THE PLIGHT OF RUIZ.
Captain Ramón, riding with the lieutenant at the head of the soldiery,
considered his plans.
The captain had told Barbados how to arrange an ambush at the head
of the cañon, and he expected to lead the troopers around the ambush
and to the rear, cutting the pirates off from their camp, and either
exterminating them at once in the cañon or driving them up into the
open, where the troopers could ride them down one by one.
Captain Ramón knew, of course and naturally, that the pirates would
be watching the advance. But, just at the mouth of the cañon, Captain
Ramón could lead the soldiers swiftly to one side and reach the rear
before the pirates could understand the maneuver and hasten back to
protect themselves.
He had not the slightest doubt regarding the outcome. The troopers were
about equal in numbers to the pirates, and while the latter would fight
desperately, knowing that capture meant the hangman’s rope for them,
the troopers were seasoned men who had been through several native
uprisings and knew how to handle themselves in battle.
The soldiers had a few pistols, but they were not to be depended on
so much as blades and a hand-to-hand conflict. The pirates had a few
firearms also, but they lacked ammunition. It would be swords against
cutlasses for the greater part, Captain Ramón knew, and the advantage
would be with the troopers’ swords.
As to his own part, Ramón realized well that Barbados would recognize
his treachery at once. And so there would be no protection for him from
the pirates after Barbados had passed the word to get him, and Ramón
would have to fight with the soldiers as a loyal officer. But he did
not doubt the outcome of the combat, and so felt secure.
They rode swiftly and in perfect military formation along the dusty
highway, and presently turned off and galloped across rolling country
toward the sea. Now they proceeded with caution, flankers out, but they
did not slacken speed. It was mid-afternoon, and they wanted to do
their work before nightfall.
They approached the mouth of the cañon, and Captain Ramón shaded his
eyes and peered ahead, but could see nothing human. The pirates were
under cover, he supposed, waiting for the troopers to ride down into
the narrow cañon and so into a trap from which they could not escape.
Ramón spoke his plans to the lieutenant again, and the junior officer
nodded that he understood the arrangements perfectly.
They came to the cañon’s end, but swerved suddenly toward the right and
galloped along the rim and up a gentle slope, the last before reaching
the sea. Captain Ramón expected to hear roars of rage from the cañon,
but he did not. He almost chuckled. Barbados evidently supposed that
the _commandante_ was playing some trick, he took it for granted.
They reached the crest of the slope and pulled up among the trees and
looked down upon the pirate camp. A few women and children were running
about, but they could see no men.
“Down the slope, then turn and gallop back toward the cañon,” Captain
Ramón instructed. “Thus we take them in the rear and have the rogues at
our mercy!”
“How do you know that they are in the cañon?” the lieutenant asked with
quick suspicion.
“Did I not hear this Señor Zorro make his plans?” Captain Ramón
demanded with some show of anger. “Am I not your superior officer? They
are now in the cañon, expecting us to gallop into the trap they have
planned.”
“Then they saw us approach,” the lieutenant declared.
“_Sí!_ And they are wondering what is happening, no doubt. It is
possible that they have seen me at the head of the troopers and have
noticed that Señor Zorro is not present. But they have not had time
to get back to their camp. Their trap has been turned against them.
Forward!”
Down the slope swept the troopers, and women and children screeched and
ran into the huts and buildings. In a big circle the soldiers from San
Diego de Alcála swerved and started back toward the cañon’s mouth to
hem in their foes.
And, in that instant, the _commandante_ found that things were not as
he had expected, and that he had been fooled. Reports of firearms came
to his ears, bullets whistled among the troopers, and some of them fell
from their saddles. And from the huts and buildings of the pirate camp
poured the motley crew of Barbados, screeching their battle-cries,
eager to wipe out the soldiery that would have tricked and slain them.
Captain Ramón cursed and began shouting commands. The troopers fired
their pistols, drew their blades, and prepared for bloody and more
intimate work. From behind the largest adobe building dashed a number
of mounted pirates, Barbados and Sanchez riding at their head.
“At them!” the _commandante_ shrieked wildly. “Forward! No mercy!”
The lieutenant, who was by far the better field officer, was endeavoring
to make himself heard above the din. The pirates and the soldiers
clashed, fought like maniacs, the troopers at the outset having much the
better of it. But Barbados and his mounted pirates joined the battle and
fought like fiends, because they saw visions of the hangman’s noose if
they failed to achieve a victory complete.
Captain Ramón had one close look at the face of Barbados, and heard the
pirate chief shriek “Traitor!” at him. Thereafter he managed to keep
well in the rear of the fighting, under pretense of handling the men.
His blade was the only one not red.
Ramón had no intention of liberating the _caballeros_ until the fight
was over, for he wanted to claim full credit for rescuing them. He
wanted another talk with the Señorita Lolita, too, before her friends
approached her. She had not given him the promise that he had expected,
and the necessity for it was over, since Zorro was free of the pirate
camp. But Ramón hoped to get the promise yet, and have an immediate
marriage, saying that he was the one man who could give testimony
that would save Señor Zorro if he was tried for conspiracy against the
Governor.
The battle waged around him. Barbados and his pirate crew were
endeavoring to keep between the troopers and the adobe building wherein
the _caballeros_ were held prisoners. The _caballeros_ were crowding at
the little windows, watching the fight. Don Audre Ruiz was still bound
to the stake, for Fray Felipe had been unable to reach him before the
fighting began, and now the aged _fray_ was busy with the wounded men.
The _señorita_ was under the close guard of a single pirate appointed
to the task by Barbados. She was in one of the buildings, and Captain
Ramón did not know where to find her. Convinced of the _commandante’s_
treachery, Barbados had no thought of letting him get possession of the
_señorita_. She could be held for ransom, the pirate chief decided.
Back and forth across the open space, up and down the sandy beach the
fight progressed. Here groups of men were battling like fiends, here
one pursued a lone enemy. The women and children were keeping to the
huts.
“Fire the place!” Captain Ramón was ordering. “Burn them out!”
Some of the troopers were quick to do his bidding. A pistol flash was
enough. The poor huts began burning fiercely, the dry palm fronds with
which they were manufactured flaming instantly.
Ramón began to worry some. The battle seemed an even thing. Both sides
had lost many men, and the two forces now were about even. It came to
his mind that, unless the soldiers triumphed very soon, he would have
to release the _caballeros_ and let them join in the fray.
Back toward the slope the pirates drove the remaining troopers. And
there the battle waged at some distance from the burning huts of the
pirate camp. The women tried to quench the flames, but could not. The
wind from the sea carried flaming pieces of palm frond and fired more
huts.
Don Audre Ruiz had tugged at his bonds until almost exhausted, but had
been unable to get free. Once the battle surged near him, and then away
again. Clouds of smoke from the burning huts rolled over him, surged
around him. Great chunks of flaming material floated past him on the
still breeze.
Don Audre wondered whether the pirates were to be victorious, whether,
in the end, they would roast him at the stake, as they had started to
do. He choked in the dense smoke; his eyes smarted and then pained; he
tried to see how the fight was going, but could only get a glimpse now
and then.
And then he saw something that caused a thrill of horror to pass
through him. One of the burning brands had fallen at the edge of the
pile of fuel about the stake. It smoldered, burst into flames again.
The fuel caught, and the flames spread.
Don Audre Ruiz, helpless against the stake, watched the flames creep
nearer, the fire spread and become more raging. Once more he struggled
hopelessly against the chain and ropes that held him fast. What irony
was this that he should burn without human hands firing the fuel?
Already he could feel the heat of the flames. Slowly they were eating
their way toward him through the heaps of fuel the pirates had dropped.
Soon they would touch him, smoke and fire would engulf him, and later
men would find naught but his charred remains.