Further Adventures - KO

The native slashed the last of the bonds, and Zorro stood and moved his limbs to restore circulation. Then he motioned the native toward the door.

"Stand on that side," Zorro directed. "And shriek as though you were being killed."

The native shrieked. Señor Zorro himself felt shivers run up and down his spine at those bloodcurdling shrieks. The two soldiers listened, and then hurried back toward the guard room. They opened the little aperture in the door. They saw neither of their prisoners, but they did see the empty maniac's shirt in one corner of the room.

And then they did what Señor Zorro had judged they would do – unlock and open the door and rush inside. Zorro hurled himself upon the first and floored him, rolled aside just in time to escape the rush of the second, delivered a blow that laid this second on the floor unconscious, got the dagger from the soldier's belt, and whirled to take the rush of the first, now upon his feet again.

"Fly!" he ordered the native. But the fisherman stood just outside the door, waiting to see the outcome.

Señor Zorro had no quarrel with the soldiery, and he did not want to wound a trooper. But it was demanded of him that he make an escape as quickly as possible, and make certain that he could not be followed for some minutes.

And so he rushed his man with the dagger, and the other gave ground and put himself on guard. But suddenly Señor Zorro whirled and rushed backward instead of attacking, darted through the door, slammed it shut, and shot home the bar. Inside were the two soldiers.

"Señores, adios" Zorro said at the aperture. "I regret that you cannot accompany me and see the fighting."

"For this –" one of the imprisoned troopers began.

"Have you ever seen this one?" Señor Zorro asked. And he slammed shut the door of the aperture, laughed loudly, saw that the native fisherman was free, and ran like the wind down the corridor and through the front door and into the sunshine.


- The Further Adventures of Zorro, Chapter 28