The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Part 2 THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE-2

"'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is

really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had

started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the old

town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your

applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but

real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr.

Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be

worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a

few hundred pounds.'

"Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves,

that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed to

me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I stood as

good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent Spaulding

seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might prove

useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for the day

and to come right away with me. He was very willing to have a

holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for the address

that was given us in the advertisement.

"I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes.

From north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red

in his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement.

Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court

looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought

there were so many in the whole country as were brought together by

that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they were—straw,

lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; but, as Spaulding

said, there were not many who had the real vivid flame-coloured

tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I would have given it up in

despair; but Spaulding would not hear of it. How he did it I could

not imagine, but he pushed and pulled and butted until he got me

through the crowd, and right up to the steps which led to the

office. There was a double stream upon the stair, some going up in

hope, and some coming back dejected; but we wedged in as well as we

could and soon found ourselves in the office."

"Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked

Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge

pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting

statement."

"There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs

and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that was

even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate as he

came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in them

which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem to be

such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn came the

little man was much more favourable to me than to any of the

others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he might have

a private word with us.

"'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is

willing to fill a vacancy in the League.'

"'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He

has every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so

fine.' He took a step backward, c****d his head on one side, and

gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he

plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my

success.

"'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will,

however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.'

With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I

yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as he

released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we have

to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and once by

paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which would disgust

you with human nature.' He stepped over to the window and shouted

through it at the top of his voice that the vacancy was filled. A

groan of disappointment came up from below, and the folk all

trooped away in different directions until there was not a red-head

to be seen except my own and that of the manager.

"'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of

the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are you

a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?'

"I answered that I had not.

"His face fell immediately.

"'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am

sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the

propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their

maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a

bachelor.'

"My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I

was not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over

for a few minutes he said that it would be all right.

"'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be

fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a

head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your

new duties?'

"'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,'

said I.

"'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent

Spaulding. 'I should be able to look after that for you.'

"'What would be the hours?' I asked.

"'Ten to two.'

"Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr.

Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just

before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in

the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, and

that he would see to anything that turned up.

"'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?'

"'Is 4 pounds a week.'

"'And the work?'

"'Is purely nominal.'

"'What do you call purely nominal?'

"'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the

building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole

position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You don't

comply with the conditions if you budge from the office during that

time.'

"'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of

leaving,' said I.

"'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness

nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose

your billet.'

"'And the work?'

"'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the

first volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens,

and blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you

be ready to-morrow?'

"'Certainly,' I answered.

"'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you

once more on the important position which you have been fortunate

enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with

my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased at

my own good fortune.

"Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was

in low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the

whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its

object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past

belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay

such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the

'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to

cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the whole

thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look at it

anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a quill-pen,

and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for Pope's

Court.

"Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as

possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross

was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off upon

the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from time

to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he bade

me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had written,

and locked the door of the office after me.

"This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the

manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my

week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week

after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I left

at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only once of a

morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at all. Still,

of course, I never dared to leave the room for an instant, for I

was not sure when he might come, and the billet was such a good

one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk the loss of

it.

"Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about

Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and

hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very

long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly

filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole

business came to an end."

"To an end?"

"Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as

usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a

little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the panel

with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself."

He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet

of note-paper. It read in this fashion:

THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE

IS

DISSOLVED.

October 9, 1890.

Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the

rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so

completely overtopped every other consideration that we both burst

out into a roar of laughter.

"I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our

client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can

do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere."

"No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from

which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for the

world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you will

excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. Pray

what steps did you take when you found the card upon the door?"

"I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called

at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything

about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant

living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me

what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had never

heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan Ross was.

He answered that the name was new to him.

"'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.'

"'What, the red-headed man?'

"'Yes.'

"'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor

and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new

premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.'

"'Where could I find him?'

"'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17

King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.'