Sherlock Holmes - The Red-Headed League (ASH)

Jabez Wilson, a London pawnbroker, comes to consult Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. While studying this prospective client, both Holmes and Watson notice his red hair.

Wilson tells them that some weeks before, his young assistant Vincent Spaulding urged him to respond to a newspaper advertisement by "The Red-Headed League" offering highly-paid work to only red-headed male applicants. The next morning, Wilson was hired to copy out the Encyclopaedia Britannica, for which he was paid £4 per week (equivalent to £468 in 2021). The work was useless clerical labour, performed in nominal compliance with the will of an American millionaire who wanted to provide for the welfare of red-headed men like himself. After eight weeks, Wilson reported to the office, only to find a note on the door stating that the Red-Headed League had been dissolved. He spoke with the landlord, who stated that he had never heard of the organisation.

Wilson provides a description of Spaulding, after which Holmes and Watson visit the pawnshop. Concluding that a crime is about to be committed at a bank near the shop, Holmes gathers Watson, Inspector Jones of Scotland Yard, and bank chairman Mr. Merryweather that night.

As the four hide in the darkened bank vault, Merryweather reveals that it holds a shipment of gold coins borrowed from a French bank; Holmes suspects a wanted criminal named John Clay of planning to steal them. After more than an hour's wait, Clay and his red-headed accomplice Archie break upward through the vault floor and both are caught by waiting police.

Story from Arthur Conan Doyle - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in 1891.