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He genuinely felt responsible, I could see that, and couldn't do much about it, a hard thing for a man like him to accept, for his position in other people's eyes, their opinion was important to him.

'I'm free, white and twenty-one, isn't that what you say in the States?' I said. 'Anything I got, I asked for, so have a decent cigarette for a change and shut up.'

I held out the tin of Balkan Sobranie and the door to the comandante's office opened and the sergeant appeared.

'You will come in now, Senhor Malllory?'

I stood up and walked into the room rather slowly which was understandable under the circumstances. Hannah simply followed me inside without asking anyone's permission.

The comandante nodded to him. 'Senhor Hannah.'

'Maybe there's something I can do,' Hannah said.

The comandante managed to look as sorrowful as only a Latin can and shook his head. 'A bad business, Senhor Mallory. You say there was a thousand cruzieros in the wallet besides your passport?'

I sank into the nearest chair. 'Nearer to eleven hundred.'

'You could have had her for the night for five, senhor. To carry that kind of money on your person was extremely foolish.'

'No sign of her at all, then?' Hannah put in. 'Surely to God somebody must know the bitch.'

'You know the type, senhor. Working the river, moving from town to town. No one at The Little Boat had ever seen her before. She rented a room at a house near the waterfront, but had only been there three days.'

'What you're trying to say is that she's well away from Manaus by now and the chances of catching her are remote,' I said.

'Exactly, senhor. The truth is always painful. She was three-quarters Indian. She will probably go back to her people for a while. All she has to do is take off her dress. They all look the same.' He helped himself to a long black cigar from a box on his desk. 'None of which helps you. I am sensible of this. Have you funds that you can draw on?'

'Not a penny.'

'So?' He frowned. 'The passport is not so difficult. An application to the British Consul in Belem backed by a letter from me should remedy that situation within a week or two, but as the law stands at present, all foreign nationals are required to produce evidence of employment if they do not possess private means.'

I knew exactly what he meant. There were public work gangs for people like me.

Hannah moved round to the other end of the room where he could look at me and nodded briefly. He said calmly, 'No difficulty there. Senhor Mallory was considering coming to work for me anyway.'

'As a pilot?' The comandante's eyes went up and he turned to me. 'This is so, senhor?'

'Quite true,' I said.

Hannah grinned slightly and the comandante looked distinctly relieved 'All is in order then.' He stood up and held out his hand. 'If anything of interest does materialise in connection with this unfortunate affair, senhor, I'll know where to find you.'

I shook hands - it would have seemed churlish not to - and shuffled outside. I kept right on going and had reached the pillared entrance hall before Hannah caught up with me. I sat down on a marble bench in a patch of sunlight and he stood in front of me looking genuinely uncertain.

'Did I do right, back there?'

I nodded wearily. 'I'm obliged to you - really, but what about this Portuguese you were expecting?'

'He loses, that's all.' He sat down beside me. 'Look, I know you wanted to get home, but it could be worse. You can move in with Mannie at Landro and a room at the Palace on me between trips. Your keep and a hundred dollars American a week.'

The terms were generous by any standards. I said, 'That's fine by me.'

'There's just one snag. Like I said, I'm living on credit at the moment. That means I won't have the cash to pay you till I get that government bonus at the end of my contract which means sticking out this last three months with me. Can you face that?'

'I don't have much choice, do I?'

I got up and walked out into the entrance. He said, with what sounded like genuine admiration in his voice, 'By God but you're a cool one,