Character guide

Janet Roylance

major

Also known as Janet, Lady Roylance, Lady A. Roylance

Janet moves through the Olifa crisis as wife, confidante, and interrogator, the one who asks the awkward question Sandy's second-reading speeches must answer. Her nerve is real but untested in the way Sandy means: she has never met a fear that hollows the blood and still held her face to it. When Janet herself vanishes, her absence becomes the hinge on which the early plot turns, pulling Archie, Barbara, and Sandy toward the Courts of the Morning.

Archie Roylance

major

Also known as Archie, Sir Archibald, Sir Archibald Roylance, Sir Archie

Archie swings his legs from table corners, asks the blunt questions, and lends his pilot's instincts and easy humour to a conspiracy he did not come looking for. His limp and his flannels make him look harmless, which is precisely the disguise the moment requires. When Janet is taken, the honeymoon collapses into a rescue, and Archie's flying becomes one of the few assets the resistance can count on.

Sandy Arbuthnot

major

Also known as Sandy, Lord Clanroyden, the old Lord Clanroyden, Clanroyden

Sandy's name is dragged through a circumstantial slander he never bothers to deny, and his long absences let the worst version of the story stand. Behind the gossip he is the agent Blenkiron's warnings point toward, the man whose face can be anyone's and whose movements the Gobernador's police keep just failing to trace. He is the hinge between the drawing-room intrigue of Olifa and the harder work waiting up in the Gran Seco.

John S. Blenkiron

major

Also known as Blenkiron, Mr. Blenkiron, John Scantlebury Blenkiron, old Blenkiron, Mr. John S. Blenkiron the American

Blenkiron's letters arrive unsigned but unmistakable, scrawled with a private hieroglyphic that means SOS to those who know how to read him. Washington respects his talents too much to move officially, so his disappearance becomes a private problem for the men who owe him favours. His warnings about trouble brewing in an unspecified corner of the world are the fuse that lights the whole Olifa business.

Luis de Marzaniga

major

Also known as Luis, Don Luis, young Luis de Marzaniga, Don Luis de Marzaniga

Colonel Lindburg's report clears Don Luis of everything, which is exactly the kind of clearance that should make a careful policeman uneasy. He advises old Don Mario on young stock, visits Veiro, and is seen in places a cattleman has no business being. His letter to the Commander-in-Chief, scribbled on rough paper and smuggled in a hollow stem, is the first sign that the resistance has a hand on the ground.

Castor

major

Also known as Mr. Castor, Señor Castor, the great Señor Castor

Castor is not cruel for cruelty's sake; he is inhuman, using men as a furnace uses coke and loyal to what he believes is right with the scruple of a saint. He has money from the Gran Seco, a camouflaged base in Olifa, and a governing class organised to do his bidding without ever sharing his secrets. Sandy's long speech about him is the book's clearest portrait of the enemy the Roylances and their friends have stumbled into.

General Lossberg

supporting

Also known as Lossberg, old Lossberg, General Alexander Lossberg

Lossberg belongs to the enemy camp in the Gran Seco, a professional soldier lent to Olifa's cause, yet the men he faces are the same ones who outwitted him on the Western Front. His reputation precedes him as a tactician, but the retreating commandos deliberately leave him nothing to feed the population of the city he captures — the bouches inutiles. That cold arithmetic of war, and the grudging respect between old adversaries, makes him a hinge on which the campaign's moral and logistical pressures turn.

Barbara Dasent

supporting

Also known as Babs, Miss Babs, Barbara, Miss Barbara, Dasent

Barbara keeps the hospital stores of the hidden refuge, working early and late with her peons while men suffer in the plains below. She went into the enterprise with her eyes open, as she tells the restless Gobernador, and refuses the role of helpless romantic he tries to press on her. Her steadiness under his anxious probing gives the sanctuary its human centre, and her presence quietly answers his charge that the whole venture is childish trust in fortune.

Geordie Hamilton

supporting

Also known as Hamilton, Geordie

Geordie accompanies Archie Roylance as servant and companion, the kind of retainer Buchan heroes take for granted and readers come to love. His plain Scottish practicality is a foil to the exotic Olifa and the schemes of Blenkiron's network, and his loyalty is never in question even when the ground shifts under them. In a story full of disguises and double roles, he is one of the few fixed points — and his presence keeps Archie tethered to home.

Don Alejandro Gedd

supporting

Also known as Alejandro Gedd, Don Alejandro, Gedd

Don Alejandro hosts the Roylances at his Spanish-townhouse estate, all Tudor panelling and Italian Renaissance dining-room, and plays the urbane patriot to the hilt. He arranges their visits to his cousin's estancia and to the Gran Seco, opening doors that would otherwise stay shut to foreigners. His pride in Olifa's polish — and his insistence that there is no mystery in it — makes him the perfect guide for readers just beginning to suspect that the smooth surface hides something.

Don Mario Sanfuentes

supporting

Also known as Don Mario, Mario, Sanfuentes, old Don Mario

Don Mario lives apart from modern Olifa, his dead wife's memory kept company by horses, faded tapestries, and a Murillo from some forgotten Conquistador church. He greets the Roylances with grave courtesy and feeds them talk of foxhounds, tiger hunts, and punitive expeditions, a living archive of the old land. It is he who summons young Luis de Marzaniga to dinner — the introduction that sets the travellers on the path toward the Gran Seco and everything that follows.

General Peters

supporting

Also known as Peters, a certain Featherstone Peters, General Peters

Peters is a fifty-year-old veteran of the South African War and the Macedonian gendarmerie, suspected of gunrunning in Morocco, now a captain of the Mines Police. He introduces the mysterious recruit Black to his troopers and later takes command of the forces fighting in the Mines sector, with Pacheco and Magdalena as his objectives. His hard-bitten competence and willingness to work in the shadows make him exactly the sort of man Blenkiron's democratic army needs when the city falls and the field force divides.

Señor Romanes

minor

Also known as Romanes, Señor Romanes

A mysterious figure in the Gran Seco, possibly an ally.

Lieutenant Roger Grayne

minor

Also known as Grayne, Roger Grayne

A British naval officer assisting the mission in Olifa.

Mr. Roderick Wilbur

minor

Also known as Mr. Wilbur, Wilbur

An American journalist caught up in the Olifa revolution.

Tim Lariarty

minor

Also known as Lariarty, Tim, Mr. Lariarty, Mr. T. S. Lariarty

An Irish adventurer and pilot working for the protagonists.

General Escrick

minor

Also known as Escrick

A British general involved in the Gran Seco campaign.

Dan Judson

minor

Also known as Daniel Judson, Judson, Mr. Judson

An American miner and ally in the Gran Seco.

Señor Rosas

minor

Also known as Rosas, Rosas the Mexican

A Mexican mercenary working for Castor.

General Olivarez

minor

Also known as Olivarez

An Olifero general loyal to the government.

Miguel de Campanillo

minor

Also known as Miguel, young Campanillo, young Miguel de Campanillo

A young Olifero aristocrat and friend of Luis.

Jacques D'Ingraville

minor

Also known as D'Ingraville, Captain Jacques D'Ingraville

A French aviator and mercenary working for Castor.

Captain Bobby Latimer

minor

Also known as Captain Latimer, Bobby, Bobby Latimer, Latimer

A British army officer and friend of Archie.

Señor Melville

minor

Also known as Melville

An Englishman living in the Gran Seco.

Palliser-Yeates

minor

A British diplomat stationed in Olifa.

Señor Aribia

minor

Also known as Aribia

An Olifero politician and ally of the protagonists.

Carlos Rivero

minor

Also known as Rivero, Captain Rivero

An Olifero officer in the Gran Seco army.

Radin

minor

Also known as the dazed Radin

A prisoner or informant in the Gran Seco.

Laschallas

minor

An Olifero character, possibly a politician.

Colonel Rogerson

minor

Also known as Rogerson

A British intelligence officer.

Dick Hannay

minor

Also known as Dick, General Hannay

A famous British spy who appears in the prologue.

Ellery Willis

minor

Also known as Willis

An American engineer working in the Gran Seco mines.

Corbett

minor

A British officer serving in the Gran Seco.

General Bianca

minor

Also known as Bianca, old Bianca, The aged General Bianca

An elderly Olifero general loyal to the old regime.

Señor Pasquali

minor

Also known as Pasquali

An Olifero official in the Gran Seco.

Varnay

minor

Also known as a Texan named Varnay, the Texan

A Texan mercenary working for Castor.

Bill

minor

A minor character, possibly a servant or soldier.

Martendale

minor

A British officer mentioned in the Gran Seco campaign.

Heaven Peters

minor

Also known as Heaven

A character associated with General Peters.

Captain Zarraniga

minor

Also known as young Zarraniga, Zarraniga

A young Olifero officer and ally.

El Obro

minor

A mysterious figure or location in the Gran Seco.

Pacheco

minor

An Olifero character, possibly a servant or official.

Kubek

minor

Also known as Poor old Kubek

A minor character, possibly a servant in the Gran Seco.

Kittredge

minor

An American engineer in the Gran Seco.

Sylvester Perry

minor

Also known as Mr. Perry, Mr. Sylvester Perry

An American businessman in Olifa.

Carreras

minor

An Olifero character, possibly a soldier.

Burton Rawlinson

minor

Also known as Mr. Rawlinson, Burton, Mr. Burton Rawlinson

An Englishman living in the Gran Seco.

Molinoff

minor

A Russian character in the Gran Seco.

Peter Suvorin

minor

Also known as Peter, Suvorin, Señor Suvorin

A Russian exile and agent in the Gran Seco.

Peter John

minor

Also known as John, Pete

A minor character, possibly a servant or soldier.

Colonel Waldstein

minor

Also known as Waldstein

A German officer in the Gran Seco.

Señor Garcia

minor

Also known as Garcia

An Olifero character, possibly a servant.

Mollison

minor

A British officer in the Gran Seco.

Magee

minor

An American character in the Gran Seco.

Señor Frederick Larbert

minor

Also known as Larbert

An Englishman living in the Gran Seco.

Colonel Lindburg

minor

A German officer in the Gran Seco.

Young Azar

minor

A young Olifero character.

Pedro Aguilar

minor

Also known as Pedro

An Olifero servant or soldier.

Biretti

minor

An Italian character in the Gran Seco.

Bechstein

minor

A German character in the Gran Seco.

Jones

minor

A minor character, possibly a soldier.

Colonel Jeffries

minor

Also known as Jeffries

A British officer in the Gran Seco.

Manuel Martinez

minor

Also known as old Martinez, Martinez

An elderly Olifero servant or miner.

Loa

minor

A native character in the Gran Seco region.

Great Mike

minor

A minor character, possibly a nickname.

Mr. Neston

minor

Also known as June Mr. Neston

A minor character, possibly a journalist.

Veiro

minor

A minor character in the Gran Seco.

Mary

minor

A minor female character, possibly a servant.

Maximilian Calvo

minor

Also known as Calvo

An Olifero character, possibly a politician.

Jack

minor

A minor character, possibly a soldier.

Jervoise

minor

A British officer in the Gran Seco.