The Curse of Capistrano - Harrington Strong (popular romance novels .TXT) 📗
- Author: Harrington Strong
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“Let us hope it will end as it should,” said Don Diego.
“A man in high office has many things with which to contend,” the governor went on. “Look at what I was forced to do this day. I am called upon to put in prison a man of good blood and his lady wife and tender daughter. But the state must be protected.”
“I suppose you mean Don Carlos Pulido and his family?”
“I do, caballero.”
“Now that it is called to my mind again, I must say a few words regarding that,” Don Diego said. “I am not sure that my honor is not involved.”
“Why, caballero, how can that be?”
“My father has ordered that I get me a wife and set up my establishment properly. Some days ago I requested of Don Carlos Pulido permission to pay my addresses to his daughter.”
“Ha! I understand. But you are not the betrothed of the young lady?”
“Not yet, excellency.”
“Then your honor is not involved, Don Diego, that I can see.”
“But I have been paying court to her.”
“You may thank the saints that it has gone no further, Don Diego. Think how it would look if you were allied with this family now. As for getting you a wife—come north with me to San Francisco de Asis, caballero, where the senoritas are far more lovely than here in your southland.
“Look over those of good blood, and let me know your preference, and I’ll guarantee that the lady will listen to your suit and accept your hand and name. And I can guarantee, also, that she will be of a loyal family with which it will be no shame to make a contract. We shall get you a wife of the proper sort, caballero.”
“If you will pardon me, is it not taking stern measures to have Don Carlos and his ladies thrown into the carcel? Don Diego asked, flicking dust from his sleeve.
“I find it necessary, senor.”
“Do you think it will add to your popularity, excellency?”
“Whether it does or not, the state must be served.”
“Men of good blood hate to see such a thing, and there may be murmurings,” Don Diego warned. “I should hate to lee your excellency make a wrong step at this juncture.”
“What would you have me do?” the governor asked.
“Place Don Carlos and the ladies under arrest, if you will, but do not incarcerate them. It is unnecessary; they will not run away. Bring them to trial as gentle folk should be brought to trial.”
“You are bold, caballero.”
“By the saints, am I talking too much?”
“It were better to leave these matters to the few of us who are trusted with attention to them,” the governor said. “I can understand, of course, how it irks a man of good blood to see a don thrown into a carcel, and to see his ladies treated likewise, but in such a case as this—”
“I have not heard the nature of the case,” Don Diego said.
“Ha! Perhaps you may change your mind when you learn it. You have been speaking of this Senor Zorro. What if I tell you that the highwayman is being shielded and protected and fed by Don Carlos Pulido?”
“That is astonishing!”
- “And that the Dona Catalina is a party to the treason? And that the lovely senorita has seen fit to talk treasonably and dip her pretty hands into a conspiracy against the state?”
“This is past belief!” Don Diego cried.
“Some nights ago Senor Zorro was at the Pulido hacienda. Warning was fetched the comandante by a native who is loyal. Don Carlos aided the bandit in tricking the soldiers, hid him in a closet, and when Captain Ramon was there alone, this highwayman stepped from the closet and attacked him treacherously and wounded him.”
“By the saints!”
“And while you were gone and the Pulidos were your house guests, senor, Senor Zorro was in your house, speaking to the senorita, when the comandante walked in upon them. And the senorita grasped Captain Ramon by the arm and annoyed him until this Senor Zorro had made good his escape.”
“It is past comprehension!” Don Diego exclaimed.
“Captain Ramon has placed before me a hundred such items of suspicion. Can you wonder now that I had them placed in carcel? Did I merely have them put under arrest, this Senor Zorro would combine forces with them and aid them to escape.”
“And your intentions, excellency?”
“I shall keep them in carcel while my troopers run down this highwayman. I shall force him to confess and implicate them—and then they shall have a trial.”
“These turbulent times!” Don Diego complained.
“As a loyal man—and I hope an admirer of mine—you should hope to see foes of the state confounded.”
“I do. Most sincerely do I. All real foes of the state should receive punishment.”
“I am joyed to hear you say that, caballero!” the governor cried, and he reached across the table and grasped Don Diego fervently by the hand.
There was some more talk that amounted to nothing, and then Don Diego took his leave, for there were other men waiting to see the governor. After he had left the office the governor looked across at Captain Ramdn and smiled.
“You are right, comandante,” he said. “Such a man could not be a traitor. It would tire him too much to think treasonable thoughts. What a man! He must be enough to drive that old fire-eater of a father of his insane.”
Don Diego made his way slowly down the hill, greeting those he passed, and stopping again to regard the little flowers that blossomed by the wayside. At the corner of the plaza he met a young caballero who was glad to call him friend, one of the small band of men who had spent the night at Don Alejandro’s hacienda.
“Ha! Don Diego, a fair day to you!” he cried. And then he lowered his voice and stepped nearer. “Has, by any chance, the man we call leader of our league of avengers, sent you a message this dayp’
“By the bright blue sky-no!” Don Diego said. “Why should the man?”
“This Pulido business. It seems an outrage. Some of us have been wondering whether our leader does not intend to j take a hand in it. We have been anticipating a message.”
“By the saints! Oh, I trust not,” Don Diego said. “I could not endure an adventure of any sort tonight. I—er—my head aches, and I fear I am going to have a fever. I shall have to see an apothecary about it. There are shiverings up and down my spine, also. Is not that a symptom? During the siesta hour I was bothered with a pain in my left leg just above the knee. It must be the weather.”
“Let us hope that it will not result seriously.” His friend laughed and hurried on across the plaza.
AN HOUR AFTER DUSK that night a native sought out one of the caballeros with the intelligence that a gentleman wished to speak to him immediately, and that this gentleman was evidently wealthy since he had given the native a coin for carrying the message, when he might just as well have given nothing more than a cuff alongside the head, also that the mysterious gentleman would be waiting along the path that ran toward the San Gabriel trail, and to be sure that the caballero would come he had bade the native say that there was a fox in the neighborhood.
A fox! Zorro—fox! the caballero thought, and then he ruined the native forever by giving him another coin. He went to the rendezvous immediately, and there he found Senor Zorro sitting his big horse, his face masked, the cloak wrapped around his body.
“You will pass the word, caballero,” Senor Zorro said. I would have all men who are loyal and wish to do so, meet at midnight in the little valley beyond the hill. You know the place? So? I shall be waiting.”
Then Senor Zorro wheeled his horse and dashed away in the darkness, and the caballero went back to the pueblo and passed the word to those men he knew could be depended upon, and urged upon them that they pass it to others of the league. One went to Don Diego’s house, but was told by the despensero that Don Diego had complained of a fever and had retired to his chamber and had left word that he would flay alive any servant who dared enter the room unless he called.
Near the hour of midnight the caballeros began slipping from the pueblo one at a time, each upon the back of his best horse, and each armed with sword and pistol. Each man had a mask that could be put over his features instantly, for that had been decided upon at Don Alexandra’s hacienda, among other things.
The pueblo was in darkness, save that there were lights in the tavern, where some of his excellency’s escort made merry with the local troopers. For Sergeant Pedro Gonzales had returned with his men just before nightfall, glad to be bad from a fruitless chase and hoping that the next scent would be warmer.
Those in the tavern had gone down the hill from the presidio, some leaving their horses there without paddles or bridles on, and they had no thought of an encounter with Senor Zorro this night. The fat landlord was kept busy, for the soldiers from the north had coins in their purses and were willing to spend them. Sergeant Gonzales, holding the attention of the company as usual, was detailing at length what he would do to this Senor Zorro if the saints were kind enough to let them meet and grant him his blade in his hand.
There were lights in the big lounging-room of the presidio, too, for few of the soldiers had retired. And there were lights in the house where his excellency was a guest, but the remainder of the pueblo was in darkness, and the people slept.
In the carcel there was no light at all except one candle burning in the office, where a sleepy man was on guard. The jailer was in his bed. Prisoners moaned on the hard benches in the prison room. Don Carlos Pulido stood before a window, looking up at the stars; and his wife and daughter huddled on a bench beside him, unable to sleep in such surroundings.
The caballeros found Senor Zorro waiting for them as he had said he would be, but he remained aloof, speaking scarcely a word, until all were present.
“Are all here?” he asked then.
“All except Don Diego Vega,” one replied. “He is ill with a fever, senor.”
And all the caballeros chuckled, for they had an idea the fever was caused by cowardice.
“I take it that you know something of what is in my mind,” Senor Zorro said. “We know what has happened to Don Carlos Pulido and the ladies of his family. We know they are innocent of any treason, and were they not, they should not have been taken to carcel and incarcerated with common felons and drunkards.
“Think of those gentle ladies in such surroundings! Think of it—because Don Carlos has the ill will of the governor! Is it the sense of the league that something be done in this matter? If it is not, then will I do something by myself!”
“Rescue them!” a caballero said; and die others growled their approval. Here was a chance for risk and adventure and an opportunity to
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