“Oh, be quiet, Jimmy! You know my answer. You have bored me enough already with your objections to my plans and nothing you can say will make me change my mind. I have been wanting to come to Mariposa for years and, now I am here, not even an army of croaking cousins would stop me exploring the country.”

“My dear child, you simply don’t know what trouble you may be walking into,” Jimmy protested, “besides, there is nothing to see that you have not seen already.”

“But I haven’t seen anything,” Skye cried. “You don’t think I am going to be satisfied with just looking at American cars rushing up and down the streets of Jācara, do you?”

“But in Heaven’s name, what else is there to see?” Jimmy enquired. “Jācara is the only decent town in the country, if you can call it a town, and the rest of Mariposa is very much what you see here, flowers, butterflies and rocks.”

“I don’t know what Grandmamma would have said to you,” Skye smiled. “She used to tell me stories about Mariposa and they were the most thrilling exciting tales I have ever heard.”

“Things have changed since your grandmother was here,” Jimmy answered.

“But for the better,” Skye flashed at him. “After all she and my grandfather were frightened of being killed by Indians. A poisoned arrow in the back was what they expected in those days.”

“The result isn’t much different from a gun bullet in the front.”

“How you do go on! Just because there was a revolution here a year ago.”

“There is always a revolution of some sort taking place in Mariposa,” Jimmy explained patiently. “That is why the country is so backward and from what I hear its present Dictator has a very precarious hold on public opinion.”

“So the shooting is due to start at any moment,” Skye mocked. “But why shoot me? I am bringing money into the country. You saw what a reception we had when we brought the yacht into the harbour. Nice fat American dollars, Jimmy! Nobody’s going to be so foolish as to bump off the goose that lays the golden eggs.”

“If I could stay here with you, I should feel differently about it,” Jimmy said, “but you know I have to leave for Valparaiso tomorrow.”

“I know and, although I shall be sorry to lose you, I am really rather looking forward to seeing the country on my own. Does that sound very selfish and ungrateful?”

Skye looked at him from under her long eyelashes to see if he was annoyed and then she laughed and held out her left hand in its leather riding glove.

“Dear Jimmy, you have been so kind and so patient, but you know I intend to have my own way in this, so really it’s a waste of time arguing with me.”