Zuccari, on descending the stairs with his friend Hauser, confronted me face to face, but it was apparent that he did not recognize me.
Hence I took courage and, later on, engaging a room, moved to the same hotel. Next morning I saw the banker meet the man Hauser a second time, and together they took a long walk on the outskirts of the town above the Lake.
From the concierge I extracted certain valuable information in exchange for the hundred-franc note I slipped into his hands. It seemed that the banker Zuccari frequently visited that hotel, and on every occasion the man Hauser came to Zurich to see him.
"They are conducting some crooked business--that is my belief, m"sieur!" the uniformed man told me in confidence.
"Why do you suspect that?" I asked quickly.
"Well," he said confidentially, "Isler, the commissary of police, who is now at Berne, once pointed him out to me and said he was a friend, and believed to be one of the accomplices, of Ferdinando Morosini, the notorious jewel-thief who was caught in Milan six months ago and sent to fifteen years at Gorgona."
At the mention of jewel theft I at once p.r.i.c.ked up my ears.
"Then Hauser may be a receiver of stolen jewels, eh?" I whispered.
"I would not like to say that, m"sieur, but depend upon it he is a person to be gravely suspected. What business he has with the banker I cannot imagine."
I knew Morosini by repute. I had heard Rayne mention him, and no doubt he was a member of the gang who had blundered and fallen into the hands of the police. Was it in connection with this incident that I had been sent to Italy to make inquiries?
I told Madame when alone what I had discovered, whereat she smiled.
"I expect you have discovered the truth," she said. "We must let Rudolph know at once."
To telegraph was impossible, therefore I sat down and wrote a long letter, and then I waited inactive but anxious for a reply.
It came at last. He expressed himself fully satisfied, but urged me to continue my investigations regarding the handsome wife of the Marchese.
"Be careful how you act," he added. "If they suspected you of prying something disagreeable might happen to you."
I was not surprised at his warning, for I knew the character of some of the international crooks who were Rayne"s "friends."
But surely the banker Zuccari could not be a crook? If he were, then he was a master-criminal like Rayne himself. If so, what was the motive of his close a.s.sociation with the Marchesa Romanelli? I had noticed when at the palazzo that he seemed infatuated with her, yet she no doubt little dreamed of his active a.s.sociation with such a person as Hauser.
It seemed quite plain that whatever the truth the Admiral had no suspicion of his wife.
Zuccari and Hauser still remained in Zurich, so, though I had arranged with Madame and Lola to return with them to Naples, I sent them back alone and remained to watch.
On the night of their departure I was tired and must have slept soundly after a heavy day, when I was suddenly awakened by a strong light flashed into my face, and at the same instant I saw a hand holding a silken cord which had been slowly slipped beneath my ear as I lay upon the pillow.
For a second I held my breath, but next moment I realized that I was being attacked, and that the cord being already round my neck with a slip-knot, those sinewy hands I had seen in the flash of light intended to strangle me.
My only chance was to keep cool. So I grunted in pretense of being only half-awake, and turning very slightly to my side, my hand slowly reached against my pillow. At any second the cord might be drawn tight when all chance of giving the alarm would be swept away from me. Yet my a.s.sailant was deliberate, apparently in order to make quite certain that the cord around my neck should effect its fatal purpose.
Of a sudden I grasped what I had against my pillow--a small rubber ball--and suddenly shooting out my hand in his direction, squeezed it.
A yell of excruciating pain rang through the hotel, and he sprang back, releasing his hold upon the cord.
Then next moment, when I switched on the light, I found the man Hauser dancing about my room, his face covered with his hands--blinded, and his countenance burnt by the dose of sulphuric acid I had, in self-defense, squirted full into it.
For defense against secret attack the rubber ball filled with acid Rayne always compelled me to carry, as being far preferable to revolver, knife or sword-cane. It is easily carried, easily concealed in the palm of the hand, makes no noise, and if used suddenly is entirely efficacious.
My a.s.sailant, blinded, shrieking with pain, and his face forever scarred, quickly disappeared to make what excuse he might. Later I found that he had previously tampered with the bra.s.s bolt of my door by removing the screws of the socket, enlarging the holes and embedding the screws in soft putty so that on turning the handle and pressing the door the socket gave way and fell noiselessly upon the carpet!
This attempt upon me at once proved that I was on the right scent, and according to Rayne"s instructions I that day followed Madame and Lola back to Salerno.
On changing trains at the Central Station at Rome I bought a newspaper, and the first heading that met my eyes was one which told of a mysterious robbery of the wonderful pearls of the Princess di Acquanero.
With avidity I read that the young Princess, as noted for her beauty as for her jewels, the only daughter of the millionaire Italian shipowner Andrea Ottone, of Genoa, who had married the Prince a year ago, had been robbed of her famous string of pearls under most mysterious circ.u.mstances.
Two days before she had been staying at the great Castello di Antigniano, near Bari, where her uncle, the Baron Bertolini, had been entertaining a party of friends. On dressing for dinner she found that her jewel-case had been rifled and the pearls, worth twenty thousand pounds sterling, were missing!
"The police have a theory that the guilty person was introduced into the castello by one of the many servants," the report went on. "The thief, whoever it was, must, however, have had great difficulty in reaching the Princess" room, as the Baron, knowing that his lady guests bring valuable jewelry, always sets a watch upon the only staircase by which the ladies" rooms can be approached."
With the paper in my hand the train slowly drew out of Rome on its way south. My mind was filled with suspicion. I was wondering vaguely whether the Marchesa Romanelli had been among the guests, for I recollected those words of Fra Pacifico that "the woman had committed sacrilege in the House of G.o.d."
Could it be possible that he knew the Marchesa to be a thief who had stolen some valuable church plate from one or other of the ancient churches in Italy? If so, then, though the wife of the Admiral, she was also a thief.
On arrival at Salerno I took Madame aside, and telling her of my adventure with the man Hauser, I showed her the newspaper and declared my suspicions.
"It may be so," she said. "If she is so friendly with this banker whose past is quite obscure, it may be her hand which takes the stuff and pa.s.ses it on to Zuccari, who in turn sells it to Hauser."
With that theory I agreed.
On the following day I took train into Naples, and that afternoon I called upon the Marchesa.
Fortunately I found her alone, and when I was shown into her _salon_ I thought she looked rather wan and pale, but she greeted me affably and expressed delight that I should call before returning to England.
As we chatted she let drop, as I expected she would, the fact that she had been staying at the Castello di Antigniano.
"You"ve seen in the papers, I suppose, all about the pearls of the Princess di Acquanero?" she went on. "A most mysterious affair!"
I looked the pretty woman straight in the face, and replied:
"Not so very mysterious, Marchesa."
"Why not?" she asked, opening her big, black eyes widely.
"Not so mysterious if I may be permitted to look inside that ornament over there--the heirloom of the Romanelli--the Silver Spider," I said calmly.
"What do you mean?" she cried resentfully. "I don"t understand you."
I smiled.
"Then let me be a little more explicit," I said. "Have you heard of a man named Hauser? Well, he made an attempt upon my life. Hence I am here this afternoon to see you. May I lift the body of the Silver Spider and look inside?"
"Certainly not!" she cried, facing me boldly.
"Then you fear me--eh?"
"I do not fear you. I don"t know you!" she cried.