The Red-Headed League (1891), a Short Story by Arthur Conan Doyle: summary

This is a unique crime story, a bank robbery without bloodshed and using red-headed league's idea to the crime. The story follows John Clay, he was a thief, murderer, and smuggler. He had used the Red-Headed League’ job vacancy to distract a pawnbroker. Jabez Wilson only worked four hours a day for highly paid. When the thief had completed the tunnel, he cared no longer about his employee. Wilson has thought he was the object of a prank. It was expensive joke, he got the benefit, but Wilson was still curious. The knees of the trousers and the pavement were the two clues for Sherlock Holmes to seize the bad guys.

The Red-Headed League (1891), a Short Story by Arthur Conan Doyle: summary

Jabez Wilson came to Baker Street that day, brought his case. An advertisement on the paper had already exploded disaster to his former employee. Wilson himself was an owner of a small pawnbroker’s business at Coburg Square, near the City. He used to be able to hire two assistants, but now he only kept one. The business did not run so well. Vincent Spaulding was now the only assistant, he was not such as a youth. Wilson lived with Spaulding and a girl of fourteen, who did a bit simple of cooking and kept place in clean. Wilson was a widower and had no family, so the three of them lived very quietly.

Spaulding had read an advertisement on the paper, all red-headed men who are sound in body and mind, above the age of twenty, are eligible for high salary. Spaulding wished he had a red-headed.

The Red-headed League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah Hopkins. He was himself red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed; so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of that color. Spaulding seemed to know so much about it. He was willing to have a holiday, so they shut the business up and started off for the address that was given the advertisement.

Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk. There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden of chairs and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with head that was even redder than him. His assistant was introduced Wilson to the recruiter. He said his name was Duncan Ross, he was one of the pensioners upon the fund left by the benefactors. He had a negative respond to find Wilson had no family. The fund was for the propagation and spread of the red-headed as well as for their maintenance.

The pay was good. The job was only four hours a day, but he should not to think of leaving. He has to copy the Encyclopedia Britannica. Wilson should be ready for the next day. However in the morning, he determined to have a look at it anyhow, so Wilson bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a quill-pen. He was delighted, everything was right. The table was set out ready for him, Duncan Ross was there to see that he got fairly work. At the two o’clock he bade him good-day, complimented him upon the amount he had written, and locked the door of the office after him.

Every morning he was there at ten and every afternoon he left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took coming in only once a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come at all. Eight weeks passed. He went to his work as usual at ten o’clock, but the door was shut and locked with a little square of card-board hammered that said the Red-Headed was dissolved. Wilson went to the landlord, who is an account living on the ground-floor, and he asked him about the Red-Headed League. He said he never heard of any such body. Even Duncan Ross was strange to him, he only knew a man named William Morris who just moved out yesterday. Morris was a solicitor, then Wilson had gotten his office’s address. Wilson went to the address but no one in it had ever heard William Morris or Duncan Ross. 

Besides, Wilson had loosen four pond a week, he wanted to know who they were, and what their object was in playing that prank.

Sherlock Holmes was going through the City first, and a short walk took them to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of singular story. It was a poky, little, shaby-genteel place, where four lies of dingy two-storied brick houses. A sign on the board with ‘JABEZ WILSON’ in the white letters, upon the corner of the house, announced the place where the red-headed client headed his business. Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it, observed that place. Finally, he returned to the pawnbroker’s house, having thumped vigorously upon the pavement with his stick two times or three times. It was instantly he was welcomed by a young guy. The assistant counted his good deal in the mystery of the Red-Headed League.

Holmes explored the road in which they found themselves as they turned round the corner of the road. It was one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm the pedestrians. There was tobacconist shop, the little newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of City Bank, the vegetarian restaurant, and the carriage–building depot.

Watson found the official police agent, Peter Jones was talking with Holmes at the Baker Street on that day, later he was introduced to Mr. Merryweather, who was to be their companion in that night’s adventure. Merryweather was a bank director, and personally interested in that matter.

They had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which they found themselves in the morning. Their cabs were dismissed and following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather. They passed down narrow a passage and through a side door, which he opened. Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive iron gate.  He opened a third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which pilled all round with crates and massive boxes.

Bank Coburg had borrowed 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of France to strengthen their resources. They had never occasion to unpack the money, and that it was still lying in the cellar. The smell of hot metal remained to assure them that the light was still there, ready to flash out at a moment’s notice. The thief could hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker was safely in bed. Suddenly Watson’s eyes caught the glint of a light. Over the edge there peeped a clean cut, boyish face, which looked keenly about it. The men were in hurry together their chisels and bags. Holmes warned Clay and the assistant to surrender, then warned them not to run. Holmes had been holding a revolver.

John Clay, the murder, thief, smasher, and forger. He was still young, but he was at the head of his profession. He was remarkable man his grandfather was a royal duke. He himself has been to Eton and Oxford. His brain was as cunning as his fingers. He would crack a crib in Scotland on week, and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. The police had been on his track for years and had never set eyes on him yet.

The method was no doubt suggest to Clay’s ingenious mind by color of his accomplice’s hair. The four pound a week was a lure which must draw him, and what was it to comparing for thousands. They put advertisement, one rogue incites the man to apply for it, and together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the week.

Sherlock Holmes was suspicious on the assistant when he opened the door. Holmes had surprised him by beating upon the pavement with his stick. Clay and the assistant closed their League offices that was a sign that they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson’s presence, they had completed their tunnel.

******

December 3, 2017

Sekapur Sirih

Cerpen ini diterbitkan 1891, perampokan bank, tidak ada tokoh yang terbunuh dalam cerita ini. Seorang penjahat keturunan bangsawan, yang pernah kuliah dan menggunakan keunikan, atas nama rambut merah dan berujung pada perampok bank. Misteri yang cerdas.

Terjemahan dalam Bahasa Indonesia, Red-Headed League, 1891 (Liga/Serikat Rambut Merah); resume/ringkasan

Baker Street didatangi klien bernama Jabez Wilson, pemilik sebuah toko pegadaian tidak jauh dari pusat kota. Duda itu tidak memiliki keluarga, ia hidup bersama seorang asisten toko dan perempuan, membantunya memasak dan membersihkan rumah. Bisnis pegadaiannya tidak berjalan baik, bahkan semakin memburuk, jika tadinya ia mampu mempekerjakan dua karyawan, kini hanya mampu membayar satu orang saja. Sebuah petikan iklan di surat kabar disodorkan ketika Watson masuk di tengah perbincangan antara Holmes dan kliennya. Sebuah iklan lowongan pekerjaan, dengan gaji menarik, 4 pound perminggu dan dikhususkan untuk pemilik rambut merah seperti Jabez Wilson, apalagi dengan jam kerja hanya 4 jam sehari.

Asisten Wilson bernama Vincent Spaluding tidaklah tergolong muda, namun terlalu pintar untuk menjadi seorang penjaga toko. Spaulding menyodorkan iklan itu pada bosnya, dan memengaruhinya agar ikut dalam wawancara lowongan pekerjaan dimaksud. Wilson tidak begitu mengetahui persis tentang Serikat Rambut Merah, Vincent yang mengerti iklan itu dan bahkan menelepon kantor pengiklan.

Serikat Rambut Merah didirikan oleh Ezekiah Hopkins seorang miliuner dari Amerika. Ezekiah sendiri telah wafat, namun kekayaannya telah disumbangkan untuk para rambut merah demi menjaga keberlangsungan komunitas rambut merah. Duncan Ross, salah satu pemilik saham dari Serikat Rambut Merah, merekrut karyawan di London. Tn. Ross menyayangkan Wilson tidak memiliki anak dan keluarga, lembaga itu bertujuan penerus rambut merah. Tapi akhirnya Wilson terpilih mendapat pekerjaan itu, kandidat lainnya tidak terlalu merah sesuai dengan syarat.

Wilson pun diterima dan disuruh untuk bekerja keesokan harinya. Pekerjaanya menyalin Ensiklopedia Britannica, sehingga ia disuruh membawa botol tinta dan pena.

Dengan senang hati Wilson membeli tinta dan pena, hari pertama masuk kerja. Seperti janji Ross, sebuah meja telah disiapkan untuknya. Jam kerja hanya empat jam dari jam 10 pagi hingga jam 2 siang. Bisnis pegadaian sepi di pagi hingga siang, biasanya ramai pada sore dan malam hari, Wilson memercayakan toko pada asistennya. Hari-hari bekerja semakin ia nikmati, hingga genap ia bekerja delapan minggu. Mulanya, Tn. Ross selalu berada di  kantor,  mengawasinya, namun lambat laun sang bos tidak muncul sama sekali, hingga suatu pagi yang mengejutkan.

Wilson dikagetkan, mendapati kantor tempatnya bekerja tertutup rapat, dan terpampang tulisan mengatakan bahwa kantor tutup dan tidak akan ada aktifitas lagi. Bos pegadaian itu pun bingung dan menanyakan orang sekitarnya, tapi tak satu pun dari mereka mengenali Duncan Ross dan Serikat Rambut Merah. Akhirnya, Wilson mendatangi pemilik kantor, yang kebetulan tinggal di lantai bawah. Herannya, pemilik pun tidak mngetahui akan serikat itu dan nama Duncan Ross.

Pemilik hanya mengetahui seorang penyewa bernama William Morris, yang baru kemarinnya berpamitan pindah, dan meninggalkan alamat kantor. William pun mendatangi alamat yang dimaksud, lagi-lagi tak satupun orang dalam kantor itu mengenal Duncan Ross maupun William Morris.

Pemilik pegadaian sangat penasaran akan Serikat Rambut Merah, dan kenapa ia dikerjai seperti itu, ia juga merasa rugi 30 pondsterling. Walau Holmes menyarankan Wilson tidaklah begitu rugi, tapi rasa penasaran Wilson tetap meminta Holmes memecahkan misteri si rambut merah.  

Holmes dan Watson bergerak, mendatangi kantor tempat kejadian. Mereka melakukan observasi, selanjutnya mendatangi kediaman Wilson. Seorang anak muda membuka pintu untuknya, namun wajah pemuda itu sangat terkaget ketika tongkat Holmes mengetuk lantai keramik yang mengeluarkan bunyi tidak normal. Holmes pun menyelidiki rumah Wilson dan sekitarnya. Tidak jauh dari lokasi, terdapat deretan pertokoan hingga sebuah cabang bank.

Holmes telah mencium keganjilan dan membuat simpulan awal. Watson menyempatkan diri kembali ke rumahnya, kemudian kembali ke Jalan Baker. Ia mendapati Holmes tengah berbincang dengan Peter Jones dari agen Scotland Yard dan Merryweather seorang direktur bank, tertarik dalam kasus itu. Bankir yang akan menuntun mereka dalam petualangan mereka malam itu.

Agen Jones menjelaskan John Clay, seorang pencuri, pembunuh, dan penyeludup. Dia masih muda, tapi sudah sangat lihai dalam kejahatan. Kakeknya adalah bangsawan, dan Clay sendiri pernah kuliah di Eton dan Oxford. Dia sangat licik, sudah bertahun-tahun dalam incaran penegak hukum.

Bank Courg baru-baru ini meminjam dana besar dari Bank Paris untuk memperkuat bisnis, para staf belum punya kesempatan merapikan uangnya dan membiarkannya tergeletak di lantai brankas. Merryweather pun membawa Holmes, Watson, dan Agen Jones ke brankas yang berlapis tiga pintu dan jeruji besi di ruang bawah tanah. Dari kejauhan terdengar bunyi nyaring logam menghantam logam, dan sinaran senter.

Dua orang pencuri tengah berusaha melarikan diri dengan tas bawaannya, diduga berisi uang. Awalnya gerakan mereka dilakukan perlahan, kuatir pemilik pegadaian baik hati terbangun dari tidurnya. Ruang bawah tanah itu persis berada di bawah kamar tidur Wilson. Holmes memegang senjatanya dan memperingatkan kedua pencuri itu. Detektif itu cukup kaget saat melihat rambut merah milik anak muda dihadapannya, John Clay. Pencuri masih berusaha melarikan diri, Holmes kembali mengingatkan keduanya, tiga orang di luar telah mengepung.

Holmes semenjak awal telah mencium kejanggalan asisten Wilson, tiba-tiba menghilang dan terkaget saat melihat tongkat Holmes memukul lantai. Belum lagi, sang asisten tak berani memunculkan kakinya yang berdebu. Selama berminggu-minggu Spaulding dan Clay telah membuat terowongan di bawah rumah Wilson menembus ke ruang brankas Bank Coburg. Apalah arti 4 pound per minggu jika dibandingkan dengan ribuan pounsterling yang telah mereka curi dari brankas Bank Coburg. Clay membuat iklan itu untuk menarik Wilson agar meninggalkan tokonya dari jam 10.00 hingga 14.00 setiap hari, agar mereka bebas menggali. Terowongan telah usai dibuat, mereka menyegel kantor, dan terlupa dengan Wilson. Tidak mengira, Wilson akan melakukan penyidikan terhadap mereka. Clay memanfaatkan rambut merah untuk kejahatan, modus baru untuk sang detektif. John Clay adalah seorang sponsor rasnya.  

******

3 Desember 2017