CHARACTERS IN "DANCING MEN"

Character Analysis

Hilton Cubitt

This man is one of Holmes's more tragic clients. Cubitt is married to an American woman with a
mysterious past. He loves his wife and trusts her, despite her mysterious ways. He hires Holmes to
help him figure out who is sending him coded messages, which are freaking out his wife. Poor
Cubitt is shot and killed by the man who is sending the messages, his wife's old boyfriend. Cubitt's
fate distresses Holmes and Watson, and it helps to demonstrate that not even Sherlock Holmes is
perfect. Though Holmes always solves the crime, he sometimes arrives too late to stop a tragedy
from happening.

Elsie Patrick Cubitt

Elsie is Hilton's tormented wife. She is scared to confess her shady past to her husband, and her
lack of trust in him makes a bad situation worse and partially leads to his death. It's notable that
part of the reason for Elsie's fear is her husband's social status; she believed that his family honor
and pride were so important that she couldn't bring herself to tell him about her scandalous past.
After her ex-boyfriend shoots her husband, Elsie attempts to commit suicide with her husband's
gun. She recovers though and in an epilogue Watson tells us that she devoted the rest of her life
to charitable works.

Abe Slaney

Abe is our villain in this story. He's a gangster from Chicago who follows his ex-girlfriend, Elsie, to
England and tries to win her back. He proceeds to stalk her and sends her encoded messages that
get increasingly threatening. Abe definitely has a temper, but he also genuinely seems to love
Elsie. He is shocked and upset when he learns that Elsie tried to kill herself, and he confesses to
shooting her husband in order to clear Elsie of suspicion for murder.

Inspector Martin

This is one of the few non-London police officers that we meet in these stories. Martin helps us to
realize how famous Holmes is getting since Martin is a total Holmes fanboy. He knows all about
the famous detective and is excited to be working with him. He also bows to Holmes's expertise
and lets him take the lead on the case, even though Holmes is technically operating in Martin's
jurisdiction.

Old Patrick

This man is Elsie's father and is a Chicago gangster. He is the head of the gang to which Abe Slaney,
Elsie's ex-boyfriend, belongs. Elsie grew tired of their criminal lifestyle and ran off to England.
Patrick is also notable for inventing the "dancing men" code that Abe uses in his notes to Elsie.

Thurston

This is the man with whom Watson sometimes plays billiards. Thurston wanted Watson to invest
in some property in South Africa with him, but Watson said no. Thurston is notable because he's
part of a scene where Holmes dazzles Watson with one of his out-of-the-blue observations, which
still manage to dazzle Watson even though Holmes does stuff like that all the time.

Parker, Saunders, and Mrs. King

Parker is the vicar of Hilton Cubitt's parish. Saunders and Mrs. King are members of his household
staff. The mention of these characters helps to give us a portrait of Hilton Cubitt's country-estate
lifestyle.

 Sadly, this story has nothing to do with actual dancing men and cannot be subtitled
"Watson and Holmes hit the London Club Scene." Serious bummer.

 The story opens with Holmes doing one of his parlor tricks, where he startles Watson with
some out-of-the-blue observation and then explains how he arrived at the observation
with the power of logic.

 In this case, Holmes explains how he figured out that Watson didn't want to invest in some
property in South Africa.

 After this Holmes throws Watson a sheet with little dancing men drawn on it.

 Turns out Holmes is trying to decipher it for a client, Hilton Cubitt.

 We've got to say that this might be the most inefficient code ever. It has lots of little
dancing stick figure people, which must take forever to draw.

 Conveniently, Hilton Cubitt arrives at Baker Street and explains the case himself.

 In a nutshell: Hilton met and married a nice American girl with mysterious past named
Elsie Patrick about a year ago. Elsie asked him never to ask about her past, and Hilton
agreed.

 All was well till they started getting these weird encrypted messages. Hilton thought it was
a joke, but Elsie got increasingly freaked out about the whole thing.

 She still refuses to confide in her husband, and he is stressed out. So he has hired Sherlock
Holmes to figure out what's going on here.

 Holmes agrees to take on the case and he spends the next few days trying to translate the
code.

 A few days later Hilton returns to Baker Street with an update.

 He's received more messages scrawled in chalk on a shed door outside. He copied them
and brought them for Holmes to see.

 Also, Hilton came close to catching the person leaving messages late at night. But his wife
Elsie held him back, saying she feared for his safety.

 Hilton is getting increasingly frustrated by all this weirdness

 Hilton goes back home to Norfolk, and Holmes gets back to code-cracking.
 A few days later Hilton sends them another coded message in the mail.

 After seeing this message Holmes springs up and tells Watson they have to rush to Norfolk
immediately.

 Unfortunately, they arrive too late: Hilton Cubitt is dead and his wife is near death from a
gunshot wound.

 The police, led by Inspector Martin suspect it's a murder/attempted-suicide. Martin is a

fan of Holmes and basically lets him take over the case, because of his awesomeness.

 Martin, Holmes, and Watson arrive at the Cubitt house and talk to the servants.

 The servants heard the sound of gunshots and rushed in to find Hilton dead and his wife
wounded, with a gun lying on the floor between them.

 Then Holmes examines the room and finds evidence of a third gunshot, which Martin had
missed.

 It's a miracle any crime gets solved without Holmes's help.

 Holmes also finds evidence that the window was briefly open. And he finds a woman's
purse with money in it.

 Finally Holmes sends an encoded message to a nearby farm called "Elridge's."

 After this he gives a lengthy explanation about how he cracked the dancing men code.
Basically, Holmes does puzzles and crosswords in his spare time. He used his genius skills
to crack the code by figuring out the most common letters in the English language first and
proceeding from there.

 Watson and Martin are duly impressed.

 The messages are signed Abe Slaney and the last one threatens Elsie.

 After giving Holmes enough time to speechify, Abe Slaney himself arrives, having been
lured there by the coded message Holmes sent. Abe thought the note was from Elsie.

 Abe is arrested, and he confesses everything, as criminals in these stories tend to do.

 Turns out Abe is a member of a gang in Chicago run by Elsie's dad.

 Abe was engaged to Elsie, but she got sick of living a life of crime and ran away to England.

 Abe followed her and proceeded to stalk her with funky encoded messages. The code was
invented by Elsie's dad.

 Abe upset to hear that Elsie shot herself. He also confesses to shooting Hilton himself. He
had come to the house to meet Elsie, and she tried to pay him to leave. Hilton stumbled
upon them and took a shot at Abe.
  In an epilogue, Watson explains that Abe got jail time but not the death penalty since no
one could prove who fired the first shot, Hilton or Abe. Elsie recovered from her suicide
attempt.

Like almost all the Sherlock Holmes stories authored by Arthur Conan Doyle, this one is presented
as a memoir written by Watson, the first-person narrator. The story begins in Holmes and
Watson’s Baker Street apartment in London. Holmes, who appears to be deeply engrossed in his
chemicals and test-tubes, surprises Watson by apparently reading his mind: “So, Watson . . . you
do not propose to invest in South African securities?” Watson, astonished by Holmes’s remark,
demands an explanation, and Holmes complies, relating an intricate chain of reasoning that begins
with the presence of chalk on Watson’s left hand the previous night and concludes with his
investment decision.

Holmes then hands Watson a sheet of paper bearing some stick figures and asks him what he
makes of it. Watson believes it to be a child’s drawing, but Holmes tells him that a client, Mr.
Hilton Cubitt, is calling on them soon to seek an explanation of the stick figures drawn on the
paper, figures that seem to resemble dancing men. When Cubitt arrives, he explains that he has
been married for about a year to a young American woman. He knew little about his wife, Elsie,
when they met, and she requested that he not ask her about her past, a past she says she would
like to forget. He has honored her request, but recently she seemed quite shaken after receiving a
letter from the United States. Shortly after she read and burned that letter, the dancing men
hieroglyphics were found written in chalk on the window sill. Cubitt washed them off but noticed
his wife’s dismay when he told her about them. Then the paper that Holmes had shown Watson
was found on the sundial in the garden. When Cubitt found it and showed it to Elsie, she promptly
fainted. He does not wish to violate his promise to his wife and ask whether these dancing men
are related to her unknown past, so he has come to Holmes for help in understanding this
apparent mystery involving the woman he loves so dearly.

Holmes asks Cubitt some questions about the neighborhood and sends him home, asking him to
watch for more dancing men drawings and urging Cubitt to copy down faithfully any that he finds.
Holmes studies the drawing silently and makes no remarks about the case to Watson. About two
weeks later, Cubitt returns with more hieroglyphics; some have been written in chalk on a door,
others have been scrawled on a paper left on the sundial. One night, Cubitt reports, he saw a
figure moving through the darkness in the yard; he took his pistol and, despite his wife’s protests,
went after the man. He did not find anyone, but the next morning more dancing men, apparently
drawn by this mysterious visitor, were found chalked on the door. Cubitt believes that his wife
possibly knows who this man is; he remains true to his promise, however, and refuses to
interrogate her about the matter.

Cubitt returns to his home—Riding Thorpe Manor—on the train, and Holmes puzzles over the
drawings some more. When Cubitt mails him another set of drawings found..
Hilton Cubitt seeks Sherlock Holmes' assistance in determining why a series of hieroglyphs - little
pictures of dancing men - has so terrified his American wife Elsie. He knows little of his wife's
background having met her in London during the Queen's Golden Jubilee but has now been very
happily married for three years. The problems started a few months before when she received a
letter from Chicago and more recently, when the drawings of the dancing men had been chalked
on a garden wall. Holmes realizes that the symbols are a code of some sort and Mrs. Cubitt
continues to receive similar messages. He also knows however that to unravel the mystery, he will
have to learn more about the woman's past and her history in America.

In the short story of Sherlock Holmes called 'The Adventures of the Dancing Men' a man tells
Holmes that his wife, Elsie, recieves notes with dancing men on them. This turns out to be a secret
code.
Below you will find the alphabet of these dancing men. Men with a flag denote the last letter of a
word.

THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE

Arthur Conan Doyle

Plot Overview
Doctor John Watson steps into the home of his friend, the famous private detective Sherlock
Holmes. Watson, the story’s narrator, finds Holmes deep in conversation with Jabez Wilson, a
man who would be entirely unremarkable except for his blazing red hair. Holmes asks Watson
to stay and lend his assistance, claiming that he has never heard a case as bizarre as Jabez
Wilson’s.

Wilson reveals that he is a pawnbroker and has an assistant named Vincent Spaulding, who is
working for half the usual salary to learn the business. Wilson says that Spaulding is a fine
worker, although he is interested in photography and often goes alone into the basement of the
shop to develop photos. About two months ago, Spaulding drew Wilson’s attention to an
advertisement in the paper for an opening in the League of Red-Headed Men. According to
Spaulding, the league is a foundation established by an eccentric and wealthy American to
promote the interests of redheaded men by paying them to perform small tasks. Spaulding
encouraged Wilson to apply, and the two went to the offices listed in the advertisement. After
fighting through a crowd of redheaded men waiting outside, Spaulding and Wilson made their
way to the manager, another redheaded man by the name of Duncan Ross, who promptly
hired Wilson. The league paid Wilson to copy pages of the Encyclopedia Britannica, forbidding
him from leaving the office for any reason during his four-hour shifts.

Wilson says that he worked for the league for eight weeks and was paid handsomely for his
efforts. The morning on which the story begins, however, Wilson arrived at the offices to find
that the Red-Headed League had been dissolved and that Duncan Ross was nowhere to be
found. Wilson went immediately to Sherlock Holmes, hoping that Holmes could help him find
out whether he had been the victim of a practical joke. Holmes asks Wilson a few questions
about Vincent Spaulding and discovers that Spaulding came to work for Wilson only about a
month before the whole mysterious affair began. Holmes tells Wilson that he will have an
answer in a few days.

After smoking three pipes in a row, Holmes leaps up and asks Watson to accompany him to a
concert. Along the way, they stop in front of Wilson’s shop, where Holmes thumps his walking
stick on the pavement and knocks on the door to ask Spaulding for directions. After Spaulding
and Holmes finish talking, Holmes tells Watson that he believes that Spaulding is the fourth-
smartest man in London. Holmes also tells Watson that he saw on the knees of Spaulding’s
trousers exactly what he wanted to see. Even though Watson is mystified by these remarks,
Holmes refuses to explain them further and instead leads Watson around to a busy street
behind Wilson’s shop. Holmes notices aloud that there’s a bank behind Wilson’s shop, and,
finished for the day, he and Watson go to the concert.

After the concert, Holmes asks Watson to meet him at his office at ten o’clock that night, saying
that a serious crime is about to be committed. Watson agrees but is entirely bewildered by
Holmes’s actions. Watson notes that he and Holmes have seen and heard exactly the same
information about the case but that Holmes seems to have arrived at some conclusions that he
himself has failed to draw.

That night, Watson meets up with Holmes, along with two other men—a Scotland Yard
detective named Peter Jones and a bank manager named Mr. Merryweather. Holmes says that
the four men are about to have a run-in with John Clay, a notorious criminal. The men depart in
carriages to Mr. Merryweather’s City and Suburban Bank—the same bank Holmes and Watson
had discovered behind Wilson’s shop. The four men wait for an hour in the darkness of the
cellar filled with French gold. Suddenly, they notice a light shining through a crack in the floor.
The light gets brighter and brighter, until the crack finally widens and a man’s hand breaks
through. The man climbs out of the opening the floor and begins to help another man through
when Holmes and Detective Jones leap on the two men. They capture the first man, John
Clay, also known as Jabez Wilson’s hardworking assistant, Vincent Spaulding. The other man
escapes through the crack in the floor.

Later that night, Holmes tells Watson how he solved the case. Holmes realized from the
beginning that the Red-Headed League was simply too preposterous to be real and that it must
therefore have been a ploy to get Wilson out of his shop for a few hours every day. The fact
that Spaulding was willing to work for so little money and spent a lot of time alone in the
basement suggested to Holmes that Spaulding was doing something illicit in the cellar. When
he noticed the bank nearby, Holmes had suspected that Spaulding was digging a tunnel to the
bank. Holmes pounded on the sidewalk outside Wilson’s shop to determine whether the
ground was hollow underneath, and he knocked on the door for directions so that he could see
whether the knees of Spaulding’s pants were worn away. The fact that the league dissolved so
suddenly suggested to Holmes that the robbery was imminent, and he was therefore able to
make preparations and capture John Clay.

Character List
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Sherlock Holmes - A private detective and the story’s protagonist. Sherlock Holmes’s keen
observations and ability to reason allow him to solve puzzles that stymie everyone else.
Sometimes quiet and contemplative, other times bursting with energy, Holmes uses
methodology that can confuse and frustrate others. He is somewhat of a mystery, rarely
divulging his thoughts until he’s already solved the crime.
Read an in-depth analysis of Sherlock Holmes.

Dr. John Watson - Sherlock Holmes’s partner and the story’s narrator. Good-natured, brave,
and down-to-earth, Watson is Sherlock Holmes’s sidekick, even though he rarely helps Holmes
actually solve any mysteries. His confusion with the mysteries and Holmes often mirrors
readers’ own confusion.
Read an in-depth analysis of Dr. John Watson.

Jabez Wilson - A London pawnbroker. Jabez Wilson is an average man whose only
remarkable feature is his shock of fiery red hair. His slow and trusting nature prevents him from
seeing anything suspicious about either Vincent Spaulding or the preposterous Red-Headed
League.
John Clay/Vincent Spaulding - A notorious criminal working at Jabez Wilson’s pawnshop
under the pseudonym Vincent Spaulding. Sinister and haughty, John Clay wins the respect of
Sherlock Holmes because of his ingenious plot to rob the City and Suburban Bank.

Peter Jones - A Scotland Yard detective. Peter Jones is a tough police officer who both
respects and distrusts Sherlock Holmes.

Mr. Merryweather - The manager of the City and Suburban Bank.

Archie/Duncan Ross/William Morris - John Clay’s partner in crime. Archie’s red hair
prompts John Clay to devise the Red-Headed League to lure Wilson out of his pawnshop
for four hours every day.

Analysis of Major Characters

→
Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is one of the most recognizable figures in all of world literature, and it can
often be difficult for readers to strip away their preconceptions about Holmes and see how the
stories actually portray him. Most people think of Holmes as a force of pure reasoning, an
almost superhuman mind capable of solving any puzzle. Although Doyle’s stories do confirm
this stereotype to some degree, they also complicate this image, as is clear in “The Red-
Headed League.” Here readers see multiple sides of Holmes: he moves from quiet
contemplation to frantic activity, virtually asleep one moment and practically pushing Watson
out the door in hot pursuit of clues the next. Watson comments that Holmes has a “dual
nature,” and readers see evidence of this throughout the story, as when Holmes transitions
instantly from fervently investigating the clues at Wilson’s house to lounging the day away in a
concert hall. Holmes veers wildly from one extreme to the next, making him far more eccentric
than first-time readers might expect.

Although these extremes of behavior might suggest that Holmes is not a realistic, well-rounded
character, close readers of the story will notice that he is also capable of more complicated
emotions. Holmes displays warm friendship for his “dear Watson” but usually rebuffs his
friend’s attempts to find out what he is thinking. Even more troubling is the question of
Holmes’s motives in solving cases. While Holmes does hand criminals over to the police,
serving justice is not his primary concern. Instead, Holmes is primarily interested in the case as
an intellectual challenge, a puzzle to be solved. At the end of the “The Red-Headed League,”
for example, Holmes suggests that his reward came from hearing an interesting case and
settling a private score with John Clay, not from keeping the public safe by putting a known
criminal behind bars. Even in the story’s final moments, Doyle further complicates readers’
image of Holmes, who responds indifferently to Watson’s praise and says that he pursued the
case solely to escape the boredom of everyday life. Holmes is therefore a character readers
easily recognize as superhuman, but also one who is just as human as everyone else.
Dr. John Watson

Even though he’s the narrator of the story, Watson plays a surprisingly limited role. In fact, he
does not help solve the case or even contribute to the action of the story in any way. That is
not to say, however, that Watson is irrelevant. In fact, Watson is just as much the center of the
story’s form as Sherlock Holmes is the center of the story’s plot. Watson shapes the story for
readers, who see and understand only what Watson himself experiences. Watson’s good
nature, eagerness, and warm feelings for Holmes enliven the story and transform it from a
mere recounting of a crime and its solution into a rich study of human behavior.

Doyle transforms the story from a straightforward mystery into a complex study by putting
readers directly into Watson’s shoes. Although far from dull, Watson is like most readers in that
he simply isn’t as observant as Holmes. The fact that he is so average and genial also makes
him instantly accessible to readers. Readers don’t always understand Holmes’s reasoning, but
they admire him all the more because of Watson’s warm descriptions of him. Watson also tries
to redeem Holmes for readers by suggesting that he is a benefactor of humanity, even though
Holmes himself admits that he solves cases merely for his own recreation.

Themes, Motifs, and Symbols

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Themes

The Presence of the Bizarre in Everyday Life

“The Red-Headed League” depicts a world in which everyday life is filled with bizarre
occurrences. Doyle’s story is realistic in that it portrays recognizably human characters in
recognizable settings, but it is unusual in its emphasis on the idea that the real world is a
somewhat grotesque place, with the mundane and outlandish existing side by side. Watson
notes, for example, that pawnbroker Jabez Wilson would be an entirely average man were it
not for his absurdly bright red hair. The story of Wilson’s misadventure further underscores this
point by showing how an average man with a dull occupation can be suddenly and
unexpectedly thrust into a strange and seemingly inexplicable situation. The story contains
details and images that would almost be better suited to science fiction or a dream, such as
Wilson’s description of the streets of London being completely filled with redheaded men. The
fact that Doyle portrays such images so realistically emphasizes his view that even everyday
experiences can be utterly bizarre.

The Power of Reason

Doyle emphasizes the power of logical reasoning throughout “The Red-Headed League” and in
every other Sherlock Holmes story. Unlike other detectives, Holmes uses pure logic to cut right
to the heart of any matter. Readers catch a glimpse of Holmes’s powers of observation early,
when he pieces together Jabez Wilson’s past simply by paying attention to minor details that
other people overlook, such as Wilson’s worn coat jacket, his tattoo, and the firmness of his
handshake. After Holmes explains how he reached his conclusions, Wilson remarks that
Holmes’s method is actually very simple, a point emphasized throughout the story. Although
everyone has the ability to rationalize, few people take the opportunity to do so, even the
intelligent Dr. Watson. Though Watson should be able to solve the case as easily as Holmes,
he doesn’t, and instead sits back to watch Holmes unravel the mystery. Like Watson, most
people prefer to let others do the thinking for them.

Motifs

Red Hair

Red hair highlights the presence of the bizarre in everyday life. Doyle repeatedly describes
Jabez Wilson’s and Archie’s red hair to make this point, in addition to describing the
unforgettable throng of redheaded men packing the streets of London. Doyle also emphasizes
red hair to make a subtle pun on the term red herring, which is a false clue that writers often
insert into their mysteries to thwart the hero’s attempts to solve the puzzle. In this case,
Wilson’s and Archie’s red hair really is a red herring, because the Red-Headed League is a
false clue used to divert readers’ attention from John Clay’s intended bank robbery. Doyle is
nudging readers to make the connection that red hair and the Red-Headed League are mere
decoys, which should theoretically make the central mystery much easier to solve.
 Symbols

The Cellar

The pitch-black cellar where Watson, Holmes, Jones, and Merryweather wait for the bank
robbers to appear represents the dark and seemingly impenetrable mystery of the Red-Headed
League. Watson compares being in the cellar to being in a state of darkness he’s never before
experienced, the same way he feels about the entire bizarre pawnshop scenario, Wilson, and
the confusing Red-Headed League. As with the story’s central mystery, Watson and readers
wait in the blackness of the cellar, comprehending nothing until a light penetrates the darkness
and makes everything clear in accordance with Holmes’s logical conclusions.

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The Red-Headed League Summary

Summary (Comprehensive Guide to Short Stories, Critical Edition)
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When Dr. Watson visits the apartment of his friend Sherlock Holmes, he finds the world’s
first consulting detective in conference with a client with bright red hair, Mr. Jabez Wilson.
Holmes invites Watson to remain and to hear the client’s unusual story. Wilson, a man of
about sixty, is a not very successful small businessperson; the most noteworthy thing about
him is the flaming color of his hair. After introductions all around, Wilson explains how
upset he has been by a recent incident, so upset that he has come to Holmes for his help.

Wilson says that he is a man of very settled habits, a bachelor who almost never deviates
from the daily routine of running his pawnshop. At least, he never deviated until he heard
of the Red-Headed League. One day in his shop, his assistant, Vincent Spaulding, called his
attention to an advertisement in the newspaper that announced an opening in the Red-
Headed League. The announcement promised a salary of four pounds a week (about twenty
dollars at the time of the story) for “purely nominal services” to the candidate who was
accepted. The amount was a considerable sum at the time, especially if the duties were
slight, and Spaulding urged Wilson to apply. The timid pawnbroker did so, but only after
Spaulding practically took him to the office mentioned in the ad.

There Wilson heard the story of an eccentric American millionaire who had left a fortune to
provide an income for Londoners with red hair as bright as the millionaire’s had been.
Wilson was accepted into the League. He learned that the nominal duties consisted only of
his coming to the office from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. each day and copying out
the Encyclopaedia Britannica in longhand. Since most of Wilson’s business was done in
the evening, he was delighted at the chance to supplement his income. This he did for eight
weeks, getting well into the “A” volume, until one day he arrived at the office to find it
closed, with a notice on the door that the Red-Headed League had been dissolved. He was
so disturbed by the thought that someone had been playing a practical joke on him that he
came to Holmes for a solution.

Holmes points out that Wilson has lost nothing—indeed, has made thirty pounds—but says
that the case is remarkable. Holmes soon discovers that Spaulding, who encouraged Wilson
to apply, is not all that he seems. The assistant came to Wilson recently for half-wages,
claiming to want to learn the business. Although perfectly satisfactory as an assistant,
Spaulding has an interest in photography, has set up Wilson’s cellar as a darkroom, and is
down in the basement every minute that Wilson does not need him in the shop above.
Holmes promises to look into the case, and Wilson leaves.

Holmes and Watson first visit the district in which Wilson’s shop is located, where Holmes
does some mysterious things: He asks directions from a clerk at the pawnshop; he taps the
street outside with his walking stick and remarks that the case is complicated by the fact
that it is Saturday. Later, he asks Watson to meet him at Baker Street that evening at ten,
and to come armed. When Watson arrives, he finds two other men there: Peter Jones, an
inspector from Scotland Yard, and a Mr. Merryweather, a bank director. Holmes takes them
to a branch of the City and Suburban Bank, a branch located in the same district as
Wilson’s pawnshop. There they enter the vaults of the bank, where Merryweather shows
them a shipment of thirty thousand gold coins they have recently received from the Bank of
France. Holmes says that they may have some time to wait, and they sit quietly in the dim
vault.

After about an hour, they see a glint of light from the floor: A paving stone moves, and a
man’s face appears from the hole. He climbs out, and Holmes and the inspector seize him.

Holmes later explains his reasoning: He became suspicious when first he heard that Vincent
Spaulding had taken Wilson’s job offer at less than the normal wages. His time in the cellar
suggested that there would be found the real interest of Spaulding. The business of the Red-
Headed League seemed to be a trick to get the sedentary Wilson out of the shop for some
hours each day so that Spaulding and his confederates could do whatever they were up to,
unobserved. When, on his visit to the area, Holmes tapped the pavement and heard a hollow
sound, he concluded that they were tunneling beneath the street to the branch bank in
question. When he asked the pawnbroker’s clerk, Spaulding himself, for directions, Holmes
recognized him as John Clay, a notoriously cunning criminal. The rest was the simple
matter of gaining entrance to the bank vault—Holmes reasoned that the robbers would
strike on Sunday, when the bank was closed—and waiting for them to appear.

Sherlock Holmes in investigates the strange case of Jabez Wilson. The man was
recently offered employment by an organization known as the Red Headed League. For
the grand sum of 4 pounds per week, he was to sit in an office and copy out entries fro
an encyclopedia, starting with the letter A. He had responded to an advertisement and
while there were many applicants, he has no idea why he was selected as the League's
beneficiary. When after several weeks his employment is suddenly terminated, Mr.
Wilson doesn't know what think. Holmes quickly deduces however that it was the
location of his office as much as his red hair that resulted in him getting the
employment in the first place.