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“ There was nothing in the office but two chairs and a table . Behind the table sat a small man with hair even redder than mine . He found something wrong with every man who came up . But when he saw me , he closed the door . ‘ I cannot remember when I last saw such fine hair , ’ he said . He looked at my head until I felt quite shy . Then he took my hair in both hands and pulled until I cried out with pain . ‘ There are tears in your eyes , so all is well , ’ he said . ‘ We have to be careful , because some men come to us in wigs . ’ Then he shouted down from the window that the place was filled , and the crowd went away . “ ‘ My name is Duncan Ross , ’ he said . ‘ When can you start ? The hours are from ten until two . ’ “ ‘ But I have a shop , ’ I said . “ ‘ Oh , don’t worry about that , Mr Wilson ! ’ said Spaulding . ‘ I can look after it for you . ’ “ Most of my customers come in the evenings , so the hours suited me well . ‘ And what is the work ? ’ I asked . “ ‘ You must copy out the Encyclopaedia Britannica , the great book of all knowledge , ’ said Mr Ross . ‘ The pay is four pounds a week . But you must stay in the office the whole time . If you leave , even for a minute , you lose the job for ever . Can you start tomorrow ? ’ “ I went home very pleased . But by the evening I was sure that it was all a trick . Who would pay so much for copying out a book ? Still , in the morning I bought a bottle of ink , a pen and some paper , and I went to Pope’s Court . “ To my surprise , everything was right . Mr Ross started me on the letter A and then left me . He came back from time to time to check on me . At two o’clock he said goodbye and locked the office door after me . On Saturday he put four gold coins on the table for my week’s work . It went on like that week after week . After a time Mr Ross stopped coming at all . Still , I never dared to leave the room , because the job was too good to lose . “ Eight weeks passed . I wrote about Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture , and I hoped to get to the letter B soon . And then suddenly the whole business came to an end . ” III . The League Is Closed “ To an end ? ” said Holmes . “ Yes , sir . This very morning . I went to work at ten o’clock as usual , but the door was locked . There was a small card on it . Here it is . ” He held up a piece of white card . It said :
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