“This time I am not reproaching you,” Skye flashed.

He smiled.

“It is very easy to condemn as unnecessary the crimes that don’t affect us personally.”

Skye pushed back her chair from the table.

“I must have seemed very priggish to you that first day when I made such a fuss about the man I found hanged,” she said. “I am beginning to learn many things that I never understood before.”

She rose and walked across the room.

“So many people in Mariposa seem to trust you,” she went on. “Can you really help them?”

“What do you think?” El Diablo enquired.

“I wish I knew,” Skye answered helplessly. “It is all too big for me to understand, just as I cannot understand you.”

He did not move, but sat at the end of the table watching her.

“Would you like to explain what you mean by that?” he enquired at length.

“How can I?” Skye asked. “I have hated you with a hatred beyond words – and yet when I had the chance of shooting you. I could not pull the trigger – and when I was in danger I called for you to come and save me. It is all a contradiction that I have no possible explanation for.”

El Diablo stood up and walked across to her.

“I should not worry your head unduly,” he said. “But it might be an idea to obey me and to believe me another time when I warn you about something.”

Skye sighed.

“I imagined that I should have been aboard my yacht this morning,” she said. “If I had reached it last night, by this time I would have been far away from Mariposa – and you would not have been able to find me.”

“Have you not yet learned that I never let go of anything that I want? That I never lose anyone I desire?”

She glanced up quickly, for El Diablo’s voice had changed and now he put out his hand towards her.

But there came a sudden knocking at the door.

Turning away, El Diablo walked across the floor. Through the open door Skye heard the voice of Juan, El Diablo’s most trusted guard, say,

“Three men are approaching, señor. They wear uniforms and carry a white flag.”

“Good. You know what to do?”

“Si, señor.”

“Blindfold them before they reach the pass.”

“Si, señor.”

El Diablo closed the door.

“Who is it?” Skye asked, unable to curb her curiosity.

“Alejo’s men,” El Diablo replied curtly. “I was expecting them sometime today. I had word yesterday that a deputation was to be sent. This is what I have been waiting for for a long time.”

He clapped his hands and the Indians came in to remove the breakfast.

“Have maté and wine ready,” El Diablo commanded.

Then as they went out he turned to Skye.