The Red-Headed League
Four pounds a week for copying out an encyclopaedia hides a tunnel dug towards a bank vault.
Few cases in the canon begin with such baffling absurdity as The Red-Headed League. Originally published in The Strand Magazine, this short story transforms a peculiar job offer for red-headed men into a high-stakes battle against a bank heist mastermind.
Quick Facts
- Author
- Arthur Conan Doyle
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- Series
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
- Genre
- Detective fiction short stories
- Published in
- Strand Magazine
- Published
- August 1891
- Preceded by
- A Scandal in Bohemia
Reader's Guide
Pawnbroker Jabez Wilson arrives seeking aid after losing a lucrative post with the Red-Headed League. The scheme had paid him to copy out the Encyclopaedia Britannica, keeping him away from his pawnshop for four hours each day. Holmes visits the pawnshop and sees that the knees of the assistant Vincent Spaulding's trousers are worn and dirty. He concludes that a passage is being dug from the shop's cellar to the vault of a nearby bank. With Inspector Jones, they ambush the criminals as John Clay (using the alias Spaulding) emerges from the hole during a robbery attempt.
Did You Know?
- Doyle ranked the story second in his list of his twelve favourite Holmes stories.
- This case has been adapted into numerous radio dramas and film versions over decades.
More in Cases & Adventures
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