“I thank thee, son!”
“Son?” Gonzales cried. “You call an old sinner like me by such a name?”
“Perhaps you hold more worth than you yourself think,” the old fray replied.
Sergeant Gonzales could not endure such talk. He grew redder in the face, blew out his cheeks, gulped and cleared his throat.
“I am a rough soldier!” Sergeant Gonzales declared. “And I belong in the battle, which is almost at an end.”
“Go, son, and my blessings go with thee!”
Gonzales bowed his head an instant. Then, as though ashamed of himself, he bellowed at nothing at all and charged away through the smoke.
CHAPTER XXXI.
“MEAL MUSH AND GOAT’S MILK!”
The appearance of Señor Zorro at the scene of battle when he was supposed to be behind bars in the presidio at San Diego de Alcála terrified Captain Ramón. He had a sudden feeling that the fates were against him—that his treachery was to be punished. And he found that his plans were ruined again.
He had no faith in a personal encounter with Señor Zorro. Something seemed to tell him that such would result fatally for himself. And he had small faith in proving Zorro a traitor after the fight, and a great fear that Zorro and some of the captured pirates would, on the other hand, prove him to be one.