I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax whichwould disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to thewindow and shouted through it at the top of his voice that thevacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below,and the folk all trooped away in different directions until therewas not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of themanager.
"'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one ofthe pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Areyou 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 amsorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for thepropagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for theirmaintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be abachelor.'
"My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I wasnot to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over fora few minutes he said that it would be all right.
"'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might befatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such ahead of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon yournew 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 justbefore pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little inthe 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 thebuilding, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your wholeposition forever. The will is very clear upon that point. Youdon't comply with the conditions if you budge from the officeduring 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 sicknessnor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you loseyour billet.'
"'And the work?'
"'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the firstvolume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, andblotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you beready to-morrow?'
"'Certainly,' I answered.
"'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate youonce more on the important position which you have been fortunateenough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home withmy assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleasedat my own good fortune.
"Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was inlow spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that thewhole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what itsobject might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether pastbelief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would paysuch a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could tocheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of thewhole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a lookat it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with aquill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off forPope's Court.
"Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right aspossible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Rosswas there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me offupon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in fromtime to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock hebade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I hadwritten, and locked the door of the office after me.
"This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday themanager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for myweek's work. It was the same next week, and the same the weekafter. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon Ileft at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in onlyonce of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in atall. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for aninstant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billetwas such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not riskthe loss of it.
"Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written aboutAbbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, andhoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before verylong. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearlyfilled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the wholebusiness came to an end."
"To an end?"
"Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work asusual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with alittle square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of thepanel 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 sheetof 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 therueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair socompletely overtopped every other consideration that we bothburst out into a roar of laughter.
"I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried ourclient, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you cando nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere."
"No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair fromwhich he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case forthe world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if youwill excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it.Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon thedoor?"
"I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I calledat the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anythingabout it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountantliving on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell mewhat had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he hadnever heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. DuncanRoss 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
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