The Red-Headed League

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One day, I visit my friend Sherlock Holmes. He is talking to a large man with very bright red hair. Holmes asks me to sit down.

“This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,” he says. “He has a very unusual story for us.”

Mr. Wilson owns a small shop. People leave valuable things there and borrow money against them. He has one assistant, Vincent Spaulding. Spaulding is a good worker and accepts only half the usual pay.

“He likes taking photographs,” Wilson says. “He often goes down to the cellar to work on them.”

One morning, Spaulding showed him a notice in the newspaper. It offered a job to a man with red hair. The pay was four pounds a week, and there was very little work.

The notice was from a group called the Red-Headed League. Spaulding said that a rich American left money to help men with red hair. Wilson could get one of these easy jobs.

“My business does not make much money,” Wilson tells us. “Four extra pounds a week would be very useful.”

So he and his assistant closed the shop and went to the address in the notice.

The street was full of men with red hair. Wilson nearly gave up. But Spaulding pushed through the crowd and took him into the office.

A man with even brighter red hair sat behind a table. He looked at Wilson and seemed very pleased.