Chapter 2
As the sergeant progressed further into the cave he couldn't believe his eyes, there was lighting and a table. Now who would live in a cave, he wondered. Suddenly he heard some snorting on his right and jumped around. "Toronado!" the sergeant couldn't believe his eyes, Toronado in a secret cave, this has to be the hideout. "Madre de Dios!" Maybe there are some clues here, he thought. After all this was a start. He walked over to the desk and saw the clothing rack, and a stairs, he walked up a few steps and saw a dead end. He walked back to check the desk. What if Zorro comes in here, what would he do, he would have my head, the sergeant couldn't help but be afraid. There are a lot of papers on the desk, this looks like results from an experiment, what is this? He picked up a book from the desk and opened it, he saw dates and an account of Zorro exploits, to bad there was no name under it.
One thing was for sure, according to the sergeant this had to be written by Zorro. All of a sudden he remembered the rendezvous, he had to go! He walked to the exit and looked around, on the ground he found a similar lever as outside. It had to be the way out, he went back and grabbed the diary and took it with him. He had no idea as what to do with it, but it had to be a fascinating book. He knew one thing for sure and that was he would not tell the Alcalde one thing. If he did the Alcalde was sure to arrest his friends, all of this being on their land and he didn't want that. He went outside and walked over to his horse, carefully he placed the diary in his saddlebag and left.
"Felipe, I will check on Toronado, if father asks tell him I forgot something in town and it will be a while for I return.
Felipe signs "Do you need my help?"
"No Felipe, I will check on Toronado and clean up a bit, papers from my last experiment needs to be sorted out as well, you need to get some rest." Diego pushed the lever on the fireplace mantel and went down. "Let's get you some fresh hay first." He put down some hay and walked to his desk. He put away some papers and noticed he was missing his diary. Maybe Felipe placed it somewhere else? He went upstairs and saw Felipe in the sala. "Felipe where did you put the diary?"
"It's on your desk as usual, isn't it?"
"No, Felipe it isn't. Come help me look for it." They both went down and started looking everywhere, they got more worried with every minute of search. "Felipe, I will check the cave entrance I'll be back in a second." He walked toward the entrance and immediately saw a set of tracks and followed them throughout the cave, he realized what had happened. "Stop looking Felipe, there are some tracks at the entrance and they go all the way through the cave. I'm afraid someone has found out and took the diary with him. Knowing the aviso it's most likely it was a lancer, there is only one track. Luckily I didn't put our names in it, but a couple of thing mentioned could lead him to me. Fortunately I kept out someone helped me so you are save."
"We have to get it back, should I saddle Toronado?" "Sí Felipe, it's getting dark now and I will visit the quartel and see where it is now. Let's just hope the Alcalde hasn't gotten it yet. If he hasn't I'm sure that the lancer who has it keeps it with him, he will want to know what it says."
Mendoza was in his barrack staring at the book, and slowly opened the cover. What could be in here? Maybe there are some clues as to who he is. He read the first few pages and found out why this person became Zorro, and that he has a father. But why isn't a mother mentioned? She must have died or something has happened. As time went by he read more and more pages, he couldn't believe what he was actually reading. This book had details, not even he knew everything the Alcalde had planned, but it was all in this book. Also more clues were mentioned, he knew for sure now the mother had died and that he was a caballero. There were few men who fit that description, but he also wasn't married. He turned the next page and read the final clue. He buys me dinner and talks to me and sees me as his friend. There is only one person who does that! It can't be him, it's impossible. Diego De La Vega is the only one who buys me dinner and talks to me as his friend and we do that quite often. But he's nothing like him! He put the book down and put some pieces together and no matter how hard he tried to convince himself the evidence was in his hands and he knew it. He read that Zorro's father called him a coward, Diego fit that description. Don Alejandro must not have known about this otherwise he would not have called his son like that. Mendoza started to think never did he see Zorro and Diego together and he started to accept the truth. Diego is Zorro.
On the quartel roof a black figure started creeping about looking inside the barracks if he found what he was looking for. He looked down at the next room saw Mendoza put something away, a book. It had to be it. Let's take a closer look at it, he thought. Silently he crept inside the room and walks towards to drawer and pulled it open, there it was! He quickly grabbed it and went back to leave, but in the meanwhile Mendoza had woken up.
"D...Die...Diego...is that you? It better be or I'm going insane. I've read it and it's the only thing that explains what mentioned in there." He picked up his sword just in case and walked towards the figure in black and took a good look at him. His fear got confirmed when he recognized Diego's features in his face. He dropped his sword and stood there staring, and suddenly dropped down to the ground. Zorro knelt down a took a look at the sergeant. How am I supposed to clean this mess up, he knows who I am and he knows where the cave is. Hiding was no option that much was clear to him. Suddenly Mendoza woke up.
"Buonas noches, sergeant. How are you feeling, I do hope you didn't hurt your head to much." No reply came and than he saw the sergeant looking at him. Maybe he has amnesia, if that is so he might forget about me. He picked up the sergeant and lay him down in his bed.
"Diego, you will not hurt me now will you, I didn't mean to betray you like this. It was an accident, during training I was tired and thought that there was a good place to rest by some bushes against a wall and when I walked there the wall suddenly disappeared."
"Do not worry yourself, I have no intension of harming you. Promise me one thing and that is that you will not tell anyone about this, not ever. If not for me than for father, Felipe and Victoria, even though they have no idea about this, it will not stop the Alcalde from trying to punish them as well"
"Diego, I don't want to be responsible for anyones death, I feel that I have to tell you that this training is a cover. We are ordered to get to know the lands as good as possible to be able to track you down by going on roads we usually do not take. I found that cave of yours that way, what if someone else finds it like that as well. Then you will be in real trouble. I discovered it the first day of training what if during the rest of those two weeks another will find it."
"Try to keep others away from there or go with them to make sure they will not find it as well. Come to the hacienda tomorrow afternoon and we will discuss more then, but for now we both need to think this over. We do not want to make any decisions that we will regret later."
"I will, tomorrow I will send the lancers to some of your neighbors and you will be save for then, but I don't know if it will keep them away."
"It's all right sergeant do what you can and gracias for not taking the book to the Alcalde who knows what would have happened then"
"De nada, Diego."
Zorro rode back to the cave wondering what more could be done, he found that he had no answer to it. Maybe Felipe has an idea, at least it was Mendoza who had it, any other would have walked straight to the Alcalde. He entered the cave and showed to book to a concerned Felipe
"Who had it, does the Alcalde know, had the lancer read it all ready?" "The Alcalde doesn't know about this, but Mendoza has read most of it and knows who I am now. That is a problem, he will come here this afternoon to discuss this further. In the meanwhile it might be better if you don't go in the cave, he doesn't know that you are involved in this and I would like to keep it that way."
Felipe gave a clear nod and they both left the cave with worried thoughts.
