to be any competition in the matter I stood as good a chance as any man that I

had ever met. Vincent Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought

he might prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for the day

and to come right away with me. He was very willing to have a holiday, so we

shut the business up and started off for the address that was given us in the

advertisement.


“I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From north,

south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in his hair had tramped

into the city to answer the advertisement. Fleet Street was choked with

red-headed folk, and Pope’s Court looked like a coster’s orange

barrow. I should not have thought there were so many in the whole country as

were brought together by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they

were—straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; but, as

Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real vivid flame-coloured tint.

When I saw how many were waiting, I would have given it up in despair; but

Spaulding would not hear of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he

pushed and pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up to

the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream upon the stair,

some going up in hope, and some coming back dejected; but we wedged in as well

as we could and soon found ourselves in the office.”


“Your experience has been a most entertaining one,” remarked Holmes

as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge pinch of snuff.

“Pray continue your very interesting statement.”


“There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs and a deal

table, behind which sat a small man with a head that was even redder than mine.

He said a few words to each candidate as he came up, and then he always managed

to find some fault in them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did