"But what is the idea of it all?" inquired Myra. "It seems foolishness
to me, but perhaps it flatters your vanity to be able to go about
scaring women and kidnapping girls."

There was scorn instead of bewilderment in her voice and eyes now, and
Don Carlos's pale face flushed slightly.

"Before the coming of El Diablo Cojuelo there were men in this province
who had enriched themselves at the cost of the peasants, cheated
farmers out of their land, and made them little better than serfs," he
explained quietly and deliberately. "The law could not touch these
vampires, parasites, money-lenders and profiteers. Cojuelo came upon
the scene, bled these rogues as they had bled the peasants, plundered
their houses, spirited them away, and held them to ransom."

"Really! Quite a profitable hobby, I suppose!" Myra remarked.

"Quite--and useful, to boot," responded Don Carlos, his face now
expressionless. "With the money which I have wrung from the spoilers I
have been able to restore their lands to many of the people without
much cost to myself, to pay their debts and aid them to escape from the
thraldom of blood-sucking money-lenders and tyrannical masters. I have
also made it possible for men to marry the girls of their choice, in
cases where the parents objected. A threat from El Diablo Cojuelo to
carry off a girl if she is not allowed to marry the man she loves, is
usually enough to bring her parents to their senses."