The Colonel held out the paper and El Diablo took it from him.

“You will understand, señor, that these are but the preliminary outlines of what must be discussed in detail.”

“Yes, I understand that,” El Diablo said.

“El Supremo therefore suggests that you should meet him tomorrow at the Palace,” the Colonel continued.

El Diablo looked up at that, his eyebrows raised in a manner that Skye knew only too well.

“What guarantee have I of safe conduct for myself and my men?”

“El Supremo has thought of that,” the Colonel replied. “He suggests that the conference be held in the courtyard of the Palace. All may attend who wish. You and he will sit together in full sight of your followers, and of the whole town. You may bring as many men as you wish, señor, to see fair play.”

“I accept those conditions,” El Diablo said briefly. “I will consider the suggestions put forward on this paper and have my answers ready by tomorrow.”

Skye noticed that, as soon as El Diablo had accepted El Supremo’s suggestion of a meeting place, there was a look of satisfaction on the faces of the three soldiers.

Then, having sipped maté, they each accepted a glass of wine that El Diablo poured out for them.

“You have a very comfortable hideout here,” the Colonel remarked, relaxing now that his mission was complete.

“It has been my home since General Alejo confiscated my estancia and the land that I was farming,” El Diablo replied.

The Colonel coughed behind his hand.

“El Supremo undoubtedly had a good reason for his action,” he murmured.

“The reason given,” El Diablo answered, “was that the entertaining I did there was not in the public interest. Actually my friends and the meetings I held with them were concerned solely with the future of Mariposa.”

“El Supremo recognises your devotion to our country,” the Colonel said stiffly.

“I am glad of that,” El Diablo replied, “for you, Colonel, know as well as I do that there is a vast amount to be done if Mariposa is to survive. We are, I can safely say without contradiction, the most backward of all the South American countries and yet we have a people with fine traditions behind them, a land full of natural wealth and a climate that has been rightly spoken of as the best in the world. Can any of you gentlemen say that with these advantages it would not be possible to do a great deal more for our people than is being done at the moment?”

There was an uncomfortable silence and the two younger Officers looked sideways at their Colonel waiting for his reply.

The older man stroked his chin.