“Señorita!” he whispered.
“Zorro!”
“Safe again, señorita. I have been playing with these babies of pirates.”
“Be not rash, else I call you Don Diego,” she said.
“How can I be Señor Zorro, and not rash?” he wanted to know. “The dawn is coming. Have you rested?”
“I could not sleep,” she replied. “There were thoughts of you, and of other things.”
“But now I guard,” he whispered. “Sleep, and I will watch.”
She started to make reply, but instead she hissed a warning. Heavy steps had sounded outside the cabin door. She heard the bar being removed. And then the door was opened and one of the pirates stood in it, grinning, a torch in his hand.
“I have brought food,” he said, “at the chief’s command.”
Señorita Lolita’s lips curled in scorn as she looked at him.