Sherlock Holmes is hired by a retired art supply dealer from Lewisham, Josiah Amberley, to look into his young wife's disappearance.

Amberley's alibi fell apart when Holmes discovered that his seat at the Haymarket Theatre had not been occupied on the night in question, its number deduced from the ticket that Watson had seen.

Amberley had lured his wife and her lover—for so he had believed Dr Ernest to be—into the strongroom, locked them in, and turned the gas on, killing them out of jealousy.

Amberley apparently had not noticed this, and hired Holmes out of "pure swank", believing that no-one would ever find him out.

The bodies are found in a disused well in the garden, hidden under a dog kennel, just where Holmes suggested that the police look.

[3] The story was adapted by Edith Meiser in 1931 as an episode of the American radio series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

It aired on 6 April 1931, with Richard Gordon as Sherlock Holmes and Leigh Lovell as Dr Watson.

[4] Meiser was also a writer for the American radio series The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which aired two episodes based on the story, on 11 March 1940 and 3 September 1943 respectively.

[7] In this version, Holmes is implied to have retired and left Baker Street unceremoniously immediately afterwards, feeling that he has lost a step and that it is "time for the country, and for solitude, and for thought, and for my bees."