“Diego!” the señorita moaned.
“As a special favor you may kiss the wench,” Barbados said. “It will be practice for her. And take with you to the bottom of the sea the knowledge that another will kiss her soon.”
The señorita rushed forward and threw her arms around him and kissed him, unashamed.
“Diego! I’ll follow you!” she said.
“’Tis a merry end,” Señor Zorro declared. “Be brave of heart! Our friends are at hand, señorita! If Don Audre Ruiz is aboard that ship he will know how to save you—and how to avenge me.”
Again they kissed, and then the two pirates jerked her roughly backward.
Barbados laughed like a fiend.
“Practice for the other man!” he roared. “When Captain Ramón—”
“So it is Ramón?” Zorro cried.
“Sí! And a lot of good the knowledge will do you now.”