The Mark of Zorro by JOHNSTON MCCULLEY Page A

“A thief and highwayman has no claim upon the hospitality of this hacienda .”
    â€œI take it that you fear to feed me, since the governor may hear of it,” Señor Zorro answered. “You may say that you were forced to do it. And that will be the truth!”
    Now one hand came from beneath the cloak, and it held a pistol. Doña Catalina shrieked and fainted, and Señorita Lolita cowered in her chair.
    â€œDoubly a scoundrel, since you frighten women!” Don Carlos exclaimed angrily. “Since it is death to refuse, you may have meat and drink. But I ask you to be caballero enough to allow me to remove my wife to another room and call a native woman to care for her.”
    â€œBy all means,” Señor Zorro said. “But the señorita remains here as hostage for your good conduct and return.”
    Don Carlos glanced at the man, and then at the girl, and saw that the latter was not afraid. He picked his wife up in his arms, and bore her through the doorway, roaring for servants to come.
    Señor Zorro walked around the end of the table, bowed to Lolita again, and sat down in a chair beside her.
    â€œThis is foolhardiness, no doubt, but I had to see your beaming face again,” he said.
    â€œ Señor! ”
    â€œThe sight of you this afternoon started a conflagration in my heart, señorita . The touch of your hand was new life to me!”
    Lolita turned away, her face flaming, and Señor Zorro moved his chair nearer and reached for her hand, but she eluded him.
    â€œThe longing to hear the music of your voice, señorita , may lure me here often,” he said.
    â€œSeñor! You must never come again! I was lenient with you this afternoon, but I cannot be again. The next time I shall shriek, and you will be taken.”
    â€œYou could not be so cruel,” he said. “Your fate would be upon your own head, señor .”
    Then Don Carlos came back into the room, and Señor Zorro arose and bowed once more.
    â€œI trust your wife has recovered from her swoon,” he said. “I regret that the sight of my poor pistol frightened her.”
    â€œShe has recovered,” Don Carlos said. “I believe you said that you wished meat and drink? Now that I come to think of it, señor , you have indeed done some things that I have admired, and I am happy to grant you hospitality for a time. A servant shall furnish you food immediately.”
    Don Carlos walked to the door, called a native, and gave his orders. Don Carlos was well pleased with himself. Carrying his wife into the next room had given him his chance. For servants had answered his call, and among them had been one he trusted. And he had ordered the man to take the swiftest horse and ride like the wind the four miles to the pueblo, and there to spread the alarm that Señor Zorro was at the Pulido hacienda.
    His object now was to delay this Señor Zorro as much as possible. For he knew the soldiers would come, and the highwayman be killed or captured, and surely the governor would admit that Don Carlos was entitled to some consideration for what he had done.
    â€œYou must have had some stirring adventures, señor,” Don Carlos said as he returned to the table.
    â€œA few,” the highwayman admitted.
    â€œThere was that affair at Santa Barbara, for instance. I never did hear the straight of that.”
    â€œI dislike to speak of my own work, señor .”
    â€œPlease,” the Señorita Lolita begged; and so Señor Zorro overcame his scruples for the time being.
    â€œIt really was nothing,” he said. “I arrived in the vicinity of Santa Barbara at sunset. There is a fellow there who runs a store, and he had been beating natives and stealing from the frailes. He would demand that the frailes sell him goods from the mission, and then complain that the weight was short, and the governor’s men would make the frailes deliver more. So I resolved to punish