Skye now heard him coming now along the terrace to the caves and forced herself to sit negligently on the couch in an affectation of ease and with what she hoped was a bored expression on her face.

He came striding into the room, seeming to fill it with the breadth of his shoulders and his great height. In his hand he had a small canvas bag, which he flung onto the desk.

“More diamonds?” Skye asked pleasantly.

“Very few,” he replied, “and not of good quality.”

“How sad,” she mocked. “You will soon be poor if you are not careful.”

“I?” he enquired and laughed. “I had forgotten that you believed all that nonsense I told you the first night you were here. The diamonds are not mine, they belong to the country and Alejo is not going to have them if I can help it.”

“So you have stolen them?” Skye enquired.

“On the contrary, I have taken them into protective custody until such time as they can be utilised for the good of the people.”

“By you?”

“By someone who, if he has no other virtue, is at least loyal to Mariposa.”

“Which I assume Alejo is not?”

El Diablo poured himself a glass of wine from a carafe that stood on a side table and, walking across to where Skye sat, stood beside her, sipping his glass and scowling a little as if with the effort of concentration.

“I am worried,” he said.

Skye looked surprised. In all the time she had known him she had never before heard him admit any weakness.

“Why?” she asked quietly.

“I will tell you if you like. I don’t suppose it can do any harm. Alejo will have to make a move within the next few days and then the secret will be out of the bag.”

“What secret?”

“The secret of what lies here,” El Diablo said with a sweeping gesture of his hand.

“Gold and diamond mines?” Skye enquired.

“More. Much more than that,” El Diablo replied. “There is no secret about them. They have been worked since long before the Spanish conquest. They are as good or as bad as the mines in many other countries. They can bring in a little money in revenue each year, but they are not of any real use and that is why Alejo has not got his hands on them before now. But his Communist friends told him something that altered everything and made him frantic to gain control of these mountains.”

“I had no idea Alejo was a Communist,” Skye commented.

“He isn’t. He is a Dictator. He has only one creed, one religion, one thought – Alejo! But democracy is going to be no help to him, so he must rely on Communism for the money and power to control these mountains.”

“But what is in them that is so vitally important?” Skye enquired.