3. Paragraph 1-3

     Dr. Watson visits the apartment of his friend Sherlock Holmes. He finds detective Holmes talking to a client with bright red hair, Mr. Jabez Wilson. Holmes asks Dr. Watson to hear the unusual story of the client.

     Wilson says that he runs a pawnshop. One day in his shop, his assistant, Vincent Spaulding, showed an advertisement in the newspaper that announced an opening in the Red-Headed League. The announcement promised a salary of four pounds a week. Spaulding urged Wilson to apply. The timid red - haired pawnbroker did so. Wilson was accepted into the League by Mr. Duncan Ross, the head of the League.

 

     He learned that the nominal duties consisted only of his coming to the office from \(10:00\) a.m. until \(2:00\) p.m. each day and copying out the Encyclopaedia Britannica in longhand. This he did for eight weeks until one day he arrived at the office to find it closed, with a notice on the door that the Red-Headed League had been dissolved. He was so disturbed by the thought that someone had been playing a practical joke on him that he came to Holmes for a solution. Holmes promises to look into the case and Wilson leaves. Holmes and Dr. Watson move to Wilson’s shop in Saxe-Coburg Square at once.

Let’s read this play extract to know the happenings.

     (Outside Wilson’s shop in Saxe-Coburg Square. Holmes is walking up and down. Now and then he hits the ground outside the shop with his walking stick. Then he knocks on the door of the shop. Spaulding opens the shop door. The legs of his trousers are dirty.)