CHAPTER XVIII.
HOPE IS CRUSHED AGAIN.
Señorita Lolita Pulido passed into the store room of the adobe building with her head erect and a look of pride in her face, as has been said. But when the heavy door was closed behind her, and she heard a bar dropped into place, she changed swiftly.
For a moment she leaned against the door, listening to Barbados and Inez, his woman. Then Barbados went away, and the woman also, and the señorita dropped upon a stool that happened to be in one corner of the room, and buried her face in her hands.
There seemed no hope left. Señor Zorro, Don Diego Vega, her beloved, was at the bottom of the sea, she supposed. She was in the hands of these pirates, being kept a prize for a man she detested and loathed. There seemed no way of escape.
But the señorita had determined her course. She would die rather than be shamed, she told herself. She would join Don Diego in the land of to-morrow, be his celestial bride. The blood of the Pulidos coursed her veins, and told her to do that.
It was dark in the store room, but presently the door was opened and the woman Inez entered with a small torch made of palm fiber and tallow. She fastened the torch to the wall, went out again, and returned with food. A jug of water, some poorly cooked goat flesh and a pulpy mass, the like of which the señorita never had seen before, constituted the meal.
“Eat, wench!” Inez commanded. “Eat, and drink your fill of the water! A dainty morsel you are, but there be some men who like women of a different sort. Ha! ’Twould do you no good to make merry eyes at my Barbados!”
The señorita scarcely understood, for she had not been taught to make eyes at any man. She drank deeply of the water, for she was thirsty, and she wanted to eat, but did not like the appearance of the food.
“Too dainty for pirate fare, eh?” Inez sneered, rubbing her fat nose with a forefinger. “Wait until real hunger gnaws at your stomach, pretty wench, and then you’ll eat!”
The señorita got up from the stool suddenly and stepped forward. Her hands were at her sides, her chin was raised, there was pleading in her face.