Image of Sherlock Holmes in front of a busy london street
Art by Carolyn Ridsdale

The Mystery of the Red-Headed League

Can Sherlock Holmes, the world’s sharpest detective, solve the case before it’s too late?

Based on the story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

By Arthur Goldwag
From the May/June 2023 Issue

Learning Objectives: Students will make inferences about how Sherlock Holmes solves a mystery in the fictional play, “The Mystery of the Red-Headed League.”

Guided Reading Level: V
DRA Level: 40-50
Other Key Skills: vocabulary, fluency, identifying a problem, character’s motivation, text features, compare and contrast, figurative language, author’s craft, explanatory writing
UP CLOSE: Inference

As you read, notice how Sherlock Holmes makes inferences, or uses clues, to solve a crime.

Scene 1

Sherlock Holmes’s apartment in London, England, April 1890

N1: Sherlock Holmes paces in front of a crackling fireplace.

N2: In a red velvet chair sits Dr. John Watson, reading a newspaper.

Sherlock Holmes (sighing): I shall go mad with boredom! Watson, tell me there is news of some shocking crime. A murder, perhaps?

Dr. John Watson: Sorry, Holmes. London is quiet.

Holmes: My mind craves a puzzle!

N3: Suddenly, there’s a knock on the door.

Holmes: Come in.

N1: A man who is clearly upset enters the room.

Jasper Wilson: Are you Sherlock Holmes, the famous detective?

Holmes: I am indeed.

N2: The man removes his worn-out hat to reveal a head of hair the color of freshly peeled carrots.

Wilson: My name is Jasper Wilson. I am here because someone has gone missing—someone important. You see, he made me a promise. I have looked everywhere, but it’s as if he never even existed!

Holmes: Interesting . . . 

Watson: Why don’t you start at the beginning. 

Wilson: Well, it all began two months ago . . . 

Art by Carolyn Ridsdale

Scene 2

Wilson’s General Store, two months earlier

N3: Wilson enters his shop and stamps his feet. Snow falls from his old coat.

N1: His assistant, Victoria Spaulding, is standing behind the counter.

N2: The dusty shelves are lined with candles, candies, and soaps.

Victoria Spaulding: Good morning, Mr. Wilson!

Wilson: Good? It’s miserable outside, and that means we’ll have no customers.

Spaulding: Perhaps this will cheer you up.

N3: She pulls a newspaper ad from her pocket and hands it to him.

Wilson (reading): What in the world is the Red-Headed League?

Spaulding: With flame-colored hair like yours, sir, I would think you knew all about it.

N1: Wilson shrugs.

Spaulding: The Red-Headed League was founded by an American millionaire named Emerson Hopkins. He left his fortune for one thing: providing easy jobs for people whose hair was red like his. You should go apply right away, before all the jobs are taken.

Wilson: I can’t believe that someone would offer me a job just because my hair is red.

Spaulding: It wouldn’t be in the newspaper if it weren’t true, would it?

N2: Wilson considers this.

Spaulding: Come on, I’ll go with you.

N3: Wilson and his assistant lock up the store and set off down the street.

N1: Men and women with all shades of auburn hair are walking to the same address.

N2: Spaulding steers Wilson through the crowd and up the stairs . . .

N3: . . . to the office of a man named Duncan Ross, whose hair is even redder than Wilson’s.

Wilson: I hear you’re offering well-paying jobs to red-haired people like myself.

Duncan Ross: That’s right! You will arrive promptly at 10 a.m. each Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. You’re never to leave before 3 p.m. As for your duties, you will copy down every word of every book in this bookcase.

Wilson: There must be 100 books on those shelves! 

Ross: Actually, it’s 200. It should take you about a year. There will be other assignments after that. Now that you’re in the Red-Headed League, I promise you’ll never worry about money again.

Wilson: What about my shop?

Spaulding: I will look after it while you’re away.

Wilson: Sounds like a fine deal to me!

N1: Wilson and Ross shake hands.

Art by Carolyn Ridsdale

Scene 3

Back at Holmes’s apartment, April 1890

Wilson: For the next two months, I copied the books. But yesterday, I arrived at the office of the Red-Headed League and the door was locked. This sign was in the window.

N2: Wilson hands Holmes a piece of paper.

Holmes (reading the sign): “The Red-Headed League Is Dissolved.” 

Watson: Dissolved?

Wilson: The league no longer exists. As for Duncan Ross, he’s disappeared. I want you to track him down, Holmes. He promised me a job for life! 

Holmes: And what about your assistant, Miss Spaulding? How long has she been working for you?

Wilson: She had just started when she told me about the Red-Headed League. It was odd, actually—she insisted on working for half pay while she learned how to run the shop.

Holmes: Odd indeed.

Wilson: But who was I to argue? She proved to be extraordinary. She took care of everything—stocking the shelves, ringing up customers, all of it.

Holmes: Well, Mr. Wilson, this has been a most incredible tale.

Wilson: You don’t believe me?

Holmes: Quite the opposite. I suspect something fishy is going on.

Art by Carolyn Ridsdale

Sherlock Holmes is known for his amazing powers of observation. The character was created by author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who published some 60 stories about Holmes between 1887 and 1927.

Scene 4

A street in London, the next day

N3: Holmes and Watson are walking together. Holmes is carrying a walking cane.

Watson: Surely Wilson was the victim of a joke. 

Holmes (thoughtfully): An expensive joke, if so. They paid him handsomely for his eight weeks of scribbling. 

Watson: Here’s Wilson’s General Store. 

N1: The men enter the shop.

Holmes (quietly): I can see why Mr. Wilson wants his Red-Headed League job back. It doesn’t look like his store does much business.

Watson: How can you tell?

Holmes: Look at the shelves, Watson.

Watson: Oh, the dust!

N2: A door in the back of the shop opens, and Victoria Spaulding walks in.

Spaulding: I’m sorry, I was taking care of something. May I help you?

N3: Holmes walks around the shop, banging his cane on the floor. 

Holmes: No, thank you, we were just leaving.

N1: Holmes and Watson exit the shop.

Holmes: So that was the extraordinary Miss Spaulding. Did you notice her skirt? It was smudged and dirty.

Watson: I cannot say that I did.

Holmes: And isn’t it interesting that she helped Mr. Wilson get a job where he’s paid a ridiculous amount of money for doing nothing? But at the same time, she’s willing to work for half pay?

Watson: Perhaps she is simply kindhearted.

Holmes: Hmmm. Perhaps.

N2: Holmes leads Watson around the corner to a street lined with businesses—the White Horse Tavern, Smith & Sons Clock Shop, and Coburn Bank of London.

Holmes (counting his steps as he walks): One, two, three, four—(triumphantly) Aha! And just in time, I’d say.

Watson: Just in time for what?

Holmes: Meet me here at 10 tonight. 

Watson: Whatever for? Holmes, both of us have seen and heard the same things. But you know what’s going to happen tonight, and I am completely in the dark.

Holmes: The dark, yes! We’ll need a lantern too. Good thinking, Watson.

Watson: Sigh.

Scene 5

Coburn Bank, that night at 10 p.m.

N3: Dr. Watson stands in front of Coburn Bank as Holmes paces nervously.

N1: Officer Jones and Mrs. Merryweather approach. 

Holmes: Good evening! Watson, I believe you know Officer Jones. And this must be Mrs. Merryweather, the director of Coburn Bank.

Mrs. Merryweather: What’s this all about, gentlemen?

Holmes: You’ll see soon enough! Quick—there isn’t a moment to lose. 

N2: The four enter the bank. Merryweather leads them down a long hallway.

N3: They come to a massive steel door.

Holmes: Please open the vault, Mrs. Merryweather. 

N1: The great door swings open with a groan.

Watson: Wow!

Merryweather: Yes. Of all the banks in England, we have the most gold.

Holmes: Everyone inside! Now close the door and turn off the lights.

N2: There is a long moment of silence. 

Merryweather: What are—

N3: Suddenly, there is a scraping sound.

N1: A marble tile is lifted off the floor. 

N2: A hand reaches up through the opening and places a candle on the floor of the vault.

N3: A figure squeezes up through the opening, followed by another one.

Officer Jones: You’re under arrest!

Spaulding: Aaah!

Ross: Run!

Jones: Turn on the lights, Watson!

N1: The lights flick on.

Holmes: So we meet again, Miss Spaulding.

Spaulding: What? The strange man from the shop? 

Holmes (to Ross): As for you, sir, judging from the color of your hair, you must be Duncan Ross of the Red-Headed League. Mr. Wilson has been looking all over London for you.

Jones: Now he’ll know where to find the scoundrel—Newgate Prison.

Ross: Ugh! 

Art by Carolyn Ridsdale

Scene 6

Holmes’s apartment, the day after

N2: Holmes, Watson, Jones, and Merryweather sit around the living room, sipping tea.

Merryweather: I don’t know how to thank you, Holmes.

Holmes: My pleasure!

Watson: But how did you know?

Holmes: Well, I knew Miss Spaulding wanted to spend time in Mr. Wilson’s shop. She agreed to work for half pay to make sure she was hired. The League was a ruse—a clever trick meant to get Mr. Wilson out of the way.

Jones: Quite brilliant.

Holmes: My only question was why. Once I saw Miss Spaulding’s muddy skirt, I knew she was digging a tunnel. My cane confirmed it—I could hear the ground beneath the shop floor was hollow. When I discovered that the bank was directly behind Wilson’s shop, I knew what her goal must be: to rob it.

Watson: Extraordinary!

Holmes: Actually, my dear Watson, it’s quite elementary.

Write to Win

Imagine you’re a reporter in London in 1890. Write an article about the crime Holmes solved, explaining how he figured it out. Send it to “Sherlock Contest” by June 1, 2023. Five winners will each receive a copy of Solve It With Sherlock Holmes by Gareth Moore. Visit the Storyworks Contests page for more information.

This play was originally published in the May/June 2023 issue.  


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Step-by-Step Lesson Plan

Table of Contents

1. Preparing to Read

2. Reading the Play

Close Reading, Critical Thinking

3. Skill Building and Writing

4. Differentiate and Customize

Striving Readers, Advanced Readers, Multilingual Learners

5. Can’t-Miss Teaching Extras

1. Preparing to Read

Introduce the Story (5 minutes)  

Build Knowledge, Introduce Vocabulary, and Set a Purpose for Reading

 

  • Build background knowledge about Sherlock Holmes, a fictional detective known for his exceptional powers of observation, by showing our Background Builder Slideshow
  • Have students practice their own powers of observation by giving them one minute to look around at their surroundings, taking in as many details as possible. For example, how many windows are there? How many students are in class today? How many students are wearing jeans? Then have them close their eyes and recall as many details about the room as they can. Discuss how hard or easy it was to recall them. 
  • Show or digitally assign the Vocabulary Slideshow to preview challenging words. Highlighted words: craves, fortune, auburn, dissolved, fishy, smudged, scoundrel, ruse, confirmed. Distribute the Vocabulary Skill Builder before or after reading the play.
  • Call on a volunteer to read aloud the Up Close box on page 16 to set a purpose for reading. 

2. Reading the Play

 
  • Assign parts and read the play aloud as a class or in small groups. Students can also listen to our Editor Read-Aloud of the play as a first read. Note that larger speaking roles are marked with an asterisk in the character box on page 17; the smaller roles can be a good fit for students who feel less comfortable reading aloud in class.
  • After reading, put students in small groups to discuss the close-reading questions. Then talk about the critical-thinking questions as a class. 

Close-Reading Questions

 

  • In Scene 1,  Sherlock Holmes says, “My mind craves a puzzle!” Find two context clues from the scene to explain what Holmes means in this sentence. What does the sentence tell us about him?  (inference) Students may cite Holmes’s pacing, his boredom, or his question—“Watson, tell me there is news of some shocking crime. A murder, perhaps?”—to infer that he wants a crime or a new mystery to solve. This tells us that Sherlock Holmes is a detective who enjoys doing his work, and that he might not know what to do with himself without it. 
  • What is Jasper Wilson’s problem and how has it affected him? How does this problem affect Holmes? (identifying a problem) Jasper Wilson is looking for a man who went missing after making him an important  promise. Wilson is upset because he needs something from the man. Students can infer that Holmes, on the other hand, is pleased because he now has a mystery to solve. 
  • Reread Scene 2. Who introduces Jasper Wilson to the Red-Headed League? Why is Wilson interested in it? (character’s motivation) Wilson’s shop assistant, Victoria Spaulding, shows him an ad for the Red-Headed League and suggests that he try to get a new job from it. Wilson seems to want this job because it pays well for little work. Students might also add that Wilson’s shop doesn’t appear to be very popular or lucrative. He doesn’t have any customers when we see the store, and the shelves are dusty, suggesting that it may have been a long time since he has had any business. 
  • Based on text evidence from Scene 2, what does auburn mean? Why are men and women with auburn hair walking toward the same address? (vocabulary) That day, a newspaper advertised easy jobs for men and women with red hair, so auburn must refer to a shade of red. The crowd of men and women with auburn hair walking toward the address seems to be headed in the same direction as Wilson and with the same goal: to get an easy job from the Red-Headed League. 
  • How does the image on pages 18-19 help you understand Holmes’s questions in Scene 4? (text features) In Scene 4, Sherlock Holmes questions Miss Spaulding’s offer to work for Wilson at half pay and why her skirt is dirty. In the image, Miss Spaulding’s expression looks suspicious. Instead of helping Holmes and Watson like a normal shop clerk, she seems to have her guard up. 
  • Reread Scene 4. How are Holmes’s and Watson’s observations about the case different? (compare and contrast) When Sherlock Holmes and Watson meet Miss Spaulding in Scene 4, they have two different ideas about why she helped Wilson get a job with the Red-Headed League. Watson wonders if she is “simply kindhearted,” but Holmes believes there must be another answer. We know this because he is more concerned about Miss Spaulding’s dirty skirt and her motivation to work for half pay. 
  • How does Officer Jones’s presence in Scene 5 show us that new action is about to take place in the story? (inference) We can expect that Sherlock Holmes has solved the case when  we are introduced to Officer Jones because the policeman will be needed to arrest the criminal. 
  • Personification is a description of a nonhuman thing as if it were a person. When Mrs. Merryweather opens the bank vault, “The great door swings open with a groan.” What makes this statement an example of personification? What does it tell us about the way the door swings? (figurative language) We know this is an example of personification because groaning is a human action; doors don’t literally groan. This description tells us that the door made a creaking sound when it opened. 

 

 

Critical-Thinking Questions

 

  • The subhead of the play calls Holmes “the world’s sharpest detective.” What inferences does Holmes make in solving the crime that show how sharp he is? (inference) Sherlock Holmes shows that he is a sharp detective throughout the play. In Scene 3, Holmes finds it odd that Miss Spaulding introduced Wilson to the Red-Headed League shortly after offering to work as his shop assistant at half pay. At this point, Holmes infers that Miss Spaulding must have had another motivation to work for Wilson. Next, in Scene 4, Holmes notices that Miss Spaulding’s skirt is smudged and dirty as he bangs his cane on the floor in Wilson’s General Store. In Scene 6, we learn what Holmes inferred after he noticed this—that Miss Spaulding was digging a tunnel from Wilson’s store to Coburn Bank in order to rob it. 
  • The author of the play, Arthur Goldwag, writes the first three scenes of the play out of order. Scene 1 takes place in April 1890, Scene 2 takes place two months earlier, and Scene 3 is back in April 1890. Why do you think the author wrote the play this way?  (author’s craft) Students’ answers may vary. They may say that Scene 2 takes place two months earlier because it’s a way to show us Wilson’s side of the story in detail. They might also say that Goldwag wrote the play this way to create suspense. We don’t know what happens right away when we go back in time in Scene 2 and need to wait a while longer to see how Sherlock Holmes solves the mystery of the Red-Headed League. 

3. Skill Building and Writing

Featured Skill: Inference

  • Distribute or assign the Inference Skill Builder. Have students complete it independently or together with a partner. Then distribute our new Writing a News Article graphic organizer. This skill builder will help prepare students to respond to the writing prompt on page 20. Then you can send their work to our writing contest (see page 2 of the magazine for details)!

Differentiate and Customize
For Striving Readers

The nonlinear structure of the play may be challenging for striving students to follow. Before reading, have students underline the place and date under each scene heading. Next, ask students to copy down the underlined information onto a piece of paper in the order in which it occurs so they can create a timeline of events. 

For Advanced Readers

Ask your students to imagine that a new character needs the help of Sherlock Holmes to solve a mystery. Invite your students to write their own mystery play, choosing the time period, setting, and characters. As they plan and write, students should consider each of their character’s motivations. Why does Sherlock Holmes want to solve this new mystery? Why does the new character want the mystery solved? And why did the guilty person decide to commit the crime? Write a play that answers each question . . . but be sure to save the mystery’s explanation for the final scene!

For Multilingual Learners

To make sure students have enough knowledge about Sherlock Holmes and his role as a detective, review the Background Builder Slideshow on the famous sleuth. Before reading, help your students activate background knowledge by asking if there are similar mystery-solving characters or jobs in their country of origin. If students don’t have similar characters or jobs in mind, you might ask instead: “Why do you think people would want Sherlock Holmes’s help solving mysteries?” As you read Scene 1, you may want to remind students of Holmes’s goal as a detective: to solve mysteries after a crime is committed. 

Can't-Miss Teaching Extras
Explore the Storyworks Archive

Check out these other read-aloud plays based on classic stories: “The Necklace” (December 2017/January 2018), “Rip Van Winkle” (March/April 2019), and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (October 2015).

Read More Mysteries

The Sherlock Holmes Children’s Collection Series contains adaptations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic stories that are geared toward a younger audience. These slim chapter books have delightful illustrations, and each story includes a free audiobook via a QR code.

Be Like Sherlock

One reason Sherlock Holmes is a great detective is that he keenly observes the world around him. Help your students improve their memories and powers of observation by delving into this Neuroscience for Kids webpage from the University of Washington. It includes a fun online memory test with pictures as well as ideas for other activities that require attention to details. 

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