There were not only the haciendas to visit and the grazing fields to patrol and a watch to be kept on the roads from Jācara, but there was also the mine to be inspected and the gold, which was still brought to the surface by the primitive wasteful methods that had altered very little down the centuries, taken every other day or so to a safe place.

Both gold and diamonds were found in such small quantities that Skye had begun to wonder if the effort was really worth while or if El Diablo had ulterior reasons for keeping his men at work.

Indians were also employed in weaving and making pottery and furniture. Skye noticed that El Diablo paid for their work and the finished articles were stored in some of the uninhabited caves, where she had seen stools carved from solid blocks of beautiful hardwood and tables and chairs fashioned from the red quebracho or black and white urunday.

She supposed that one day El Diablo intended to sell these things, but in the meantime the people who followed him were fully employed. The fingers of the Indian women especially were never still of their spinning. There was poetry in their movements as with their brown breasts naked, their wide skirts, layer upon layer of them, swinging, they made the bobbins dance in their hands.

And always, whatever was being done, there would be the thrumming of the guitar, its music becoming so much a part of her existence that after a time Skye paid no more attention to it than to the buzzing of the bees and the songs of the birds.

Yet, while she had time to look around her, to listen and rest, El Diablo was constantly and incessantly busy. There was always someone waiting to see him, bringing him news from Jācara or the South of the country.

And, as Skye knew only too well, his faculty for knowing everything was phenomenal.

She found it easy to understand now how everything she had done had been reported to El Diablo. He must have known of her arrival as soon as her yacht nosed its way into the harbour and the particulars given to the authorities on the quay would have been relayed to him within the hour.

His followers were everywhere, in the offices, in the shops, among the beggars and in the Palace. There was nothing too small or too big to be brought to the ears of El Diablo.

There was a telephone system in operation, Skye discovered, to one of the haciendas, but much more important was El Diablo’s human contact with his people. They came to see him at all hours of the day and often there were conferences long into the night.

Then he would send Skye to bed. She would lie in the darkness, listening to the murmur of voices, until she fell asleep.