Summary

“The Red-Headed League” by Arthur Conan Doyle starts with Sherlock Holmes’ friend Doctor Watson who witnesses a dialogue between Holmes and a red-haired man named Jabez Wilson.

Wilson tells them the story of how he came to respond a newspaper ad that offered a decent sum of money to a red-haired man who would apply for a position in the so-called “Red-Headed League”.  Interested in the ad, and encouraged by his assistant, Wilson applied for the position and was chosen, apparently because of his unusual red hair. 

His new position required him to be in an office for a few hours in the afternoon, in which he was supposed to copy from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, all in exchange for 4 pounds per week. Because his pawnbroker business was struggling, Wilson accepted and put his assistant, Spauld...