"MEAL MUSH AND GOAT'S MILK!"
They crowded forward--troopers, natives, _caballeros_, surrounding Don
Diego Vega and the _señorita_ who clutched at his arm and looked up at
him from proud and glistening eyes.
"Explain! Explain!" they cried.
"It began ten years ago, when I was but a lad of fifteen," he said. "I
heard tales of persecution. I saw my friends, the _frailes_, annoyed
and robbed. I saw soldiers beat an old native who was my friend. And
then I determined to play this game.
"It would be a difficult game to play, I knew. So I pretended to have
small interest in life, so that men never would connect my name with
that of the highwayman I expected to become. In secret, I practiced
horsemanship, and learned how to handle a blade--"
"By the saints, he did!" Sergeant Gonzales growled.
"One half of me was the languid Don Diego you all knew, and the other
half was the Curse of Capistrano I hoped one day to be. And then the
time came, and my work began.
"It is a peculiar thing to explain, _señores_. The moment I donned
cloak and mask, the Don Diego part of me fell away. My body
straightened, new blood seemed to course through my veins, my voice
grew strong and firm, fire came to me! And the moment I removed cloak
and mask I was the languid Don Diego again. Is it not a peculiar thing!
"I had made friends with this great Sergeant Gonzales, and for a
purpose."
"Ha! I guess the purpose, _caballeros_!" Gonzales cried. "You tired
whenever this Señor Zorro was mentioned, and did not wish to hear of
violence and bloodshed, but always you asked me in what direction I was
going with my troopers--and you went in the other direction and did
your confounded work."
"You are an excellent guesser," said Don Diego, laughing, as did the
others about him. "I even crossed blades with you, so you would not
guess I was Señor Zorro. You remember the rainy night at the tavern! I
listened to your boasts, went out and donned mask and cloak, came in
and fought you, escaped, took off mask and cloak, and returned to jest
with you."
"Ha!"
"I visited the Pulido _hacienda_ as Don Diego, and a short time later
returned as Señor Zorro and held speech with the _señorita_ here. You
almost had me, sergeant, that night at Fray Felipe's--the first night,
I mean."
"Ha! You told me there that you had not seen Señor Zorro."
"Nor had I! The _fray_ does not keep a mirror, thinking that it makes
for vanity. The other things were not difficult, of course. You can
easily understand how, as Señor Zorro, I happened to be at my own house
in town when the _comandante_ insulted the _señorita_.
"And the _señorita_ must forgive me the deception. I courted her as Don
Diego, and she would have none of me. Then I tried it as Señor Zorro,
and the saints were kind, and she gave me her love.
"Perhaps there was some method in that, also. For she turned from the
wealth of Don Diego Vega to the man she loved, though she deemed him,
then, an outcast and outlaw.
"She has showed me her true heart, and I am rejoiced at it. Your
excellency, this _señorita_ is to become my wife, and I take it you
will think twice before you will annoy her family further."
His excellency threw out his hands in a gesture of resignation.
"It was difficult to fool you all, but it has been done," Don Diego
continued. "Only years of practice allowed me to accomplish it. And now
Señor Zorro shall ride no more, for there will be no need, and moreover
a married man should take some care of his life."
"And what man do I wed?" the Señorita Lolita asked, blushing because
she spoke the words where all could hear.
"What man do you love?"
"I had fancied that I loved Señor Zorro, but it comes to me now that
I love the both of them," she said. "Is it not shameless? But I would
rather have you Señor Zorro than the old Don Diego I knew."
"We shall endeavor to establish a golden mean," he replied, laughing
again. "I shall drop the old languid ways and change gradually into the
man you would have me. People will say that marriage made a man of me!"
He stooped and kissed her there before them all.
"Meal mush and goat's milk!" swore Sergeant Gonzales.
THE END