poor girl working on ahacienda, and listened to the lies of a handsome traveler. And when my fault was discovered it was the women who turned their backs. A woman of your class, wench, kicked me out!”
“That is the way of the world,” Lolita told her. “Still, you must have in your breast some inkling of pity. Would see the thing happen to me that is going to happen if I cannot avoid it?”
“Ha!” Inez laughed. “What would you?”
“Help me get away!” theseñoritabegged. “Help me to be free, and in some manner I’ll get up El Camino Real to Reina de Los Angeles. I have friends. In timeI’ll send you more money than Barbados will get from Captain Ramón.”
“And Barbados would take the money from me, slit my throat, and find him another woman,” Inez replied, laughing coarsely. “I know nothing of his business deals with Captain Ramón or any other. Nor do I care to know them!”
“Have you no pity?”
“I have nothing to do with it,” the woman declared. “I have orders to give you water and food and a light, and I have done so. That is the end.”
Before theseñoritacould speak again the woman had gone out and closed the door. Señorita Lolita heard the bar dropped into place once more. She went slowly back to the stool, and managed to eat a few morsels of the goat’s flesh, after which she drank more of the water.
By the light of the torch she inspected her prison room. There was nothing in it except some old casks that once had contained olives and tallow. There was but the one door, and only a single window, and the window was small and had bars of metal across it.
Escape was impossible, theseñoritadecided. She went back to the stool again, and sat upon it and buried her face in her hands once more. The future seemed to hold nothing but death and disgrace, and she knew how to choose between them, if the chance was given her.
Tired, exhausted by the events of the day, she found sleep descending upon her. She left the stool and curled up in a corner on the floor, determined to keep awake. But she could not. Her head nodded, and after a time she fell asleep.
A din awakened her. The torch had burned out and the light of day was pouring through the little window. The littleseñoritawas stiff and uncomfortable. She got up and hurried to the window, and by standing upon one of the empty casks managed to peer out of it.
She could see a portion of the camp. The pirates were arming themselves and rushing here and there like madmen. She could hear the great voice of Barbados as he issued his commands. And then there was a lull, and she heard singing in the distance. Another lull and she heard a single voice raised in song:
“Atención!Acaballero’snear—”
“Atención!Acaballero’snear—”
“Atención!Acaballero’snear—”
Her heart almost stopped beating for a moment. But in the next instant she told herself that she had been foolish to hope. It was Señor Zorro’s song, but he was dead at the bottom of the sea. And othercaballerosknew it. It was somecaballerosinging in the distance. But that gave her a small measure of hope, for it meant that Don Diego’s friends were at hand and would make an effort to rescue her.
There was another time of comparative silence, and then the battle began. Theseñoritacould see none of it at first, for she was on the wrong side of the building. But she could hear the shrieks and cries, the ringing of blades, the screeches of pain and curses of anger.
She saw the crew of the schooner attack from the other side, and shrieked her horror as the pirates cut them down. And then the fight was out of her sight again.
Down from the cask she dropped. She ran across to the door and pounded upon it with her tiny fists, struck it repeatedly, until her hands were cut and bleeding. After a time it was opened, and the woman Inez stood before her, thrust her away and entered.
“What is it, wench?” she demanded. “More food and water?”
“No!” she gasped. “I—what is taking place? There is so much confusion—”
“A battle is taking place, wench!” the woman declared, bracing her fists against her hips. “Somecaballeroscame in a ship and saw fit to attack the camp. Many of them will see nothing more.”
“And—and the battle—”
“How goes it, mean you? Ha, wench! Thecaballerosare being cut down, of course. We have them three to one! Some are to be taken prisoners, some held for ransom, others tortured. It will be a lesson to the men of gentle blood not to fight with pirates! Gentlemen are only gentlemen—but men are men!”
“Gentlemen are always gentlemen, and sometimes mere men are beasts,” theseñoritatold her.
“How is this? Do you want me to rock your head with a blow, wench? Ha! There will be rare sport if this Señor Zorro is taken prisoner.”
“Zorro?” theseñoritagasped.
“The same, wench! You were to wed with him, I have been told. Ha! He’ll not be ready for his wedding when Barbados has finished with him!”
“Señor Zorro is dead!”
“I know that he walked the plank. And the fools thought that he was a ghost when he appeared here. But somebody must have saved him from the sea. He’s out there now, fighting. They will make a captive of him!”
Theseñorita’sheart beat wildly. Then it had been Zorro she had heard singing in the distance!
But in the next instant she told herself that it could not be. Zorro had walked the plank with a weight fastened to his wrists. The pirates were mistaken. It was some othercaballerowho looked like Señor Zorro, who fought as he fought, and acted as he acted.
She threw aside the momentary hope, and crept toward the woman Inez again. If the fight was going against thecaballeros, if the pirates were to be victors, she had scant time.
Theseñoritabegan acting as she never acted before, and though she was new to the game, her woman’s intuition, her terror and her desperate need served her well.
“So the pirates are to win!” she said, laughing lightly. “And there will be a lot of ransom money and loot.”
“How is this?” Inez shrieked. “You, a prisoner, seem joyful that the rescue is not accomplished.”
“I am a prisoner—sí!” theseñoritasaid. “But perhaps I shall be more soon.”
“What mean you?” the woman gasped.
“Perhaps it might have been in my mind that it would be better to have a real man than wed a gentleman of noble blood. Is it not peculiar that Barbados took me the night before my wedding?”
“Ha! Can you speak with plain meaning?” the woman asked.
“Did you believe the story of Captain Ramón?” theseñoritademanded. “I did, too, at first! And then I thought differently. You are getting old, you see, and fat.”
“Wench!” the woman cried, threatening her.
“If you strike me, Barbados will punish!”
“Barbados punish me? Ha!”
“Are you so easily fooled?” theseñoritaasked. “It is plain to me what is to happen. Barbados means to have me for himself. There is no escape. So I may as well make the best of it. And since I am to be the woman of the pirate chief, I must be loyal to him. If things must be so, is it strange that I hope he gets much ransom and loot?”
“By the devils of Hades!” the woman swore. “If I thought this to be truth—”
“Can you not see that it is?” theseñoritaqueried. “Captain Ramón may have dealings with Barbados, but it does not follow that Captain Ramón is to have me. That was just a little falsehood to fool you, possibly.”
“Ha! So you would take my place?” the woman cried.
Theseñoritarecoiled as the other approached, and held up one of her hands.
“I have no desire to take your place,” she declared. “But since I cannot help myself, what else is there to do?”
“I could kill you with my bare hands!”
“And then Barbados would kill you in turn and go find himself another woman.”
“Ha! I could kill him!”
“You could not!” theseñoritasaid.
The woman Inez was quiet for a moment, and then: “You are right—I could not,” she replied.
“There is a way.”
“And how, wench?”
“Help me to escape,” theseñoritasaid. “If I am gone, you are in safe possession of the affections of Barbados. He will not raid again soon, will not soon have a chance to find him another woman. And you can, in the meantime, win back his love again.”
“Ha! If I aid you to escape he will kill me!”
“Make it appear that I escaped myself,” theseñoritareplied. “You are strong. You can tear out that window until it is largeenough for me to get through. Let him think that there was some tool in the storeroom and that I did the work.”
“Ha! If I thought you were speaking truth—”
“Very well!” said theseñorita. “Wait and see whether it is the truth.”
The woman hesitated, searching theseñorita’sface with her keen glance. Then she grunted and hurried into the other room, while Lolita Pulido waited in fear and trembling, wondering what was to come now. Had the woman gone to tell Barbados the story?
But presently Inez returned, and she carried a peculiar strip of iron with one sharp end, a bit of wreckage, perhaps, from some ill-fated ship.
“Watch you at the door, on the inside!” she commanded. “Do not go into the other room. They are still fighting and perhaps there will be time.”
Theseñoritahurried across to the door, hope singing in her heart again. There she watched and listened to the din of battle. All would be well if she could escape in the confusion and get away from the camp. She could reach El Camino Real and make her way along it. If she could reach San Diego de Alcála, she would find friends.
She turned and looked at the woman. Inez was tearing out the masonry and adobe around the window. The metal bars already were inside the room and out of the way.
“Be quick!” theseñoritasaid. “I am small, and do not need a very large space.”
“It is done!” the woman replied.
She hurried back to the middle of the room, and theseñoritaturned to look. The aperture was large enough, she knew at a glance. She could crawl through, jump to the ground, go up the slope, and reach the fringe of trees that she could see in the distance. Once more hope came to her.
“I must have some old clothes—ragged and dirty clothes,” she said. “I will leave some of these.”
The woman did not reply, but she hurried from the storeroom with a gleam of avarice in her eyes. She was more than willing to trade ragged garments for some of silk and satin.
Back she came, after a time, and theseñoritapulled off her gown and put on the ragged one, shuddering as she did so, not because of the rags but because of the dirt. She streaked her face with dirt from the floor, and washed her hands in it, disarranged her hair, and threw a ragged shawl over her head.
“A woman does not wear a torn shawl, a ragged dress, and fine slippers at the same time,” Inez observed.
Theseñoritakicked off her slippers and thrust her feet into the filthy sandals the hag furnished her. She hurried to the window, the woman before her. But Inez grasped her by an arm and held her back.
“Not that way!” the woman gasped. “It is too late! That way is guarded!”
The heart of theseñoritasank again. She scrambled to the top of the cask she had used before, and peered out. Within sight there were half a dozen men guarding that side of the camp against a possible surprise. If she got through the window they would see her, block her path up the slope and toward the trees, and investigate.
“Is there no way out?” theseñoritacried in despair.
“There is only the front.”
“Then let me out the front way. The men are fighting, and perhaps they will not notice me if I go out that way, and make haste up the slope.”
“All women and children have been ordered to remain in the huts while there is fighting.”
“They will do no more than shriek at me to get inside again,” theseñoritasaid. “I can pretend to be frightened, and run. I can get away, if you’ll let me out!”
“And I be blamed for it!”
“Not so!” she cried. “Bar this door. I’ll slip out the front, and they will think that I came around the building. You can pretend that you believe me to be in the store room. When they open the door and find me gone, find the window torn out, they’ll think that I did it, and got out that way. If anybody is punished, it will be the guards outside.”
“I am afraid!” the woman said.
“And are you not afraid, also, of seeing another woman in your place here?”
The face of Inez grew purple for an instant, and her eyes blazed. Suddenly she strode across to the door, opened it, and looked out upon the fighting. She closed the door again, and turned back to face theseñorita.
“The fighting now is at some distance,” she said. “There is a chance. Wait!”
She whirled around to bar the door of the storeroom. The littleseñoritawaited, trying to be calm, though her heart was pounding at her ribs. She was to escape at last! She could get up the slope, hurry through the trees—
“You must use speed!” the woman was informing her. “And if you are caught, you must take all the blame. Barbados would kill me if he knew.”
“Give me a dagger,” theseñoritabegged. “Then, if I am caught, I’ll do that which will render me speechless!”
“Ha!”
“I mean it! Death would be welcome to the other!”
The woman hesitated a moment, and then reached beneath her ragged shawl and drew a dagger out. Theseñoritaclutched it, and hid it away in her bosom.
For another moment they faced each other. And then the woman Inez lurched across the room toward the door, theseñoritatrotting along at her heels.
And hope turned to black despair once more in the twinkling of an eye! For the door suddenly was thrown open, and before them stood—Captain Ramón!