Speaker 1: And now doctor Watson. What about the adventure of the
Speaker 1: Bloomspray Ballot.
Speaker 2: Well, mister Harris, it took place just before the turn
Speaker 2: of the century, in December of eighteen ninety nine, and
Speaker 2: this time Holmes and I became involved through an old
Speaker 2: and personal friendship with Myers. On Bloomsbury Square, here in
Speaker 2: London stood a once imposing townhouse which for thirty years
Speaker 2: had been empty and boarded up. Perhaps, mister Harris, I'm
Speaker 2: getting ahead of my stock. It actually begins in the
Speaker 2: legal office of the Honorable Reginald Dudley, Solicitor, on Chancery Lane,
Speaker 2: near the Temple. One afternoon, mister Dudley received an unexpected visitor.
Speaker 1: Oh you don't recognize me, mister Dudley.
Speaker 2: Look here, my.
Speaker 3: Dear sir, I'm a very busy man. You've come to
Speaker 3: my office without an appointment. I assure you that I
Speaker 3: haven't the faintest idea of who you are.
Speaker 1: Then let me refresh your memory, mister Dudley. Thirty years
Speaker 1: ago up an ampseer named Sir Percy Wickford owned a
Speaker 1: great house on Bloomsbury Square. He had two daughters, the
Speaker 1: eldest Elane, the younger Elizabeth, a beautiful girl with great talent.
Speaker 1: At the half. Elizabeth incidentally married a man named Alpa Harvey.
Speaker 4: Can I go on?
Speaker 2: Here? Here's go on.
Speaker 1: Sir Percy Wickford became involved in some illegal financial scandals
Speaker 1: and the family was discreased. Lpa Harvey because of the
Speaker 1: stain on the family name left the Wickford vanished, and
Speaker 1: Sir Percy, with his two daughters, fled England sailed for Canada.
Speaker 1: You seem to be well informed, too far, my friend.
Speaker 1: I am indeed the reason you shall learn later said
Speaker 1: the sieve. The vessel carrying the Whitfords went down off
Speaker 1: island with no survivors. The residue of the Wickford estate
Speaker 1: some fifty thousand pounds, and the old house is now
Speaker 1: being administered by yourself as solicitor.
Speaker 3: That is true, But since there are no living relatives
Speaker 3: of the Wickford, the old house goes up for auction
Speaker 3: next week and the money disposed of.
Speaker 1: At my discretion. Mister Dudley, that is where you're mistaken.
Speaker 1: What you mean there is the living relative of the Wickford.
Speaker 1: Indeed who myself? I am, Arthur Harvey. You you are,
Speaker 1: mister Dudley, And I have the credentials to prove it
Speaker 1: as the husband of Elizabeth Whitford deceased. I am the
Speaker 1: sole heir to the Wickford Portal.
Speaker 4: Yeah, who is it?
Speaker 2: The room crack here at the hotel, mister Harvey, I
Speaker 2: had a message for you.
Speaker 1: To oh just a moment, I what the you?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 5: No, by Joe Holmes, what is it constible?
Speaker 2: According to the Morning Telegraph, here a man named Arthur Harvey,
Speaker 2: he recently returned from India, was stabbed to death in
Speaker 2: his rooms at the Travelers Club on Powel Mall yesterday evening.
Speaker 2: The official police have no clues to the identity of
Speaker 2: the misterious assailant.
Speaker 1: Indeed, a most regrettable affair, no doubt. I what is it?
Speaker 1: Wat you look at it?
Speaker 2: Upset Will Holmes. I knew Arthur Harvey many years ago
Speaker 2: in India. We fought through the Afghan War together. Indeed
Speaker 2: he saved my life and the gazs near Kendahar.
Speaker 1: Really, you know, I recall his killing me.
Speaker 2: He was the sole member of my marriage of the
Speaker 2: now extinct Whitford family on Bloomsbury Square.
Speaker 1: See and so you would like to catch his murderer
Speaker 1: and avenge his death. Yes, Holmes, I would indeed in
Speaker 1: that case, Watson, that have proceeded at once to Palmell
Speaker 1: and the Traveler's Club. Hmmm, lucky, the official police haven't
Speaker 1: moved the body yet, Unthur, Harvey here was stabbed at
Speaker 1: the entrance to the door. Here fell back into the room,
Speaker 1: dressed in nightcrobe, and on the point of retiring, the
Speaker 1: knife was plunged deep and straight into the heart.
Speaker 2: And ha ha, what is it not?
Speaker 1: Watson observed on the dead man's microbe a tiny bit
Speaker 1: of yellow paper in the shape of a star.
Speaker 2: What a burden?
Speaker 1: This is a bit of paper clipped by a railway
Speaker 1: ticket collector's punch.
Speaker 2: You mean Harvey here was riding a train just before.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, no, the killer was riding a
Speaker 1: train before he came here. Often this bit of paper
Speaker 1: from the ticket collector's punch clung to his coat. When
Speaker 1: the assassin stabbed Harvey, the paper remnant was transferred from
Speaker 1: the killer's coat to Harvey's microbe in the close contact. Now, then, Watson,
Speaker 1: is I recall reading that the Whitford House on boomsbrist
Speaker 1: Square is up for auction next week with a solicitor
Speaker 1: named Reginald Dudley's administrator. That is correct, and to that
Speaker 1: the fact that Arthur Harvey here was the legitimate heir
Speaker 1: to the property. And we have an intriguing problem.
Speaker 2: By Joe Holmes, you'r riot fight, but.
Speaker 1: Now supposedly divide forces. You investigate the origin of this
Speaker 1: ticket punch with a London railway system an eyeingsh repair
Speaker 1: a call on, mister Dudley, and you have no idea
Speaker 1: who might have murdered Arthur Harvey. Mister Dudley, No, mister.
Speaker 2: Holmes, I you not. You must be aware, however, that
Speaker 2: Harvey might have had several enemies.
Speaker 1: Indeed, yes, yes, you see, you.
Speaker 3: See there are still many claimants that we will wait
Speaker 3: for the state, some impostors, some.
Speaker 2: With vague claims. Some of these people were desperate for money,
Speaker 2: and well you understand, yes.
Speaker 1: Quite to destroy the only legitimate air would re establish
Speaker 1: other claims in the court. An obvious conclusion, mister Dudley,
Speaker 1: perhaps two obvious. And before I leave, you are less handed,
Speaker 1: are you not, mister Dudley.
Speaker 2: Why, yes I am.
Speaker 1: But how a few elementary observations not worthy of explanations.
Speaker 1: I wish to point out, however, that you have a
Speaker 1: black smudge on your left cup, a rabbit jarring note
Speaker 1: in an otherwise fatitious ensemble. And now I'm as Dudley,
Speaker 1: I'm a sidew Believe me, ah Watson, any results.
Speaker 2: I've been running on London like a madman, trying to
Speaker 2: trace down that ticket punch. I mean to every railway
Speaker 2: station above and under.
Speaker 1: The drup Come man, get to the point.
Speaker 2: Did you find the origin of that ticket Rundomar Holme's idea,
Speaker 2: It was used last night by a collector on the
Speaker 2: Central London Railway and he used that particular ticket punch
Speaker 2: between the stations of the British Museum in Bloomsbury and
Speaker 2: Chancery Lane.
Speaker 1: Bloomsbury, the Chancery Lane Capital Watson, You've competed a first
Speaker 1: class bit of investigation while making excellent progress. Come let's
Speaker 1: be off where too, Bloombery Square. I should like to
Speaker 1: have a look at the old Wickford House. Well, Watson,
Speaker 1: there it is the old Wickford House.
Speaker 2: Is Holmes confounded? Were we down here on Bloomsbury Square
Speaker 2: in the dead of night? Just again?
Speaker 1: Look where at that window on the upper story the
Speaker 1: light life I do see any Lightholmes? You must be
Speaker 1: mistaken on the country. I'm quite sure I saw the
Speaker 1: glimmit of a light, and I'm positive this house has
Speaker 1: an occupant.
Speaker 2: The place has been deserted for three decades.
Speaker 1: Has its want to suppose we affect an entrantpan our
Speaker 1: hose well, Doctor Watson, Doctor Watson, this is an unusual adventure.
Speaker 1: What about that light in the window of the deserted house?
Speaker 1: What happened after that?
Speaker 2: A series of very strange events, mister Herris, and I
Speaker 2: shall relate them to you immediately after you present a
Speaker 2: few facts on Clippercraft clothes.
Speaker 1: You may not know it, but you have a personal
Speaker 1: value scout right in your own home town. Your private
Speaker 1: agent is the friendly independent store in your community that
Speaker 1: sells clothes with the clipper Craft label. Your clipper Craft
Speaker 1: dealer spend plenty of time seeking out the greatest clothing
Speaker 1: value your money good bye, and naturally chose clipper Craft.
Speaker 1: And why wouldn't he when clipper Craft makes it possible
Speaker 1: for you to own one of the most luxurious suits
Speaker 1: you've ever seen for only forty or forty five dollars,
Speaker 1: and the clipper Craft suit of pure worsted for as
Speaker 1: little as forty five dollars a suit with more hand
Speaker 1: tailoring details than you would ever expect to find at
Speaker 1: that low price. It takes great planning to give you
Speaker 1: so much fine quality for so little money. In fact,
Speaker 1: it takes the concentrated buying power of more than twelve
Speaker 1: hundred independent clippercraft dealers from coast to coasts. That's why
Speaker 1: men who know insist on clipper Craft clothes bearing the
Speaker 1: clipper Craft label. So be sure to visit the clipper
Speaker 1: Craft store in your city. These leading stores in the
Speaker 1: metropolitan area are proud to add their names to clippercraft
Speaker 1: in your suits, top coats, and overcoats. In Manhattan, John
Speaker 1: Wannamaker Men's Stores Broadway at eighth and sixty seven, Liberty Streets,
Speaker 1: Sachs thirty fourth Broadway at thirty four in Brooklyn, Abraham
Speaker 1: and Strauss in Newark, New Jersey, Boulevard Men's Shop, Cresgy, Newick,
Speaker 1: And in Jamaica, the B and B Clothes Shop, one
Speaker 1: sixty four oh eight Jamaica Avenue. Now, doctor Watson, you
Speaker 1: were relating to us the adventure of the Bloomsbury Battle.
Speaker 2: So I was, mister Harris, So I was as you
Speaker 2: remember home saw a light in the window and determined
Speaker 2: to effect an entrance. We managed to get into the
Speaker 2: house through a ground floor window. Then we started to
Speaker 2: prowl through the house through the cold, dark rooms laden
Speaker 2: with the dust of the yearth cluttered with grotesque furniture
Speaker 2: and the relics of a musty past. And then.
Speaker 4: By Joe, by, Joe knows what the devil is it?
Speaker 1: Who is it?
Speaker 2: Sounds like a ghost of musician upstairs playing.
Speaker 1: A tightly Watson a half?
Speaker 2: But why, Holmes, why why would anyone play a half
Speaker 2: here in this empty, gloomy house.
Speaker 1: Suppose we go upstairs.
Speaker 6: See.
Speaker 1: Watson music is coming from behind the doors. Becose we
Speaker 1: enter and meet our ghostly musician.
Speaker 2: Nose it's an old lady because he is dressed the
Speaker 2: style of thirty years ago.
Speaker 7: Good evening, Good evening, gentlemen in my mind. But I'm
Speaker 7: afraid you startled me, did we? Indeed you did. I
Speaker 7: had no idea we were that quarters this evening. But
Speaker 7: the welcome to Wickford.
Speaker 1: House, thank you, madam?
Speaker 7: Won't it by the fire and wonders just my sister
Speaker 7: Laing would be here present?
Speaker 2: Yes, my sister, that's absurd.
Speaker 1: You're both supposed by Miss Wickford. Allow me to present
Speaker 1: doctor Watson. I am Shelock Hoch.
Speaker 7: Doctor Watson, sail commn very nice. Didn't I meet you
Speaker 7: to reception last week?
Speaker 2: Reception? Madam? What reception?
Speaker 7: Buckingham tell us to her Majesty Queen Victorious. I must
Speaker 7: say her majesty looks very young.
Speaker 2: For verify, Queen Victoria's gone now it's I'm afraid we
Speaker 2: were not invited to the reception, Madam.
Speaker 1: I trust it was a brilliant pair.
Speaker 7: Oh yes, mister Holmes, lovely, lovely, distinguished gathering. I met
Speaker 7: Jingming this really didn't know.
Speaker 2: These people did quite often.
Speaker 1: Yes, Smiths, Whitford, they're all famous. Indeed, this is a
Speaker 1: great and fruitful year for Britain, isn't it, Yes.
Speaker 7: Mister Holmes. Yet indeed, ending this than thirty years, we
Speaker 7: shall all be in the turn of the news section.
Speaker 1: Isn't it?
Speaker 7: Expecting?
Speaker 2: It's amazing.
Speaker 7: In a few days now it will be the new year
Speaker 7: eighteen seventy three. Oh I do if Arthur was with
Speaker 7: me now asthor o. Yes, after Harvey my husband, you see,
Speaker 7: I am really this is Arthur Harvey. But just Arthur
Speaker 7: left me not long ago, something about one of father's
Speaker 7: unfortunate financial transactions. It's a perty victor, you know.
Speaker 1: And you don't know where Arthur is, no.
Speaker 7: Mister Holmes. But every evening at this time here in
Speaker 7: my house, I play the harb. Arthur loved the half
Speaker 7: in that coreection. I was just playing what is sad?
Speaker 7: I say it in the hook that he will return
Speaker 7: me some.
Speaker 1: Let us hope, madam, that you will.
Speaker 8: Elizabeth, Elizabeth, is there someone with you name coming to
Speaker 8: the speaking room?
Speaker 7: My dear Elizabeth, I was one o give give me
Speaker 7: the whole and give you doctor Watchington in my fifteen
Speaker 7: moon weekly.
Speaker 8: I cannot say that I've had the pleasure.
Speaker 1: We have some acquaintance with Arthur hobby.
Speaker 7: Isn't love?
Speaker 2: They know of?
Speaker 7: And of course we shall ask them to think it
Speaker 7: you gentlemen, Elizabeth, dear, it's rather late, and I don't
Speaker 7: think please didn't, Dame. It's so lonely, and this happens.
Speaker 7: We haven't had gentlemen callers in such a long time.
Speaker 8: Very well, Supause you continue with your music, Elizabeth, until
Speaker 8: tea is ready.
Speaker 7: I'll chat with our two guests in the library. Oh
Speaker 7: you answered the dearly, won't it? Be told me to
Speaker 7: have for thespi.
Speaker 2: I flow, Mitlin, we were sure you were dead.
Speaker 1: As far as the world knows, Doctor Watson, we are dead.
Speaker 1: But now that you two are.
Speaker 8: Here, I'm afraid we cannot keep our secret any longer.
Speaker 8: The fact is we were on that chip with our
Speaker 8: father so Percy when it went down, But.
Speaker 1: Elizabeth and I found a raft and made our way ashore.
Speaker 1: Yet you deliberately concealed the fact that you were alive.
Speaker 8: Yes, mister Holmes. After our father disgraced the sweet we
Speaker 8: wanted to hide from the world.
Speaker 2: And you've lived here in absolute seclusion for thirty years.
Speaker 8: Yes, doctor Watson, for thirty years. No one else has
Speaker 8: ever been here, No tradesman, no other visitor. I go
Speaker 8: not only at night to purchase the necessity.
Speaker 1: M see rather unusual situation.
Speaker 2: Is it what I should say, so, Miss Elaine, about
Speaker 2: your sister Elizabeth, I can't say I quite understand Elizabeth.
Speaker 8: Well, you see, I'm afraid she's a little unbalanced, Doctor Watson,
Speaker 8: the shark of the family disgraced the disappearance of her
Speaker 8: husband the shipwreck.
Speaker 1: Oh, because that to.
Speaker 2: Lose her mind.
Speaker 8: She actually thinks she's living back in eighteen seventy two.
Speaker 1: Yes, so we gathered. But as to author Hobby is Whitford,
Speaker 1: I presume you have not yet hurt them. You But
Speaker 1: Arthur Hobby is dead.
Speaker 8: Arthur dead.
Speaker 2: Yes, he was murdered here in London last night.
Speaker 6: Oh I leave.
Speaker 1: Well, perhaps it is just as well.
Speaker 8: Elizabeth was beyond our hope long ago, and she could
Speaker 8: not stand another shark. I ask only that two gentlemen
Speaker 8: humor her as I have.
Speaker 1: While you are here, we will.
Speaker 2: Indeed you can count on us.
Speaker 1: This will thank you, gentlemen.
Speaker 6: And now shall we.
Speaker 4: Go into the tea.
Speaker 1: Hmm, the most interesting tea, Watson. Now here we are
Speaker 1: at the rear entrance go homes.
Speaker 2: It's fantastic those two elderly women living alone in this
Speaker 2: gloomy old house, living in the pastor who's what produce?
Speaker 1: Are you looking at the surface of this long pathway
Speaker 1: up the street? There's a layer of coal dust on it.
Speaker 2: What are at homes? They burned coal in the fire.
Speaker 1: Plow precisely, Watson, and you couldn't have failed to observe
Speaker 1: that the coal scuttle of the hearth was almost empty,
Speaker 1: and that the two elderly ladies will need more fuel
Speaker 1: by tomorrow night.
Speaker 2: What the devil you're talking about? The Wickford Sisters.
Speaker 1: Are not the Wickford Sisters, Watson. They are clever impostors
Speaker 1: working with the assassin who killed your friend Harvey.
Speaker 7: You took your time getting that bucket of col hey
Speaker 7: at to night, I'd.
Speaker 8: Make I should say you did, mister solicitor.
Speaker 7: You've been later that every night.
Speaker 1: What do you expect us to do? Frees to death?
Speaker 3: No, see here you too, I'm second tired of having
Speaker 3: that counounded colp that long garden pass.
Speaker 7: Oh, indeed your sick and time?
Speaker 8: Yes, what about us Margie and me hanging about this
Speaker 8: old house dressed up in these chilly clothes posing as
Speaker 8: a couple of bomb the old ladies, the wick That
Speaker 8: sisters are.
Speaker 3: You just have to see it through until the auction
Speaker 3: comes off and the authorities discover you living.
Speaker 7: Very well, we'll see it, but we need to get
Speaker 7: us third of inheritance.
Speaker 1: Mind, you'll get it.
Speaker 2: You'll get And while we're on the.
Speaker 8: Subject of discovery, it might interest you to know we
Speaker 8: had a couple of gentlemen Collas last night.
Speaker 7: Who sell our cones and doctor Watts, not that they
Speaker 7: found anything. We pulled the wool over their eyes.
Speaker 2: With sun comb.
Speaker 1: Doctor Watson and I decided to return again to night
Speaker 1: for more teeth at Dudley, and I'd advise all of
Speaker 1: you not to make a false move. My colleague has
Speaker 1: a pistol, as you see, and you will not visitate
Speaker 1: to use it.
Speaker 2: Jil Holmes here in our rooms at Baker Street. This
Speaker 2: whole thing seems like an unpleasant dream. The whole thing
Speaker 2: was a clever romantic swindling.
Speaker 1: Yes quite. Dudley killed Alfa Harvey to remove the last legitimate.
Speaker 2: Air as who hopes how the deuce?
Speaker 1: Did you know that the wicket punch? The ticket punch
Speaker 1: proved that the killer had made a train journey from
Speaker 1: Bloomsberg to Chancery Lane, and Dudley's office is on Chancery Lane.
Speaker 1: But the empty coal scuttle at the Whickford fireplace was
Speaker 1: by farther of Tillian clu Watson. Both Elizabeth and Elane
Speaker 1: are elderly ladies. They needed coal to heat that sitting room.
Speaker 1: I was strong enough to carry a full coal bucket
Speaker 1: up that long garden path, but no tradesman could have
Speaker 1: carried out the past, since the secret would be discovered.
Speaker 1: Yet it had to be a man with a man's strength,
Speaker 1: and that man had to be original precisely, especially since
Speaker 1: Studley was left handed, and since I had noted a
Speaker 1: black smudge on his left cuff when I saw him
Speaker 1: at his legal office Homes.
Speaker 2: For my part, well, I'm profoundly grateful enough. After all,
Speaker 2: it was my personal friendship with Arthur Harvey.
Speaker 1: That not a too, my dear fellow, not at all.
Speaker 1: I found the adventure most invigorating, and with your indulgence, Watson,
Speaker 1: I should like to add a final conclusion to your
Speaker 1: memoirs is Homes. But conclusion you may quote me Watson
Speaker 1: saying that, in my opinion, the violin is a much
Speaker 1: more pleasing instrument than the heart. Well, doctor Watson, that
Speaker 1: was an interesting adventure.
Speaker 2: Thank you, mister Harris.
Speaker 1: And doctor what adventure will you relate to us next week?
Speaker 2: Next week's story, mister Harris, is called the Adventure of
Speaker 2: the Devil's Foot. It concerns some wild laughter, a lamp
Speaker 2: that burned by day, and a strange footprint in the garden.