"What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twiceread over the extraordinary announcement.
Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit whenin high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?"said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell usall about yourself, your household, and the effect which thisadvertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note,Doctor, of the paper and the date."
"It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two monthsago."
"Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?"
"Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. SherlockHolmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a smallpawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not avery large affair, and of late years it has not done more thanjust give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants,but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him butthat he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn thebusiness."
"What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes.
"His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth,either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarterassistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could betterhimself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, afterall, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in h
is head?"
"Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employe whocomes under the full market price. It is not a common experienceamong employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant isnot as remarkable as your advertisement."
"Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such afellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he oughtto be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellarlike a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is hismain fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vicein him."
"He is still with you, I presume?"
"Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simplecooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in thehouse, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live veryquietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our headsand pay our debts, if we do nothing more.
"The first thing that put us out was that advertisement.Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eightweeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says:
"'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.'
"'Why that?' I asks.
"'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of theRed-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man whogets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies thanthere are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end whatto do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here'sa nice little crib all ready for me to step into.'
"'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am avery stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead ofmy having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without puttingmy foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of whatwas going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news.
"'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' heasked with his eyes open.
"'Never.'
"'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for oneof the vacancies.'
"'And what are they worth?' I asked.
"'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight,and it need not interfere very much with one's otheroccupations.'
"Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears,for the business has not been over-good for some years, and anextra couple of hundred would have been very handy.
"'Tell me all about it,' said I.
"'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see foryourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the addresswhere you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out,the League was founded by an American millionaire, EzekiahHopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himselfred-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men;so when he died it was found that he had left his enormousfortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply theinterest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is ofthat colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little todo.'
"'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men whowould apply.'
"'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it isreally confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American hadstarted from London when he was young, and he wanted to do theold town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use yourapplying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything butreal bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr.Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly beworth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of afew hundred pounds.'
"Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves,that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemedto me that if there was to be any competition in the matter Istood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. VincentSpaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he mightprove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters forthe day and to come right away with me. He was very willing tohave a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off forthe address that was given us in the advertisement.
"I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. Fromnorth, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red inhis hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement.Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Courtlooked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thoughtthere were so many in the whole country as were brought togetherby that single advertisement. Every shade of colour theywere--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay;but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the realvivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, Iwould have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hearof it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed andpulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right upto the steps which led to the office. There was a double streamupon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming backdejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon foundourselves in the office."
"Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarkedHolmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a hugepinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement."