the red headed league by arthur conan doyle

As he walks away, Holmes reveals that the man was in fact John Clay. Holmes asks for directions and then promptly leaves. Holmes rings the doorbell, and a “bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow” answers. The disbanding of the league probably indicates that the tunnel is now finished, because Wilson no longer needs to leave the house. When Sherlock realizes that there is a bank on the same road as the property, he deduces that Clay is digging a tunnel from the cellar to the bank, in order to rob it. The job with the Red-Headed League had required Wilson to leave the house for four hours every day, so Holmes suspects that the job was invented to simply get Wilson out of the way, leaving Clay to work on something illicit at the house. Holmes visits Wilson’s property to investigate further. All of these details are suspicious, but it is the acid marking that reveals to Holmes that Vincent Spaulding is in fact John Clay, one of the top criminals in London. Wilson also reveals that Spaulding is of uncertain age, and has an acid splash on his forehead.

Wilson reveals that Spaulding is an intelligent young man with a passion for photography: he spends hours in Wilson’s cellar each day, developing his photographs. This alerts Sherlock to something odd about the assistant, so he asks several follow-up questions. Sherlock enquires further about the assistant, and Wilson says that even though he is the best assistant he’s had, Spaulding is happy to work for half wages. Wilson was encouraged to apply by his assistant, a man named Vincent Spaulding.

After having trouble tracking down Ross, Wilson learns that the landlord of the building knew Ross under a different name, William Morris. However, when Wilson turned up to the office today, there was a sign on the door announcing that the league had been disbanded. Wilson acquired one such job, copying out the encyclopedia for four pounds a week, for his employer, Duncan Ross. The titular Red-Headed League claims to be an organization of red-headed men, founded by an eccentric red-headed millionaire who wished to provide for other red-headed men by offering them easy jobs for high pay. Jabez Wilson comes to Sherlock Holmes and John Watson for help, claiming he has been wronged by a mysterious league of red-headed men.

The red headed league by arthur conan doyle