Zorro Rides Again - Riata

Through the night, figures were stealing toward the hut. The bogus Zorro had been located by the Cocopahs, and word had been passed back in a way they knew. And now, on their tough, speedy little ponies, they were surrounding their enemy, while he raged and fumed and beat with his whip.

Marcos made a dash for the door, trying to get out into the night. He eluded the masked man for a moment, and won free.

Capitán Rocha went after him, howling curses. He caught Marcos and beat him back. He got up into his saddle again. Capitán Rocha felt disappointed, for he sensed that the old man was telling the truth. And he wanted to be gone, to get back to the presidio, and attend to Señor Zorro. He would give Marcos time to get to town with the story of what had happened to him. It would be the last needed straw to infuriate the populace.

He lifted the whip for a last cruel cut, but this time the whip did not strike.

Something else whizzed through the air with an ominous, sibilant sound. A riata fell true, was jerked taut. Capitán Rocha was yanked out of his saddle, to crash to the ground half stunned.

Forms emerged from the night and rushed toward him. Suddenly Cocopahs were surrounding him, their angry eyes gleaming at him in the faint light.

And then the real Señor Zorro, who had cast the riata, rode forward and coiled his rope.

[...]

Down into the plaza raced José of the Cocopahs on his spotted pony.

"Zorro has been caught!" he cried. "He was beating Old Marcos, and trying to rob him. He was whipping him, so that the old man cried for mercy."

A ripple of indignation ran through the crowd. More ponies came racing into the plaza. And then came a big black horse led by a Cocopah, and across the saddle a man was lashed, a man with a black mask over his face.

There was a chorus of exclamations, and the crowd surged forward as the cavalcade came into the big circle of firelight. For there was another black horse, and another masked man, only this latter sat erect, command in his bearing.

"Unbind him!" this one ordered. "Put him on his feet upon the ground!"

While his orders were being obeyed through the crowd lurched Don Esteban, with a band of soldiers at his heels. An expression of consternation was in Don Esteban's face.

"What is this?" the Governor's secretary cried. "You are gathering here in riot! Disperse, everybody! To your homes! My soldiers shall – "

But suddenly the caballeros surged forward, and Don Esteban found himself thrust back with his soldiers, found a milling throng always between him and the scene of action.

The bound man was taken from the horse and stood upon the ground, and the ropes removed from him, but the mask allowed to remain over his face.

"Hand him his sword!"

It was the second Zorro who commanded this. And now he sprang out of his own saddle and whipped out his blade.

"Señor, you have seen fit to impersonate me and do many cruelties in my name," he said. "You have caused me much trouble and distress, humiliated my friends, caused men to curse my name. On guard, beast!"


- Zorro Rides Again, Chapter 16 and 17