Black Peter / The Red-Headed League

Black Peter was a successful seal and whale fisher, a hard man and
captain of the sealer Sea Unicorn. When he gave up sealing, he bought a
house for his wife and daughter and built a small house of wood in the
garden where he slept and drank rum. One morning his daughter found him,
a harpoon run through him and deep into the wood. Then...
In THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE Mr Wilson, who has a fine head of red hair, is
told by his assistant about a job at the offices of the league.
Excellent pay, little work. There where hundreds of men when he got
there, but he gets the job. He is to be in the office every day and copy
out the Encyclopaedia Britannica, starting af A! Across the street from
his shop was the cellar of one of the big London banks!

• author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle