55782 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.
55783 'I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes.
55784 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.
55785 Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court looked like a coster's orange barrow.
55786 I should not have thought there were so many in the whole country as were brought together by that single advertisement.
55787 Every shade of colour they were - straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real vivid flame-coloured tint.
55788 When I saw how many were waiting, I would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear of it.
55789 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.
55790 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 found ourselves in the office.'
55791 'Your experience has been a most entertaining one,' remarked Holmes, as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge pinch of snuff.
55792 'Pray continue your very interesting statement.'
55793 'There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs and a deal table, behind which sat a small man, with a head that was even redder than mine.
55794 He said a few words to each candidate as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in them which would disqualify them.
55795 Getting a vacancy did not seem to be such a very easy matter after all.
55796 However, when our turn came, the little man was more favourable to me than to any of the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he might have a private word with us.