by Peter David
Several of his men gathered closely to each other and they shouldered the chest up onto themselves. Diabolito and Maria headed out of the cave and the men followed them.
“This is going wonderfully,” Maria gushed to him.
Diabolito did not share her enthusiasm. “I would still like to see what’s in it. No pirate appreciates a treasure that he cannot see with his own eyes.” He unrolled the map from his back pocket. “All it says is, ‘My most precious treasure.’ But he never specifies.”
“Treasure is treasure,” Maria said confidently. “Whether it’s jewels, gold, coins or whatever, I’m sure it’s going to be worth all this trouble you have gone to.”
“I hope you’re correct,” said Diabolito.
And just as they reached the top of the path … a figure stepped out of the darkness and stopped them in their path.
Chapter Ten
Quintero’s Bad Move
As Captain Quintero approached the de la Vega hacienda, it suddenly occurred to him that he might be making a genuine mistake, because del Riego had warned him that he would be having a secret meeting in the house. It was entirely likely that the participants in the meeting were concerned about keeping their identities secret. Were it the case, Quintero’s arrival would endanger that. It was entirely possible, therefore, del Riego would be furious over his arrival, which would put Quintero on the wrong side of the relationship.
With the hacienda within view, Quintero drew up his horse and gave free rein to his worries. Perhaps this was Zorro’s trap. Perhaps he was determined to make Quintero ride into a secret situation and, by thus exposing it …
His mind trailed off. He wasn’t able to complete the thought, and he knew why. It was because he was trying to outthink Zorro and that endeavor never ended well.
That was when he heard something from right nearby. It was a noise coming from behind some bushes off to the right. Quintero dismounted and walked behind the bush and there, to his shock, were two men with their arms lashed to their sides and black strips of cloth covering their mouths. The noise was the sound of one of them kicking the bush, breaking branches and trying to get someone’s attention.
“What in the world — ?” he said.
They both heard him and when they spotted him, their eyes widened in what was quite clearly fear. That made no sense to Quintero. He was potentially their means of salvation, so why would they be afraid of him … ?
Because he was a military officer. That was the obvious reason. Which meant they were guilty of something and were afraid he was going to arrest them.
From the looks of their clothing, the type of thing they were guilty of looked quite obvious. Clearly they were pirates.
And everything that little fool who had brought the allegedly false story to Quintero had said began to look much more valid.
He reached down to the nearest one and pulled the gag off. “Who are you?” he demanded.
“We were robbed!” the man said.
“That was not the question I asked you. And do not attempt to lie to me, because it is painfully obvious that you are pirates.”
The man looked surprised. “Really? How did you know?”
“I didn’t know for sure until just now.”
“What do you mea — ?” Then he closed his eyes in mental pain and slammed his head on the ground. “I am an idiot!”
“Well then, at least you’re in the right profession. Again, what is your name?”
“Jose,” he growled.
“Did Zorro do this to you, Jose?”
He spat on the ground in response. “Si. He did.”
“And where did he go next?”
“How would I know?!” he said with a snarl. “I was back here behind a bush! He rode away! I didn’t see where!”
That certainly seemed to be the truth. The only question before Quintero was, what was he supposed to do next? The presence of these pirates certainly seemed to give support to what the man in his office had said. If that was the case, then del Riego was actually the pirate named Diabolito. Which meant that Quintero had given the de la Vega hacienda over to a thief and likely killer. Diabolito’s plan was now painfully obvious: There was no meeting of secret conspirators. He wanted the de la Vegas out so he could rummage through their house and steal everything there of value. God knew there was plenty there that would appeal to thieves: valuable artwork, rugs, who knew what else. It would be a treasure trove for any typical pirate.
And Quintero had handed it all to them and then absented himself and everyone else in the house so they would have seclusion.
Idiot.
First thing was first. Quintero promptly slid the gag back over the pirate’s mouth. He uttered infuriated mumbles, but otherwise was effectively silenced once more. He came back around the bush and stared up at the hacienda. Should he charge into the place with his sword out and arrest them all? He was one man and a band of an unknown number of pirates would hardly feel compelled to submit to his authority.
No, he needed his men with him … just as Zorro had instructed that idiot to tell him. What was happening to the world where Quintero should have trusted Zorro’s messenger rather than his own instinct.
But how many men were in there?
Quintero came to a reasonable conclusion. He should serve as a spy. He needed to go up to the hacienda and survey it to see how many men there were.
He tied his horse off, wrapping the reins around a small tree, and then carefully stole up to the hacienda. He did everything to stay within the voluminous number of shadows so as to avoid being noticed by anyone who might be looking at him.
The closer he drew, though, the more he heard nothing coming from within the building. Pirates on their own should have been making quite a bit of noise that would easily carry to the outside. Yet all was silent, which indicated one of two things to Quintero: Either everyone was asleep, which was unlikely given the time of the evening. Or else they were not there at all.
Quintero stood at the front, listened at windows, circled the building in order to have a view of the interior from all directions. He spotted nothing. They were gone.
He did, however, see something that he could not even begin to understand. In one of the rooms, a huge hole had been dug into the ground. Why in the world would pirates dig up a … ?
Treasure.
That had to be it. The pirates had reason to believe that there was treasure buried beneath the de la Vega hacienda, and had put together this entire charade in order to acquire it. Considering that the hole was empty and there were no pirates around, it forced Quintero to the conclusion the pirates had acquired their wealth and had departed from the area.
That left him with only one alternative. He had to return hastily to the pueblo, gather his forces, and ride at full gallop to the ship that they had landed on. It had been a Spanish galleon with military insignias on it, but it was obviously their pirate ship.
Or …
They had captured it.
It was now all plain to Quintero. The pirates had managed to overcome a Spanish galleon, had acquired useful uniforms from the crew, and then had sailed it to Los Angeles in order to carry off this scheme.
And his sister was part of the crew. She had tricked Quintero into meeting with Diabolito, forming a friendship and then capitalizing on that to get his assistance in removing the de la Vegas. Despite his concern over being a single blade against a group of pirates, Quintero trembled all the more within over the prospect of explaining the duplicity of his own sister in tricking de la Vega into departing. And how Quintero had been so thoroughly fooled that he had backed up the pirate in ordering the de la Vegas to depart their hacienda.
Maybe the de la Vegas are actually pirates and they buried their treasure …
Quintero closed his eyes and moaned. That was a measure of how desperate he was, to be trying to rationalize the theft of the treasure as one set of pirates in opposition with another. It was obvious the de la Vegas had had no idea of
the treasure’s existence.
He had to get back to the pueblo immediately. Standing around here and wondering was pointless.
He moved around from the back of the house and started toward the tree where he had lashed up his horse. Even as he moved, though, he was sure he suddenly heard noise coming from the immediate right. He glanced over and saw the path that led down and around the hacienda. His instinct told him to ignore it, to run for his horse and gallop away from this cursed place. But instead he allowed his curiosity to overwhelm him and he walked over to the point where the path led away from the property.
Quintero stood at the top of the path just to catch a glimpse of who or what was coming up the path. If it happened to be simple citizens engaging in some exercise by walking around, he would warn them away from the area.
It was not ordinary citizens.
He stared down in astonishment and saw the supposed del Riego, with Maria just behind him. More to the point, he saw several men behind him who were carrying what appeared to be a large and padlocked chest.
Del Riego blinked in surprise. “Captain Quintero,” he said in a formal tone. “How unexpected to see you again.”
Quintero immediately pulled his gun from his holster and he aimed it squarely at the pirate. “Do not,” Quintero warned him, “attempt to engage in friendly banter, you walking falsehood. I know you for who and what you are.”
“Then we can dispense with the pleasantries,” Diabolito said, sounding genuinely pleased to be able to speak with Quintero in an honest manner.
“Put your hands up,” said Quintero. “I am arresting you and all your men.”
Del Riego reached down to his side and pulled out a cutlass. “I see you have all the advantage, Captain. You are pointing a gun at me and I am armed with a sword. I do not suppose you would be interested in holstering your gun and engaging me in man to man combat, as a gentleman would.”
“You are no gentleman, Diabolito. I am quite certain of that. Now raise your hands … ”
“Yes, I could do that,” said Diabolito. “On the other hand, I could always do this.”
Then, before Quintero could do anything to prevent him, the Little Devil reached behind himself, grabbed Maria, and yanked her around so that she was directly in front of him, serving as a human shield. He brought the cutlass up to her neck and pressed the blade against it. “Would you like to become your mother’s only child, Quintero? Because I can make sure that will happen.”
Maria’s eyes were wide with terror. “Wh-what are you doing?” and her voice trembled as she spoke.
“Quiet!” Diabolito shouted at her. “Quintero, it’s up to you. Throw down your gun or I will throw down the body of your dead sister.”
“You’re bluffing,” said Quintero.
Maria cried out in pain because the cutlass had just been pressed against her throat. A thin line of blood dribbled down the front of her clothing.
“No,” said the Little Devil. “I am not. I will give you until the count of five for you to throw down your gun. One … two … ”
“Juan,” said Maria. Her skin had gone dead white. This was not some trick that she and Diabolito typically pulled. She was genuinely afraid that he was going to kill her.
“Three,” said Diabolito.
Quintero’s gun was trembling. He took in a deep breath, let it out slowly, trying to steady it and failing completely.
“Four,” said Diabolito and he cut deeper into her throat. “Fi—”
With a roar of fury, Quintero threw his gun down.
Diabolito shoved Maria aside and immediately advanced on Quintero. Quintero turned to grab up the gun that he had tossed aside, but he didn’t see it. The damned thing had bounced away. He cursed himself; it was his personal weapon that he had for ages and had even carved his initials in the handle. Now it was lost.
Then Diabolito was right in front of him and Quintero immediately yanked his own sword clear. The blades crashed against one another, and Quintero delivered his best offense against the pirate, trying to push him backwards down the path.
He had no luck in doing so. He realized in seconds that Diabolito was a superior swordsman to himself. So Quintero tried switching up his offensive tactics, but nothing worked. Diabolito effortlessly defended himself, and then with a sudden sweep he brought his sword around and knocked Quintero’s blade out of his hands. It flew off to the side, bounced off the path, and plummeted off it. Quintero was now helpless.
Diabolito brought his cutlass up to Quintero’s throat and now the captain was as helpless as his sister had been.
And now I die.
To his complete shock, Maria cried out, “No! Matias, no!”
Diabolito’s head snapped around as he looked at Maria for a moment.
Then suddenly he swung his fist around. It clubbed into the side of Quintero’s head and that was the last thing he remembered.
***
Maria let out a sigh of relief as she saw her brother’s body slide to the ground, unconscious but not dead.
Diabolito glared at her with obvious annoyance. “You should not have interrupted me. A woman should not decide who lives and who dies. Besides,” and he nodded toward Quintero’s unconscious form, “you told me there was no love lost between you and you brother. Yet now I was going to dispatch him and you interceded.”
It took her some moments to find the words to say. “Love him or hate him, he is still my brother. I felt … sorry for him.”
“Save your pity for others.”
She reached up to her throat and felt blood still trickling from it. It was not life threatening in either the amount or speed, but nevertheless it was flowing and that was enough to sicken her. She extracted a handkerchief from her dress and placed it hard against the bleeding in order to stop it, applying pressure to it.
Diabolito moved past her and shouted to the men, “Get the chest up here! We need to return to the ship! And where the hell are Jose and Escobar! They were supposed to get here with a wagon! Has anyone seen them?”
There were shaken heads and mutters of, “No, Captain,” which served to annoy Diabolito greatly. “Well, someone go and find us a wagon! Steal something! We need to get the treasure out of here!”
Several pirates sprinted past him, going off to follow the orders their captain had just barked. He and Maria then flattened themselves against the cliff side so that the men carrying the chest would be able to get past them. Diabolito then studied Maria and noticed that she was shaking as she put pressure against the blood to cease its flowing. “Are you all right?” he asked.
She turned and glared at him. “You threatened to kill me! You put a sword to my throat!”
He smiled. “Did you seriously believe that I would hurt you?”
She pulled the handkerchief away and pointed at the thin line of blood on her throat. “You did this!”
“A minor scratch,” he said dismissively. “I knew that your oaf of a brother would believe my threats. You’ve told me any number of times about his foolishness. About how you always fooled him when you were both children. I knew that I could easily dupe him into thinking that I would harm you.”
Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “So it was just a bluff.”
“Of course.”
“And if he had called it?”
“I knew he wouldn’t,” Diabolito assured her.
“But if he — ”
“He wasn’t going to.” This time he did nothing to restrain his anger, and once more Maria blanched as a result of his fury. He recovered himself once more, smiled, and patted her on the cheek. “Let us not discuss this any further.”
She nodded her head. Then her gaze shifted to her downed brother. “What about him? Do we leave him there?”
“Of course not. We bring him along. Undoubtedly we can ransom him along with the others.”
“That’s a very good idea,” said Maria, who did not think it was a good idea at all.
Suddenly one of his men sprinted t
oward him. “We found Escobar and Jose!”
“Where were they?”
“Tied up behind a bush!”
Diabolito could scarcely believe it. He was about to ask how they had wound up there, but immediately the answer presented itself to him. “Let me guess: Zorro did it.”
The man’s head bobbed. “Defeated them and imprisoned them.”
“Because he’s too weak-kneed to kill anyone,” Diabolito said with conviction. “He’s made that abundantly clear. Well, he learned very quickly that his reluctance to deliver a killing stroke is a pigheaded attitude to have. He had two men at his mercy and he left them alive. What do you call that?”
Decency. The simple answer went through Maria’s head, but she knew better than to give it voice.
“Stupidity,” said the man who had reported about the captured pirates.
Diabolito smiled and nodded, not noticing the pensiveness on Maria’s face and her clear reluctance to say what she was thinking.
His men were binding up the unconscious Quintero. Maria reflexively winced inside as she watched them binding his hands none too gently. She had no idea why she felt that way. This was Juan, after all, a man with whom she had never had a particularly good relationship. But seeing him helpless like that moved something within her.
She was sorely tempted to beg Diabolito to let her brother go, but she immediately knew that she would be wasting her breath. When the Little Devil decided he was going to keep someone for ransom, nothing would ever change his mind. And if someone tried, then Diabolito would inflict harm on the person being argued over just to show that he was serious.
Whatever Quintero had gotten himself into, he was going to have to get himself out of it on his own.
Quintero was lying across the back of one of the pirate’s horses. He was still unconscious, for which Maria was grateful. She was not looking forward to the barrage of bombast that would ensue once he was awake.
Minutes later, the men came running to Diabolito with good news. They had found one wagon left behind the de la Vega hacienda. Diabolito smiled in approval while the pirates hitched one of their horses to the wagon, and within a short time they had managed to load the treasure chest onto the back of the wagon.