Stella Montgomery lay hidden behind the ferns in the conservatory of the Hotel Majestic, flat on the mossy tiles, tracing a path through the Amazon jungle in a small, damp atlas. She skirted around a vague outcrop of some kind — possibly mildew — and continued upriver. The drip and trickle of water and the hiss of steam under the grating in the floor seemed to mingle with the swish of jungle trees in the wind and the screams of parrots. Stella wiped some water drops off the map and read, On the trees, thousands of curious and gorgeous orchids live and flower. The jungle was full of all kinds of dangers — vampire bats, earthquakes and natives armed with blowpipes full of poison darts.

Serpents 40 feet long and capable of swallowing considerable quadrupeds, such as hares, goats, deer etc. There was a picture of such a serpents in the margins. Stella studied it wistfully. It looked large enough to swallow an elephant and had a hungry expression. A serpent of that size could swallow a person — an Aunt, for example — as easy as kiss your hand. Several Aunts, probably. It looked sufficiently hungry. The people who lived in the Amazon jungle would not be bothered by Aunts.

After eating, they lie torpid for several weeks. Stella imagined the enormous serpent sleeping off a dinner of three Aunts. Aunt Condolence for starters, Aunt Temperance for next, and then Aunt Deliverance for pudding. There would be tree big lumps in the sleeping serpent.

She picked up the second of her stolen apples and took a bite. It was small, green, hard, and sour. She chewed grimly and headed upstream towards the silver mines of the Andes, the calls of monkeys ringing in her ears, jaguars lurking in the undergrowth and toucans flying overhead.

Sudden footsteps clattered on the grating near the fountain, close to where she was hiding. With a slight jolt, she returned from the Amazon, back into what could be real danger. Right now, at this moment, she should be upstairs, in the Aunts’ parlour, learning a lesson from French Conversation for Young Ladies, and instead she was doing at least four forbidden things, all at once.

Stella kept one finger on the Amazon River and peered through the ferns to get a glimpse of the intruder, but all she could see were dripping wet leaves.