She whirled around to bar the door of the storeroom. The little señorita waited, trying to be calm, though her heart was pounding at her ribs. She was to escape at last! She could get up the slope, hurry through the trees—
“You must use speed!” the woman was informing her. “And if you are caught, you must take all the blame. Barbados would kill me if he knew.”
“Give me a dagger,” the señorita begged. “Then, if I am caught, I’ll do that which will render me speechless!”
“Ha!”
“I mean it! Death would be welcome to the other!”
The woman hesitated a moment, and then reached beneath her ragged shawl and drew a dagger out. The señorita clutched it, and hid it away in her bosom.
For another moment they faced each other. And then the woman Inez lurched across the room toward the door, the señorita trotting along at her heels.
And hope turned to black despair once more in the twinkling of an eye! For the door suddenly was thrown open, and before them stood—Captain Ramón!
CHAPTER XIX.
DOUBLE-FACED.
There was a moment of astonishment for all three of them. Then the Señorita Lolita gave a little cry of mingled fright and despair, and recoiled against the wall. Señor Zorro dead, the pirates winning the battle against the caballeros, and before her the man she loathed and feared! The future seemed very dark, indeed.