A corrupt lawman set loose a criminal jackal to hunt down the secret identity of Zorro, the famed masked swordsman whose finesse and flair have humiliated corrupt Spanish governors in California. This jackal, one Felipe Garzo, sets out to drive Zorro out of hiding the only way he knows how—pain. As the boot and the lash fall amongst the natives of Los Angeles, there can be only one response…
Zorro rides tonight!
Whether presented by Hollywood, Bollywood, Disney, Mexico City, Spain, or Italy, Zorro and his rides across Spanish California has so enraptured cinema audiences since his silver screen premiere in 1920 that it is easy to forget that Zorro is one of pulp fiction’s earliest and most enduring breakout successes. 1919 saw Don Diego de la Vega don the black mask in The Curse of Capistrano, a best-selling stand-alone novel. So, when Hollywood came calling in 1920, author Johnston McCulley returned to Colonial Los Angeles for over 50 more adventures, many of which have just recently seen their first reprint in decades.
“Zorro Hunts a Jackal” is among the first of the Zorro short stories, written over ten years from The Curse of Capistrano. In some ways, McCulley, a mainstay of the pulps, is still finding his footing with the character. Douglas Fairbanks’ success with the Zorro movies smoothed out the rougher Zorro found in The Curse of Capistrano. And like Walter Gibson with the Shadow, McCulley was forced to take on characterizations from portrayals in a more popular medium.
The plot is simple, as Zorro hunts the thug hunting him. But the execution grows more complex. The jackal of the title is not the villain per se, but the agent of another one of Zorro’s foes. Zorro might be hunting the jackal, but he must also deal with the lion for whom the jackal hunts. A lion who might be suspecting the foolish Don Diego de la Vega. Don Diego must use both of his identities, the disarmingly eccentric noble and the cunning masked fox, in a game of wits, alibis, and quick changes, all under the nose of the father of the woman Don Diego is courting.
Zorro rides along the well-worn path of the Scarlet Pimpernel, adapting much of Baroness Orczy’s character to the polite (and impolite) society of Spanish California. And, in a time where motivations must be personal and tragic, it is refreshing to return to a hero motivated by ideas and morals. Later copies, such as Batman/Bruce Wayne, may agonize over which identity is the true one for the man, but here, it is much simpler. De la Vega is Zorro, who must use his Don Diego persona as a mask. Occasionally, the mask chafes.
Zorro does deliver a flamboyant action that fills each page. But the word-plays of Don Diego show that, even unarmed, de la Vega is formidable, not just with charm but with double-meaning. Here is subtle wit without snark, from a time before when a cutting remark strove to be verbal decapitations. And the gambits show a thinking mind at work, able to wield circumstances as deftly as a blade.
Like most heroic pulp adventure, the end is not in doubt. The joy is in the journey and in the vengeance delivered by the hand of a just hero. With over 40 more short stories ahead of him, on thing is certain:
Zorro rides tonight!