The afternoon of his arrival, he climbed to the Marshan, the plateau that commands Tangier. Here are villas, in which Moorish, Spanish, and English styles of architecture, struggling for supremacy, have compromised in a conglomerate type. And here, idling along the promenade, scanning every figure as it passed, he had come face to face with Catherine Dominguez.
At his start of surprise, for he had not expected such good fortune, the lady paused, uncertainly.
The young man uncovered with a sweeping bow. "Pardon!" he exclaimed gallantly, in Spanish, "but so often have I seen the lovely face of the 'Belle Espagnole' in the newspapers that I recognised it before I was aware!"
Catherine nodded amiably, and, at a word of invitation, Van Ingen fell into step beside her.
"Poltavo in Tangier. C. Dominguez will sell his whereabouts for £5,000.
To this he received the laconic reply, "Coming."
The trap which the detective laid, as the Sud Express fled shrieking through the night, was simple. To capture Count Poltavo while the "Mad Terror" remained afloat would be imbecile. But to frighten him by a pseudo-attack out into the open, and then follow him to the Nine----Smith smiled over the common-sense of his little scheme, and fell asleep.
His interview, two mornings later, with Catherine Dominguez was most amiable--both ignored their last meeting--and satisfactory, save in one small particular. Upon reflection, the lady had raised her price. For £10,000 she would divulge her secret. And the detective, after a few protests, acceded to her demands. After all, she ran a certain risk in betraying a man like the count. He thought, grimly, of Hyatt and Moss.
At the conclusion of the conference, he wrote her a check.
"I should prefer bank-notes," she said gently.
Smith appeared to hesitate. "Very well," he replied finally. "But, in that case, you must wait until to-morrow. If your information is good--the check will be also."
"Ver' good, Señor Smit'," she replied, looking up at him with an engaging smile. "I will trust you." She fingered the paper absently.
Smith looked down at her. Something, he knew, she had left untold, and he waited.
"One small thing I had almost forgot," she murmured pensively. "Count Poltavo leaves for--Lolo--to-night."