The Adventure of the Red-Headed League

I had called upon my friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes one day in the autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a stout florid gentleman with fiery red hair.

"You could not have come at a better time, my dear Watson," said Holmes cordially. "Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been explaining a most singular narrative."

Mr. Wilson held up an evening newspaper and pointed to an unusual advertisement: "To the Red-Headed League: There is another vacancy open which entitles a member to a salary of four pounds a week for purely nominal services."

Holmes sat up in his chair, his eyes gleaming with intense intellectual curiosity. "This is quite remarkable, Watson. It is completely off the beaten track of everyday human experience."

Through sharp deduction, Holmes recognized that the strange office was merely an elaborate distraction to keep Wilson away from his pawnshop while thieves dug a tunnel directly into the City Bank vault below.