Hipps stood thinking for a moment.
"I've half a mind to turn on the girl again. Let her vamp the secret out of him. We don't progress, you know. Say, you don't think they've a line on where we've got him hid?"
Van Diest waved away the suggestion.
"No, no, no. S'all right. S'arranged too well."
"Then I'll trot up West and buy Auriole a lunch. What time tonight?"
"At nine o'clock."
"I'll be along."
He jumped into a taxi, drove round and collected Auriole and carried her off to the Carlton Hotel. She seemed tired and lacklustre, a circumstance he noted with some small annoyance.
"See here, kid," he said. "We've a big set piece scheduled for tonight and you're a participant."
"I am."