“Go and see that woman. Manage to be introduced to her in such a way that she will be forced to receive you. Interest her. Study her. Try to read her. Try to fathom the unsounded depths of her. Then come to me and tell me about her.”
“You seem to have entire confidence that I may not become one of her many victims,” the detective remarked, with a smile.
“I had not thought of it; really. It had not occurred to me. Perhaps, after all, you had best keep away from her.”
The detective laughed outright.
“I observe, prince, that you do fear her. But I think that you need have no fear for me. I will confess to you that I have already seen her and know her. I have met her and talked with her, twice, in fact.”
“You have?”
“Yes; once in this country, when she happened to be a Mrs. Ledger Dinwiddie; once again in Paris—after that. But the fact remains that I can claim an old acquaintanceship with her, and that I do not think she will be inclined to deny it to me.”
“Ah! That is good—perhaps.”
“I think it is very good; for I entirely agree with you that she is in this city in the interests of Siam; that she has been sent here to discover your secrets; that she, and not the Delormes, husband and wife, engineered the theft of those papers—and that now she will be more eager than ever to get possession of the other half of them.”
“Then you will seek her?”