Jessie remained in prison for the following days. Don Alejandro made sure she would be as comfortable as possible, designating Mendoza's former quarters, the only private room in the garrison, besides the Alcalde's, as temporary women's prison, so that she might have some privacy. He also made sure she would receive fresh linen and that Victoria would be allowed to bring her food from the tavern.
That, however, didn't make the young Dona De Soto less angry about her detention, or worried for her patients. She knew Diego would do his best in her absence, but also feared he'd spend too much time trying to come up with a good defense for her, neglecting some of those in need of medical help.
The Governor arrived in Los Angeles by official coach accompanied by ten lancers and, as soon as he stepped into the plaza, he informed everyone about his order of business: the doctor's trial and the oath of allegiance requested of all inhabitants of the pueblo. In the meantime, Colonel Costilla y Barquillo had made it his purpose to collect the requested tax money as per his orders. His other objective was to gather evidence and witnesses against the young doctor, but in that he easily failed.
Don Alejandro silently gave praise for Ramone's stash, that money being all that prevented the Colonel from filling up the jail with people who couldn't pay. It meant giving up all the improvements he had hoped to make for the pueblo, but it was more than worth it, considering that the remaining 700 pesos the Governor had requested was easily put together mainly by the haciendados.
With this done and with Don Luis Cristobal arriving in Los Angeles just before the trial was due to start, having been informed about the situation and gathered proof by Diego, Jessie was escorted to the tavern, which had, once more, been converted into a courthouse.
Her trial barely lasted a day, and the only testimony against her was that of Miguel Barro. None other came forward to testify, despite the Colonel's attempts to bribe the people, including some of the lancers. If anyone might have been tempted by the money he offered, after Victoria had shouted at him and thrown him out of her establishment when he tried to convince, then to threaten her into giving testimony against Jessie, all the temptation was certainly gone.
In the end, with a very good defense from Don Luis and several lancers testifying that she had only spent a very short time in the pueblo the night of Don Barro's death, having only come there to look for Diego, the Governor saw himself forced to declare her innocent. He wasn't going to give up easily, though.
"As it would appear, there's barely enough evidence to prove, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Senora De Soto has helped the bandit Zorro." Governor Frasquez uttered to everyone's surprise, an Don Alejandro smiled, certain his friend had just won the case. "However," the official acting as judge continued, "since I still hold a very strong conviction that she has helped the masked outlaw known as Zorro, and seeing how it is him I am truly here to capture, Doctor Kent will hang at sunset unless that fiend gives himself up and submits to a public trial."
"Your Excellency, that goes against the law!" Don Luis uttered as the announcement shocked the entire tavern, people immediately starting to protest.
"I am the law in this territory, Don Luis! You'd better remember that in the future!" The Governor stated before signing for the lancers to take the young woman away. Jessie was just about to be escorted to the room which served as her cell when Diego's voice silenced everyone there.
"There is something you need to know about Zorro, Your Excellency!" He said. "Jessie, tell him what you told me and my father!"
The young woman looked inquisitively at him and didn't utter a word.
"A few weeks back, she met him on a field." Diego thus stated, realizing she wanted to cover for his masked persona. "When she talked to him, she realized he had lost his memory. So, you see, Your Excellency, even if Zorro would be willing to give himself up…"
"He might not remember anything." The official concluded instead. "That is a fine story, De la Vega, but I'm not very convinced by it. Even if it was true, he could have very well regained his memory in the meantime. Besides, you have just come out as a witness against the defendant."
"She's a doctor, Your Excellency! What did you expect her to do? Arrest a man twice her size in the middle of nowhere?" The tall caballero inquired.
"Perhaps not…" The Governor agreed. "But she could have informed somebody about it."
"She did! She informed me, since the place where she had found him was closer to my hacienda than to the pueblo." Don Alejandro said. "But, by the time we returned to him, Zorro was gone and his tracks disappeared some hundred feet from that."
"I see…" Frasquez answered. "And this was before or after the night my friend was killed?"
"About a week later." Don Alejandro replied.
"So a week after he had been gravely injured, he was already riding around the territory?"
"He prevented a war with the Indians!" The new Los Angeles Alcalde pointed out. "You must have received the report."
"Indeed, I have. Yet I don't remember Zorro being mentioned anywhere in it." The Governor answered.
"De Soto!" Don Alejandro muttered through gritted teeth.
"If I may suggest something, Your Excellency!" Diego intervened again. "Seeing how there is a high probability that Zorro has lost his memory, if you do want to capture him, instead of trying to draw him out, wouldn't it be easier to search for a man who has received a gun wound in his abdomen recently? The wound should still be healing at this point, thus it would be hard to mistake it for an old injury. I might be able to offer you some details about where it should be, since I was there the night he was wounded, doing my best to save Señorita Escalante from your… friend's clutches."
"And why would you help, De la Vega? You and your father are both known sympathizers of the masked menace." The official asked. "My colonel informed me that the Alcalde was just about to offer him a full pardon when he arrived."
"Indeed. We, as well as others here, would rather see Zorro pardoned than hanged. Yet I've been working with Doctor Kent since she came to Los Angeles. Many people depend on her, far more than they do on Zorro. If I am to choose between her and an outlaw, I will choose her." He explained. "All I ask is for you to free her in return for my full cooperation."
"I will free her… in return for her full cooperation." The man answered instead, deciding that Diego had made some good points. "I know you helped him, Señora, even if I can't prove it. Tell me exactly where he had been hit, and you will be free and pardoned for the help you provided him with."
Jessie glanced at Diego, then at her lawyer, neither of which seemed to be of any help. Consequently, she looked at Victoria, who had already started to both fear for her hero, and resent her best friend for his decision to betray him, unaware that it had not been the true Zorro to have been shot that night, but D'Artagnan, posing as him.
"I… will not fall into your trap, Señor! If you want me hanged, go ahead and do it!" She answered proudly.
"I give you the chance to save yourself, Señora!" The Governor said. "You'd better take it!"
"It's true, Jessie!" Diego encouraged her. "Tell him what you know! It's not worth dying for a man who might not even be around anymore. This time he can't save you, and you know it!"
She again glanced towards him, saddened by his words, and, while visibly full of doubts, she nodded.
"His wound that night… when Don Manolo shot him… it was superficial. It entered in his side right here," she indicated on herself, "and exited in the front, barely cutting through some muscle. It's normally a dangerous area, but he was lucky, I guess."
"His luck will soon run out, I assure you." The Governor replied as he signaled for his men. "Take her back to her cell. You will be free, Señora, just as I promised, as soon as we find the man hiding himself under that black mask. In the meantime," he announced in the tavern, "lock the doors! All men here will submit to inspection."
"Your Excellency," Diego again uttered, unwilling to let his father or Victoria see him without a shirt for fear they might realize who Zorro truly is, both of them able to recognize the few scars on his back, "if I might make one more suggestion… Seeing how there are also women in the tavern, perhaps you could designate one of the rooms upstairs to be used for the searches?"
Frasquez just nodded his head in agreement, and Victoria offered the first room on the right, which had just been emptied that morning.
ZZZ
"Why did you do that?" Victoria asked Diego as he climbed down the stairs after having submitted to the searches. "Do you want to see Zorro hang?"
"No, Victoria. All I wanted was to buy Jessie some time. That way, Zorro might come up with a plan to help her... or I might think of something." He answered to her surprise, before heading out the door, leaving her pensively staring after him.
ZZZ
There were 459 men in the Los Angeles Area, without counting the children. About 90 of them were too old to be Zorro and about 50 more were still too young, especially seeing how the masked outlaw had been around for a decade. That left a little over 300 men to be inspected for wounds reminiscent of the black-clad outlaw. In Diego's mind, that meant he had a little over one day to come up with a plan to save Jessie and drive the Governor and his men out of the pueblo.
His little intervention at the trial had bought him some time, just as he had told Victoria, even if he was quite certain Jessie would again face the prospect of execution as soon as his suggestion failed to produce results.
Indeed, by the end of the following day, after extending the search to include the older caballeros, not finding even one man in Los Angeles whose scars befitted those mentioned by the young doctor, her execution was again announced, this time for the following morning.
Don Alejandro refused to preside over it, which hardly made a difference seeing how the Colonel offered to do it himself.
The terms remained the same: Zorro was to give himself up if he wanted to save her.
ZZZ
As the morning came, Jessie, who had been unable to close an eye all night, having spent part of it writing letters to her husband, her cousin and several of her friends, put on a clean dress Victoria had brought her the previous evening, when she had come with her dinner, combed her hair, and sat on the bed, waiting to be escorted to the gallows.
Padre Benitez was allowed to hear her confession and administer the last rites, then accompanied her to the scaffold. She mounted the stairs trying to seem brave and not give anyone even a hint of the fear she was feeling in her heart.
"Let the doctor go!" Someone started yelling from behind the crowd and others followed suit as the Alcalde made his way through the plaza, leading a large group of well-dressed caballeros. Don Alejandro, unable to count on the lancers, seeing how they were all under the Governor's command, had gathered the dons in a last effort to save the young woman and had every intention of succeeding.
"Don't interfere, De la Vega, or you'll be next!" Frasquez threatened.
"Don Alejandro did nothing wrong, so you have no cause to threaten him! And Jessie did as you asked. It's not her fault that your men couldn't find Zorro!" Victoria tried to help her friends.
"She obviously lied!" The Governor replied, growing concerned by the protest of the crowd, which, having already been furious at the idea of the doctor being hanged, was now further enraged by the lancers trying to arrest their elected alcalde.
"She didn't lie!" A voice was heard from the cuartel and everyone turned to see Zorro standing there. "I was indeed injured, just where she said. So why is the doctor on those gallows if she held her part of the bargain?"
"Lancers! Shoot him!" Frasquez ordered at seeing him, and the men pulled the triggers, temporarily letting Don Alejandro get free. No bullet was fired, and Zorro didn't even budge. "Shoot him, I said!" The Governor impatiently ordered, as more lancers raised their muskets in the direction of the outlaw.
"What's the point? I've taken the precaution to replace the garrison's gunpowder last night, so I doubt they will be able to fire a single shot." The masked man inquired with amusement.
"Surrender yourself and the doctor will go free!" Frasquez uttered, signaling for the noose to be placed around Jessie's neck. "Otherwise she's dead!"
"Why would I surrender when there are other ways to make sure the doctor goes free?" Zorro inquired as he threw a knife, severing the rope used for the hanging. "How about a deal, Your Excellency?" He inquired.
"I don't make deals with outlaws!" The man answered.
"Not even if said deal is the only way to capture me?"
"What do you have in mind?" Frasquez asked.
"A duel. I agree to fight your best swordsman. Should he win, I'll put myself in your hands. Should I win, you return the tax money you have unlawfully taken from these people, release the doctor and leave the pueblo right away!" Zorro uttered.
"Why should I agree?" The official questioned.
"Look around, Governor! You have forty lancers at your disposal, and none of them has any gunpowder. How fast do you believe the two hundred people gathered here might overtake them?" He inquired.
Frasquez looked at the angry faces around him and realized the masked man was right. Neither one of them would make it out alive should the people realize they had the upper hand, and the outlaw had just clued them in about that. "Colonel, make sure you give him a lesson nobody will forget!" He, thus, ordered.
"It will be my pleasure to put this brigand in his rightful place, Your Excelency!." He answered. "On the gallows."
Zorro nodded rather amused and jumped down from the roof where he was standing as a circle was formed to allow the two men to fight each other.
Their swords shone in the sun as the duel began, iron striking iron at amazing speed. The Colonel advanced confidently on his adversary at the beginning, and Victoria grew concerned at realizing he was quite the match for the masked man she loved, much more than any of the others he had faced. Almost ten minutes into the duel, as both combatants seemed to be getting tired, Zorro stumbled. The Colonel, certain he had just been given the opening he had been waiting for, and not even suspecting the trap, lunged, his sword coming dangerously close to his opponent's chest. Instead of going through it, however, he found himself disarmed with a thrust so fast that he didn't even see coming. Moments later, he was lying on the ground with a large Z decorating his uniform, right on his bottom.
"I'd say I won, Your Excellency! It's time you do as we agreed." Zorro uttered while cheers and laughter filled the crowd.
The official looked hatefully at him. "Things will not stay like this!" He threatened before instructing his men to release Jessie, then get their commander and pack his luggage.
"The money, if you please!" The black-clad man added as he mounted his stallion.
The Governor gave him another spiteful look, before ordering the lancers to return the money to the Alcalde's office.
"Can you stay for a drink?" Victoria came to ask Zorro.
"I fear not! But, God willing, one of these days, I just might." He promised before turning Tornado around and making his way out of the pueblo.
"I guess he recovered his memory!" Jessie said as she neared her friend.
Victoria smiled and embraced her before dragging her to the tavern for a good meal, followed by Don Alejandro and Felipe, who, having spent the last hour behind a tavern's window, a musket in his hands, making sure his father was safe, had suddenly materialized next to the elderly caballero.
ZZZ
Zorro was cautious at returning home, yet took one of the shortest routes after realizing he wasn't being followed. Once back to the safety of the cave, he changed his clothes and wondered whether to go to the pueblo or remain at the hacienda, consistent to his public image.
At last, he opted to head to the pueblo and find out what happened after he, as Zorro, had left. Putting on his caballero clothes, he, thus, headed for Los Angeles, passing the Governor and his men on the way there.
Since they seemed in a hurry and ignored his presence, he just stopped his mare to look back, before he continued on his way. The next hours he spent listening to exaggerated stories of his own deeds from earlier until the good humor of the tavern was interrupted by the arrival of several of the lancers who had accompanied the Colonel there some days earlier. The men entered and headed straight for the bar where, after pushing away Victoria's helper, they started breaking every bottle of alcohol there.
"What do you think you're doing?" Victoria asked furious as she exited the kitchen.
The lancers didn't stop, but continued by overturning some of the empty tables and chairs, pushing people away and causing several of her patrons to run away scared.
A few minutes later, as Don Alejandro, having heard the commotion, arrived with Mendoza to see what was happening, the Colonel also entered the establishment, just as his men were heading upstairs.
"Until such time as the outlaw Zorro will be caught or hand himself over, this tavern, as well as every house and hacienda in the territory, will undergo thorough searches." He informed everyone, while the sound of broken furniture and vases, easily-heard from upstairs, indicated exactly what the lancers were up to.
"This is not searching! This is vandalism! Besides, everyone saw him head out of the pueblo." Don Alejandro protested. "Why would you assume to find him here?"
"How I and my men conduct our searches is up to us, De la Vega! For all we know, he might be here this very moment. After all, we don't know who's behind that mask, do we?" The Colonel replied as his men were returning. "By the way, since the Governor is honor-bound to remain out of Los Angeles, he has decided that your hacienda will be an acceptable place for him to stay until his mission here is completed. I'd advise you get what you want from the house before my men conduct their searches there!" He added with a malicious grin just as they were leaving.