parties quickly realise that they are on the same side – both have Violet's welfare in mind. The cyclist declares that the abductors are Woodley and Williamson. He evidently knows something of the intrigue. The group first find an unconscious groom, who was driving the trap, in the bushes, and then they find all three persons that they have been seeking on the Charlington Hall grounds, with the apparently defrocked clergyman performing a wedding ceremony between the other two. The bride is somewhat unwilling, judging from the gag over her mouth. Woodley's boast of having married Violet leads the mysterious cyclist, unmasking himself as Carruthers, to pull out his revolver and shoot Woodley, wounding him. The intrigue does indeed involve Uncle Ralph in South Africa. He was dying when Carruthers and Woodley left; far from being penniless at his death, it is revealed that in reality, Uncle Ralph had amassed a large fortune. As he was illiterate, he would surely die intestate, and therefore Violet would inherit his wealth as Ralph's next of kin. The two crooks made their way to England in the hopes that one of them would get to marry Violet – Woodley having won the chance in a card game on the ship – and they had to draw Williamson into the plot, promising him a share of the lucre. The plan went awry when first, Woodley proved to be a brute, and next, Carruthers fell in love with Violet, and thereafter wanted nothing to do with his former confederates. He took to disguising himself and following her as she rode her bicycle past Charlington Hall, where he knew Woodley and Williamson might be lying in wait for her. Heavy penalties await Woodley and Williamson, but Carruthers only gets a few months due to Woodley's less-than-savory reputation. Holmes reassures Carruthers the "marriage" performed by Williamson was void; not only was it performed against Violet's will, but Williamson had been unfrocked and therefore had no authority to legalise a marriage. Publication history "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist" was published in the US in Collier's on 26 December 1903, and in the UK in The Strand Magazine in January 1904. The story was published with five illustrations by Frederic Dorr Steele in Collier's, and with seven illustrations by Sidney Paget in the Strand. It was included in the short story collection The Return of Sherlock Holmes, which