Captain Ramón had observed it. He mounted as he was directed, and the highwayman mounted behind him, and held the reins with one hand and the pistol with the other. Captain Ramón could feel the touch of cold steel at the back of his head.
Señor Zorro guided his horse with his knees instead of with the reins. He urged the beast down the slope, and circled the town once more, keeping away from the beaten trails, and so approached the rear of the house where his excellency was a guest.
Here was the difficult part of the adventure. He wanted to get Captain Ramón before the governor, to talk to both of them, and to do it without having anybody else interfere. He forced the captain to dismount, and led him to the rear wall of the house. There was a patio there, and they entered it.
It appeared that Señor Zorro knew the interior of the house well. He entered it through a servant’s room, taking Captain Ramón with him, and passed through into a hall without awakening the sleeping native. They went along the hall slowly. From one room came the sound of snoring. From beneath the door of another light streamed.
Señor Zorro stopped before that door and applied an eye to a crack at the side of it. If Captain Ramón harbored thoughts of voicing an alarm, or of offering battle, the touch of the pistol at the back of his head caused him to forget them.
And he had scant time to think of a way out of this predicament, for suddenly Señor Zorro threw open the door, hurled Captain Ramón through it, followed himself, and shut the door quickly behind him. In the room there were his excellency and his host.
“Silence, and do not move!” Señor Zorro said. “The slightest alarm, and I put a pistol ball through the governor’s head! That is understood? Very well, señores!”
“Señor Zorro!” the governor gasped.
“The same, your excellency. I ask your host to be not frightened, for I mean him no harm if he sits quietly until I am done. Captain Ramón, kindly sit across the table from the governor. I am delighted to find the head of the state awake and awaiting news from those who are chasing me. His brain will be clear, and he can understand better what is said.”
“What means this outrage?” the governor exclaimed. “Captain Ramón, how comes this? Seize this man! You are an officer—”
“Do not blame the comandante,” Señor Zorro said. “He knows it is death to make a move. There is a little matter that needs explanation, and since I cannot come to you in broad day as a man should, I am forced to adopt this method. Make yourselves comfortable, señores. This may take some little time.”
His excellency fidgeted in his chair.
“You have this day insulted a family of good blood, your excellency,” Señor Zorro went on. “You have forgotten the proprieties to such an extent that you have ordered thrown into your miserable carcel a hidalgo and his gentle wife and innocent daughter. You have taken such means to gratify a spite—”
“They are traitors!” his excellency said.
“What have they done of treason?”
“You are an outlaw with a price put upon your head. They have been guilty of harboring you, giving you aid.”
“Where got you this information?”
“Captain Ramón has an abundance of evidence.”
“Ha! The comandante, eh? We shall see about that! Captain Ramón is present, and we can get at the truth. May I ask the nature of your evidence?”
“You were at the Pulido hacienda,” the governor said.
“I admit it.”
“A native saw you, and carried word to the presidio. The soldiers hurried out to effect your capture.”
“A moment. Who said a native sounded the alarm?”
“Captain Ramón assured me so.”
“Here is the first chance for the captain to speak the truth. As a matter of fact, comandante, was it not Don Carlos Pulido himself who sent the native? The truth!”
“It was a native brought word.”
“And he did not tell your sergeant that Don Carlos had sent him? Did he not say that Don Carlos had slipped him the information in whispers while he was carrying his fainting wife to her room? Is it not the truth that Don Carlos did his best to hold me at his hacienda until the soldiers arrived, that I might be captured? Did not Don Carlos thus try to show his loyalty to the governor?”
“By the saints, Ramón, you never told me as much!” his excellency cried.
“They are traitors!” the captain declared stubbornly.
“What other evidence?” Señor Zorro asked.
“Why, when the soldiers arrived, you concealed yourself by some trick,” the governor said. “And presently Captain Ramón himself reached the scene, and while he was there you crept from a closet, ran him through treacherously from behind, and made your escape. It is an evident fact that Don Carlos had hidden you in the closet.”
“By the saints!” Señor Zorro swore. “I had thought, Captain Ramón, that you were man enough to admit defeat, though I knew you for a scoundrel in other things. Tell the truth!”
“That is—the truth!”
“Tell the truth!” Señor Zorro commanded, stepping closer to him and bringing up the pistol. “I came from that closet and spoke to you. I gave you time to draw blade and get on guard. We fenced for fully ten minutes, did we not!
“I admit freely that for a moment you puzzled me, and then I solved your method of giving battle and knew you were at my mercy. And then, when I could have slain you easily, I but scratched your shoulder. Is not that the truth? Answer, as you hope to live!”
Captain Ramón licked his dry lips, and could not meet the governor’s eyes.
“Answer!” Señor Zorro thundered.
“It is—the truth!” the captain acknowledged.
“Ha! So I ran you through from
