“The señor must eat first, so that he will have strength,” the native said, firmly. “Then I will guide the señor to the spot. It is ten miles, and the señor is a weak man.”
“I will eat the food gladly,” Zorro replied. “Do you prepare it as speedily as possible. There shall be an ample reward.”
“It is reward enough that I have been able to save the señor’s life,” the native answered. “The friends of Señor Zorro do not forget what he did for them!”
CHAPTER XVI.
SINGING CABALLEROS.
Barbados was like a maniac after the pirate craft swung away from the trading schooner. He shrieked at his men to make sail, and they needed but little urging. The fear of the supernatural was upon them, superstition ruled their minds.
Gradually they crept away from the schooner, but Barbados continued to watch her closely. He saw the new sails going aloft, and realized that there would be a pursuit. So he turned out to sea and began running for it.
He did not attempt to explain things to himself. He knew that his men outnumbered those on the schooner, and he felt reasonably sure that, in an engagement, the pirate crew would emerge victorious. Yet something seemed to tell him that the proper thing was to avoid the engagement if possible.
“We will lose that sorry craft in the wide waters,” he told Sanchez, “and then we will turn and go to the rendezvous. There we’ll unload and apportion the loot, and care for the wench until the man comes to claim her. If we are followed, we can outfight the caballeros on land. The ghost of a man drowned in the sea is powerless on land, I have heard.”
“And, if they follow us ashore—” Sanchez questioned.
“Then we fight them, fool,” Barbados said. “You are still shaking like a child! A pirate—you? Ha! By my naked blade, you are no better than a woman in this business!”