“Indeed, yes, he is equal to anything, guile of course, treachery, cunning, stratagem, absolute violence if the opportunity offers.  It is of the utmost importance not to play into his hands, not to give him the smallest chance.  The child must be watched continually in the house, awake and asleep, wherever he goes and whatever he does.”

“Then I think Henriette must be warned not to wander about the town and on the sands in the way she’s been doing with Victorine and the child, all of them on donkey back.  I don’t think it’s at all safe.”

But when I cautioned her she was not particularly pleased.  Was she to have no fresh air, no change of scene?  I grudged her the smallest pleasure, while I was racing up and down flirting and philandering with Basil Annesley all day and every day; she was to sit indoors, bored to extinction and suffering torments in the unbearable heat.

Basil and I agreed that it was cruel to restrict her movements even with such a good excuse, and had she been willing to accept the irksome conditions, which she certainly was not.  We arranged a surveillance, therefore, unknown to her.  The Colonel, his man, or myself invariably accompanied her or followed her within eyeshot; and we hired two or three stalwart Moors, who were always to be near enough to render help if required.

Then came confirmations of our worst fears.  L’Echelle, who had been unaccountably absent one morning, returned about midday with news from the port.  Lord Blackadder and his two henchmen had just landed from the Jose Pielago, the steamer that runs regularly between Cadiz and Algeciras, Gibraltar, and Tangier.  He had seen them in the custom-house, fighting their way through the crowd of ragged Jew porters, the Moorish egg merchants, and dealers in luscious fruit.  They had mounted donkeys, the only means of conveyance in a town with no wheeled vehicles; and l’Echelle made us laugh at the sorry picture presented by the indignant peer, with his legs dangling down on each side of the red leather saddle.  Their baggage was also piled on donkeys, and the whole procession, familiar enough in the narrow streets of Tangier, climbed the hill to the Soko, and made for the Shereef Hotel, reputed one of the best in Tangier, and lying outside the walls in the immediate neighbourhood of the British Legation.

L’Echelle, who seems an honest, loyal fellow, thought he would serve us best by marking them down, and, if possible, renewing his acquaintance with the detectives, one or both of whom he knew.  After hanging about the outside of the hotel, he entered the garden boldly and went up to the shady trellised verandah where they were seated together, smoking and refreshing themselves after their journey.

L’Echelle was well received.  Falfani, my friend of the Calais train, believed he had suborned him at Aix, and now hailed his appearance with much satisfaction.  L’Echelle might again be most useful; at least, he could lead them to us, and he wisely decided to let Falfani know where we were to be found in Tangier.  The fact would surely be discovered without him.  It was better, he thought, to appear frank, and, by instilling confidence, learn all there was to know of their plans and movements.