She wanted to run away and now she wished with all her heart that she had never left the camp, that she was safe in the cave with the guards outside and El Diablo returning at the end of the day.

Pedro was waiting for her to speak.

“All right – two thousands dollars,” she said weakly, “but we are not in Jācara yet.”

“Pedro find way,” he said, cheerful again, and started to whistle as he rode off.

Again they retraced their steps, again they found the path, and this one took them some way before Skye realised that the sun was disappearing behind the mountains.

It had grown cooler and now the gullies beneath them were deep in shadow and in a sudden terror she realised that they would find themselves in complete darkness when night came.

“It is going to be dark in twenty minutes,” she said to Pedro. “What are we going to do about it?”

“We are going downhill,” he answered hopefully.

Ten minutes later they were climbing again. The crimson glory of the sunset was the red flag of danger.

“We shall have to find a cave or somewhere to spend the night,” Skye said.

“Si, si, we shall have to do that,” he agreed and now they no longer hurried forward, but looked from side to side to find some form of shelter.

It was Pedro who saw the stream cascading down the mountainside.

“We can follow it,” he cried excitedly, “it will lead us down to the plains.”

“It is too late,” Skye replied. “Look, it will be dark in a few minutes. We shall have to stop somewhere about here. We cannot go on until the moon rises.”

They dismounted and led their horses to drink at the stream and then Skye saw that beneath a rock jutting out, half hidden by a huge fallen boulder, there was a cave.

“Go and see what it is like,” she said to Pedro, “and make sure that there are no snakes.”

She knew from El Diablo of the danger that lurked in such places from rattlesnakes and the vivora de la cruz – a viper with a cross on its head.

Pedro swaggered off, not hurrying himself unduly and she guessed that he was offended because she was now giving orders and he had failed m his promises.

But there was no time to concern herself with Pedro’s feelings. He would doubtless blackmail her further before they reached Jācara, but she did not mind anything so long as they got there.

She unsaddled the horses and hobbled them with the reins as she had seen the gauchos do. They were used to being tied in such a manner and, cropping the rough scrubby grass that grew beside the stream, they were quite docile and not likely, Skye thought, to wander away.

She heard Pedro striking matches. She saw the glow of light and then he came back.