Curse of Capistrano - Fool Dad

Don Diego drank and talked with them for a time, and then sat to one side and listened, as if such foolishness bored him.

"It were well for this Señor Zorro that we did not catch up with him," one cried. "Any one of us is a match for the fellow. Were the soldiers men of merit he would have been taken long before this."

"Ha, for a chance at him!" another screeched. "How the landlord did howl when he was whipped!"

"He rode in this direction?" Don Alejandro asked.

"We are not sure as to that. He took the San Gabriel trail, and thirty of us followed. We separated into three bands, each going a different direction. It is the good fortune of one of the other bands to have him now, I suppose. But it is our excellent good fortune to be here."

Don Diego stood before the company.

"Señores, you will pardon me, I know, if I retire," he said. "I am fatigued with the journey."

"Retire, by all means," one of his friends cried. "And when you are rested, come out to us again and make merry."

They laughed at that; and Don Diego bowed ceremoniously, and observed that several scarcely could get to their feet to bow in return, and then the scion of the house of Vega hurried from the room with the deaf and dumb man at his heels.

He entered a room that always was ready for him, and in which a candle already was burning, and closed the door behind him, and Bernardo stretched his big form on the floor just outside it, to guard his master during the night.

In the great living-room, Don Diego scarcely was missed. His father was frowning and twisting his mustache, for he would have had his son like other young men. In his youth, he was remembering, he never left such a company early in the evening. And once again he sighed and wished that the saints had given him a son with red blood in his veins.

The caballeros were singing now, joining in the chorus of a popular love song, and their discordant voices filled the big room. Don Alejandro smiled as he listened, for it brought his own youth back to him.

They sprawled on chairs and benches on both sides of the long table, pounding it with their mugs as they sang, laughing boisterously now and then.

"Were this Señor Zorro only here now!" one of them cried.

A voice from the doorway answered him:

"Señores, he is here!"

[...]

The song ceased; the laughter was stilled. They blinked their eyes and looked across the room. Señor Zorro stood just inside the door, having entered from the veranda without them knowing it. He wore his long cloak and his mask, and in one hand he held his accursed pistol, and its muzzle was pointed at the table.

"So these are the manner of men who pursue Señor Zorro and hope to take him!" he said. "Make not a move, else lead flies! Your weapons, I perceive, are in the corner. I could kill some of you and be gone before you could reach them!"

"'Tis he! 'Tis he!" a tipsy caballero was crying.

"Your noise may be heard a mile away, señores! What a posse to go pursuing a man! Is this the way you attend to duty? Why have you stopped to make merry while Señor Zorro rides the highway?"

"Give me my blade and let me stand before him!" one cried.

"If I allowed you to have blade, you would be unable to stand!" the highwayman answered. "Think you there is one in this company who could fence with me now?"

"There is one!" cried Don Alejandro, in a loud voice, springing to his feet. "I openly say that I have admired some of the things you have done, señor; but now you have entered my house and are abusing my guests, and I must call you to account!"

"I have no quarrel with you, Don Alejandro, and you have none with me!" Señor Zorro said. "I refuse to cross blades with you. And I am but telling these men some truths."

"By the saints, I shall make you!"

"A moment, Don Alejandro! Señores, this aged don would fight me, and that would mean a wound or death for him. Will you allow it?"

"Don Alejandro must not fight our battles!" one of them cried.

"Then see that he sits in his place, and all honor to him!"

Don Alejandro started forward, but two of the caballeros sprang before him and urged him to go back, saying that his honor was safe, since he offered combat. Raging, Don Alejandro complied.

"A worthy bunch of young blades!" Señor Zorro sneered. "You drink wine and make merry while injustice is all about you. Take your swords in hand and attack oppression! Live up to your noble names and your blue blood, señores! Drive the thieving politicians from the land! Protect the frailes whose work gave us these broad acres! Be men, not drunken fashion-plates!"


- The Curse of Capistrano, Chapters 24 and 25