Chapter 33

Diego felt his heart rapidly beating in his throat.
The man standing behind him was actually a boy about the same age as Felipe.
Out of the corner of his eye, Diego saw how the boy's hand was trembling.
The man who had said to kill them was several years older.

The boy stuttered. "But Jef, you promised we wouldn't have to do that any more."

Jef spat a flat spit on the ground.
"Back then, I didn't know we'd be bothered by intruders. Never mind, I'll do it myself." Jef pulled his gun from his holster and pointed it at Diego.

Wary, Diego said. "Please, señores. We are merely passing through on our way home."

"Si, and what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be on your way? It is still daylight."

Diego beckoned his head to Felipe.
"That's my son. He got bitten by a snake."
As long as he could keep the men talking, he and Felipe had a chance of getting out of there alive.

The boy peered sideways in the direction where Felipe lay. The information about Felipe getting bitten by a snake seemed to upset him more. "Is he going to die?" Asked the boy nervously.

"Of course, he dies. You can see that." snarled Jef gruffly.
Jef approached Diego holding some rope in his hand. It would be stupid to make any unexpected movement. At this distance, not even Zorro would have a chance of getting himself and Felipe to safety.
Jef went to stand behind Diego's back. "When he moves, you shoot." snarled Jef, irritable at the boy. "And don't you dare play tricks on me." Jef roughly pulled the arms onto Diego's back, turned the palms outward, and bound Diego's wrists together.
"Leo, check those saddlebags. See if you can find any rum."

The boy who thus appeared to be named Leo walked hurriedly to the corner where Diego had laid out the saddlebags and saddles.

"Señor," Diego deliberately used a calm, deep voice. "We were not aware that this was a hideout. Otherwise, we would have found another place to spend the night. The plan was to leave this morning. As I mentioned before, my son got bitten by a snake. I had no other choice but to take care of him here as best I could and pray for his life."

Jef came closer again, pressing his gun under Diego's chin. "You better pray for your own life. Who are you?"

Diego watched as Leo threw the contents of the saddlebags on the ground beside him.

Leo uttered. "Jef, I can't find any rum."

Jef said something unintelligible that sounded anything but friendly.

"My name is Salvador Guilerans." Said Diego, outwardly still calm, feeling everything but calm. "And that is Felipe. We are on our way to Santa Paula."

Instinctively, Diego had given up the other name. De la Vega was a well-known name in most parts of California. It seemed unwise to make the bandits wiser than they were, telling them they were holding one of the richest men in California hostage. It was just as unwise to give the men, the name of his home town after saying a false name.

Leo cried out in surprise. "Santa Paula! Jef, I think that's near Los Angeles. Señor, have you ever heard of Zorro? Jef wants to capture him."

Jef cursed. "Shut up, you moron. You're just as insane as that idiotic sister of yours."

Leo cringed and came strolling towards Diego and Jef again. Visibly hurt by the comment, Jef had made. The barrel of his gun carelessly pointed downwards.
He uttered, apologizing. "I am sorry, Jef. I just thought, if he lives in Santa Paula, he might be able to tell us more about Zorro. How to recognize him and stuff."

"Moron! Everyone knows what Zorro looks like. We don't need this fool for that."

Sensing this was his chance to keep the men talking longer, gain time, and hatch an escape plan, Diego said with a smooth voice. "Zorro is not so easy to catch. Many have tried and have failed. There is a reason he has such a high price on his head. He is a cunning criminal. I have seen him fight. He is an excellent swordsman."

Jef gave Diego a hard shove against his chest. Diego let himself fall backwards. He kept the idea in his head that the weaker he pretended to be, the more careless the men might become. "That won't help him if I hold him at gunpoint." Jef grabbed Diego by his lapels and pressed his gun against his chin for the second time. "Why don't you tell me everything you know. Maybe you succeed in stretching your life a little longer."

Diego sat on the ground with his hands tied behind his back, leaning against the rock wall.
His voice began to grow hoarse. It was not so difficult to give the men as much useless information about Zorro as possible.
In his mind, Diego heard Victoria's voice as if she were whispering to him. Victoria had never concealed her admiration for Zorro. Many of the remarks she had uttered and he, as Diego, had detested at the time. The comments of adoration for a masked hero, who she did not know, now were surfacing in his memories, proving especially helpful.

Jef had taken a bottle of rum from the men's luggage. He regularly took a large swig from the bottle.
Leo let his gaze wander to Felipe remarkably often. Why did the boy seem so interested in Felipe?
Diego thought he noticed that Felipe's breathing was a little more even than hours prior. Or maybe that was just his hopeful imagination.

Diego kept talking until he noticed that Jeff was starting to fall asleep, totally drunk.
The man had experience in tying people up. Fastening the wrists with the palms of the hands pointed outwards made it impossible to get loose.
A tried and tested method that Zorro liked to use.

Leo was still wide awake and looked shyly at Diego. Leo had noticed as well that Jef was unconscious. "I think your son is doing a bit better." The boy stuttered hesitantly.

"Perhaps." Diego still spoke in a soothing, deep voice.

Leo scrambled up to look at Felipe closer, turned around, and asked.
"Would you like a drink?"

"I would rather you try to get Felipe to drink something. The fever might dehydrate him."

Leo picked up a pitcher from the ground and walked to the narrow creek to fill it. He sat down next to Felipe, looking difficult. "How am I supposed to do this?"

Diego ventured. Jef's whole demeanour expressed that he was the more dangerous of the two. Secretly, Diego did begin to feel sympathy for Leo.
"Would you mind trying and give him the tea from that cup over there? It has antipyretic herbs in it."

Leo shrugged and reached for the cup.
"Now what?"

"First try if you can get him awake. It'll be easiest that way."

Leo made a valiant attempt. Felipe groaned a little, but did not react otherwise.
Following Diego's instructions, Leo then began, with remarkable patience, to feed Felipe the drink from the cup containing the brew that had now cooled.
Every once in a while, a loud snoring sound Jef made echoed through the cave.

When Leo put the empty cup down beside Felipe, Diego said. "Thank you. I appreciate you doing this."

Leo got up and held the pitcher in front of Diego's mouth. His lips were already starting to crack. During the hours he had been caring for Felipe, he had hardly drank anything.
Diego felt truly grateful for Leo to let him drink until he had had enough.
Then Leo filled the pitcher again and drank it empty in one gulp.
Because of this, he could not pay attention to Diego.

This was his chance.
Suddenly Diego jumped up. Stiff muscles protested violently. Diego ignored the painful cramps and took a run. With his shoulder, he pushed Leo against the wall of the cave. The pitcher flew in an arc through the air and landed right next to Jef, who was still snoring and had no idea of his surroundings.
Leo made defencing gestures in an attempt to push Diego away.
Diego hooked his left foot around Leo's ankle.
Leo fell to the ground.

Diego let himself fall to the ground next to the things that had gotten carelessly thrown on the floor. He had seen how Leo had thrown the dagger on the ground and then only a pair of his trousers on it. Unable to see what he was doing, Diego searched the surface for the piece of metal.

Leo scrambled back to his feet when Diego's nails scraped over metal. His hands gripped tight around what he was looking for.
Bending his fingers in an almost impossible direction, Diego tried to cut the ropes.

Leo came at him again.
The ropes would have to wait.
Diego jumped up.

With his hands clenched into fists, Leo stood in front of Diego, ready to strike.
Diego dived to his left to avoid the fist. He launched another attack.
He swung his left leg high into the air and kicked against Leo's chest. The boy became unbalanced and took two steps backwards. Diego turned his body towards Leo and kicked again, this time lower.
Leo clapped forwards.

For the second time, Diego hooked a foot around Leo's ankle and kicked the boy down.
Leo landed on his backside on the ground.

Diego still had the dagger in his hand. The time it took Leo to get up was just long enough for him to cut the ropes around his wrists.
Diego balled his hand into a fist, and after a hard punch on his jaw, Leo fell to the ground unconscious.
Quickly, Diego fetched a rope to tie Leo's wrists and ankles together. He repeated the actions with Jef.

Once he was sure the men could not get loose, Diego dropped to his knees beside the field bed, on which Felipe still lay motionless. Almost frantic with worry, Diego stroked the damp hair out of Felipe's face.
The skin seemed to feel slightly less warm under his fingers than Diego thought he remembered. "Felipe, do you hear me? Felipe?"

A groaning sound came from the direction where Leo and Jef were lying.
Leo began to recover. He raised his head from the ground, looked at Diego and muttered.
"Bastard."

Diego gave Felipe another cup of water. When the cup was finally empty, he walked over to Leo.
"I'm sorry, Leo. I saw no other option. I value our lives too high."

A moment later, being in the same position as Diego had been in the past few hours, the boy asked anxiously. "So you are going to kill us?"

"No, as I told you, I value all our lives. Felipe and I only want to get home. We are close to San Luis. As soon as Felipe is able, we will travel along. I plan to hand you over to the local authorities there."

"I wouldn't have shot you, you know. Take a look at my gun it is the one that isn't loaded. I didn't want to do such things any longer." Leo lowered his chin to his chest.

Diego looked at the gun and saw that the weapon was indeed empty. His curiosity got piqued as to what had moved Leo to join Jef. "So why are you doing this?"

"Because Jef says it's the only way to earn enough money. I want to buy a farm, just like my parents had. My parents had to sell it to our alcalde because they could no longer pay their taxes. To make money, I first joined the army. That's where I met Jef again. He was the one who suggested we resign and earn money needed together to buy a farm."

"By stealing?" Asked Diego quietly.

"Yes, when Jef saw the wanted poster of Zorro, he said that after we killed Zorro, we would finally have enough money to do that."

Diego uttered. "Six thousand pesos is indeed a lot of money."

"Yes, we already have quite a bit of money, but not enough according to Jef."

"How do you know Jef anyway? You said you ran into Jef again in the army." Diego asked, intrigued.

"Jef lived next door to us. Our parents' farms bordered each other. Back then, his name was Mateo. But he doesn't like that any more." Leo pondered for a moment. "You know, he changed a lot in the army. When we were younger, he was a good friend. The last couple of months... I don't know." Leo shrugged his shoulders.

"And you still want to work on a farm with him?"

"That's what I want. Jef rather wants to become rich and live in a large city. He likes to talk about how big Guadalajara is and the countless pretty señoritas's he has met there."
Leo shook his head.
"I think I like it better to take care of animals than señoritas's. My sister loved animals." The boy silenced before he went on. "She got bitten by a snake."

"And she died?" Diego felt he had found the answer to why Leo had been so fascinated by Felipe.

Leo nodded with a sad expression on his face. His feet twisting a little in the sand, not knowing how to act, feeling upset.
"My dad used to say she was insane. Cilly was always sweet to everyone and everything.
She could spend hours looking at birds in the sky. She would be inconsolable if someone killed a fly." Leo laughed at a memory. "Back at home, we had two goats. Cilly adored those animals and called them Méh and White tail.
Would you believe Cilly was the only one those crazy animals listened to?"

Diego chuckled. "Goats can be stubborn animals."

Leo agreed. "But really. During the day, all they had to do was hear Cilly's voice, and they would come running to her. My father or mother could not milk them, Méh most of all. She would kick the bucket over every time. When Cilly milked them, they stood perfectly still and didn't move a muscle."

"Cilly sounds like a special girl." Diego began to like Leo more. He was a criminal, but a cute one.

"She was. She was actually named Cecilia, but everyone called her Cilly. I guess she was indeed childlike. Cilly saw no harm in anything."

Leo's voice faltered for a moment. Diego saw how the boy struggled to hold back his tears. "That snake that bit her...? She probably tried to hug him because she believed he was in pain or something."

Diego whispered, feeling sorry for Leo and his parents. "The snake couldn't have known that."

"No, my parents were inconsolable when she died."

"Is that why you're so committed to Felipe?"

Leo's eyes wandered again to Felipe, who was still lying in the same position that Diego had left him, and nodded.

.

Finally, Leo had fallen asleep as well.
Before Diego also decided to close his eyes for an hour, he checked on one more time.

Diego put his hand on his forehead, and Felipe opened his eyes. "Diego!" he mumbled half intelligibly.

"Felipe! How are you feeling?"

Felipe uttered. "Lousy. What happened?"

Diego took the cup and filled it with water, helping Felipe to sit. "I will tell you while you try to drink."
Diego let Felipe take small sips.
"You got bitten by a snake and were very ill," Diego explained what else had happened and that Felipe should call Diego his father.
When the cup was empty and, all got told, Diego hugged Felipe again. "It is good to have you back."
Sitting up had made Felipe so tired, his eyes fell shut almost immediately afterwards.

.

As soon as the first rays of sunlight appeared in the east, Diego was awake again.
After first checking whether Felipe was still fever free, Diego got a pencil and tore the last page out of a book. He wrote a short note. Diego hoped it would be helpful for the boy when he got sentenced for his crimes.
When he was satisfied with the result, Diego went outside to look for cactus leaves. His stomach was rumbling with hunger. After having eaten next to nothing the previous day.

In the meantime, Felipe had woken and made a fire to roast the leaves.
Leo had also woken up and said little.

After Diego and Felipe finished their meal, Diego untied Leo's wrists. "Don't try any shenanigans."

After Leo had finished his meal and his hands tied again, Diego turned his attention to Jef.
It took some effort before the man started to wake. Within five minutes after Diego succeeded, he stuffed a bandana in the man's mouth.

The insults the man uttered were downright vulgar and offensive. Not only to Diego and Felipe, but also to Leo. The boy had to take the rap for it and was trembling in fear when he heard the insults Jef was throwing around.

Diego saddled the horses while Felipe gathered their belongings and stuffed them into the saddlebags. "What do we do with all their money?" asked Felipe, holding up the leather pouch that contained many pesos.

"Hand it over to the garrison in San Luis," Diego answered.

.

Felipe was the one who handed the bandits over to a local corporal.
So close to Los Angeles, the chances for Diego getting recognized were real. And they could not risk anyone wondering how California's most cowardly don had managed to overpower two criminals. The corporal searched through the stack of wanted posters and discovered that Jef and Leo both had a price on their heads.
Felipe waited until the administration that entailed this had been dealt with as far as possible.
The corporal asked if Felipe wanted to wait for the reward money to arrive from Tijuana.
Felipe asked whether it was possible to donate the reward money to the church. The padre got summoned, and not much later, it got settled that the reward would go to the church.
In San Luis, Felipe bought some food in the local tavern before returning to where Diego was waiting for him.
After a late, quick lunch, the men got back on their horses.

This time they did start the last part of their journey.

.

.

My niece's name is Silke, and her nickname as a child was Silly.
Silly has no meaning in Dutch. It was only when I was in London with my sisters and we were talking about Silly in a restaurant it was pointed out to us that it was a strange name to call a child Silly. The women at the table next to us understood enough Dutch to understand that we were calling a child crazy every time we mentioned her, and thought us cruel. To them we explained in our best English Silly is not an existing word in Dutch.
It has become a fun anecdote within our family.
And so I thought it was funny to call Leo's little sister that.
Although I changed Silly into Cilly and gave her a mental handicap for which there was no name in the beginning of the 19th century.