The Red-Headed League

Questions & Answers

QUESTION 0: Who is the Narrator (ˈnerādər) of the story?

Answer: Dr. Watson.

Question 1: Who is Watson?

Answer: Mr Watson is Sherlock Holmes’ friend and associate and has been his
helper and partner in solving many successful cases.

Question 2: What does Holmes say about Mr Wilson?

Answer: Holmes says that Mr Wilson has at some time done manual labour, has
been in China and he has done a considerable amount of writing lately. (present
perfect / past perfect)

Question 3: Summarise the content of the advertisement.

Answer: The advertisement says,
To The Red-headed League
There is a vacancy for a member of the League, and the salary is four pounds a
week for nominal services. Red-Headed men may apply in person on Monday, at
eleven o’clock, to Duncan Ross, at the office of the League, 7 Fleet Street.

Question 4: Why was Fleet Street full of red-headed people?

Answer: The advertisement in the newspaper made many red-headed people
apply for the job at the office of the League which was on Fleet Street making it
full of red-headed people.
Question 5: Who was well suited for the job?
Answer: Mr. Wilson was well suited for the job.

Question 6: Why did Mr. Wilson accept the job?

Answer: Mr. Wilson accepted the job because the pay was not only very good
but also Spaulding assured Mr. Wilson that he would look after his business in
his absence.
Question 7: According to Mr Wilson, what is Vincent Spaulding’s
only fault?

Answer: Vincent Spaulding keeps taking pictures with his camera and then
diving down into the cellar to develop his pictures when he ought to be
improving his mind.

Question 8: What is Mr Wilson’s job at the office of the Red-headed

league?
Answer: Mr Wilson’s job is to copy out the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Question 9: Why does Mr Wilson come to Holmes?

Answer: Mr Wilson was taken aback when his job with the Red-Headed League
suddenly came to an end with the notice that the Red-Headed League is
dissolved. He came to know that Duncan Ross was actually William Morris and
feeling something was fishy, he came to Holmes.

Question 10: Why did Holmes become suspicious?

Answer: Holmes became suspicious when he heard that Mr Spaulding, Mr
Wilson’s assistant worked for only half wages.
Question 11: What does Holmes ask about Mr Wilson’s assistant?
Answer: Holmes asks Mr William Wilson how long his assistant had been with
him, how he came to work with him, why Mr Wilson picked him and what he
was like. He wants to know if Mr Wilson had observed whether his ears had been
pierced for earrings.

Question 12: Read and answer the questions:

‘And did you take his advice?’
(a) Who says this and to whom?
Answer: The detective Sherlock Holmes says this to Mr Wilson.

(b) What was the advice?

Answer: The advice was that Mr Wilson should consider applying for the
position advertised in the paper by the Red-Headed League as he had a good
chance of getting it.

(c) How does the listener respond?

Answer: Mr Wilson says that he took his assistant’s advice.

Question 13: Tell the name of the young man who opened the door to
Mr. Holmes.
Answer: The young man who opened the door to Mr. Holmes was none other
than Mr Vincent Spaulding.

Question 14: What did Holmes want to see?

Answer: Holmes wanted to see the knees of Mr Spaulding’s trousers. He wanted
to see whether the knees of Mr Spaulding’s trousers were dirty or not.
Question 15: How did Holmes guess that he was digging a tunnel?
Answer: Holmes suspected that Spaulding was digging a tunnel because when
Spaulding answered the doorbell, the knees of his trousers were wrinkled and
stained and this confirmed his suspicion.

Question 16: Who is Mr Merryweather?

Answer: Mr Merryweather is the chairman of directors of the city branch of one
of the principal London banks.

Question 17: Guess where Mr Merryweather took the others.

Answer: Mr Merryweather led the others through an iron gate, down a narrow
passage. They went down some stone steps and were led through a dark, earth-
smelling passage into a huge cellar, full of big boxes.

Question 18: How did Mr Merryweather come to know about the

crime?

Answer: Mr Merryweather got a hint of the crime through Mr Sherlock Holmes.

Question 19: Why did Mr Holmes think the criminals would act that
night?
Answer: Mr Holmes had a strong feeling that the criminals would act that night
because it was a Friday and the banks and offices would be closed for the
weekend making the work of the criminals easier.
Question 20: Read and answer the questions:
‘Please be quiet for we do not want to alert the criminals.’
(a) Who says this and to whom?
Answer: Mr Holmes says this to Mr Merryweather, Mr Watson and Mr Jones.
(b) Who are the criminals?
Answer: The criminals are Mr Vincent Spaulding alias Clay and Mr Duncan
Ross.

(c) What are the criminals after?

Answer: The criminals are after the French gold which is still lying in the cellar
of the bank.

Question 21: How did the criminals enter the cellar?

Answer: The criminals had made a square gash on the wall which separated Mr
Wilson’s house and the bank’s cellar. They removed a broad stone which left a
square hole enabling the criminals to enter into the cellar.

Question 22: Who tried to get away? Do you think he was able to
escape?
Answer: Mr Duncan Ross tried to get away. No, he was not successful in
escaping because there were three men waiting for him at the other end.

Question 23: Explain the trick of the ‘Red-headed League’. How was
it related to Mr Wilson’s hair?
Answer: The ‘Red-headed League’ was a clever idea of Mr Spaulding and Mr
Ross to keep away Mr Wilson from his own home for some time during the day
so that they could dig a tunnel from Mr Wilson’s house to the bank in the hope of
stealing gold from the bank without breaking open the doors of the bank. The
‘Red-headed League’ was no way connected to Mr Wilson’s hair. it was just a
way to get Mr Wilon out of the house for some time.
Question 24: Write the character sketch of the following:
(a) Sherlock Holmes
Answer: A private detective and the story’s protagonist. His keen observations
and ability to reason allow him to solve puzzles that astonish everyone else.
Sometimes quiet and contemplative, other times bursting with energy, he uses
methods that can confuse and frustrate others. He is somewhat a mystery, rarely
letting his thoughts known until he has already solved the crime.

(b) Jabez Wilson

Answer: A London pawn-broker, Jabez Wilson is an average man whose only
remarkable feature is his shock of fiery red hair. His slow and trusting nature
prevents him from seeing anything suspicious about either Vincent Spaulding or
the preposterous Red-headed League.

(c) Dr. John Watson

Answer: Sherlock Holmes’ partner and the story’s narrator. Good natured, brave
and down-to-earth, Watson is Sherlock Holmes’ sidekick, even though he rarely
helps Holmes actually solve any mysteries and Holmes often mirrors reader’s
own confusion.

(d) John Clay/Vincent Spaulding

Answer: A notorious criminal working at Jabez Wilson’s pawnshop under the
name of Vincent Spaulding. He is evil and naughty. John Clay wins the respect
of Sherlock Holmes because of his clever plot to rob the city and Suburban Bank.

(e) Duncan Ross

Answer: John Clay’s partner-in-crime. Duncan’s red hair prompts John Clay to
devise the Red-headed League to lure Wilson out of his pawnshop for four hours
every day.