Story summary

緑の錆のあらすじ

著者：エドガー・ウォーレス

読了8分
10 parts
音声は近日公開

A fired shop girl, a drunken neighbor who is not drunk, and a packet of green dust pull Oliva into a deadly plot.

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緑の錆の概要

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読書時間: 約5 h 20 min4 h 15 min fast, 6 h 20 min slow
所要時間: 76,300語
ライブラリ内の難易度: 標準 longer sentences, everyday words
初版刊行年: 1919by エドガー・ウォーレス

Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). 古典を読むのにかかる時間 · 更新日 22 October 2026

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緑の錆 in short

The Green Rust follows one clear line. A rich man dies after naming a secret heir, and the man who heard the secret decides to use it. The heir is Oliva Cresswell, a sharp young woman who earns her own living.

What 緑の錆 is about

Picture this. You come home to find a stranger in your dark flat. Your neighbor, the young man who staggers up the stairs drunk every night, bursts in, sober and holding a revolver, and marches the intruder away. Then he shows you a teaspoon of green dust and asks you to tell no one.

That is how Oliva Cresswell is pulled into The Green Rust, a thriller by Edgar Wallace, written just after the First World War. Its hero is an American detective named Stanford Beale. Its villain is Dr. van Heerden, a respected London physician with a calm face and a plan far larger than any ordinary crime. You get a chase through London and a love story that begins in suspicion.

対象読者. This book suits you if you enjoy fast chases, secret identities, daring rescues, a witty hero, a heroine with a quick tongue, and old London streets lit by gas lamps and fog.

The story in 10 parts

Key idea 1 · free to read
A dying millionaire hides an heir
The story opens in Sussex, in a hilltop cottage called Hill Lodge. John Millinborn, a shipbuilder worth a million and a half pounds, lies dying. His old friend, the lawyer James Kitson, sits beside him and listens to a last request.
Millinborn's sister married a swindler who ruined her and vanished with her baby. Now Millinborn wants to leave everything to that child, a girl named Oliva Prédeaux who works in London and does not know she is his niece. She must not learn of her fortune until she marries, because he fears fortune hunters.
A young doctor named van Heerden has been caring for the sick man. While Kitson walks to the village for medicine, he meets a raving stranger in the trees. When he returns, he finds a knife handle standing in the dying man's side. The police never trace the stranger, and the doctor gains fame for attending the victim.
A secret is spoken, a small chance changes the room, and a blow lands between two people's attention.
2
A girl, a doctor and a drunk
Three months later, the scene moves to Krooman Chambers, a respectable block of flats near Oxford Street.
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3
Dismissed, accused, and searched
The next morning Beale offers Oliva a job as confidential secretary in his wheat business.
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4
Beale's strange office and his plain words
Oliva's new workplace is an office at 342 Lothbury.
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5
Tea at the Grand Alliance
The doctor invites Oliva to tea at the Grand Alliance Hotel.
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6
Abducted from her own room
Beale and Kitson now trust each other, and Kitson tells the police chief, Superintendent McNorton, who Oliva really is.
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7
Locked in at Deans Folly
The doctor brings Oliva to a house near Staines, behind a high wall.
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8
A race of clues, and the plan that goes wrong
Beale is frantic and clever.
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9
Appearances and trust
The main theme is the gap between how people look and what they are.
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10
Money, nation and the style of the telling
The second theme is money and power.
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Read all 10 key ideas now

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Characters, plot and themes

Main characters

Oliva Cresswell A quick, brave London cashier who talks to herself as Matilda and wants only an honest living, not knowing she is an heiress.
Stanford Beale An American detective who plays a drunkard in a London flat while he hunts a plot he calls the Green Terror.
Dr. van Heerden A bearded, polite London physician and secret German patriot who needs money fast and will lie, drug or kill to get it.
James Kitson A careful, kind old lawyer who promised his dying friend to find and protect the heiress without telling her the truth.
Superintendent McNorton A cheerful, shrewd Scotland Yard officer who has orders to help Beale and slowly learns how serious the matter is.
Hilda Glaum A silent, dark-haired clerk at Punsonby's who is devoted to the doctor and will do whatever he asks.
Professor Heyler An ugly, big-headed German chemist, poor and grateful, who works for the doctor out of loyalty and a wish to be fed.
Parson Homo A clever, educated criminal who once served as a clergyman, mocks the law, and agrees to help Beale for a price.

How it ends (spoiler)

Van Heerden carries Oliva to his Sussex farm, where pigeons are waiting to carry his code word to his agents. She aims a pistol at van Heerden, but the safety catch prevents her from firing. Beale and McNorton arrive, and van Heerden is shot as he grabs the gun. Beale then sends the stop word himself by pigeon, and the agents are caught. Their marriage proves to be legal, and Oliva tells Beale to wait until she divorces him.

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『緑の錆』についての質問

What is The Green Rust about?

It follows a London shop girl, Oliva Cresswell, and an American detective, Stanford Beale, as they face Dr. van Heerden, a physician with a secret scheme. The plot involves a hidden inheritance, abduction, a green powder and a race against time.

Who is Stanford Beale?

Beale is an American detective who pretends to be a drunk neighbor of Oliva in London. He is hired by the lawyer Kitson to guard her, and he also follows the secret plot that gives the book its title.

What does the Green Rust mean in the story?

It is the name of a secret that van Heerden is developing, first seen as a small amount of green powder. Its true nature unfolds slowly, and the book keeps the reader guessing about what it can do.

Is The Green Rust a true story?

No, it is a work of fiction by Edgar Wallace, written soon after the First World War. It draws on the mood of that period, with its worries about money, spies and the lasting bitterness of a war.

Is The Green Rust easy to follow?

Yes, in the sense that it has short chapters, clear scenes and a lively style with lots of dialogue. Each chapter ends with a hook, and a few key objects help you keep track of the clues.

この版を引用します

Wallace, Edgar. The Green Rust. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-green-rust.

Wallace, E. (2026). The green rust. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-green-rust (Original work published 1919)

Wallace, Edgar. The Green Rust. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-green-rust.

@book{wallace2026green,
  author = {Wallace, Edgar},
  title = {The Green Rust},
  publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-green-rust},
  note = {First published 1919}
}