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 the _caballeros_, 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 the _señorita_, and she believed,
also, that she had almost been tricked into aiding an important
prisoner to escape. A glance at the _señorita’s_ face 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 the _señorita_.
“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!” the _señorita_ said.
“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. “What _caballeros_ are not dead have been
taken prisoners. And the women and children are mocking them. Go, hag,
and mock with the others! I’ll guard the _señorita_ well.”
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 the
_señorita_ had 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――” the _señorita_ began.
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 the _señorita_ believe 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 helpless _señorita_ now 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 the _señorita’s_ scorn, 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 few miles, fetch the troopers from there,
rescue you, release the _caballeros_ now 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,” the _señorita_
begged.
“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.