l red-headed men; so when he died it was found that he
had left his enormous fortune in the hands of trustees, with
instructions to apply the interest to the providing of easy berths to
men whose hair is of that color. From all I hear, it is splendid pay
and very little to do.'

"'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who would
apply.'

"'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is really
confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had started
from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the old town a good
turn. Then again, I have heard it is no use your applying if your hair
is light red, or dark red, or anything but real bright, blazing, fiery
red. Now if you care to apply, Mr. Wilson, you would just walk in; but
perhaps it would hardly be worth your while to put yourself out of the
way for the sake of a few hundred pounds.'

"Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, that my
hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed to me that if
there was to be any competition in the matter, I stood as good a
chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent Spaulding seemed to
know so much about it that I thought he might prove useful, so I just
ordered him to put up the shutters for the day, and to come right away
with me. He was very willing to have a holiday; so we shut the
business up, and started off for the address that was given us in the
advertisement.

"I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From
north, south, east, and west, every man who had a shade of red in his
hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. Fleet
Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court looked like a
coster's orange-barrow. I should not have thought there were so many
in the whole country as were brought together by that single
advertisement. Every shade of color they were--straw, lemon, orange,
brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; but as Spaulding said, there were
not many who had the real vivid flame-colored tint. When I saw how
many were waiting, I would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding
would not hear of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed
and pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up
to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream upon
the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back dejected; but
we wedged in as well as we could, and soon fou