"The Red-Headed League" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pawnbroker

Jabez Wilson operated a pawn shop that was not very prosperous, thus he was eager to take the part-time position with the league to earn more money. He had previously worked as a manual laborer, something that Sherlock Holmes deduced from observing the size of his right hand.

Answer: His assistant

Jabez Wilson had hired Vincent Spaulding as an assistant because he was willing to work for half wages; Spaulding said he desired to learn the business and was willing to take less pay than normal. Spaulding was the one who showed Wilson the advertisement for an opening in the Red-Headed League.

Answer: The applicant had to have naturally blazing red hair.

Jabez Wilson's assistant, Vincent Spaulding, knew a great deal about the Red-Headed League and told his employer that his hair needed to be "real bright, blazing, fiery red". When Wilson went to apply, he saw that there were many applicants with hair of all shades of red, but Spaulding still encouraged him to apply.

The interviewer, Duncan Ross, pulled on Wilson's hair to make sure it was real, and once he was satisfied, he hired Wilson.

Answer: Copying pages out of the "Encyclopedia Britannica"

Duncan Ross told Jabez Wilson that he was required to work in the office between ten A.M and two P.M., and his assignment was to copy pages from the "Encyclopedia Britannica". For this work, he would be paid several pounds a week. Wilson was told that the money came from an eccentric American who had set up the league in his will.

Answer: The league had been mysteriously dissolved.

After several weeks of working for the league, Jabez Wilson arrived at the office one morning to find it locked with a sign stating that the league had been disbanded. When he inquired at the landlord's office, he was told that the premises had been rented not by Duncan Ross but by a solicitor named William Morris.

When Wilson went to see Morris, he found that the address was actually a manufacturing plant, and no one there had heard of either man.

Answer: To look at the knees of his trousers

Based on Jabez Wilson's description of his assistant, Sherlock Holmes already suspected that the man was involved in the escapade. When visiting Wilson's neighborhood, Holmes thumped on the ground in front of Wilson's property and then walked around the block to see what was behind it.

He then rang the bell, which the assistant answered, and Holmes asked for directions. Holmes told Dr. Watson that he wanted to see the man's knees. It turned out that they were "worn, wrinkled and stained".

Answer: A bank director

Sherlock Holmes had invited Mr. Merryweather, the bank director of the City and Suburban Bank, to accompany them to the cellar of the bank. When first visiting Jabez Wilson's premises, Holmes had noted that the bank was located behind Wilson's shop. He determined that the goal of the culprits was to tunnel through to the bank, so he invited Mr. Merryweather to accompany them on the night of the heist.

Answer: To get Wilson out of his premises for four hours a day

It turned out that Jabez Wilson's shop backed up against a bank, and Duncan Ross and his cohort, Vincent Spaulding, needed Wilson to leave the premises so that they could tunnel into the bank. Had Wilson been there, he would probably have noticed the noise.

Answer: To steal a shipment of French gold

The bank had received a shipment of French gold from the Bank of France, and it was currently sitting unpacked in the cellar of the bank. The bank director said that it was generally known that the money was there, and although the bank had received warnings that an attempt might be made to steal it, the gold had not been moved.

Answer: Vincent Spaulding

Sherlock Holmes knew what John Clay looked like, and when Jabez Wilson described his assistant as having a white stain upon his forehead, Holmes immediately asked if he also had pierced ears. Clay turned out to be the brains behind the operation; he had come up with the idea of the Red-Headed League because of the color of his cohort's hair.