Unholy Crusade

CHAPTER 8

The Sweet Cheat Gone

In a second Adam was out of bed and had her in his arms. He had never known such bliss as he experienced during the quarter of an hour that followed. Chela was not a virgin. Far from fearing his embrace, or displaying any false modesty, she met him eagerly, yet unhurriedly, in a prolonged loving, the mounting pleasure of which carried them out of this world to a superb and utterly satisfying climax.

For a while they lay silent, his arms still about her and his head pillowed on her shoulder. At length he murmured, `My beautiful, my wonderful one, how do you come to be here?'

`I drove down in my car,' she replied with a little laugh.

`But your father and family. Where do they think you are?'

`Here, although not for the special purpose of being with you. That our visits to Oaxaca should have coincided will be accepted as just a pleasant coincidence.'

`How clever of you, my sweet, to think of a plausible reason for your visit. Are you supposed to be staying with friends?'

They sat up and, after he had kissed her breasts, both lit cigarettes. Then she replied, `Darling, you really know very little about me. I'm not altogether the playgirl that you must imagine me to be. Had it not been that we are in the school holidays I wouldn't have been able to give you so much time, because I am a teacher.'

He looked at her in amazement, and she laughed at him. `Not a professional one exactly; but in term time, three times a week, I take classes in English and in Mexican history.'

`Well, I'll be damned! But that doesn't account for your being here.'

`No, there is another side to my voluntary work. I am one of the Board of Education's Inspectors and go to all parts of the country to report on conditions in the schools; so father is quite used to my going off for several days on my own. The reason I gave for making this trip was that I had been asked to inspect the schools in Oaxaca.'

`I take off my hat to you for giving your time to such work. Very few girls in your position would.'

`You are wrong about that. Several of my friends take junior classes two or three times a week; although as they haven't quite my er qualifications, they are not also Inspectors. You see, education in Mexico is terribly important, because such a large percentage of our people is hopelessly backward. It's so important that, a few years ago, the government made an appeal for every one who was literate to teach at least one other person to read and write. That helped, of course, but we are still tragically short of trained school teachers.'

Adam then put the question he had been burning to ask. `But tell me, beloved; how and when did you realise that we had known one another in a previous incarnation?'

`Immediately we got you into the car after we had knocked you own. Father is ordinarily so absorbed in his business affairs that he would have simply ordered that you should be given every care, sent you a fat cheque as compensation, then forgotten all about you. It was I who suggested that, instead of money, it would be better to give you an interesting time here. The moment I set eyes on you, I recognised you as Quetzalcoatl.'

He turned his head to stare at her. `But Quetzalcoatl was a god.'

`A Man God,' she corrected, `and you must know his story. He said to have been a golden haired white man who arrived on our coast about A.D. 960. He travelled inland to Tula, which was then the great capital of the Toltecs, and ruled there as Priest King for twenty years. Then the Toltecs were driven from Tula by my people from the north, and Quetzalcoatl migrated with his warriors down to Yucatan. After that he went back to the sea, sailing to the west on a raft composed of snakes. But he promised to return; and ever since the Indians have been hoping that he would, to become again their leader and King.'

Adam nodded. `Yes, I know. And when Cortes landed, as one his Captains Pedro de Alvarado I think it was had a golden beard and hair, the Indians thought he was Quetzalcoatl and fell on their knees and worshipped him.'

`That's right. But they soon found out their mistake and they are still hoping that the real Quetzalcoatl will return to them.' `But I thought that for a long time past all but a very few of the Indians had become Roman Catholics.'

Chela hesitated. `Well… as I told you on the day we drove it to the pyramids, from the beginning they identified many of their gods with Christian saints. For example, St. Patrick is always presented with a snake at his feet and, as one of Quetzalcoatl's many attributes was power over snakes, they assume that the two

were one and the same. But that doesn't matter in the least. What

does is that they are deeply religious and observe the ceremonies of the Catholic Church.'

After a moment's silence, Adam said, `From my childhood I have had dreams and visions of my previous incarnations, both as a Viking in Norway and as a Prince here in Mexico; but they are always disconnected episodes, so I really know very little about the life I led. It would be wonderful if you could fill in some of the gaps.'

`My returns to the past have been very patchy too, and there is really not much that I can tell you. I was the daughter of a Prince and became a priestess. The first I heard of you was that you were the King of Tula. My people defeated yours in a great battle outside Teotihuacán and you were captured. Weeks later the whole nation was mustered to witness a great ceremony. You were brought out from the Pyramid of the Moon, and I was one of the priestesses who scattered flowers in front of you. At the sight of you I nearly fainted. I had never seen such a wonderful man and I wanted to fall flat on my face at your feet.'

`Oh darling, did you?' Adam gave her a long kiss. `And I felt just like that about you. In all my life I had never seen such a beautiful girl. And, although your features are quite different now, the same beauty radiates from you. But you didn't appear to be at all distressed that I was on my way to be sacrificed.'

`You weren't.'

`I believed I was. I thought my last hour had come and they were going to tear the living heart out of my body. My God, I was terrified!'

`Then you showed tremendous courage. You didn't look the least frightened. You kept on smiling at me and I was thrilled to death.'

`It was looking at you that helped me keep my courage up.'

`What an awful ordeal it must have been, walking all that way while believing you were going to be slaughtered. We, of course, all knew that it was only a ceremony to ask the gods whether they were willing to accept you. When they did, the jubilation was immense, and afterwards there was feasting for days.'

`My vision came to an end before that. Do you know what became of me then?'

`Only vaguely. When a Man God was discovered by the priests, he was kept alive for a year after his ceremonial acceptance and lived in the greatest luxury, but was allowed no women until twenty days before the end of that year. Then he was given four brides with whom to enjoy himself until the twenty days were up. Having planted his sacred seed, as it was hoped, in all four so that

thy had children, one of whom might in due course prove acceptable as another Man God, he went willingly to be sacrificed. I have no memories of what happened towards the end of the year, although I have an idea that I schemed like mad to be selected as one of your brides. The next thing I remember was being presented to you.'

It wasn't till then I had an idea that they intended, after all, to sacrifice me. When I found out, I decided to make a fight for it. I would never have got away if you had not thrown your shift over that bearer's dagger. You saved my life.'

Knowing I had done so was worth it. That was the only thing had to cling to when they took me to little bits afterwards.' Oh my darling, how awful.

Fortunately, I don't remember much about it, as I passed out soon after they started on me. But what happened to you?' I don't remember anything after I got away in the canoe. When I came to, I was lying in your arms in the car. For a few minutes I didn't realise I was Adam Gordon, and thought you were Mirolitlit. If the legend is right, I suppose I somehow managed to get back to my own people on the coast.' She turned and kissed him. `I'll tell you one thing, though. I terribly disappointed to miss those twenty days. I'd made up mind to tear those other girls' eyes out, so that I could have all to myself.'

With a low laugh he pulled her to him. `Then now's our chance to make up for lost time.'

When they had rested after another glorious bout, Chela said, I’m hungry.'

So am I, and thirsty,' he agreed. `It can't be much after one o’clock so there must still be people about. You pop into the bathroom, my sweet. Then I'll ring for the floor waiter and see what can be done.'

As Chela slipped out of bed and stood up, Adam for the first had a full view of her without a stitch of clothing on. `Stop he cried. `Don't move. No, turn round. I want to look at you.' As she stood there smiling at him, he took a deep breath. Then whispered, `Darling, you're marvelous. Many girls have pretty faces, but I would never have believed that any woman could have such an absolutely perfect figure. The legs of most girls are short for their bodies, or their shoulders are too narrow for their busts. Some are spoilt by thick hips and fat bottoms; others so stupid that in some way they manage to make their breasts stick out so much that it ruins their curves. But you! My God! In you

I could believe that Venus has come to earth again.'

`For your especial pleasure, my dear Lord,' she laughed.

Scrambling out of bed, he took her hands, raised, dropped them and slid his down the satin of her sides and hips; then he closed his eyes, drew her to him and kissed her, meanwhile endeavouring to register the fact that he was the luckiest man in the whole world.

In due course the waiter brought Adam a bottle of champagne off the ice, some slices of galantine of chicken, white rolls and a plate of fruit. Laughing, they shared the single glass and fed one another with bits from the fork and spoon.

What Chela had said about Adam being a reincarnation of Quetzalcoatl had given him plenty to think about; for he saw now how his resemblance to the semi mythical Man God might be used to stir up a rebellion. But he did not believe for one moment that Chela had come down to Oaxaca and given herself to him on that account; so he was loath possibly to spoil things by telling her that he knew of her secret relations with Alberuque.

Instead, he put that out of his mind and surrendered himself to pure delight in her lovely presence, the feel of her smooth skin against his and the rich tones of her low voice.

They made love again, then slept; but Adam did so only fitfully, to rouse now and then and enjoy the sublime satisfaction of feeling Chela's warm body in his arms.

When first light came through the curtains he woke her to tell her that she must soon go back to her own room. Only half awake, she clung to him, glued her mouth to his, then murmured that she wanted to stay there for ever. Gently he turned her on her back and brought her to full consciousness by making love to her again. Afterwards, with happy sighs and many endearments, she slid out of bed, put on her night dress and dressing gown and left him.

A few minutes later he decided to have an early swim. As he walked downstairs, his body seemed to him to have an unusual buoyancy, almost as though it could float. Mentally he was on top of the world and felt as though he owned it. To use a phrase, `he would not have called God his uncle'.

It was still early, only about half past six, but the waiters were about; so, after his dip in the pool, he ordered an enormous breakfast. On going back to bed he kissed the pillow where Chela's head had lain, then buried his face in it and drew in the scent of her that lingered there. Soon afterwards he dropped off to sleep. When he woke he thought he had had a wonderful dream. As he turned over he saw the empty champagne bottle on the bedside table. His heart leapt with elation. It was no dream but had really happened. He then saw that it was twenty minutes to eleven. They had agreed to meet down in the lounge at eleven o'clock and Chela was going to drive him to Mitla. Jumping out of bed, he hurriedly shaved and dressed.

Down in the lounge, Chela greeted him, for the sake of appearances, with apparent surprise and they had a cup of coffee together before going out to her car.

Mitla was about an hour's drive away and they took the road 'that led straight as a die down the long, fertile valley. It was a section of the two thousand mile long Pan American highway, Which runs from the United States frontier through Mexico City and right down to Guatemala. There was little traffic and the road was broad and smooth, so they made good going. On either side there stretched fields of maize, clumps of castor oil plant with occasional coconut palms and paw paws.

About halfway to Mitla they pulled up outside a church that had several enormous trees near it. Chela said they were water cypresses and that the largest was reputed to be three thousand years old. Getting out, they walked round the tree and estimated its gigantic trunk to be not less than a hundred and fifty feet in circumference.

The village nearby was the source of Mexico 's famous black pottery, and in a rickety shed they watched an old crone make a perfectly symmetrical vase out of a lump of greyish clay. The people there still scorn the potter's wheel and she made the vase from long serpentine coils of clay, which she twisted between her ands. From her incredibly wrinkled face she looked to be a hundred, but when Adam asked her age she said she thought she was about sixty.

To reach Mitla, they took a side road for the last few miles. The village stood on a slight rise. Beyond it was a large church built; as was the custom of the Spaniards, on the site of the principal temple pyramid, when such pyramids were not too big to pull down. Two hundred yards in front of the church was the best preserved of the three great square courts they had come to see. The sides of all of them consisted of masses of stone with some thirty steps down to the court, in the centre of which was a low, square, sacrificial platform. On top of these thick ramparts were the priests' quarters. The buildings were only about twelve feet high it had lintels above the doorways weighing perhaps twenty tons and their walls appeared to be magnificently carved in geometric signs.

Waving towards them a cigar she was smoking, Chela pointed it that they were not carvings in the ordinary sense, but a vast

number of thin stone bricks with different shaped ends; so that when built up in layers they formed intricate patterns. They were the work of the Zapotes and no other remains at all like them existed in Mexico.

Back at the Victoria, they lunched, lazed away the afternoon, bathed, dined and went early to their rooms. Soon afterwards Chela came along to Adam's, and again they took wonderful delight in each other.

For a good part of the day Adam had been wondering how best he could broach the subject of the revolution to Chela without mentioning his knowledge of her secret association with Alberuque or breaking his implied promise to Jerry Hunterscombe, and at length he had decided that he would do so while keeping Hunterscombe's name out of it. So when they had settled down he said:

`You know, I lunched the other day at the British Embassy. A chap who was there gave me a rather alarming bit of news. Of course it may only be a baseless rumour, but he seemed convinced that a revolution is brewing. Have you heard anything of the sort?'

He feared she might say `no', which would make it difficult for him to reopen the matter; so he was greatly relieved when she replied

`Darling, I can have no secrets from you. What he said is true. And as the subject has come up, I may as well tell you that I am one of the people who want to bring about a revolution. For over four hundred and forty years the people to whom Mexico belongs have been little better than slaves. Governments come and governments go. Many of them have promised reforms, but nothing really gets done and today the peasants are worse off than they have ever been. A few days ago you asked me if I was a Communist. Well, I suppose I am a Christian Communist.'

`Christ preached resignation and Karl Marx advocated the use of violence, so their doctrines are incompatible,' Adam remarked.

`That may be. I want the Indians to own the land, the mines, the banks, everything, and before long they are going to.'

`I recall your telling me that revolutions were always led by the white collar workers and that the government had succeeded in muzzling them and the trade union bosses by making this a Welfare State for that class. That being so, how can the Indians hope to overturn the government, without intelligent leaders?'

`By sheer weight of numbers. Besides, they will have leaders. They will be led by the priests.'

That was what Adam had come to suspect, and he said, `Then that explains why you regard the movements as Christian

Communist. But it will mean that the priests must abandon their Christian principles. Because there is bound to be bloodshed and lots of it. There will be another Civil War, and think of the horrors that took place in the earlier ones.'

She shook her head. `There will be no Civil War, because the masses will rise as one man. It will all be over in twenty four

hours.,

'You seem to have forgotten that the government have an army and will not scruple to use it.'

`Darling, if you knew more about Mexico you would realise that, in one way, we are a very lucky country. Anyone who tried to invade Mexico would have our good neighbour Uncle Sam down on him like a ton of bricks. So by comparison with other nations our Defence Budget, per head of population, is minute. We have an army, but it is only a tiny one for show purposes. By far the greater number of men who could put on a uniform are the militia. They do only an hour or two's drill on Sunday afternoons. But they have weapons that they could use if need be and, as they are peasants for the rest of the week, they will be on our side.' `I see,' said Adam thoughtfully. `And when is this party due to take place?'

`I'm sorry, dearest, but I'm under oath not to disclose that. It will before very long, though, and I'll be in the forefront of the battle.'

For a few moments Adam remained silent, wearing a worried look, then he said, `Must you? Why should you be? From what you've told me, it is clear that you are taking part in organizing this thing. Isn't that enough? I understand your sympathy for the poor down trodden Indians, but it is unreasonable that a girl like you should go to the length of making yourself one of their leaders. Being mixed up in a revolution can be damn' dangerous. You might easily get killed or, if things went wrong, be sentenced to spend the best years of your life in prison.'

`That is a risk I must take. And just now you said “a girl like you”. How very little you know about me, darling. To start with, my father was not married to my mother and the odds are that Bernadino is not my father. I'm almost certainly a bastard and quite certainly a Mestizo with lots of Indian blood in me. There more to it even than that. Last week, in the village I took you to, you saw that poor little boy humping a great jerry can of water. Well, when I was his age I lived in an Indian village. Barefoot and clad in stinking rags, I did that many a time myself. That's why I mean to fight for my people.'

Adam turned to stare at her in astonishment and she asked

with a little smile, `Are you shocked at finding me after all to be only a tart's by blow?'

`Good Lord, no! That makes you no wit less adorable. And what does it matter who your mother was? It's your own personality that counts, and you created that yourself in your past incarnations.'

`Of course that's so. I was only pulling your leg.' `What, about the whole thing?'

`Oh no. It wasn't until I was ten that I became the Senorita Chela Enriquez.'

`There must be an extraordinary story behind all this. Do tell it to me.'

`I'd like to, because I want you to know everything about me.' After lighting a cigarette, Chela went on. `I'm twenty six, so it must have been some twenty seven years ago that Father or Bernadino, as I suppose I ought to call him was living in Monterrey. That was before he had increased the fortune he inherited to millions, but he was already very well off and the managing director of a big company there.

`My mother was a hostess in a night club; and you know what that meant in those days. She must have been very lovely as a girl, although, as I remember her, she had sadly gone to seed. Anyhow, he took her out of this dive, made her his mistress and set her up in an apartment. Three months later Bernadino formed an amalgamation with some other companies, moved his office to Mexico City and paid mother off with quite a nice sum of money.

`A month or so after Bernadino left her, mother found that she was pregnant; but it may not have been with his child because, knowing that the money he had given her would not last indefinitely, she had begun to use her pleasant apartment to receive gentlemen on a cash basis. All the same, she attempted to father me on to him.

'Bernadino would not be where he is today if he were not a tough egg, and he wasn't falling for that one. His reply to her letter was to send one of his people down to see her and tell her that if she persisted in this nonsense he would have her put in prison. In Mexico, you know, rich men used to be able to get that sort of thing done to people without influence, on a trumped up charge, for the price of quite a moderate bribe.

`Naturally, mother drew in her horns and for a while I believe made quite a good thing out of whoring. But a few years later she was fool enough to fall for a brute of a man. He drank like a fish and spent all her money. The time came when she had to sell her

apartment and move from one place to another till they were

living in the slums, and he drove her out every night to work as a street walker.

`From the age of seven I can remember the ghastly life we lived the man always stinking of drink and beating up mother if she did not bring home enough money; never enough food to eat and the place filthy from neglect. The end came when I was just over nine. The man was more than usually drunk one night and tried to rape me. Mother hit him over the head with the pestle with which she ground our maize. Whether she killed him we'll never now. I hope she did, but I doubt it.

`Anyhow, she thought she had; so she jammed our few belongings into a wicker basket and we beat it back to the Indian village where she had been born. When she had been moderately prosperous she had never sent her family any money; but the poor are always generous, so her people took us in. After that we lived like pigs. Six of us sleeping on the floor in a tumbledown shack. But at least people were kind to me and we were free of the man. `Mother was already ill with an awful hacking cough and it turned out that she had consumption. The hospitals were only for the better off, so nothing could be done for her and she died just before my tenth birthday. But before she died she made an attempt to save me from the usual fate of a wretched Indian child.

`She had secretly kept one quite good ring. With the money it fetched, she bought me a pretty dress, shoes, stockings and had my hair done. Then she wrote a letter and sent me with it to Bernadino.'

`What, on your own at the age of ten!' Adam exclaimed.

`Yes. Children who have lived as I had are far more grownup at that age than children of the upper classes when they are fourteen. All I felt was intense excitement at going for the first time on a train, and amazement when I saw the great buildings in Mexico City. But everyone was kind and helpful. They gave me sweets and sandwiches and a kind old lady found out for me where Bernardino’s office was and took me there from the station.

`When I got there I was a bit scared, and going up in the lift frightened me out of my wits. But when the receptionist wanted to take the letter from me I clung to it and insisted, as I had been told, that I must give it to Bernadino personally. Fortunately he was in, so I was taken through to him.

`He read the letter and asked if I knew its contents. “Yes, I said. ”I am your daughter and mother wrote it when she was dying. She says that for old times' sake you must take care of me."

`Then he sat there staring at me. For how long I don't know. It seemed to me to be for hours, but I am sure it was for a good ten minutes. During that time I suppose he made up his mind that he would like to have a girl, because his wife had given him only a son Ramon, who was then twelve years old and had died when he was only an infant.

`At last he smiled at me and said, "Yes, you are a pretty little thing, and you are my daughter. Your name from now on is Chela Enriquez. Remember that Chela Enriquez. You must do your best to forget the past. Never, never mention it. When anyone asks you about yourself you are to tell them I married your mother in Monterrey eleven years ago, but that shortly afterwards we secured an annulment. Since then you have lived with her there in moderate comfort. Now, what would you like best of all

things in the world?"

` “A plate of roast pork, please,” I burst out.

`He roared with laughter and said, “From now on you shall have roast pork every day, if you wish. And as many sweets as you can eat and all the toys that money can buy. Because you are my daughter, Chela Enriquez.” Then his eyes hardened and he added, “But should you forget that, and ever tell anyone of the life that I gather from your mother's letter you have been leading, it will be as though an evil fairy had waved her wand. For you, the good things of life will vanish overnight and I will send you back to that squalid Indian village.”

`He had me taken to a convent and there I was given special tuition. Being fairly intelligent, I soon caught up on the schooling I had missed. From time to time Bernadino came to see me and brought me wonderful toys. At the age of seventeen I became a member of his household. He had skilfully prepared the way and everyone accepted me as his daughter by a second marriage that had not succeeded. I think he even put it about that he had become infatuated with an Indian woman then, realising the damage having married her must do him, quickly got rid of her. Anyhow, I'm happy to think that I've never given him cause to regret having made me what I am today.'

When Chela had ceased speaking, Adam murmured, `What an extraordinary story. Oh darling, how I feel for you at having been through the horror of those early years.'

`No,' she replied, `you needn't. I've no doubt that my mother was paying off a most unpleasant time that she had given that awful man in a previous incarnation, and that the time had come for me to learn what it is like to suffer dire poverty in childhood. Anyhow, I've no regrets about that. It was a valuable experience.

But you understand now how deeply I feel for the sufferings of my people.'

`Of course I do.'

`Would you,' she asked, `be willing to give your help in the attempt that my friends and I are about to make to redeem them?'

It was the question that Adam had been expecting and he had already made up his mind to refuse. `No darling,' he said gently. 'If you personally were in danger, I'd willingly risk my life to save you. I'm sure you know that. But to become involved in a political showdown that is none of my business is quite another matter. I'm afraid, too, that you are being over optimistic and that your attempt will end in a blood bath. I sympathise with the hard lot of the Indians, but in this affair I'm going to stand on the sidelines. Then, if things do go wrong, I'll still be on hand to do my damndest to get you out.'

She gave a heavy sigh. `I'm sorry you feel like that, because I'd rather counted on you. Still, there it is. Let's forget it for the moment and make love again.'

Grateful that she had not pressed him, he readily agreed and, without further serious conversation, they spent the rest of the night much as they had the previous one.

Next morning they drove to Monte Alban. It was much nearer than Mitla and the way led in snake like bends up a steep hillside. When they reached the top, Adam found the ruins and their situation overwhelming. They occupied a long, broad plateau, several hundred feet in height, enclosed on every side by deep valleys and, beyond them, great ranges of mountains. Pyramids had been constructed which framed an oblong area two hundred yards wide and half a mile long. Some were still grass covered; others had scores of steep steps leading down into the arena. It dwarfed any modern stadium and, when fully occupied, could have held countless thousands of people.

At the far end of it Chela showed Adam a row of flat, carved stones about five feet high, which had been set into the base of one of the low pyramids. On them were carved figures with a variety of features. One was obviously a Negro, another a Chinese, others clearly types of European, Asiatic and Indian. They represented a prehistoric gallery representative of a United Nations; but how an artist of that remote era could ever have known and portrayed such a variety of races seemed to Adam a mystery, and he exclaimed

`But this is extraordinary! The archaeologists say that this place was founded about 500 B.C. Another two thousand years elapsed before Cortes and his Spaniards arrived here. These are totally different types of men white, yellow and black so how could the early Mexican Indians ever have known about them?'

Chela smiled. `It is accepted now that Columbus did not discover America. He only rediscovered it after the appalling blackout of knowledge that descended on the peoples of Europe during the Dark Ages.'

`Yes, that's so. The Horsemen explored part of the North American coast, established colonies there and called it the Vineland. But that was not until the tenth century, only five hundred years before Columbus, and there is not even a suggestion that they knew of the existence of Mexico and South America.'

`But other people did, and hundreds of years earlier. In the time of Minos, the Cretans were a great sea faring people. It is quite probable that they crossed the Atlantic. That would not have been anywhere near so great a feat as that of Pharaoh Necho's sailors who sailed right round Africa and came home up the Red Sea. It is as good as certain that, long before Christ, the Phoenicians established trading posts here, because their alphabet and the Mexican had definite similarities. Then, much later still, but a thousand years before Columbus, there were the Irish. They colonized parts of the Amazon and it is said that tribes of white Indians still living there in the jungles are their descendants. The Horsemen, too, went right up the Amazon to Peru, then ventured on across the Pacific. It is recognised now that the Polynesians in Tahiti and other islands owe their fair skins and the roots of their language to them. So, you see, it is not really surprising that here on Monte Alban you should see the carved portrayals of many different races.'

Adam shook his head. `It is quite enough that you should be so beautiful. To be erudite as well is almost overdoing it. If Athene had been a man, I'd say he'd had a roll in the hay with Venus and you were the result of it.'

They passed the rest of their lovely day swimming, sunbathing and endlessly discussing the fascinating subject of their past lives. After they had dined she said to him, `I have some work to do, so I'm going up to my room. I'll be seeing you.'

For a while he read in the lounge, then he too went upstairs. In bed he lay forming exciting mental pictures of her with glowing anticipation of another glorious night of love making. Time passed, eleven o'clock, twelve, but still she failed to join him. At last, overcome with impatience, he got out of bed, put on his dressing gown and tiptoed along to her room.

Aghast and shattered, he found it empty and with no trace of her. Hurrying downstairs, regardless of what the night clerk might think, he verified the number of her room. He had been to the right one, but the desk clerk said, `The Senorita Enriquez left in her car for Mexico City an hour and a half ago.'

She had said `I'll be seeing you', but not when; so had practised a cheat upon him. Furious and inconsolable, he had to accept that, for the time being at least, he had lost her.