"There speaks mercy in your heart. You know that capture would mean my death. Yet must I risk it, and tarry a while."
He seated himself upon the bench, and Señorita Lolita moved away as far as she could, and then started to rise.
But Señor Zorro had been anticipating that. He grasped one of her hands and, before she guessed his intention, had bent forward, raised the bottom of his mask, and pressed his lips to its pink, moist palm.
"Señor!" she cried, and jerked her hand away.
"It were bold, yet a man must express his feelings," he said. "I have not offended beyond forgiveness, I hope."
"Go, señor, else I make an outcry!"
"And get me executed?"
"You are but a thief of the highroad!"
"Yet I love life as any other man."
"I shall call out, señor! There is a reward offered for your capture."
"Such pretty hands would not handle blood money."
"Go!"
"Ah, señorita, you are cruel. A sight of you sends the blood pounding through a man's veins. A man would fight a horde at the bidding of your sweet lips."
"Señor!"
"A man would die in your defense, señorita. Such grace, such fresh beauty."
"For the last time, señor! I shall make an outcry—and your fate be on your own head!"
"Your hand again—and I go."
"It may not be!"
"Then here I sit until they come and take me. No doubt I shall not have to wait long. That big Sergeant Gonzales is on the trail, I understand, and may have discovered track of me. He will have soldiers with him—"
"Señor, for the love of the saints—"
"Your hand."
She turned her back and gave it, and once more he pressed his lips to the palm. And then she felt herself being turned slowly, and her eyes looked deep into his. A thrill seemed to run through her. She realized that he retained her hand, and she pulled it away. And then she turned and ran quickly across the patio and into the house.
With her heart pounding at her ribs, she stood behind the curtains at a window and watched. Señor Zorro walked slowly to the fountain and stooped to drink. Then he put his sombrero on, looked once at the house, and stalked away. She heard the galloping hoofs of a horse die in the distance.
"A thief—yet a man!" she breathed. "If Don Diego had only half as much dash and courage!"
Chapter 8
Don Carlos Plays a Game
She turned away from the window, thankful that none of the household had seen Señor Zorro or knew of his visit. The remainder of the day she spent on the veranda, half the time working on some lace she was making, and the other half gazing down the dusty trail that ran toward the highway.
And then came evening, and down by the natives' adobe huts big fires were lighted, and the natives gathered around them to cook and eat and speak of the events of the day. Inside the house the evening meal had been prepared, and the family was about to sit at table when someone knocked upon the door.
An Indian ran to open it, and Señor Zorro strode into the room. His sombrero came off, he bowed, and then he raised his head and looked at the speechless Doña Catalina and the half-terrified Don Carlos.
"I trust you will pardon this intrusion," he said. "I am the man known as Señor Zorro. But do not be frightened, for I have not come to rob."
Don Carlos got slowly upon his feet, while Señorita Lolita gasped at this display of the man's courage, and feared he would mention the visit of the afternoon, of which she had refrained from telling her mother.
"Scoundrel!" Don Carlos roared. "You dare to enter an honest house?"
"I am no enemy of yours, Don Carlos," Señor Zorro replied. "In fact, I have done some things that should appeal to a man who has been persecuted."
That was true, Don Carlos knew, but he was too wise to admit it and so speak treason. Heaven knew he was enough in the bad graces of the governor now without offending him more by treating with courtesy this man for whose carcass the governor had offered a reward.
"What do you wish here?" he asked.
"I crave your hospitality, señor. In other words, I would eat and drink. I am a caballero, hence make my claim in justice."
"Whatever good blood once flowed in your veins has been fouled by your actions," Don Carlos said. "A thief and highwayman has no claim upon the hospitality of this hacienda."
"I 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.
"Doubly 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."
"By 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.
"This is foolhardiness, no doubt, but I had to see your beaming face again," he said.
"Señor!"
"The 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.
"The longing to hear the music of your voice, señorita, may lure me here often," he said.
"Señor! You must never come again! I was lenient with you this afternoon, but I can not be again. The next time I shall shriek, and you will be taken."
"You 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.
"I trust your wife has recovered from her swoon," he said. "I regret that the sight of my poor pistol frightened her."
"She 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. Four 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