As if by magic the Indians came running in with coffee, eggs, hot crisp rolls and a big bowl full of fruit. Skye drank a cup of coffee and instantly felt some of her old strength and spirit returning to her.

“Tell me how you managed to come – in time,” she asked at length.

El Diablo put down his knife and fork.

“There have been several occasions in my life,” he replied, “when I have followed my instinct in defiance of common sense. I have never regretted it. Yesterday, when we had been riding for a little while, Pedro asked me if he could return home. He told me that he was feeling ill, his tummy was upset and it was impossible for him to ride further. I did not suspect that his story was anything but the truth as men in these parts often contract a type of dysentery that is very painful.

“I agreed that he should go back. Only as he turned to go did it strike me that he was extremely cheerful about it. We rode on without him. My men began to laugh among themselves. I heard one say, ‘I’ll bet you it isn’t Pedro’s stomach that is troubling him.’

“They all began to laugh and to make remarks about Pedro and his love affairs, to which I paid very little attention. I know Pedro’s type only too well. A rolling stone that will never settle anywhere, a conceited braggart who, in his own sexual way, undoubtedly has a success with a certain type of woman. Then I remembered something I had heard about Pedro’s past, how two, if not more, women had been found strangled after he had slept with them.”

Skye gave a sudden exclamation – she was remembering Pedro’s small hands, dark with hairs, that had clutched her throat.

“It was as if something warned me to go back,” El Diablo continued. “I recalled a look I had seen Pedro give you once when we were all riding together. A picture of it seemed to float before my eyes. I wanted to laugh at the very idea and yet it persisted. You are young, you are lovely and you are also rich. I remembered that Pedro’s reason for joining me had not been because he had been unjustly treated or because he had offended the Government of Mariposa, but simply and solely because he had made the place too hot to hold him.

“He had been living with a woman and her husband had caught him out. Pedro was no hero and no strangler on this occasion. Perhaps because he had a man to deal with he ran away.

“The urge to return became too strong to be resisted. I turned back and headed for the camp. I arrived only an hour and a half after you had left!”

“Only an hour and a half?” Skye exclaimed.