ZORRO WALKS THE PLANK.
There was no dawn in the dark, evil-odored storeroom, but Señor Zorro,
by peering through the crack and into the little cabin, could tell of
the approach of the day. The interior grew gray, and then brighter,
and finally a ray of sun penetrated and touched the dingy hole with
glory.
Señor Zorro put his lips close to the tiny opening and whispered his
call:
“_Señorita!_”
Her swoon had changed to a deep, unnatural slumber by now, and she came
from the midst of it at his sibilant call, bewildered for a moment.
“_Sí?_” she asked.
“You were silent for a time, and I was afraid.”
“Señor Zorro afraid?” she mocked.
“Afraid and not ashamed of it, where you are concerned, _señorita_,” he
replied. “Curl up and try to get some natural sleep. It is in my mind
that these pirates will be busy beating out to sea or trying to reach
their land den, and will have no time to bother you.”
“And what do you intend doing?” she asked. “Do you intend to sleep
also?”
“Don Diego Vega might feel called upon to sleep now and then,” he
answered, “but Señor Zorro dare not. Worry not your pretty head about
me, _señorita_! Rest your pretty eyes, and by the time you awake fate
perhaps will have been kind and revealed to us a way out of this
present difficulty.”
She heard him scrambling among his boxes and bales and barrels. She
would have spoken to him again, but did not dare raise her voice above
a whisper, and she felt slumber claiming her. She was thoroughly
exhausted. Before she went to sleep, however, she extinguished the
torch, and stood for a moment before the open porthole, looking through
the morning haze at the distant land.
The ship was riding easily on the long swells, sailing swiftly toward
the south. The _señorita_ slept, and in the dark storeroom Señor Zorro
reclined on a pile of sacks and tried to think things out. In an
emergency he was quick to think and to act, to take advantage of every
opening, but to sit still and analyze a situation was beyond him. He
was a man of action, and it was action he craved.
He did not doubt that Don Audre Ruiz and the others had obtained
possession of the trading schooner and would follow. But would they
follow the correct lane of the sea? And, if they caught up with
the pirates, what would follow? The _caballeros_ would be greatly
outnumbered. Not that such a thing would cause them to hesitate about
an attack, but it would work against them, of course.
For an hour or more Señor Zorro thought on the problem, itching to be
in action and knowing that he should remain quiet. The pirates would be
searching the ship, he supposed, since he had marked Sanchez the way he
had. He would have to remain in hiding, bury himself in the storeroom
in such manner that they could not find him.
Then, after a time, he heard a noise in the little cabin, and quickly
made his way to the crack in the wall. He could see that the door had
been opened, and then he saw that Sanchez was standing just inside it.
“_Señorita!_” the pirate lieutenant called. “Sleep not when the chief
commands!”
Señorita Lolita came from her slumber and sat up on the bunk with a
little cry.
“Do not be afraid,” Sanchez told her. “By my naked blade, I will keep
my distance! I have no wish for a knife between my ribs, driven there
by a high-born damsel who thinks nothing of murder!”
“What is your wish?” she demanded. She was herself again now, scorning
him, her chin tilted.
“It is no wish of mine,” Sanchez protested. “I but carry the commands
of the chief. He orders that you come on deck, and at once.”
“I prefer to remain here, Señor Pirate,” she replied.
“No doubt. But the commands of Barbados are made to be obeyed, as I
learned some years ago. He has said that you are to go on deck, and so
you shall, even if I have to carry you.”
One step he took toward her, but she sprang from the bunk and crouched
against the wall.
“Dare not to touch me, foul beast!” she cried. “’Twas you cut my father
down! ’Twas you stole me away from my home and fetched me to the coast!”
“I do not want to touch you, little spitfire!” Sanchez informed her.
“I have but come to escort you to the deck. What Barbados wants with
you I do not know. Perhaps it is to have you get some fresh air, so you
will look pretty when you are delivered to the great man. Ha! You are
pretty enough now to suit any man who is not too exacting.”
He turned back toward the door, offering her no affront. And there he
waited, as though with deep respect.
“Are you coming?” he demanded. “Barbados is not the man to be kept
waiting.”
Once more she curled her lip in scorn, once more her chin was tilted,
and she went forward, drawing aside her skirts, and swept past him like
a queen leaving an audience chamber. Sanchez grinned and followed her.
Señor Zorro, through the tiny crack, had witnessed this scene. He did
not believe that Barbados merely wanted her to take the air. He felt
sudden fear for her, and once more his eyes narrowed and seemed to send
forth flakes of steel. He scrambled over the boxes and bales toward the
little door.
Up the rickety ladder he went and to the hatch, and there he listened
for a time, hearing nothing alarming. And then he raised the hatch
slowly, an inch at a time, blinking his eyes rapidly at the bright
light of the day.
None of the pirates was in sight. Señor Zorro slipped out and dropped
the hatch covering, whipped out his blade, and crept through the little
passage toward the spot from where the deck of the ship could be viewed.
He was in time to see the _señorita_ piloted across the deck to where
Barbados was standing alone. The crew were forward, some sleeping
sprawled on the deck, others leaning against the rail watching the
antics of the flying fish.
Barbados whirled and stood with arms akimbo, regarding her narrowly.
She faced him bravely, her hands clasped behind her back.
“_Señorita_,” the pirate said, “queer things happened during the night.
I would question you concerning them.”
“Is it necessary?” she asked.
“By my naked blade, it is!” he roared. “I am not to be treated like
a dog by you or any of your ilk. This is my ship, and here I am sole
master, and it would be well for you to remember it.”
“I am quite sure none other would desire the mastery of her,” the
_señorita_ replied.
“You have a biting tongue,” Barbados said. “I would hate to be your
husband. Else that tongue were tamed by love, it would be a hot dish to
have continually.”
She turned away from him and gazed across the sea. He took a step
nearer her.
“Is this Señor Zorro aboard?” he demanded suddenly.
“Would I know it, were he?” she countered.
“Possibly. I am asking a question, and desire an answer,” Barbados
said. “It has been said that a high-born wench such as yourself scorns
to utter falsehood. Let us see if that is correct.”
She made no reply, and the face of Barbados grew purple with wrath. He
closed and unclosed his great hands as though he would have liked to
strangle her.
“Is Señor Zorro aboard?” he demanded again.
“Have you seen him?” she wanted to know.
“I have not. But I have seen some things that I imagine are his doing.”
“And I notice that you and your lieutenant bear his mark,” she said.
“Ha! Let me but get my hands on him, and he’ll bear more than a mark!”
Barbados declared. “I am having a search made of the ship. If he is
found you’ll see how a man can be sent to his death speedily.”
The _señorita_ gave a little cry and recoiled, her hands at her breast.
“Ha! You show fear for him!” Barbados cried. “So he is aboard, is he?”
“Have I said so?” she asked.
“You have not――but now you are going to tell me the truth. Wench, I’m
done with trifling. You presume too much on the knowledge that you
are to be the prize of an important man. Do you not know you are in
my power? Could I not do with you as I pleased, and then heave you
overboard, and tell this important gentleman later that you got the
chance and threw yourself into the sea?”
Evil glistened suddenly in his eyes, and the little _señorita_ recoiled
again. Sanchez, who had remained standing near, laughed like a fiend.
“We could gamble for her,” Sanchez suggested.
“This is my affair, and you will do well to remain silent,” Barbados
declared, whirling upon him.
Once more he faced Señorita Lolita, and the fiendish look upon his face
made her flinch.
“Tell me all you know about this Señor Zorro!” Barbados commanded. “Did
you slay the man in your cabin, or did this Señor Zorro do it? Answer
me, wench! Reply here and now, else I teach you a lesson you will
remember to your last hour.”
He sprang forward suddenly and grasped her arm cruelly, and she cried
out because of the indignity and the pain.
Señor Zorro, from his place of watching, flinched as though he had
experienced the indignity and pain himself. He wanted to hurl himself
forward and to the attack, but he realized that it would not last for
long. He could not hope to engage the entire ship’s company, though he
made a long and running fight of it, and emerge from the combat the
victor.
But there came an interruption. From forward was a hail:
“A sail! A sail!”
The pirates sprang to their feet. Those who had been sprawled upon the
deck asleep awoke.
Barbados forgot the _señorita_ for a moment and turned to look.
Behind, and bearing down upon them swiftly, came another ship. Señor
Zorro knew, as did the pirates, that she had put out from the land
before the dawn and far to the south of where the pirate ship had been
at anchor.
Hope beat suddenly in Zorro’s breast. She was a trading schooner, he
could tell even at that distance. If only she carried Audre Ruiz and
his friends! It was a question what would happen. If she was some
honest vessel, perhaps she would fall victim to the pirate craft. She
might not be prepared to fight.
Barbados issued a volley of commands. The pirate craft turned for a run
farther out to sea, so that she could tack back and catch the oncoming
ship between her and the shore.
Lookouts were posted to watch carefully. Sanchez ran here and there,
echoing the orders of his chief.
From his hiding place Señor Zorro watched now the approaching vessel,
and now the deck where Señorita Lolita was standing against the mast,
forgotten for the moment.
Were he quite sure that ship carried his friends Señor Zorro could go
into action. For he flattered himself that he would be able to hold his
own until the other ship came up.
It appeared that the other vessel had no intention of running up the
coast. She changed her course also, and bore after the pirate craft.
Señor Zorro watched her carefully. He could not make out her flag. At
the distance he could see nothing except that she was of the type of
trading schooner, and that she had swift heels. For she was gaining
rapidly, as though sailed by experts. And the pirate craft was foul of
bottom, needing careening and scraping.
Barbados had hurried to the rail and was watching the oncoming ship.
Señorita Lolita saw it also, but did not seem to realize that it meant
hope. Perhaps she feared that the ship was but coming into grave
danger, running into a conflict that would mean capture and death for
her crew.
Señor Zorro glanced at the deck, and then back at the approaching
vessel again. He saw that another sail was being sent aloft. It was
broken out, snapped into place, the lines tautened. And Señor Zorro
with difficulty restrained a cheer. On the white expanse of the sail,
painted there in haphazard fashion, but easily made out, was a monster
Z.
So his friends were on that ship! Señor Zorro felt better now. He
glanced once more toward the deck, and realized that Barbados had seen
what was on the sail also. For the pirate chief left the rail and
stamped back to the _señorita’s_ side, determination in his manner and
rage in his countenance.
“Now you’ll speak the truth, wench!” he shouted. “Is Señor Zorro aboard
this ship? If those are his friends coming up, then will we attend to
him before we attend to them!”
“I do not care to hold conversation with you,” she said.
“No? By my naked blade, I am in command here!” he roared. “An answer I
intend to have.”
He lurched forward and grasped her by the shoulders, shook her as a
terrier shakes a rat, held her at arm’s length and shook her again. She
fought against crying out, but could not win the battle against such
cruel odds.
One plaintive little cry drifted across the deck and straight into the
heart of Señor Zorro.
He transferred his sword from his right hand to his left. He whipped
the dagger from his belt and hurled it. His aim was poor, yet he had
come close enough. The dagger was driven, quivering, into the mast
between Barbados and the _señorita_.
Barbados, with a cry, sprang backward, and the _señorita_ slumped to
the deck at the foot of the mast. And Señor Zorro realized in that
instant that he had stepped forward too far and had been seen. Sanchez
gave a cry and started toward him. The pirates whirled from the rail to
look. Barbados saw him.
“’Tis Señor Zorro!” Barbados shrieked. “After him! Fetch him to me
alive! An extra share of loot to the man who gets him!”
It was the promise of loot that drove them on. They shrieked and rushed
forward. Señor Zorro put the blade of his sword between his teeth and
darted up into the rigging.
And then began a fight the like of which the pirates never had seen
before. Señor Zorro seemed scarcely human. Up the rigging he went like
a monkey. He sprang from spar to spar. Down the ratlines he rushed,
down the ropes he slid.
Now and then he clashed with one of the pirates, and always the sword
of Zorro darted in and out, and a wounded man was left behind.
“Seize him!” Barbados shrieked. “After him, dogs! Is one man to hold
you off forever? Do not slay him! An extra share of loot――”
Señor Zorro struck the deck and darted across it. Sanchez retreated
before his darting blade. He pierced the breast of a pirate who stepped
before him, hurled another aside, sprang to the mast, and recovered
his dagger. He stooped for an instant, and pressed the lips of the
_señorita_ to his own, and dashed on.
Now he was cornered, and now he fought his way to freedom. A dagger
whirled past his head and buried itself in the deck beyond. Into the
rigging he went again, up the ratlines, out along a spar.
They followed him, and he put his sword into its scabbard and sprang.
Far below he caught another spar, ran to the mast, started downward
again. One glance he gave at the approaching ship. His friends were
gaining, but they still were far away.
Again they had him cornered, and again he escaped them by jumping to
the deck below. He dashed around the deck cabin, met and defeated
another man with a single clash of blades, and was at the rail.
There was grave danger on the deck, he knew, and so he went aloft once
more. Up and up he went, while Barbados and Sanchez shrieked to the
others to follow and get him.
“Alive! I want him alive!” Barbados screeched.
Another spring from spar to spar. Señor Zorro almost missed because of
the rolling of the ship. But he caught and clung on, and scrambled to a
place of safety. In toward the mast he hurried.
But there was a treacherous spot on the spar, where the mist had
struck and clung, a wet spot made to cause a boot to slip. Señor Zorro
felt himself reeling suddenly to one side. He grasped wildly――grasped
nothing but empty air. His heart seemed to stop beating for an instant.
He felt himself falling through space. To his ears came the terrified
cry of the little _señorita_. The deck rushed up to meet him. He
struck it with a crash and the darkness came.
Señorita Lolita gave another little cry and covered her face with her
hands. Barbados and Sanchez rushed forward, the others at their heels.
Señor Zorro was unconscious for the moment, though the fall had broken
no bones.
“Bind him!” Barbados cried, glancing back at the oncoming ship. “We
attend to him first, and then to his friends. Water his head well and
bring him back to life. Get ready a plank!”
The pirates rushed to do his bidding.
Señor Zorro’s wrists were lashed behind his back. One man hurled water
into his face, and he groaned and opened his eyes, and tried to sit up
on the deck.
“Ha!” Barbados cried. “So it is Señor Zorro, eh? And now we can repay
you for this little mark you put on my forehead, _señor_! Barbados,
also, knows how to make payment!”
He gave a signal, and the pirates forced Zorro to his feet. He tried
to fight, but they overpowered him. They braced him against the mast,
while the _señorita_ crept aside and watched.
“Hold the wench!” Barbados commanded two of the men. “We don’t want her
throwing herself overboard. And I wish her to witness what is to come.”
The two men held her. Señor Zorro, half throttled, was kept against the
mast. Barbados made another sign, and some of the men carried forward a
heavy bar of iron and lashed it to Señor Zorro’s wrists.
“To the rail with him!” Barbados commanded.
They forced him to the rail, and the two men urged the _señorita_ along
beside him. Over the rail a long, wide plank had been extended.
Señor Zorro knew what they meant to do to him. And now Señorita Lolita
realized it, too.
“No, no!” she shrieked. “You must not do this thing!”
“Ha! Revenge is sweet!” Barbados cried. “Señor Zorro, you are about to
descend to a watery hell! We’ll let you take your sword with you, since
you may need it fighting demons. You take the plunge, and then, when
yon ship comes up, we attend to your friends! As for the _señorita_,
know that she will be delivered safely to one who has bargained for
her.”
“Why not give me a chance in a fair fight?” Zorro asked. “Any two of
you――any three――”
“Your friends are coming up, and we must prepare for them,” Barbados
replied, laughing. “You have fought your last fight on earth, _señor_.
See if you can mark the brow of the devil with your cursed Z.”
“Diego!” the _señorita_ moaned.
“As a special favor you may kiss the wench,” Barbados said. “It will
be practice for her. And take with you to the bottom of the sea the
knowledge that another will kiss her soon.”
The _señorita_ rushed forward and threw her arms around him and kissed
him, unashamed.
“Diego! I’ll follow you!” she said.
“’Tis a merry end,” Señor Zorro declared. “Be brave of heart! Our
friends are at hand, _señorita_! If Don Audre Ruiz is aboard that ship
he will know how to save you――and how to avenge me.”
Again they kissed, and then the two pirates jerked her roughly backward.
Barbados laughed like a fiend.
“Practice for the other man!” he roared. “When Captain Ramón――”
“So it is Ramón?” Zorro cried.
“_Sí!_ And a lot of good the knowledge will do you now.”
“This much good――that I shall not die!” Zorro answered.
“If you do not, then indeed are you a man! With a weight on your lashed
wrists―― Enough!” he exclaimed. “Put him on the plank!”
They lifted him and stood him upon it, facing him toward the sea. They
forced him a short distance from the rail.
“Diego!” the _señorita_ cried, agony in her voice.
At her cry the plank was tipped.
And with her cry ringing in his ears Señor Zorro shot downward like a
man of metal――shot downward into the tossing sea, and was gone!
[Illustration: The Further Adventures of Zorro, Part III]