Zorro and The Haunted Ship

Recap: Zorro has managed to climb aboard the pirate ship that is fleeing the port of Los Angeles with the booty they have plundered and the fiancé of Don Diego. Hiding by day in the storeroom nearest his fiancé, Zorro emerges at night to haunt the ship.

Senor Zorro … crept over boxes and bales to the little door of the storeroom. There he crouched and listened for a time, but heard nothing save the noise from the ship's deck And the wash of the sea and singing of the wind in the rigging.

Presently he opened the door a crack and peered into a pitch-dark, narrow passage. He slipped through and closed the door after him. Again he stopped to listen, and then he crept forward, reached a ramshackle ladder, and went up it swiftly and silently to a tiny hatch.

Lifting the hatch he crawled out upon the deck near the rail, hidden from the glare of the torches. He had seen such a ship as this before, and knew her build well. There were no mysteries for him.

Along the rail he went like a shadow, and as silently. He reached a point where he could look amidships. Barbados was back among his men now, urging them to greater speed, and Sanchez was echoing his commands. The ship was sailing at a fair rate of speed before a refreshing breeze.

Senor Zorro crouched in the darkness and contemplated the darkness and contemplated the pirate crew for a moment. He put out a hand to brace himself against the rolling of the vessel, and it came in contact with a tub of small bolts. Senor Zorro had an inspiration.

Far ahead of him, in the flare of a torch, he saw the ship's bell. Senor Zorro grasped one of the little bolts, stood on his feet, took careful aim, and hurled the bolt from the darkness. He missed the bell by the fraction of a foot, and the bolt flew overboard.

Senor Zorro grunted, got another bolt, and tried again. It struck the bell squarely, glanced away, and fell into the sea. Out above the din the bell rang one clear note. The ship had an excellent bell.

Immediately there was silence. Barbados whirled to look forward. His crew stood open -mouthed.

"The ship's bell sounded!" Sanchez wailed.

"And which of you struck it?" Barbados demanded.

"No man was near it," Sanchez declared. "But it sounded. I do not like this business!"

Barbados shivered, but made a show of courage. "Something struck it." He said. "Possibly something dropped from aloft. Are you babies that you flinch because of the ringing of a bell? To your work, else I wade among you, naked blade in hand! Ha! I have sailed with a throng of children, it appears!"

They bent to their work again, and at that moment senor Zorro hurled another bolt, and the bell rang out clearly once more. Again the work stopped as thought Barbados had bawled an order for the men to cease.

"A ghost bell!" a man shrieked.

"A ghost bell!" Sanchez declared, crossing himself. "We are doomed! The ship is doomed!"

"To your work!" Barbados was both afraid and angry now. He strode forward, threatening them. He made his way towards the bell, and stood looking at it. Because of his presence the bell did not ring again. Yet Barbados did not feel at all easy. He beckoned the man who had the goblet.

"You retain the thing?" he asked.

"Si, senor!"

"It is an evil thing for you to hold."

"You want it?"

"Not I, by the saints!" Barbados swore. "And do you keep it away from me while the thing is in your possession. If misfortune comes to the ship or the company because of the goblet, then you will go overside first of all! And with a weight around your neck!"

The man scurried away along the deck, and Barbados, his courage returning, whirled around and issued a volley of commands. Form the darkness Senor Zorro hurled another small bolt, and for the third time the bell sent forth its ringing message.

Barbados whirled around again, his face suddenly white. He was within six paces of the bell, and he knew no other man was nearer it than that. He felt the eyes of the terror stricken crew upon him, and knew that he must show courage now, else lose his control over his men.

"Some one is playing a trick," Barbados said. "And when I find the hound of hell who is doing it, I feed him to the sharks in two sections!"

He called tow if the men, bade them get torches, and stationed them near the bell with orders to watch it closely. They shivered, but they obeyed. Thoughts of a ghost were terrible enough, but Barbados was there in the flesh, and his cutlass was ready in his hand.

But the bell did not ring again. Senor Zorro had accomplished his purpose, which was to make the crew nervous, and he was through playing in that direction. He slipped on along the rail. Now and then peering over. After a time he picked up a line, fastened it to the rail and tossed the other end overboard, tried it with the weight of his body, made a loop in it, and slipped one leg through the loop.

Over the rail and down the d=side he went, slowly and carefully, the sword of Zorro in its scabbard at his side. And presently he came to a porthole, through which light streamed. He swung around, grasped the edge of it.

The Senorita Lolita, looking up suddenly, almost shrieked in sudden alarm. Bu the next instant she was off the bunk and across the tiny cabin, and her face was with in a foot of his.

"Zorro!" she said. "You are doing a reckless thing -"

"Would I allow a few score mere pirates to keep us apart?" he asked. "Am I that sort of caballero?"

But you are in grave danger, from the men above and the sea beneath!"

Danger is the spice of life, senorita! After we are wedded it will be time enough for me to be tame." ……

Zorro reached the deck and disconnected the line, wishing to leave no trace behind him. He glanced toward the land, and realized that soon the dawn would come. Along the rail he slipped, until he came to a spot from where he could watch the pirates.

The majority of the loot had been stored away. No man was aloft. Barbados was cursing at a group near the opposite rail. Senor Zorro looked across at him and wished he was near. He saw Sanchez, too, knew him for the lieutenant, and it came into his mind that Sanchez had commanded the squad that had abducted the senorita.

And, as he watched, Sanchez started across the deck, around the mast, bore down upon Senor Zorro where he stood in the darkness. Soon he would be in the darkness near the rail. But before he could reach it he would be forced to pass beneath one of the flaring torches, and for an instant the strong light would be in his eyes. Senor Zorro whipped out his blade and crept forward in the blackness, keeping behind a mass of cordage piled upon the deck.

His eyes narrowed now, his lips in a straight line, an expression of determination in his face. So he stood and watched Sanchez approach, holding the sword of Zorro ready.

The moment came. The blade darted forward and struck, and its point worked like lightning. Sanchez gave a scream of mingled surprise and pain and fear, and reeled backward, clapping a hand to his forehead.

Barbados whirled to look. Senor Zorro as silently as a shadow, darted along the rail through the black night, on his way to the little hatch and the storeroom below.

"Fiends of hell!" Barbados was shrieking. "Sanchez, what is it? You screech like a shocked wench!"

Sanchez, still shrieking, staggered back and turned beneath the flaring torch to face them. On his forehead was a freshly cut letter Z. "The mark of Zorro!" Barbados gasped. "So -"

"A demon struck me!" Sanchez cried. "I saw no man! Something came out of the night and struck me!"

"Fool!" Barbados shrieked. "A blade made those cuts."

"But here was no blade, no man! Out of the dark it came -"

"Think you Senor Zorro is aboard?"

"No man, I say!" Sanchez shrieked. "It was a ghost. There is a ghost aboard. We are doomed! The ship's bell rings - and men are cut -"

"By my naked blade!" Barbados swore, "A sword in the hand of a human made that cut! Do I not bear one myself?"

"But how could this Senor Zorro get aboard?" Sanchez wailed. "It was a ghost!"

The ship's bell gave forth one more melodic clang! Senor Zorro, on his way to the storeroom and his hiding place, had stopped long enough to hurl another bolt.