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'Hannah isn't here. He took the Martin girl up to the house.'

'I am aware of that. It's you I want to see.' He found another tin mug and helped himself to coffee. 'I've spent most of the morning arguing with Sister Maria Teresa who insists on her right to proceed to Santa Helena.' He shook his head sadly. 'God protect me from the good and the innocent.'

'A formidable combination,' I said. 'Are you going to let her go?'

'I don't see how I can prevent it. You've seen the authorisation she and the Martin woman have? Counter-signed by the president himself.' He shrugged. 'If she decided to start up-river in the mission launch now, this very morning, how could I stop her, except by force and there would be the very devil to pay if I did that.'

'So what are you going to do?'

'You've heard my man managed to make contact with the Huna? Well, he's arranged a meeting for me tomorrow at noon in a patch of campo near the river about a mile upstream from the mission.'

'How many will be there?'

'One chief and five elders. It's a start, no more. A preliminary skirmish. I'm supposed to go on my own except for Pedro, of course, the half-breed who's made the contact for me. What do you think?'

'It should be quite an experience.'

'Yes, stimulating to put it mildly. I was wondering whether you might consider coming with me?'

The impudence of the request was breathtaking. I sat up and swung my legs to the floor. 'Why me?'

'You know more about Indians than anyone else I know. You could be of considerable assistance in the negotiations.'

'How far is it to the river if we have to start running?'

He smiled. 'See how you feel about it tomorrow. Hannah will be flying the women in first thing in the morning. You could come with them. I've agreed to let them look over the mission.'

'Not that you had any choice in the matter.'

'Exactly.'

He moved out into the sunlight and Hannah came round the tail of the Hayley, buttoning the strap of his flying helmet, Mannie at his side.

'Okay, Colonel, let's go!' he called. 'The sooner I get you there, the sooner I'm back.'

'Can't you wait?' I asked.

He hesitated, the cabin door of the Hayley half-open, then turned very slowly. His face had a look on it I'd seen before that first night at The Little Boat, when he'd got rough with Lola.

He moved towards me and paused, no more than a foot in it. 'Just watch it, kid, that's all,' he said softly.

I told him what to do in good and concise Anglo-Saxon. I think for a moment there he was within an ace of having a go at me and then Mannie got between us, his face white. It wasn't really necessary for Hannah turned abruptly, climbed up into the cabin where Alberto was already waiting and shut the door. A moment later the engine burst into life and he taxied away.

He took off too fast, banking steeply across the river, barely making it over the trees, all good showy stuff and strictly for my benefit, just to make it clear who was boss.

Mannie said softly, 'This isn't good, Neil. Not good at all. You know what Sam can be like. How unpredictable he is.'

'You make all the allowances for him you want,' I said. 'But I'm damned if I will. Not any more.'

I left him there and walked along the edge of the airstrip towards the house. There was no sign of life when I got there, but the front door was open so I simply walked into the living-room.

I could hear the shower running so I lit a cigarette, sat on the window ledge and waited. After a while, the shower stopped. I could hear her singing and a little later, she entered the room dressed in an old robe, a towel tied around her head like a turban.

She stopped singing abruptly, eyebrows raised in surprise. 'And what can I do for you? Did you forget something?'

'You can tell me what I've done,' I said.

She stood there, looking at me calmly for a long, long moment, then moved to where her handbag lay on a bamboo table, opened it, found herself a cigarette and a small mother-of-pearl lighter.

She blew out in a long column of smoke and said calmly, 'Look,