"May Heaven grant it!" the girl breathed.
"Where there is love, there may be hope, _señorita_."
He turned his horse into Fray Felipe's driveway now, and dashed toward the house. His intention was to stop only long enough to leave the girl, hoping that Fray Felipe would afford her protection, and then ride on, making considerable noise and drawing the troopers after him. He wanted them to think that he was merely taking a short cut across Fray Felipe's land to the other road, and that he had not stopped at the house.
He reined in his horse before the veranda steps, sprang to the ground and lifted the _señorita_ from the saddle, hurrying with her to the door. He beat against it with his fist, praying that Fray Felipe was a light sleeper and easily aroused. From the far distance there came a low drumming sound that he knew was made by the hoofs of his pursuers' horses.
It seemed to Señor Zorro that it was an age before the old _fray_ threw open the door and stood framed in it, holding a candle in one hand. The highwayman stepped in swiftly and closed the door behind him, so no light would show outside. Fray Felipe had taken a step backward in astonishment when he had beheld the masked man and the _señorita_ he escorted.
"I am Señor Zorro, _fray_," the highwayman said, speaking swiftly and in low tones. "Perhaps you may feel that you owe me a small debt for certain things?"
"For punishing those who oppressed and mistreated me, I owe you a large debt, _caballero_, though it is against my principles to countenance violence of any sort," Fray Felipe replied.
"I was sure that I had made no mistake in reading your character," Señor Zorro went on. "This _señorita_ is Lolita, the only daughter of Don Carlos Pulido."
"Don Carlos is a friend of the _frailes_, as you well know, and has known oppression and persecution the same as they. To-day the governor came to Reina de Los Angeles and had Don Carlos arrested and thrown into the _carcel_ on a charge that has no true worth, as I happen to know. He also had the Doña Catalina and this young lady put in _carcel_, in the same prison-room with drunkards and dissolute women. With the aid of some good friends, I rescued them."
"May the saints bless you, _señor_, for that kind action!" Fray Felipe cried.