He ascertained that Mrs. Priestley would be out at a dance on a certain evening; therefore he telegraphed in the lady’s name asking Enrico to call at half-past ten o’clock for supper.
After leaving Falconer at Liverpool Street station, Enrico had therefore taken a taxi direct to Longton Mansions, where Zuccari was already in Mrs. Priestley’s flat awaiting him. On entering there the unsuspecting young Italian was struck down, his wallet taken and his jacket removed. From a little pocket behind the silk address-tab of the tailor, Something was extracted—a tiny book of thin India paper.
That Something was of the greatest value to the murderer, and was the motive of the crime, for it contained the secret wireless code of the Italian Government, both military and diplomatic, and would be of inestimable value to the Austrians and Germans, even though peace had now been declared.
Having secured that for which he had cunningly plotted, Zuccari had replaced the coat upon the inert body of the man he had beaten to death with a piece of iron piping, put on his overcoat, and then locked him in the small box-room, afterwards leaving the flat. Three hours or so later Mrs. Priestley returned, all unconscious of the tragedy, and slept there for the last night before her departure abroad.
The London police, two days after the true facts had been ascertained in Paris and Mrs. Priestley had been released, visited the flat occupied by Nocera, for, on inquiry, they had elicited the fact that, as secret agent of Austria in Venice, he had had much technical instruction in the use of wireless.
In the flat was found quite a powerful generating plant, with a very up-to-date telephone set, and a most ingenious aerial arrangement by which one could transmit upon quite a long wave-length. Why this had originally been installed was obscure, but it was believed to be one of the powerful secret sets used by German spies in London during the war.
In any case, it was proved that the reason Enrico had not given his correct address was because he had apprehensions of some sinister attempt. It was also proved that Zuccari had, after the tragedy, spoken into the microphone that weird message to which Geoffrey had listened, and which proved such a remarkable feature of the affair. The message of farewell had apparently been the curious fancy of the unscrupulous assassin.
The stolen code-book was recovered three days after Zuccari’s arrest from his baggage at the left-luggage office at Brussels, whence it was his intention to convey it to Germany. The Italian Government, who had two years before issued warrants for the arrest of both Zuccari and the traitor Nocera, at once claimed their extradition, and both men are now serving a sentence of solitary confinement for life—a doom worse, indeed, than the gallows.