- We're coming up close on the end now, Shmoopers.
- This chapter kicks off with another epigraph from Randolph Henry Ash—this one about the all-consuming desire that a person can sometimes feel to have more, see more, or know more.
- The chapter itself gets underway in the home of Beatrice Nest, where all of the book's major twentieth-century characters—except Mortimer Cropper and his henchman, Hildebrand Ash, of course—have gathered together to form a plan.
- The novel's narrator describes these characters arriving one by one. Once they're gathered together like the Knights of the Round Table, the company starts to get things sorted out.
- First, Euan MacIntyre explains his professional opinion that Maud Bailey is the rightful owner of the Ash-LaMotte correspondence.
- After that, we get a discussion of various questions concerning copyright and public access, and then James Blackadder tackles the elephant in the room. How did Roland and Maud find the correspondence "in the first place" (27.29)?
- Roland admits to stealing Ash's drafted letters from the London Library, and then he explains what followed. Maud jumps in every now and then to add the details that he leaves out.
- Once their story is told, Roland gives the stolen letters to Blackadder, who promises to return them to library without anyone finding out about Roland's theft.
- With all of that settled, the company turns to Beatrice Nest, who tells them what she overheard about Mortimer Cropper and Hildebrand Ash's plans.
- As the group discusses what to do, Euan reveals that he's already done some more sleuthing of his own. He knows that Cropper and Hildebrand Ash are already staying at an inn near the graveyard where Ash is buried, and he believes that they'll try to rob the grave soon.
- Euan suggests that they should all attempt to catch Cropper and Hildebrand Ash in the act of robbing Randolph Henry Ash's grave. And, he says, if the grave robbers find what they're looking for, the company should take it from them.
- The group agrees. Pretty soon, it's settled that Euan and Val will head to the Rowan Tree Inn to spy on Cropper and Hildebrand Ash until they make their move.
- As the meeting breaks up, Maud and Leonora step aside to reconcile with each other, and Roland walks out with Blackadder.
- After Roland makes his apologies for keeping secrets and abandoning his job, Blackadder tells him that he probably has about a week to decide if he's going to accept any of the full-time jobs he's been offered.
- Blackadder also puts a fourth job offer on the table: a full-time research fellowship that give Roland a chance to continue studying all of the new Ash materials that have now come to light.
- Roland tells Blackadder that he doesn't know what he wants to do anymore, and he says he'll think things over.