“I left my home, the shop I worked so hard for. I told my wife to say I had gone on a journey to purchase new materials for my trade. Then I came here to ask El Cabeza for shelter.”

“Do you know what happened after you left?”

“Si, señora. The Police came in search of me and with them members of the Palace guard. They told my wife that I was a traitor and that I had to stand trial. It was just as my friends had warned me.”

“It is disgraceful that such things should be allowed to happen,” Skye cried.

The hunchback shrugged his shoulders.

“General Alejo is very powerful, señora. But you will forgive me, please, for boring you with my troubles. The clothes for the señora will be ready early tomorrow morning.”

Josné bowed to her as if she was a Queen and left. Neengai went with him.

“Poor man,” Skye said out loud.

Dictators were all the same. Suffering and injustice were an indivisible part of their régime wherever they reigned!

It was hot and Skye felt suddenly tired. She decided to rest on her bed, perhaps she would sleep and she would be more comfortable than on the couch in the outer cave. She went to the dressing table and pulled the thin muslin frock she wore over her head.

As she did so, a pin concealed in the hem of one of the sleeves caught her arm, scratching her. It must have been left there by the dressmakers who had made the frock for her in London.

It was not a bad scratch, but it bled a little and, when she had staunched it with a handkerchief, Skye thought it would be wise to put some iodine or disinfectant on it.

All the time they had been travelling through the Caribbean, Jimmy, who was very careful about his own health, spent his time warning her to be very particular about scratches, insect bites or anything that might become infected.

“How fussy you are!” she had teased him, but he had only reiterated his warning,

“I had a friend who died in the tropics from neglecting a tiny cut he had made on one of his fingers,” he told her. “I have never forgotten the agonies he suffered before he died. You have to be careful, Skye. It is never safe to take a chance in a hot climate.”

She remembered his warning now and thought with a wry smile that, as she had disregarded his advice on other matters, she had better be more punctilious over this.

She looked through the things that had been in her dressing case, but there was nothing there that was the slightest use. Slipping on her dressing gown over her silk petticoat, she walked across the cave to El Diablo’s room. She was sure she would find some disinfectant there.