CHAPTER XXVIII.
UNEXPECTED HELP.
Left behind helpless in the guard room of the presidio, Señor Zorro fought to control his emotions, telling himself that he could think out no proper line of action while his brain was in sad tumult.
His case seemed hopeless. He was unable to make an escape, and Captain Ramón was leading the troopers against the pirates. Señor Zorro began wondering whether his good fortune had deserted him entirely. The señorita was in grave peril, and also his friends the caballeros, and he could do nothing.
But there was a certain outside influence at work regarding which Señor Zorro knew nothing, an influence caused by his just acts when, as Zorro, he had ridden up and down El Camino Real righting the wrongs inflicted on frailes and natives.
The native fisherman had guided him to the vicinity of the pirates’ camp before dawn, and then had disappeared. Señor Zorro did not wonder at that, since it was commendable in the native to save his own skin.
The fisherman, however, had continued across the hills to San Diego de Alcála to pay a visit to relatives and friends. There he waited impatiently, anticipating news of a fight at the pirates’ camp. And, because he admired uniforms, though they inspired fear in him as well as admiration, he drifted near the presidio.
He was in time to behold the arrival of Captain Ramón, and later of Señor Zorro. After a time, he saw Señor Zorro’s attempt at escape, and watched the troopers gallop away. And then, by loitering near the presidio, he ascertained something of the truth—that Señor Zorro was being held a prisoner in the maniac’s shirt and would be dealt with at some future time.
The native wandered around the huts of the village, doing more genuine thinking than ever before in his life. He remembered how Señor Zorro, a long time before, had saved his father. He was a neophyte native, and he remembered, also, how Señor Zorro had fought for the frailes when they were being persecuted.
The native fisherman did not have to think long on the subject before arriving at a conclusion. Having done so, he went to the hut of a cousin and begged a bottle of palm wine, potent stuff that could make a man mad.