Read Ebook: The further adventures of Zorro by McCulley Johnston

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Ebook has 1376 lines and 67056 words, and 28 pages

LAND RATS AND WATER RATS.

Throughout a long summer day of more than a hundred years ago the high fog had obscured the flaming ball of sun, and the coast of Southern California had been bathed in a haze.

Then came the night, with indication of a drizzle that did not materialize. For the bank of fog suddenly was split as though with a sword, and the brilliant moon poured down, and the riven mist floated away to let the land be blessed with brilliance and the tossing sea dance in the silvery moonbeams.

Approaching the shore came a sinister vessel, craft of ill omen. She sailed slowly under a spare spread of canvas, as though fearing to reach her destination too soon, and her lights were not burning. The hiss of the waters from her bows was a lazy sort of hiss, but the more suggestive because of that. It was the playful hiss of a serpent always ready to become enraged. Her appearance betokened stealth and crime.

She was low, rakish, swift. No proper seaman commanded her, since her decks were foul and her sides badly in need of protecting paint. But her sailing gear was in perfect condition, and the man at her helm could have told that she answered to her rudder like a love-sick maiden to her swain.

Amidships stood her commander, one Barbados, a monstrous giant of a man with repugnant visage. Gigantic brass rings were in his mutilated ears. His eyes were pig-like--tiny, glittering, wholly evil. His great gnarled hands continually were forming themselves into brutish fists. He wore no shirt, no shoes. His chest and back were covered with thick, black, matted hair.

"The flag!" Sanchez bellowed. There was no definite order given, but the man nearest the mast was quick to lower the flag. Sanchez looked back toward Barbados, and Barbados grunted and turned away to look toward the distant land.

Sanchez was a smaller edition of Barbados, the evil lieutenant of an evil chief. He was short and thick, and many a man had misjudged the strength of his shoulders and arms and had discovered his sorry error too late. The eyes of Sanchez glittered also, first as he looked at Barbados, and then turned, as the chief had, to glance toward the distant land.

A fair land it was, bathed in the mellow light of the moon. Along the shore uncertain shadows played, like shapeless fairies at a game. And here was a darker streak, where a ca?on ran down to the sea--a ca?on with black depths caused by the rank undergrowth and stubby trees.

"There!" Barbados bellowed. He pointed toward the mouth of the ca?on, where the water hissed white against a jumble of rocks. "We go ashore there, against the cliffs!"

Again there was no regular command, but the course of the pirate craft was changed a little, and she sailed slowly toward the spot Barbados had indicated. The chief grunted once more, and Sanchez hurried quickly to his side.

"We land twoscore men!" Barbados commanded. "Twoscore will be enough. I lead them, and you are to go with me. The others will remain aboard and take the ship off shore again, and return to-morrow night two hours before the dawn."

"'Tis to be a pretty party, by the saints! Rich loot, food and wines, honey and olives, gold and jewels and precious stones! Bronze native wenches for such as like them! And time enough for it, eh? Ha! For some four months we have sailed up and down the coast, now and then landing and raiding to get a few pigs and cows. 'Tis time for a bold stroke! And this--"

"It is arranged?" Sanchez questioned.

"Am I in the habit of rushing in where things are not arranged?" Barbados demanded. "Se?or Pirate, do you take me to be a weak and silly fool?"

"If I did," Sanchez replied, "I would have more wit than to say so to your face!"

Barbados gave a cry of rage and whirled toward him suddenly, and Sanchez retreated a single step, and his hand dropped to the naked cutlass in his belt of tanned human skin.

"Try to draw it, fool!" Barbados cried. "I'll have you choked black in the face and hurled overboard for shark meat before your hand reaches the blade!"

"I made no move to draw," Sanchez wailed.

"There are times when I wonder why I allow you to remain at my side," Barbados told him, folding his gigantic arms across his hairy chest. "And there are times when I wonder whether your heart is not turning to that of a woman and your blood to water or swill. A trap, you fool! Am I the man to walk into traps? Kindly allow me to attend to the finer details of this business. And a pretty business it is!"

"The village of Reina de Los Angeles is miles in the interior," Sanchez wailed. "I do not like to get out of sight of the sea. With the pitching planks of a deck beneath my bare feet--"

"Beware lest you have beneath your feet the plank that is walked until a man reaches its end and drops to watery death!" Barbados warned him. "Enough of this! Pick the men who are to land, and get ready the boats!"

An hour later the anchor had been dropped, and the pirate craft had swung with the tide and was tugging at her chains like a puppy at a leash. Over the sides went the boats, Barbados growling soft curses at the noise his men made.

Without knowing it, Barbados practiced a deal of psychology. These wild men of the sea had before them a journey of some miles inland, and they knew it and hated it, but the pirate chief continually hinted to them of the rich loot at the end of the present trip, and his hints served their purpose well.

Toward the shore they rowed, tossing on the breakers, making for the dark spot where the ca?on ran down into the sea. There a cliff some twelve feet high circled back into the land, forming a natural shelter against the land breeze at times and the sea winds at other times.

Through the surf they splashed, half naked, carrying naught except their weapons, and no weapons save their cutlasses. They gathered on the beach and watched the boats return to the ship, shrieking coarse jests at the men compelled to remain behind.

"Forward!" Barbados said. "And let there be little noise about it! If we stumble across one of the accursed natives, slit his throat and so silence it."

To his wonder, Barbados grasped his arm so that Sanchez thought the bone must break.

"You love the robes and gowns?" Sanchez asked, in wonder.

It was a journey they disliked, but they liked to think of the loot they would find at the end of it. On they went, toward the sleeping town of Reina de Los Angeles. Besides Barbados and Sanchez, few of them had seen the town. Pirates had been treated harshly there when they had wandered inland. But now something had happened, it appeared, that made a raid on the town a comparatively safe enterprise.

An hour before dawn they stumbled across a native, caught him as he started to flee, and left his lifeless body behind. Then came the day, and they went into hiding in a jumble of hills, within easy striking distance of the town. They had covered ground well.

Sprawled on the sward they slept. Barbados, a little way aside, consulted his poor map once more, and then called Sanchez to his side.

"Since we may have to split our force, it were well that you knew more of this business," he said.

"I am listening, Barbados."

"This man who is to meet us to-morrow night at the edge of the town is a high official."

"I have heard you call him the Governor's man."

"And where there are soldiers there are fools," Barbados added. He stopped speaking long enough to chuckle. "I am not afraid of the soldiers. This man with whom we are to deal will care for the troops."

"I fail to understand it," Sanchez said, shaking his head. "Why should such things be? Do we split the loot with this high official?"

"Dream of innocence, listen!" Barbados hissed. "Listen, and comprehend, else I choke you to death! An emissary came to me in the south from this high official, and through him arrangements were made. Things have happened since last we were in the vicinity of Reina de Los Angeles. The Governor, I know, left San Francisco de Asis and journeyed south with his gallant company. And while he was at Reina de Los Angeles something happened that caused him to hate the town. There even was talk for a time of him being forced to abdicate his high station."

"Ha! More mystery!" Sanchez growled.

"It seems that in the southland there was a pest of a highwayman known as Se?or Zorro, and whom men called the Curse of Capistrano. A land pirate, spit upon him! How can a man be a pirate on the land? However, this Se?or Zorro did several things worthy of note. From what I have heard, I would we had a dozen of him in the ship's company. We could raid the whole of Mexico, capture the Spanish fleets and attack Europe."

"This Se?or Zorro must be quite some man," Sanchez observed.

"I have heard but little, but enough to convince me that I would have him for a friend rather than an enemy. He is a sort of devil. Now he is here and now he is gone. Like a ghost he comes and like a specter he disappears. Ha! You, a pirate, cross yourself!"

"I am afraid of no live man who lives, save perhaps yourself," Sanchez observed. "But I like not this talk of ghosts."

"Ha!" Sanchez grunted, meaning that he wished the sermon to end and the tale to continue.

"This Se?or Zorro, whose real name I have forgotten if ever I knew it, carved his initial with his sword into the cheeks and foreheads of many men. They call it the Mark of Zorro. And when his identity was disclosed his friends stood by him and told the Governor that it were best if he return to San Francisco de Asis and grace Reina de Los Angeles with his continual absence."

"And did he?"

"He did," Barbados replied, "with hatred in his heart for this same Reina de Los Angeles. He did not abdicate, of course. And he craves revenge."

"Ha! Here is where we enter?"

"It is," Barbados replied. "We raid the town and take what we will, and the Governor hears of it, sends soldiers running wildly up and down the coast, and winks at himself in his looking-glass. For the information and protection we get, we hand to the Governor's man at a certain time and place a certain share of the loot. Which we well can afford, since we are to get it so easily."

"If we forget to hand it--" Sanchez began.

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