and claims that he is of royal stock and must be addressed as "sir." Mockingly, Jones calls him "sir" as he escorts him from the vault and to the police station. Holmes is then congratulated by Mr Merryweather on his detection of the attempted robbery, a crime he calls "one of the most determined attempts at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience."

Back at Baker Street, Holmes explains how he was able to solve the crime. As usual, Watson is overawed by Holmes' detective abilities while the latter is left to ponder the value of his work. 

Jabez Wilson's assistant, who calls himself Vincent Spaulding, and his partner in crime, who calls himself Duncan Ross, are digging a tunnel from the cellar under Wilson's pawnshop to the basement strongroom of a nearby bank for the purpose of stealing a large quantity of gold coins stored there. The bank director Mr. Merryweather, who comes to the strongroom late at night with Holmes and Watson and a policeman from Scotland Yard, explains exactly what it is the thieves are after.

We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between layers of lead foil. 

These, of course, are gold coins stamped with the image of Napoleon Bonaparte. Their total value is thirty thousand English pounds, which was a large fortune in the days of Sherlock Holmes. Evidently there are fifteen crates, each containing two thousand coins. The thieves do not intend to drag the crates through their tunnel but will dump the coins into bags which would be easier to handle. Even so, it would take them many hours to get all the gold through the tunnel and into Jabez Wilson's cellar. They are planning to do the job on a Saturday night and make off with the loot in a hired wagon early Sunday morning while Wilson is asleep.

But Holmes has deduced what the two thieves are up to, and he is waiting for them with Watson, Merryweather, and Peter Jones, the official police agent, when Vincent Spaulding, who is really John Clay, "the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger," breaks through the flooring. The whole purpose of the Red-Headed League hoax was to get Jabez Wilson out of the way so that the two thieves could work on their tunnel together and make much faster progress.

A notorious criminal named John Clay is plotting to loot the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank's underground strongroom of 30,000 French gold coins worth 30,000 British pounds. Just before the climax of the story, Mr. Jones, the Scotland Yard detective, describes their quarry as follows:

“John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him yet.”

Clay has an accomplice who calls himself Duncan Ross when he pretends to be in charge of the offices of the Red-Headed League. Evidently his first name is Archie, because that is what Clay calls him when he realizes that the jig is up.