The Cellar

The pitch-black cellar where Watson, Holmes, Jones, and Merryweather wait for the bank robbers to appear represents the dark and seemingly impenetrable mystery of the Red-Headed League. Watson compares being in the cellar to being in a state of darkness he’s never before experienced, the same way he feels about the entire bizarre pawnshop scenario, Wilson, and the confusing Red-Headed League. As with the story’s central mystery, Watson and readers wait in the blackness of the cellar, comprehending nothing until a light penetrates the darkness and makes everything clear in accordance with Holmes’s logical conclusions.