Ronald Devereux’s murder is first obscured by a misleading fragment of evidence and an official verdict of misadventure. Superintendent Battle later reconstructs the crime as the silencing of a man who had independently reached the conclusion that Jimmy Thesiger was responsible for Gerald Wade’s death and the thefts surrounding Eberhard’s invention. Devereux’s attempted warning to Seven Dials, initially easy to misread, becomes the clue that turns suspicion toward his former friend.

Background and Discovery

After Gerald Wade’s death at Chimneys, Devereux did not accept the apparent explanation that Wade had died from an overdose of a sleeping draught. Battle says Devereux believed Wade had been deliberately put out of the way and that the criminal was someone inside the house. Wade had been excited by a discovery and had told Devereux he was close to confirming his suspicions, though he had not confided what he had found. Devereux followed the same line of inquiry and, Battle concludes, reached the same answer: Thesiger was the culprit.

The evidence does not establish exactly what happened between that discovery and Devereux’s death. Battle notes that few people saw Devereux after Wade’s death, and presents the suggestion that he was betrayed in much the same way Wade had been. Loraine Wade had learned more from Gerald than she should have, according to Battle, and was devoted to Thesiger; Battle believes she passed information to him. Devereux, who was attracted to Loraine, may also have warned her about Thesiger. In Battle’s reconstruction, that disclosure gave Thesiger reason to silence Devereux.

The Misleading Message

Devereux’s final communication did not identify its meaning plainly. He wanted something conveyed to a friend and mentioned Seven Dials. At first, the words seemed to mean that Seven Dials had killed him and that he was trying to alert Thesiger. Battle later reverses that reading: Devereux wanted Seven Dials to be told something about Thesiger. His message was therefore not an accusation against the organization but an attempt to direct it toward his murderer.

The first response to the clue narrowed rather than clarified its meaning. A doctor suggested that Devereux’s assailant might have come from Seven Dials, then asked Bundle Brent to leave her name and address and accompany him to the police station. The inspector recorded her statement carefully but treated the shooting as likely to have been caused by young people practising with firearms. That casual explanation supplied a plausible public account while leaving the central implication of Devereux’s last words unexplored.

Inquest and Official Conclusion

At the inquest, Bundle gave evidence, the doctor gave his, and evidence was heard that rifle practice had taken place in the neighbourhood. The proceeding ended with a verdict of death by misadventure. The formal conclusion settled the public account without establishing the truth later set out by Battle: Devereux had not simply been the victim of an accidental shot, but had died while trying to communicate the identity of the man who had killed him.

The gap between the verdict and the later reconstruction is central to the event’s place in the mystery. The inquest’s evidence could support an accidental explanation, while the message about Seven Dials remained ambiguous until read alongside the thefts, Wade’s investigation, and Devereux’s relationship with Thesiger. The verdict records what the inquiry accepted at the time, not what the subsequent investigation reveals.

Battle’s Reconstruction

Battle says he did not suspect Thesiger for a long time. Devereux’s apparent closeness to him made the implication seem incredible, but the pattern of the thefts suggested an offender with access to information circulating in the Foreign Office. Battle also wondered how Thesiger could afford an expensive way of life on the small income left by his father. Devereux’s message eventually connected those suspicions to the earlier crimes.

In Battle’s account, the friendship between Devereux and Thesiger makes the murder both a betrayal and an obstacle removed. Devereux had come close to confiding in Thesiger before he suspected him, but something held him back; after discovering the truth, he tried to warn Seven Dials instead. His death prevented that warning from being understood in time. Once Battle interprets the message correctly, Devereux’s last words cease to be a confused reference to the organization and become the belated clue that exposes his killer.