“No, no – when she was first married. My grandfather was a mining engineer and they came out to try to discover gold for some firm in New York. It was not very successful, but they had wildly exciting adventures with the Indians on their trek into the interior.

“My grandmother had never left home before she married and what was more she had always lived in a town. The butterflies, birds and flowers here made her feel as if she was walking into a Fairyland. She used to describe them to me so vividly that now I feel as if I have seen all this before in some previous existence.”

“How long were your grandparents here?” Jimmy enquired.

“Only two or three years. Then they went back to America and, as you know, grandfather discovered oil. I cannot feel very excited about that part of their lives. Oil is so dirty and ruins the look of the land. But gold is different. There are even diamonds and rubies hidden away in those mountains. That’s romantic, if you like.”

“There may be unexplored mineral wealth that we still know nothing about in all these South American countries,” Jimmy said, “but the Spaniards, when they first came, were full of grandiose dreams of treasure trove, only to be disappointed.”

“As you are quite sure I shall be! It’s no use, Jimmy. I don’t want gold, Heaven knows I have enough of that, but I would like to have adventures like my grandmother had.”

“Adventures are usually only fun when one talks about them afterwards,” Jimmy pointed out.

“Dear, dear, how prosaic you are!” Skye mocked at him. “Well, I’ll have my adventures first and write about them afterwards and if it’s a best-seller, you will be proud to know me.”

“I would much rather you would read about adventures and listen to other people’s stories than try to live them yourself,” Jimmy said.

He looked over his shoulder as he spoke and added,

“By the way what has happened to our guides? They don’t seem very pleased about something.”

They’re just lazy,” Skye said quickly, too quickly, so that Jimmy looked at her speculatively and said,

“You know what is wrong! Now tell me, because otherwise I shall go back and question them.”

“No, Jimmy, don’t do that,” she pleaded. “There is nothing the matter, really, I promise you.”

“Tell me,” he said, “I insist on knowing.”

“All right, then,” she capitulated, “the man from whom we hired the horses did murmur something about not going too far into the interior. He said there were bandits or I don’t quite know what he did say. I didn’t catch the words properly. Anyway he implied that it was wiser to stay near Jācara.”

“Exactly what I said to you,” Jimmy said, “and now we will go back.”