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1"No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, and what their object was in playing this prank--if it
2was a prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it cost them two and thirty pounds." "We shall
3endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who
4first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he been with you?" "About a month then." "How did he
5come?" "In answer to an advertisement." "Was he the only applicant?" "No, I had a dozen." "Why did you pick him?"
6"Because he was handy and would come cheap." "At half wages, in fact." "Yes." "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?"
7"Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of
8acid upon his forehead." Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought as much," said he. "Have you
9ever observed that his ears are pierced for earrings?" "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he
10was a lad." "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still with you?" "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just
11left him." "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very
12much to do of a morning." "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an opinion upon the subject in the
13course of a day or two. To-day is Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." "Well, Watson," said
14Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what do you make of it all?" "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a
15most mysterious business." "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be.
16It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is the most difficult
17to identify. But I must be prompt over this matter." "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. "To smoke," he answered.
18"It is quite a three pipe problem, and I beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled himself up in his
19chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his black clay pipe
20thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and indeed
21was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put
22his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he remarked. "What do you
23think, Watson? Could your patients spare you for a few hours?" "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very
24absorbing." "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I
25observe that there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is rather more to my taste than Italian or
26French. It is introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" We travelled by the Underground as far as
27Aldersgate; and a short walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular story which we had listened to in
28the morning. It was a poky, little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy two-storied brick houses looked out
29into a small railed-in enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded laurel bushes made a hard fight
30against a smoke-laden and uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with "JABEZ WILSON" in white
31letters, upon a corner house, announced the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. Sherlock Holmes
32stopped in front of it with his head on one side and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between puckered
33lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses.
34Finally he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously upon the pavement with his stick two or three
35times, he went up to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who
36asked him to step in. "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would go from here to the Strand."
37"Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, closing the door. "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as
38we walked away. "He is, in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring I am not sure that he has not
39a claim to be third. I have known something of him before." "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a
40good deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you inquired your way merely in order that you might
41see him." "Not him." "What then?" "The knees of his trousers." "And what did you see?" "What I expected to see." "Why
42did you beat the pavement?" "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We are spies in an enemy's
43country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." The road in which
44we found ourselves as we turned round the corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a contrast to it
45as the front of a picture does to the back. It was one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City to
46the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and
47outward, while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked
48at the line of fine shops and stately business premises that they really abutted on the other side upon the faded and
49stagnant square which we had just quitted. "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing along the
50line, "I should like just to remember the order of the houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of
51London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban
52Bank, the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building depot. That carries us right on to the other block.
53And now, Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to
54violin-land, where all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no red-headed clients to vex us with their
55conundrums." My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a very capable performer but a composer of
56no ordinary merit. All the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect happiness, gently waving his long,
57thin fingers in time to the music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes were as unlike those of
58Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was possible to
59conceive. In his singular character the dual nature alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and
60astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction against the poetic and contemplative mood which
61occasionally predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I
62knew well, he was never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been lounging in his armchair amid his
63improvisations and his black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase would suddenly come upon him, and
64that his brilliant reasoning power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were unacquainted with his
65methods would look askance at him as on a man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him that
66afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had
67set himself to hunt down. "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we emerged. "Yes, it would be as
68well." "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This business at Coburg Square is serious." "Why
69serious?" "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to believe that we shall be in time to stop it.
70But to-day being Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help to-night." "At what time?" "Ten will be
71early enough."
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