Grateful for what she felt was a reprieve, Skye went quickly into her own room, but somehow she could not sleep and she knew that for some hours after she had left him El Diablo sat in the outer cave smoking.

Skye went with him now to visit the mother of the child who had been killed. She was wailing pathetically at her loss, but, as she had seven children already and another on the way, it was impossible, however sympathetic one might be, not to feel that she had some consolations left.

The ride that afternoon did not take as long as usual and they were back at the camp while the sun was still high.

Skye went up to her room and asked Neengai to bring her bath immediately so that she would have time to linger in it.

She had learned that El Diablo had a special contraption erected in another cave off his bedroom that made it easy for him to have a shower at any time he wished. It was only a primitive construction, the sort often found among planters in the East. It was a bucket fixed on the top of bamboo poles and manipulated by the simple expedient of tipping it over as one stood beneath it.

But for Skye washing facilities were not so easy. A flat-bottomed tin bath, such as she had seen preserved in the attics of her home in England and which Aunt Hilda said she had used as a girl, was carried into her room and set on the floor, where it was filled with jugs of water brought by a slow procession of Indians up the steep steps into the caves.

Hot water for the hands and face could be heated in the kitchen, but the bath water was always cold, although often by the end of the day, when the heat of the sun had blazed on the stream from which the Indians filled their pots, it was warmer than one really desired.

Horrified at first at the amount of labour such a simple action as bathing required, Skye had learned to enjoy it without thinking of the trouble it caused.

After riding, the cool freshness of the water swept away all fatigue and she was at ease and almost happy when she forgot for a moment her fear of El Diablo and the thought of being his prisoner did not irritate her almost to madness.

As soon as Skye had finished bathing, Neengai collected the water in pots and it was carried away usually, Skye knew, by the occupants of the other caves, who were thankful to have it with so little exertion for themselves.