The Red-Headed League
Nitcentral's Bulletin Brash Reflections:
Sherlock Holmes:
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes:
The Red-Headed League
PLOT SUMMARY: Pawnshop owner Jabez Wilson enlists Holmes aid to find out the truth behind the strange "Red-Headed League" that has recruited him as a member. He wants to know why the league paid him a salary to do nothing more than copy the encyclopedia by hand and why the league suddenly seems to have dissolved without warning.
NITS:
Holmes never explains how he knows Jabez Wilson uses snuff.
Holmes deduces that Wilson has been to China by stating that a tatoo Wilson has is particular to China. Actually at the time, tatooing was almost unknown among the Chinese.
Jabez Wilson has a copy of the newspaper The Morning Chronicle for April 27, 1890, which he says was just two months ago. But the month the story takes place in is supposed to be October. From April to October is six months.
Also, the real-life Morning Chronicle had gone out of business before 1890.
Wilson claims that he copied the entire "A" volume up to "Attica" of the Encyclopedia Britanica in just eight weeks working four hours a day. Even with the editions of the encyclopedia at the time, there is no way he could have done this much by hand.
Why did Ross/Clay "dissolve" the Red-Headed league? Was he so cheap he couldn't pay for one more day for Wilson to work instead of risking making him suspicious?
The sign announcing the dissolving of the league gives the date as "October 9, 1890". Several times during the story, the day is given as a Saturday. Yet 10/9 for 1890 was not a Saturday, but a Thursday.
What is the gold doing being stored in the cellar of a local branch of an independent bank instead of at the Bank of England or some more secure place?
How did Clay and his confederate dispose of the dirt they excavated in digging their tunnel?
By Jesse on Saturday, September 18, 2004 - 9:48 pm:What is the gold doing being stored in the cellar of a local branch of an independent bank instead of at the Bank of England or some more secure place?
I can't explain why the gold is at a branch bank, but the story makes clear that the bank itself, not the government, obtained the gold from the Bank of France. It is reasonable that they would retain possession of the gold, even if they could have chosen a better place than a branch.