NOTE BY THE ACCOUNT HOLDER: THIS STORY IS NOT MINE!

WRITTEN BY KARLA GREGORY

Chapter Two

After a good breakfast, Diego said goodbye to his father, and he and Bernardo started out on the road to Monterey. At noon, they stopped by a lake and had a light lunch. Feeling that they would make Santa Barbara easily by nightfall, they were in no hurry. The afternoon found them moving along at a steady pace. Diego had swung his leg over his horse's neck and was playing his guitar. Bernardo was beside him, smiling and enjoying the music. They looked like they didn't have a care in the world. Up ahead the road cut through a pile of large rocks before it headed down towards Santa Barbara. The mountains were on their right. To their left, the land had dropped away abruptly. From this height, they could see the ocean.

Diego was just about to make a comment about how beautiful it was, when he found himself dumped unceremoniously on the ground. Someone from up in the rocks had lassoed and pulled him off of his horse.

Before he could get loose and get up, six or seven bandidos had come boiling out of the rocks. The man he took for their leader had a pistol drawn and ready for use. The others had guns or knives at the ready. At a signal, two of the bandidos hauled him to his feet. Immediately, he looked around for Bernardo. He was being held between two bandidos near his horse. Another man held Diego's horse. He was angry that he had let his guard down and had let them be caught in this situation, but he could see that it was useless to put up any sort of a fight at the moment. He would play his usual role of the helpless Diego and hope these bandidos would only rob them of their valuables and then leave them alone. Zorro would deal with them later on better terms.

The leader of the bandidos came up to Deigo and said, "Señor de la Vega, it will go easier with you if you do not fight us. We have a schedule to keep and I do not wish to be delayed."

Diego searched the man's face wondering how the bandido knew his name. But before he could say anything, one of the men who was holding Bernardo said as he was reaching for the saddle bag on Bernardo's horse, "Hey, Joaquin. They are very rich. Let us see what they are carrying, no?"

"Not now, Rodrigo," ordered Joaquin. But Rodrigo did not stop.

Diego could see Bernardo's eyes getting wide with fear. No, not for his safety, but for what was in his saddlebag. He knew Bernardo would not be this frightened if only money or jewelry was being taken. Then with dismay, he realized that Bernardo must have brought one of Zorro's costumes along with him! As the bandido reached into the bag, Bernardo went berserk. Wresting away from the other bandido who held him, he snatched the saddlebag and started to run toward the steep side of the road where it fell away into a deep ravine. With all of his strength, he flung the bag over the side. While he was still staggering from the effort, Rodrigo came up and struck him on the side of the head with the butt of his pistol. Bernardo dropped like a stone.

Joaquin yelled, "Rodrigo, leave him! We have the one we came after."

All of this took place in the matter of seconds. Diego was maintaining control of himself, but just barely, when Rodrigo kicked Bernardo in the side and sent him tumbling down the slope of the ravine. Something snapped inside of Diego then, and whether he cried Bernardo's name or someone else did he could not tell, but he began to take apart all of the bandidos standing anywhere near him, trying to get to Bernardo.

Men were flying and dropping everywhere including the leader, Joaquin. But there were too many and Diego did not have any weapons. They ganged up on him and he found his arms and legs held tightly. With a supreme effort he began to shake some of them off until Joaquin brought his pistol down on the back of his head. Stunned, Diego continued to struggle until he was hit again and he knew no more.

Taking stock, Joaquin was amazed to see how badly beaten up he and his men were. One man by the side of the road wasn't moving and several were holding their heads and stomachs. All of them were a dusty, bleeding mess. It was discovered that the man lying so still was dead, his temple having struck a rock when Diego threw him about. Looking down at the unconscious young man at his feet, Joaquin lost his temper and kicked him in the side.

"Tie him up!" he cried pointing to Rodrigo. "Get the horses down here! You and you, ride back up the road a ways and see if anyone is coming. You two, do the same down the other way." The bandidos scattered. Kneeling down, Joaquin searched Diego's pockets and found his money pouch. He pulled the ring off of his finger. Going to Diego's horse he found another pouch down deep in the saddle bags. Yes, there was more than enough money to pay off the men and get rid of them now.

Calling them together, he received the report that the road was clear. He took all of the money from the first pouch and divided it among the four remaining bandidos equally. Then he told them to head north to anywhere they wished, but they were not to go to Los Angeles for any reason. Soon they were gone.

Over in the ravine, Bernardo regained consciousness. He began to crawl up the slope trying to reach the top. The effort caused him to almost black out several times. Just as he reached the top, he saw the two remaining bandidos standing over Diego who lay in the road tied up. He heard them talking.

Joaquin turned to Rodrigo and said, "You fool! Your greed almost cost us our prisoner. I had to hit him so hard I thought I had killed him. Lucky for you, he is not dead. We could not have delivered a dead man to Spain."

Rodrigo cringed, but said timidly, "We could just leave him here and take the money in that pouch and the ring, and go to Mexico. We could live a long time on that."

"I know," said Joaquin. "But we are going to deliver de la Vega to Monastario whether you want to or not, or I will kill you. (Bernardo's mouth fell open. Monastario!) Remember, Marcos is lying dead over there because of you." Rodrigo swallowed hard. "Now come on and help me get de la Vega on his horse. We have to get down to the boat without being seen, so we will have to cut across country. Tie him on well."

Bernardo tried to get up and go to Diego, but his vision swam and blacking out, he fell and slid back down the slope. The bandidos were too busy to notice and soon all that was left on the road was Diego's smashed guitar and the dead bandido. Bernardo's horse having been spooked, had run away.

Later that night, Don Alejandro was awakened by one of the vaqueros who breathlessly informed him, that Bernardo's horse had just appeared at the gate to the stables without his rider. Don Alejandro ran to see. The horse's mane and tail were full of briers and he was in rough shape. Don Alejandro's heart was in his throat as he ordered his horse saddled and a vaquero sent to the pueblo to inform the commandante. Then as quickly as he could, he and two vaqueros rode towards Monterey. His son was in trouble, he had no doubt. He hoped he was not too late to help. He did not really have a plan, but he intended to search all night along the road looking for Diego and Bernardo.

Dawn found them on exhausted horses about ten miles from Santa Barbara. As they rested the horses, they could see some soldiers back along the road a mile off. No mistaking Sergeant Garcia in the lead position, even from this distance. Don Alejandro waited anxiously for them to arrive. When they pulled up, Sergeant Garcia saluted Don Alejandro and said that the commandante had ordered them to search for Don Diego. Don Alejandro was welcome to come along if he wished.

"I do wish," growled Don Alejandro and he muttered under his breath, "As if you could stop me from looking for my son!" Then aloud, "Then let us go. We have seen nothing along the road yet. But this is the way they would have traveled to go to Monterey." He swung up on his horse and galloped off. Sergeant Garcia rolled his eyes and ordered his soldiers to follow. The vaqueros brought up the rear.

About four miles down the road, they came to the scene of the hijacking. Don Alejandro was the first to see the guitar lying in the road. He got off of his horse and picked it up. There was no mistaking it was Diego's. Then he saw the dead man and ran to turn him over. Sergeant Garcia had appeared by this time and was looking over Don Alejandro's shoulder.

At Don Alejandro's silent question he said, "No, I have never seen this man before." Looking around, he said, "Someone had a big fight here. There are a lot of tracks and there is blood on some of these rocks." At the mention of blood, Don Alejandro blanched as he looked at the sergeant.

Suddenly, one of the lancers cried, "Over here! Over here!" and pointed down the slope of the ravine. They ran over and to their dismay they could see Bernardo lying in the bushes, face down. They could see blood on his head.

Soon, the lancers and vaqueros had Bernardo up on the road where they discovered that he was not dead, just unconscious. They made him as comfortable as possible and tried to bring him around. Eventually, he came to and put his hand to his head wincing. Don Alejandro was in a quandary. In order to find out quickly what had happened to Diego, he needed to be able to speak to Bernardo, but he did not want to give away the secret that he was not deaf. So on the pretext of examining Bernardo's wound more closely, he leaned forward and whispered, "Pretend you are confused and agitated. That will give me an excuse to send them away so I can speak to you alone." Bernardo nodded.

Sergeant Garcia had just sent a lancer to the town to get a wagon for the "little one" and came over to where they were. Soon the vaqueros and lancers were crowded around too. They all wanted to know what happened. The sergeant began to question Bernardo, but all he got was a lot of gestures and facial expressions that he couldn't begin to make out. He appealed to Don Alejandro who was waiting for this chance.

"Sergeant, I have seen how my son Diego communicates with Bernardo and I can make him understand some things, but I can do nothing with this crowd of people about! All of you move off over there and let me calm him down. Even you, sergeant. Go on!" He waved them off. Then making sure he had his back to them, he faced Bernardo. He began making hand signals that were meaningless to Bernardo.

"No, no. Do not pay any attention to my hands," said Don Alejandro. "I am only doing it for show. Now tell me what happened! Wait, to save time, you were attacked by bandidos." Yes. "How many?" 7 or 8. "Where is Diego?"

Here began a series of signs that lead to: "You were hit on the head and pushed over the side. You came to and heard two bandidos talking. They put Diego on his horse upside down? No, they tied him on to keep him from falling off. Oh, he was unconscious. They needed a boat. They were sailing for Spain. They were taking Diego to Spain."

"But why?" asked Don Alejandro. The next sign made his blood run as cold as ice. It was the sign for Capitán Monastario.