“I am honoured,” Skye said, thinking that Jimmy would be proud of her diplomacy.

“El Supremo asks me to warn you, señorita, not to ride too far away from the town. It is dangerous, you understand, for a young lady as beautiful as yourself to travel far without a proper escort.”

“And what does El Supremo think might happen to me?” Skye asked.

The Officer looked uncomfortable and then he made the familiar characteristic gesture with his hands and shrugged his shoulders.

“There are many things that might happen,” he said evasively. “El Supremo did not specify the risks, he only advised you not to take them.”

“He must have something in mind,” Skye insisted. “What does El Supremo expect me to find in the countryside? Wild animals, savages, robbers?”

“No, no, señorita, you are mistaken. Besides, how should I know what is in El Supremo’s mind?”

It was the same old prevarication, Skye thought, and she smiled at the Officer’s discomfiture.

“Look, señor, I have with me two stalwart men to protect me. I have here a very good friend.”

She looked down as she spoke and put her hand on the small revolver she carried in a leather holster slung from her waist.

Then she raised her eyes again and looked straight at him.

“Will you tell El Supremo,” she said coolly and clearly, “that I am honoured by his kindness in thinking of me. At the same time I am, as an Englishwoman, completely unafraid and unalarmed by any twopenny bandit I might find hiding in the countryside of Mariposa.”

Deliberately she used the same words that she had used to Jimmy, translating them freely into Spanish in an idiom that made them even more insulting.

Then, as she finished speaking, she heard a little gasp and realised that not only had the Officer heard her reply to El Supremo, but also quite a crowd of people who had gathered round, coming as crowds do from nowhere, attracted no doubt by the car from the Palace and by her own very European appearance.

“Gracias, señor,” Skye said, bowing politely to the Officer before he could reply.

Then, whipping up her horse, she rode away.

She was smiling as she went. That would give El Supremo and whatever other ridiculous titles he called himself something to think about. If there were dangers in the country, he should be vigilant and see that they were removed so that tourists could travel without fear of interference.

She took the same road that she had taken the day before.

Sooner than she expected, one of the guides came forward and suggested another route branching away to the North. She hesitated for a moment and then agreed to go the way he suggested.