The soldiers and pirates were fighting hotly at some distance from the buildings. The huts were ablaze. Women and children were trying to escape into the brush. These things Señor Zorro saw at a glance, and also that the fight was an even one, with the advantage to neither force.
He ascertained that the caballeros were still prisoners. Only a moment he hesitated, and then he kicked at the horse’s flanks again and raced the animal down the slope. The fight was to one side of him, and so he encountered neither soldier nor pirate. He had a glimpse of Ramón in the distance, and believed that Ramón saw him in turn. He rode wildly among the blazing huts, and so came to the adobe building where the prisoners were housed.
Señor Zorro sprang from his horse and dashed into the building. With a metal bar, he broke the lock of the inner door and shrieked to the caballeros that they were free.
“Follow me to your weapons!” he shouted. “Fight with the troopers against the pirates! Catch me this renegade and traitor of a Ramón! Remember, Ramón is mine!”
They answered him with glad shouts and rushed at his heels out of the building and toward the hut where the captured weapons had been placed, and before which there were no guards now. The roof of the hut already was blazing.
Señor Zorro kicked open the door, dashed inside, and began tossing out swords. The caballeros rushed forward, shouting as they claimed their weapons. Zorro dashed outside again, his own beloved blade in his hand. Already the caballeros were running toward the fight.
“Zorro, by the saints!” It was the bellowing voice of Sergeant Gonzales that hailed him. “What is this talk of my captain being a traitor?”
“He is!” Zorro cried. “He was in league with the pirates, and then turned against them. He is a double traitor! Forward, sergeant! Use your blade well! Ruiz! Where is Ruiz?”
“The devils took him out to roast him at the stake,” the sergeant replied. “That was long before the fighting began.”
“To roast him—” Señor Zorro gasped.