Gray Wing announced that he had been on his way out of town when he had come across Zorro's trail. He was very close. Diego turned to Felipe ordering him to lock the door. As soon as Gray Wing turned his head toward Felipe, Diego knew he had made a mistake.
'Is that a rash on your neck?', the Indian asked the boy, who, in response, did the last thing he should have done: he touched a red patch on his neck and looked guilty. Diego cringed. He told the Indian the boy didn't speak, but Grey Wing was not interested into that. 'But he does eat berries. And too many of them will cause such a rash.' Diego grabbed Felipe by the back of his neck. His reply was quick. 'So my father and I keep telling him,- he explained as he moved to a bush next to the gate. – As you can see, he's nearly eaten the entire bush clean.'
Grey Wing smiled. He had understood. Before talking he became serious again, 'If Zorro should ever cross your path, tell him I owe him my life.'
Diego resumed his former position and replied that that was highly unlikely. 'But if that should ever happen, I would be happy to give him your message.'
The Indian nodded and turned, then he started walking away without turning back. Felipe relaxed, reached over and picked a berry from the bush. He had no time to put it into his mouth that Diego slapped him quite hard up the backside of his head. Felipe turned to Diego and defiantly popped the berry into his mouth. Diego reached out with both hands and pretended to choke the boy, who ducked out of Diego's grasp and ran toward the hacienda, laughing. Diego laughed himself as he watched Gray Wing ride away, then he breathed a sigh of relief, called Pedro so he would take care of his mare and went inside. He knew Felipe was in the cave tending to Tornado, and he needed some solitude to think about all of the things that had gone wrong, all imputable to Felipe's mistakes. Mistakes that had been made exclusively out of the young age of the perpetrator.
He went home and he had barely sat when María came and started telling him that she was worried for Felipe. He had returned home tired, smelly, frightened and with nasty looking scratches and bruises. 'He said he had been rough playing with some friends of his, but he looked quite worried. You don't think he was involved in some type of fight, do you? He's always been such a good, responsible boy! I had him take a bath and I quickly dabbed his scratches, but I think you should look into the matter yourself.' When she finished talking she looked at him who was answering he was going to do exactly that, then she wondered: 'Are you sure you're all right?'. Diego smiled at her. 'I'm just tired, María. Thank you! I've spent the night reading, then I joined the posse…'