56162 'I have been at some small expense over this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of the Red-headed League.'
56163 'You see, Watson,' he explained in the early hours of the morning, as we sat over a glass of whisky-and-soda in Baker Street, 'it was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of the League, and the copying of the Encyclopaedia, must be to get this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of hours every day.
56164 It was a curious way of managing it, but really it would be difficult to suggest a better.
56165 The method was no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his accomplice's hair.
56166 The four pounds a week was a lure which must draw him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands?
56167 They put in the advertisement; one rogue has the temporary office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the week.
56168 From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for half-wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive for securing the situation.'
56169 'But how could you guess what the motive was?'
56170 'Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a mere vulgar intrigue.
56171 That, however, was out of the question.
56172 The man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his house which could account for such elaborate preparations and such an expenditure as they were at.
56173 It must then be something out of the house.
56174 What could it be?
56175 I thought of the assistant's fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the cellar.