“You can go back. I am not stopping you, but I have no intention of doing anything of the sort. Who wants to sit in Jācara when there is all of Mariposa to explore?”

“I told you, there is always trouble of some sort going on in this country and you don’t want to be mixed up in it.”

“How do you know I don’t? I like the Mariposans, what I have seen of them and if I get the chance, I shall give them some good advice and that is to get rid of their present Dictator.”

“General Alejo? He won’t last long. They never do! But I don’t expect he is any worse or any better than those who have held the position before him.”

“What they want in this country,” Skye said seriously, “is someone with initiative and courage, someone who will do something for all those poor people we saw hanging round the harbour.”

“What are you asking for. A Government of the people by the people for the people?” Jimmy teased.

Skye shook her head.

“No, I don’t believe, from what I have seen of them, that they are capable of governing themselves yet, but I don’t think that Alejo is of the slightest use to them. I saw him drive along the harbour road in his car yesterday. I am sure that it was because he was curious about the yacht, but he looked arrogant, fat and oily and I saw a lot of those beggars spit after he had gone by. They obviously have no love for him.”

“Dictators don’t expect to be loved, my dear, they only wish to be obeyed.”

“Well, I hope there are quite a lot of people who are prepared to disobey him. Look! What a perfect place to ride.”

She urged her horse forward as she spoke and Jimmy followed her.

The trees were left behind and now they had come into the open country. There was thick grass, a small winding river and the golden sunshine flooding everything with a hazy beauty.

It was good cattle country, Jimmy thought, and wondered why the Mariposans did not make better use of their land. Skye was leading the way in a wild gallop. On they went, the sweet fragrance of the grass seeming at times almost overpowering as they moved through it.

Then, ahead, Jimmy saw Skye rein in her horse.

She was looking at something and, as he came up to her, he saw that she had stopped beside a dead tree. It must have been struck by lightning for the shattered trunk was scarred and burnt, but it stood there, a bitter contrast to the lush live loveliness of everything else around it.