"I do, your excellency, and am proud to admit it!"
"Ha! You condemn her and her parents by that statement! You deny now they are in league with you?"
"I do. Her parents do not know of our love!"
"This señorita is scarcely conventional!"
"Señor! Governor or no, another thought like that and I spill your blood!" Señor Zorro cried. "I have told you what happened that night at the house of Don Diego Vega. Captain Ramón will testify that what I have said is the exact truth. Is it not, comandante? Answer!"
"It—it is the truth!" the captain gulped, looking at the muzzle of the highwayman's pistol.
"Then you have told me falsehood, and can no longer be an officer of mine!" the governor cried. "It appears that this highwayman can do as he pleases with you! Ha! But I still believe that Don Carlos Pulido is a traitor, and the members of his family, and it has availed you nothing, Señor Zorro, to play this little scene.
"My soldiers shall continue to pursue them—and you! And before they are done, I'll have the Pulidos dragged in the dirt, and I'll have you stretching a rope with your carcass!"
"Quite a bold speech!" observed Señor Zorro. "You set your soldiers a pretty task, your excellency. I rescued your three prisoners to-night, and they have escaped."