*Narrators 1, 2, 3 (N1, N2, N3)
*Sherlock Holmes, a famous detective
*Dr. John Watson, Holmes’s friend
*Jasper Wilson, a shop owner
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
Learning Objectives: Students will make inferences about how Sherlock Holmes solves a mystery in the fictional play, “The Mystery of the Red-Headed League.”
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 . . .
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.
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.
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!
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.
Table of Contents
Close Reading, Critical Thinking
4. Differentiate and Customize
Striving Readers, Advanced Readers, Multilingual Learners
1. Preparing to Read
Introduce the Story (5 minutes)
Build Knowledge, Introduce Vocabulary, and Set a Purpose for Reading
2. Reading the Play
Close-Reading Questions
Critical-Thinking Questions
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)!
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.
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!
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.
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).
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.
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.