“Your experience has been a most entertaining one,” remarkedHolmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a hugepinch of snuff. “Pray continue your very interesting statement.”
“There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairsand a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head thatwas even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidateas he came up, and then he always managed to find some faultin them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did notseem to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when ourturn came the little man was much more favourable to me than toany of the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that hemight have a private word with us.
“ ‘This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,’ said my assistant, ‘and he is willingto fill a vacancy in the League.’
“ ‘And he is admirably suited for it,’ the other answered. ‘Hehas every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anythingso fine.’ He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side,and gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly heplunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmlyon my success.
“ ‘It would be injustice to hesitate,’ said he. ‘You will, however,I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.’ With thathe seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I yelled withthe pain. ‘There is water in your eyes,’ said he as he released me.
‘I perceive that all is as it should be. But we have to be careful,for we have twice been deceived by wigs and once by paint. Icould tell you tales of cobbler’s wax which would disgust youwith human nature.’ He stepped over to the window and shoutedthrough it at the top of his voice that the vacancy was filled. Agroan of disappointment came up from below, and the folk alltrooped away in different directions until there was not a red-headto be seen except my own and that of the manager.
“ ‘My name,’ said he, ‘is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself oneof the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Areyou a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?’
“I answered that I had not.
“His face fell immediately.
“ ‘Dear me!’ he said gravely, ‘that is very serious indeed! Iam sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for thepropagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for theirmaintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be abachelor.’
“My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that Iwas not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over fora few minutes he said that it would be all right.
“ ‘In the case of another,’ said he, ’the objection might be fatal,but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a headof hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your newduties?’
“ ‘Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,’ said I.
“ ‘Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!’ said VincentSpaulding. ‘I should be able to look after that for you.’
“ ‘What would be the hours?’ I asked.
“ ‘Ten to two.’
“Now a pawnbroker’s business is mostly done of an evening,Mr. Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is justbefore pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in themornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, andthat he would see to anything that turned up.
“ ‘That would suit me very well,’ said I. ‘And the pay?’
“ ‘Is ￡4 a week.’
“ ‘And the work?’
“ ‘Is purely nominal.’
“ ‘What do you call purely nominal?’
“ ‘Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the building,the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole positionforever. The will is very clear upon that point. You don’t complywith the conditions if you budge from the office during that time.’
“ ‘It’s only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,’
said I.
“ ‘No excuse will avail,’ said Mr. Duncan Ross; ‘neither sicknessnor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you loseyour billet.’
“ ‘And the work?’
“ ‘Is to copy out the Encyclopaedia Britannica. There is the firstvolume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, andblotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you beready to-morrow?’
“ ‘Certainly,’ I answered.
“ ‘Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulateyou once more on the important position which you have beenfortunate enough to gain.’ He bowed me out of the room and Iwent home with my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, Iwas so pleased at my own good fortune.
“Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was inlow spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the wholeaffair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its objectmight be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past beliefthat anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay such asum for doing anything so simple as copying out the Encyclop?diaBritannica. Vincent Spaulding did what he could to cheer me up,but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the whole thing.
However, in the morning I determined to have a look at it anyhow,so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a quill-pen, and sevensheets of foolscap paper, I started off for Pope’s Court.
“Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right aspossible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. DuncanRoss was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me offupon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in fromtime to time to see that all was right with me. At two o’clock hebade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I hadwritten, and locked the door of the office after me.