The Curse of Capistrano, Harrington Strong [best new books to read .TXT] 📗

to meditate in his presence. And who makes an appearance but a big sergeant and his troopers seeking this Senor Zorro.”

“They caught him?”

“I believe not, sir and father. I returned to the pueblo; and what think you happened there this day? They brought in Fray Felipe, accused of having swindled a dealer, and after . mockery of a trial they lashed him to a post and gave him the whip fifteen times across his back.”

“The scoundrels!” Don Alejandro cried.

“I could stand it no longer, and so I decided to pay you a visit. Wherever I turn there is turmoil. It is enough to make a man insane. You may ask Bernardo if it is not.”

Don Alejandro glanced at the deaf-and-dumb native and grinned. Bernardo grinned back as a matter of course, not knowing it was no manner in which to act in the presence of a don.

“You have something else to tell me?” Don Alejandro asked his son, looking at him searchingly.

“By the saints! Now it comes. I had hoped to avoid it, father and sir.”

“Let me hear about it.”

“I paid a visit to the Pulido hacienda and spoke with Don Carlos and his wife, also the Senorita Lolita.”

“You were pleased with the senorita?”

“She is as lovely as any girl of my acquaintance,” Don Diego said. “I spoke to Don Carlos of the matter of marriage, and he appeared to be delighted.”

“Ah! He would be,” said Don Alejandro.

“But the marriage cannot take place, I fear.”

“How is this? There is some shadow concerning the senorita?”

“Not to my knowledge. She appears to be a sweet and innocent maiden, father and sir. I had them come to Reina de Los Angeles and spend a couple of days at my house. I had it arranged so that she could see the furnishings, and learn of my wealth.”

“That was a wise arrangement, my son.”

“But she will have none of me.”

“How is this? Refuses to wed with a Vega? Refuses to become allied to the most powerful family in the country, with the best blood in the land?”

“She intimated, father and sir, that I am not the sort of man for her. She is prone to foolishness, I believe. She would have me play a guitar under her window, perhaps, and make eyes, and hold hands when her duenna is not looking, and all that silliness.”

“By the saints! Are you a Vega?” Don Alejandro cried. “Would not any worthy man want a chance like that? Would not any caballero delight to serenade his love on a moonlight night? The little things you term silly are the very essence of love. I doubt not the senorita was displeased with you.”

“But I did not see that such things were necessary,” Don Diego said.

“Did you go to the senorita in a cold-blooded manner and suggest that you wed and have it done with? Had you the idea, young sir, that you were purchasing a horse or a bull? By the saints! And so there is no chance for you to wed the girl? She has the best blood by far, next to our own.”

“Don Carlos bade me have hope,” Diego replied. “He took her back to the hacienda, and suggested that perhaps when she had been there a time and had reflected she might change her mind.”

“She is yours, if you play the game,” Don Alejandro said. “You are a Vega, and therefore the best catch in the country. Be but half a lover, and the senorita is yours. What sort of blood is in your veins? I have half a mind to slit one of them and see.”

“Cannot we allow this marriage business to drop for the time being?” Don Diego asked.

“You are twenty-five. I was quite old when you were born. Soon I shall go the way of my fathers. You are the only son, the heir, and you must have a wife and offspring. Is the Vega family to die out because your blood is water? Win you wife within the quarter-year, young sir, and a wife I can accept into the family, or I leave my wealth to the Franciscans when I pass away.”

“My father!”

“I mean it. Get life into you! I would you had half the courage and spirit this Senor Zorro, this highwayman, has! He has principles and he fights for them. He aids the helpless and avenges the oppressed.

“I salute him! I would rather have you, my son, in his place, running the risk of death or imprisonment, than to have you a lifeless dreamer of dreams that amount to nought!”

“My father! I have been a dutiful son.”

“I would you had been a little wild—it would have been more natural.” Don Alejandro sighed. “I could overlook a few escapades more easily than I can lifelessness. Arouse yourself, young sir! Remember that you are a Vega.

“When I was your age, I was not a laughingstock. I was ready to fight at a wink, to make love to every pair of flashing eyes, to stand up to any caballero in sports rough or refined. Ha!”

“I pray you, do not ‘Ha!’ me, sir and father. My nerves are on edge.”

“You must be more of a man.”

“I shall attempt it immediately,” Don Diego said, straightening himself somewhat in his chair. “I had hoped to avoid it, but it appears that I cannot. I shall woo the Senorita Lolita as other men woo maidens. You meant what you said about your fortune?”

“I did,” said Don Alejandro.

“Then I must bestir myself. It would never do, of course, to let that fortune go out of the family. I shall think these matters over in peace and quiet tonight. Perhaps I can meditate here, far from the pueblo. By the saints!”

The last exclamation was caused by a sudden tumult outside the house. Don Alejandro and his son heard a number of horsemen stop, heard their calls to one another, heard bridles jingling and blades rattling.

“There is no peace in all the world,” Don Diego said with deepened gloom.

“It sounds like half a score of men,” Don Alejandro said.

“It was—exactly. A servant opened the door, and into the great room there strode ten caballeros, with blades at their sides and pistols in their belts.

“Ha, Don Alejandro! We crave hospitality!” the foremost cried.

“You have it without asking, caballeros. What manner of journey is this you take?”

“We pursue Senor Zorro, the highwayman.”

“By the saints!” Don Diego cried. “One cannot escape it even here. Violence and bloodshed!”

“He invaded the plaza at Reina de Los Angeles,” the spokesman went on. “He had the magistrado whipped because he sentenced Fray Felipe to receive the lash, and he whipped the fat landlord, and he fought half a score of men while he was about it. Then he rode away, and we made up a band to pursue him. He has not been in this neighborhood?”

“Not to my knowledge,” Don Alejandro said. “My son arrived off the highway but a short time ago.”

“You did not see the fellow, Don Diego?”

“I did not,” Don Diego said. “That is one stroke of good fortune that came my way.”

Don Alejandro had sent for servants, and now wine mugs were on the long table, and heaps of small cakes, and the caballeros began to eat and drink. Don Diego knew well what that meant. Their pursuit of the highwayman was at an end, their enthusiasm had waned. They would sit at his father’s table and drink throughout the night, gradually getting intoxicated, shout and sing and tell stories, and in the morning ride back to Reina de Los Angeles like so many heroes.

It was the custom. The chase of Senor Zorro was but a pretext for a merry time.

The servants brought great stone jugs filled with rare wine and put them on the table, and Don Alejandro ordered that meat be fetched also. The young caballeros had a weakness for these parties at Don Alejandro’s, for the don’s good wife had been dead for several years, and there were no womenfolk except servants, and so they could make what noise they pleased throughout the night.

In time they put aside pistols and blades, and began to boast and brag, and Don Alejandro had his servants put the weapons in a far corner out of the way, for he did not wish a drunken quarrel, with a dead caballero or two in his house.

Don Diego drank and talked with them for a time, and then sat to one side and listened, as if such foolishness bored him,

“It were well for this Senor Zorro that we did not catch up with him,” one cried. “Any one of us is a match for the fellow. Were the soldiers men of merit he would have been taken long before this.”

“Ha, for a chance at him!” another screeched. “How the landlord did howl when he was whipped!”

“He rode in this direction?” Don Alejandro asked.

“We are not sure as to that. He took the San Gabriel trail, and thirty of us followed. We separated into three bands, each going a different direction. It is the good fortune of one of the other bands to have him now, I suppose. But it is our excellent good fortune to be here.”

Don Diego stood before the company.

“Senores, you will pardon me, I know, if I retire,” he said. “I am fatigued with the journey.”

“Retire, by all means,” one of his friends cried. “And when you are rested, come out to us again and make merry.”

They laughed at that; and Don Diego bowed ceremoniously, and observed that several scarcely could get to their feet to bow in return; and then the scion of the house of Vega hurried from the room with the deaf-and-dumb man at his heels. .

He entered a room that always was ready for him, and in which a candle already was burning, and closed the door behind him, and Bernardo stretched his big form on the floor just outside it, to guard his master during the night.

In the great living-room, Don Diego scarcely was missed. His father was frowning and twisting his mustache, for he would have had his son like other young men. In his youth, he was remembering, he never left such a company early in the evening. And once again he sighed and wished that the saints had given him a son with red blood in his veins.

The caballeros were singing now, joining in the chorus of a popular love song, and their discordant voices filled the big weapons in a far corner out of the way, for he did not wish a drunken quarrel, with a dead caballero or two in his house. Don Diego drank and talked with them for a time, and then sat to one side and listened, as if such foolishness bored him.

“It were well for this Senor Zorro that we did not catch up with him,” one cried. “Any one of us is a match for the fellow. Were the soldiers men of merit he would have been taken long before this.”

“Ha, for a chance at him!” another screeched. “How the landlord did howl when he was whipped!”

“He rode in this direction?” Don Alejandro asked.

“We are not sure as to that. He took the San Gabriel trail, and thirty of us followed. We separated into three bands, each going a different direction. It is the good fortune of one of the other bands to have him now, I suppose. But it is our excellent good fortune to be here.”

Don Diego stood before the company.

“Senores, you will pardon me, I know, if I retire,” he said. “I am fatigued with