Have you read the previous chapter? Just asking, because it was updated very shortly after chapter 12.
Are you still enjoying the story? I like it you let me know.
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Chapter 14
Mendoza remembered the mentioned basket very well. It had been the most uncomfortable two days and nights.
"I... I eeh." he was starting to have some clue what it was the tavern owner wanted him to do. Luckily for the señorita there was little he wouldn't do for a nice big flan. The chilli would be an extra bonus.
When Victoria talked to him again, she started working on his morality.
"Mendoza, how many times has don Alejandro helped you? How many times has Zorro saved your life? Don't you think it is time to do something back?"
"Señorita, I would love to help, but what if the alcalde finds out. He will get very angry." moving his finger between his neck and collar of his uniform.
Victoria waving his worries away.
"He will think it is just another trick Zorro played on him. He will never suspect you. Not if you suffer the same problem...
Mendoza, I just returned visiting don Diego. He is devastated. The poor man can't even find the strength to get out of his bed. Just the thought, that his father is going to hang makes him sick. You do know don Diego has a very weak constitution, don't you?"
"Si everyone knows that, what is it you want me to do exactly?"
Victoria smiled, explaining her plan to the sergeant.
"We get our hands on some bark from the Cascara tree, there is one growing in the missions garden and grain it to powder. Then all you have to do is put the powder in the coffee, the lancers are going to drink tomorrow."
"What about me, I do not want to spend hours... you know."
"Then pretend you need to...go. Whoever Zorro is, it will give him a bigger chance to safe don Alejandro, if the lancers and alcalde are occupied by something else than the execution.
Mendoza regretting he got involved. Still having to hang someone who was innocent went against his beliefs.
"Very well I do it, you can count on me señorita."
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The next morning the alcalde raised early, looking forward to this morning he had been waiting for so long. Zorro was finally going to hang.
Alejandro being Zorro, the idea was laughable. People believing he was actually thinking that, even more foolish and more stupid.
The masked outlaw would come to safe the don. Zorro was so predictable. That was why he had ordered for shooters to positions themselves on the rooftops and the courtyard sealed of. Zorro was going to hang before noon today.
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Seating himself behind his desk, he asked corporal Pérez to bring him some coffee and started writing the order to claim the six hundred reward money there was for the Estaban brothers. It would add up nicely to the six thousands pesos, he was going to claim for the capturing of Zorro. What a lovely day it was going to be. Taking a large gulp of his coffee.
After finishing his coffee, he glared at the clock. It was time!
Making sure his uniform was looking perfect, de Soto ordered four lancers to take the prisoner outside.
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Arriving at the courtyard, he took the stairs to the gallows platform. Taking pleasure in hearing sounds coming from the plaza. A crowd had gathered, pounding on the gate doors.
"Free Zorro! Free Zorro! Free Zorro!" It was what they shouted.
"Oh, how predictable." de Soto says to Mendoza who also has climbed up on the platform. Mendoza sounds a little scared.
"Alcalde, the entire pueblo is at the gates!"
"I'm not deaf, Sergeant! Now do you see how Zorro has infected the entire town with… his spirit of anarchy?"
Mendoza waving his hand. "Si, Alcalde. Very dangerous." not totally believing what he is saying. Mendoza had started to admire Zorro when Luis Ramon was still alcalde. And the feeling had only grown, he had not forgotten it was Zorro who had rescued him from the fire and called him amigo.
"Sergeant, you have no idea. This is the way political parties are born."
The gate is bowing inward as lancers aim their muskets at it. The noise outside starts to sound louder. "Free Zorro! Free Zorro!"
"Free Zorro! Free Zorro!"
Satisfied de Soto views how, don Alejandro is being led to the gallows by two lancers who are followed by four more lancers as a drum starts to beat.
A padre, de Soto doesn't remember seeing before ends the line. The good man is wearing a brown robe with the hood pulled up onto his head, so the alcalde isn't completely sure of it.
De Soto is feeling some cramps in his stomach. Ignoring the feeling de Soto sees how one of his lancers is putting the noose around don Alejandro's neck.
Smiling at the view, he checks or the lancers on the roofs are at their posts.
The lancer, whom de Soto recognize as one of the four men who has just joined his men little over a month ago asking, "Señor alcalde, may I please be excused from attending this execution?"
"No you may not, proceed the execution soldier!" that question was going to cost the man a month latrine duty.
"But Alcalde I need to…" the lancer then runs of the stairs in the direction of the latrines. Till de Soto's surprise two more lancers follow. Both mumbling as they run down the stairs.
"Excuse me to, Alcalde!"
What is this for nonsense! De Soto starts to feel the urge to delay the execution, for he too feels nature starts to call.
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No, he is stronger than this call. He had been in the army, where it happened you could not always response to this kind of matters. Moving a little closer to the don. Glaring over the rooftops again to check on his lancers. He can not see any of them, where have they gone!?
He would not allow his moment of Victory to be ruined. Checking his inner pocket to make sure his loaded gun was ready to fire the second Zorro was showing himself. Turning his attention to the don who was still calmly waiting for his life to end. De Soto want to humiliate the don just a little more. Till this moment the entire affair had been somewhat disappointing.
"By the way, your son sends his regrets. He doesn't wish to see his father hang. A coward to the last."
Alejandro just standing proud upright like nothing is going to happen to him. "Diego de la Vega will avenge my death. The son of Zorro, he can do no less!"
De Soto starts to laugh but stops when he notices he must concentrate on his lower body parts.
"I'm sorry, Señor, but your son couldn't avenge a mild stomachache."
He pulls out a white handkerchief from his jacket and holds it up into the air.
His intestines start to bubble. Is he that nervous? He only had a cup of coffee this morning? It gets worse by the second.
Mendoza glares at him. Waiting for the order to pull the lever. Carefully de Soto changes from one foot to the other in the hope the urgent need will faint away.
It didn't help. Squeezing his buttocks, de Soto notices Mendoza's face turning red. It looks like the sergeant faces the same kind of trouble he has.
Sounds of the crowd gathered outside starts to fright him. The gate doors bow in further and further. Mendoza is the only lancer left in the alcalde's view.
Out of the sudden, the gates bursts open and people pour into the courtyard of the cartel.
Turns out there was one lancer left in the courtyard, who now very brave tries to keep the people outside and close the gate doors again.
A single man is not match for the frustrated large crowd, who only wants one thing. To see their hero escape the gallows.
It is with a speed like this one lancer is running the man is shoved against the wall.
De Soto looks at the people in the courtyard. Making sure everyone will be watching when he drops his white handkerchief giving it extra drama.
"You know, it's at a time like this, I expect... Zorro to ride in and save the day. Well, expectation are one thing and reality is quite another, hmm?" He really needs to speed this up.
De Soto drops the handkerchief expecting Mendoza to pull the trap door lever.
When Mendoza doesn't move de Soto himself take a firm grip on the lever and pulls.
The hooded padre slips a dagger from his robe's sleeve and cuts the rope right above the noose. The trap door falls open and Don Alejandro falls through it. Mendoza jumps back, falls backward off the gallows platform… "Aaaah!"
Don Alejandro lies motionless under the gallows at the people murmur excitedly.
De Soto in credulously,"Padre, what did you do!?" The cheering of the people overflows the fart he can not hold in.
The padre flips back his hood and reveals his true identity. The people start cheering even louder. "It's Zorro! It's the real Zorro!"
"Alcalde, what crime is Don Alejandro guilty of?" the masked man who looks exactly like the real Zorro asks.
Confused for how could he had been fooled that easy. And de Soto now really, really has to go. "What crime? He's Zorro!" trying to get to the weapon in his pocket, without moving too much for if he does it will be too late.
"How can he be Zorro when Zorro stands before you?"
"It's a trick!" de Soto tries. Where are those damn shooters?
"No, Alcalde, no tricks. There's nothing up my sleeve." Zorro brings up his right arm and looks down into the robe sleeve then does a double take. "Look at that! There is…"
He holds out his arm toward de Soto, who has not been able to resist to lean forward to look inside the sleeve. Zorro's right fist shoots out of the sleeve and punches de Soto in the face. De Soto crashes through the gallows' railing and lands on the ground next to Mendoza who has just been able to get back to his feet.
"Aah!" De Soto tries to get up, it is too late. The fall made him lose control over his muscles. "Seize him, that is an order Sergeant.! Seize him!"
"I am sorry, alcalde. I can't, I really need to…" Mendoza running away, very hasty from the courtyard.
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Zorro swings down off the gallows and goes under them to where Don Alejandro is still lying. He picks up Don Alejandro carries him through the open cartel gate past Victoria, who follows them.
It is the easiest escape Zorro has ever made out of the pueblo in clear daylight, with all the lancers suppose to be on guard.
Zorro puts Don Alejandro across Toronado's turns and gives the people who have managed to get out of the courtyard and are now gathering on the plaza a salute, before hopping onto Toronado's back and riding away as the people cheer.
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De Soto tries to get up, as people are retuning to the plaza. He has only moved one leg before he realizes it will be better to wait until the courtyard is completely empty.
When de Soto finally is able to return to his office he finds out he has been tricked by Zorro once again.
There isn't a soldier in the pueblo that doesn't use the latrine very frequently that day, including himself.
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Alejandro wakes just before noon in his bed. He is startled by the late hour and rushes to come out of his bed and get dressed. He has been angry at his son for sleeping in late many times. Now it has happened to himself. He remembers to have the most lively dream. About him being Zorro. He laughs at the idea alone. Imaging him being Zorro.
He has a headache. Perhaps from spending so many hours in the bed, having slept for so many more hours than normal. He really must have been tired…
IN the library he spots his son playing piano.
"Father you are awake," Diego stopped playing and got up from the piano stool. "It is good to see you have recovered so quickly!."
"Recovered? Diego, what on earth do you mean?" had he been sick the don wonders.
"Don't you remember, you have had a fever."
"No, I only remember having a very lively dream about me being Zorro."
The old don is pleased to hear there had been a totally acceptable reason for him to have been in bed for almost an entire day, a having strange dreams. From the small table next to his favourite chair he got the book he had been reading before he got sick. Don Quichote one of his favourites.
Sitting down, opening the book to find the page he had been reading last.
"Zorro…" don Alejandro chuckles.
"I beg your pardon, Father." Diego giving him a concerned look.
"I had a dream, Diego, and I dreamt...dreamt that I was Zorro. Imagine that, me, Zorro?"
He chuckles again and Diego joins in, smiling nervously "Imagine that."
"It was so real, Diego. It was so real. Diego …?"
"Yes?"
"You don't suppose there could actually be a little bit of Zorro in me, do you?"
His son has seated himself down in the opposite chair and has also taken a book to read. "It's hard to say, Father. But you know, even a man like Zorro needs inspiration."
"What do you mean, son?"
"Oh, I don't know. I think there might be something of you in Zorro."
Don Alejandro smiles at that thought and closes his book. "I think I am going out for a ride. I have been indoors to long."
"Father, do you think that is wise. You have had a fever.""
"Nonsense, some fresh air will do me good. I shall ask Felipe to join me if that comforts you."
"Father, I really think you should stay indoors. Why don't you go and enjoy the garden? Your favourite roses are about to bloom."
The old don getting up "stop mothering me Diego. I feel perfectly fine. I am old and wise enough to know my limits. And it wouldn't hurt you to get out more often! Felipe…!"
The don leaving the library in search of the young boy.
Diego got up to go after his father. A knock was heard on the front door. Just passing the door Diego opened it. "Victoria!"
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Thinking back of this episode I started myself asking questions why don Alejandro was fooled this easily. It was another day when he got back to himself. I think given him a fever would have fitted in better. Explaining why a complete day had passed, and he had such a strange and lively 'dream'.
One more chapter and then we are back on track, to where this story was suppose to go. Before the characters took over.
In others words, what was suppose to be chapter 3 is coming up as chapter 16! It is going to be altered but the main part still the same.
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