3.03 Critical Thinking Questions

1. The narrator, Dr. Watson, visits his Holmes one day, and finds him in talking to Jabez Wilson, an old, redheaded man. Holmes invites him to come in and listen to Wilson’s case, which he claims is the strangest he has ever heard. Holmes amazes them when he lists facts about Wilson that he has gathered from observation, but that no one has told him. Wilson begins to tell his story.
2. Two months prior, Wilson’s assistant, Vincent Spaulding, showed him an advertisement in the newspaper for an opening in “The Red-Headed League.” It claimed the redheaded man who gets the position would receive four pounds a week for nominal services. Wilson, a pawnbroker, is encouraged to apply by his assistant.
3. They went together to the advertised office meant for
However, when Wilson entered the office, Duncan Ross was thoroughly impressed with his red hair and offered him the position (after pulling his hair to ensure that it is real). Ross asked him to start immediately. The rules of the job were that he must stay in the building from ten to two each morning, copying the Encyclopedia Britannica.
5. Spaulding said that he would look after the pawnshop during those hours and encouraged Wilson to take the position. He started working there the next day and continued doing so happily for eight weeks. He received four pounds at the end of each week. Ross would occasionally check on him while he worked to make sure he was staying in the building as instructed.
6. One day, Wilson arrived for work, only to see a sign on the locked door of the office saying that “The Red-Headed League Is Dissolved.” When Wilson asked the landlord about it, he replied that there was no such thing as The Red-Headed League and that he had never heard of Duncan Ross. Wilson was baffled by this and that is why he came to the office of Sherlock Holmes and is telling the story now. Holmes is glad to be hearing this case and thinks it is possible that graver issues are going on. He agrees to solve the