“I begin to comprehend,” Barbados replied.
“I may depend upon you?”
“Sí, señor! We attend to the house of this Don Diego Vega and to the don personally. I shall send a small force to abduct the girl and take her to the shore. She will be waiting for you at the rendezvous to the south.”
“Good! Watch when the soldiers ride away, and strike an hour later. Adios!”
The cloak dropped for a moment as the man from the village straightened himself. Barbados got a good look at his face as the moonlight struck it. He gasped.
“Your forehead!” he said.
“It is nothing. That cursed beast of a Zorro put it there!”
Barbados looked again. On the man’s forehead was a ragged “Z,” put there in such a manner that it would remain forever. There was a moment of silence, and then Barbados found himself alone. The other had slipped away through the shadows.
Barbados grinned. “Here is a double deal of some sort, but it need bring me no fear,” he mused. “Here would be startling news for all men to know. Wants to steal a girl now, does he? For his share of proper loot I’d steal him half a score of girls!”
He grinned again and started back toward his men. Barbados did not fear the soldiers, and he knew they would be sent away. He could be sure of that. For the conspirator who had come to him out of the dark was none other than Captain Ramón, commandante of the presidio at Reina de Los Angeles.