فرار!

CHAPTER SEVEN

Escape!

An hour after they put the Pulidos in prison, Don Diego visited the governor up at the fort.

‘I’m happy to see you,’ said His Excellency. ‘In times of trouble it’s important to know who your friends are.’

‘I’m sorry that I couldn’t come sooner, but I was away from home when you arrived. How long will you stay?’

‘I’ll wait for them to bring Zorro to me. dead or alive. Captain Ramon has ordered Sergeant Gonzales to return, and I have twenty soldiers here, too. We’ll catch the Curse of Capistrano this time, I’m sure.’

‘Let’s hope that all ends well,’ said Don Diego.

‘These are difficult times’ said the governor. ‘Only today I had to order the arrest of a gentleman, his wife, and daughter. But the country must be safe from the king’s enemies.’

‘You mean the Pulido family.’

‘I do.’

‘Can I speak to you about that? I’m courting Don Carlos’s daughter, you see.’

‘But you’re not engaged to her? Because I’ve learned that the Pulidos are helping Zorro. You wouldn’t like to marry into a family of traitors.’

‘But to put a gentleman’s family in prison with common criminals. Senor - other gentlemen won’t think it right.’

‘But if I put them under arrest at home, this outlaw Zorro will rescue them. Prison’s the only answer.’

‘I see,’ said Don Diego.

‘You’re no friend of the king’s enemies, I hope.’

‘I’m against all the king’s real enemies.’

‘I’m happy to hear it,’ said the governor.

After Don Diego left, the governor told Captain Ramon, ‘You once thought that Don Diego was perhaps a traitor, too, but I tell you that he’s too weak, too stupid, and too cowardly for that!’ They both laughed.

On his way home, Don Diego met a friend in the town square.

‘Has our leader sent word to you’ asked the young gentleman quietly in Don Diego’s ear.

‘No. Why?’

‘The Pulidos are in prison. We think that Senor Zorro will try to rescue them.’

‘I hope not,’ said Don Diego. ‘I’m starting to feel ill just thinking of it. I must go home to bed.’

‘I hope that you are better soon,’ laughed his friend.

Later that day, a native spoke to the same young man.

‘A gentleman asks you and your friends to meet him at midnight behind the hill near the San Gabriel road. He told me to say that a fox is in the neighbourhood.’

The young man smiled. ‘Zorro’ was Spanish for ‘fox’. He went to tell his friends.

Just before twelve that night, a group of young gentlemen from the town rode out to meet their leader. They all wore masks and had guns and swords at their sides.

‘Are you all here’ asked Zorro when they arrived.

‘Twenty-nine of us are,’ came the answer. ‘Don Diego’s ill in bed and seeing nobody.’ They all laughed.

‘Right. Now you know why I’ve called you here. We must rescue the Pulido family from prison. Here’s my plan.’

The young men listened carefully.

Soon after that, Zorro and his followers rode to the prison and knocked on the door.

‘Who’s there’ came the guard’s voice from inside.

‘Zorro. Open the door now, and don’t call for help - or you die.’

The door opened, and Zorro and the others hurried in. They quickly unlocked the door to the prison cell. The Pulidos were sitting together inside, far from the common prisoners.

‘Senor Zorro’ cried Don Carlos. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘I’ve come to rescue you. Let’s go.’

‘I’m staying,’ answered the old man. ‘I’m ready to take what comes to me. They say that I gave you a place to hide. What will they say if you help me to escape?’

‘Senor, this is no place for you or your family to stay the night. Gentlemen’ he called.

At once two of his followers took Don Carlos from the cell, two others took Dona Catalina with them, and Zorro himself held Lolita’s hand and led her from the place.

‘You’ll be safe with me,’ he said.

‘I know,’ she replied.

But while they were leaving the building, two of Captain Ramon’s men arrived, bringing a thief to the prison. They knew from the masks on the faces of Zorro’s followers that something was wrong, and they began shooting. Sergeant Gonzales and others hurried from the tavern at the noise. Just then, the prison guard shouted, ‘Zorro’s rescuing the Pulidos!’

‘Quick, To the prison’ cried Gonzales. ‘There’s a reward for the man who catches Zorro!’

The soldiers at the fort heard the noise, too, and hurried down to the town at once.

By then, Zorro was on his horse with Senorita Lolita sitting in front of him. Don Carlos was on another horse, still shouting that he didn’t want rescuing, and Dona Catalina was on a third horse, with one of Zorro’s followers behind her. She fainted into this young man’s arms.

The rescuers quickly crossed the town square and rode to the highway. There they divided into three, following Zorro’s plan. Some took Dona Catalina to the Pulidos’ country house. Others took Don Carlos along the road to Pala, to hide the old man in the hut of a friendly native there. Zorro rode with Lolita to Fray Felipe’s house where she would be safe.

The outlaw smiled while he galloped, with Lolita in his arms, along the San Gabriel road. ‘At least the soldiers following us must divide into three,’ he thought.

After a long, hard ride. Zorro’s horse arrived at Fray Felipe’s house. The outlaw jumped to the ground and helped the young Senorita down. He knocked loudly on the priest’s door, and when it opened, he took Lolita inside. A minute later Fray Felipe was saying goodbye to the outlaw on the veranda.

‘I’ll send word soon’ said Zorro.

‘Good,’ said the priest. He went in, and locked the door.

Zorro hurried across to his horse. Just then, a group of soldiers rode over the hill. They saw the outlaw in the silver light of the moon. There he is, men,’ cried Sergeant Gonzales. After him! The governor will punish us if we don’t take him now.’

Zorro jumped on his horse’s back, and rode away. He heard soldiers’ horses following him, and the men’s angry cries. But with only one rider to carry now, his horse moved faster than before, and he started to leave these noises behind.

When the moon went behind a cloud. Zorro left the highway and rode in the dark to a native’s hut just by the road.

‘They’re after me,’ he called to the native, who quickly took both the outlaw and his horse inside his hut. Zorro hid there silently while the soldiers galloped nearer along the highway.

‘At least Senorita Lolita’s safe,’ he said to himself.

Back at Fray Felipe’s house, Sergeant Gonzales and the other half of his men got off their horses and walked to the house. The sergeant knocked at the door.

‘What do you want’ asked the priest when he opened it.

‘We’re looking for something that Senor Zorro left behind,’ said Gonzales, pushing past. ‘His horse was slower than usual. He brought a young woman here for you to hide, didn’t he?’

‘I don’t know what you mean,’ the priest answered, smiling.

Gonzales knew that Lolita was there somewhere. He sent his men to look in the different rooms of the house and the buildings around it, but he himself stayed with Fray Felipe.

Suddenly he looked at a tall pile of animal skins in the corner of the room. ‘What’s behind that’ he said.

Senorita Lolita came out from behind the skins with a long skinner’s knife in her hand.

‘I’m leaving, Don’t try to stop me,’ she said. ‘If you do, I’ll kill myself. The governor won’t like that.’

‘True,’ thought Gonzales. ‘There’ll be trouble if she kills herself while I’m arresting her.’

‘Don’t do anything stupid’ he cried.

‘I refuse to go back to a common prisoner’s cell, Senor. Better for a Pulido to die than to agree to that. So if you don’t want me dead, you’ll wait while I take your horse and go.’

With that she ran - knife in hand - from the room, hurried from the house, jumped on the sergeant’s horse, and rode off into the night.

‘After her’ shouted Gonzales from the veranda.