The Sign of the Four
()
About this ebook
After months without a case, the world’s greatest detective is aimless, his only stimulation the daily injection of his drug of choice. “Which is it to-day?” asks a disapproving Watson—“morphine or cocaine?” For a mind as finely tuned as Holmes’s, the dull routine of existence will not suffice.
Thankfully for Holmes’s health and Watson’s anxiety levels, a beautiful young woman soon calls at 221B Baker Street. Ten years ago, Mary Morstan’s father, a captain of the 34th Bombay Infantry, disappeared from a London hotel. Four years thereafter, Mary began to receive large, lustrous pearls in the mail—one per year, always delivered on May 4. Now, six pearls later, Mary is finally about to meet her anonymous benefactor and asks Holmes and Watson to accompany her for safety’s sake. The crime they uncover—in which a royal treasure, a diabolical double cross, and a man-eating crocodile all play a part—is one of the most thrilling tales Arthur Conan Doyle ever wrote, and a crucial chapter in the Sherlock Holmes saga.
This ebook features a new introduction by Otto Penzler and has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was a Scottish author best known for his classic detective fiction, although he wrote in many other genres including dramatic work, plays, and poetry. He began writing stories while studying medicine and published his first story in 1887. His Sherlock Holmes character is one of the most popular inventions of English literature, and has inspired films, stage adaptions, and literary adaptations for over 100 years.
Read more from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Horror of the Heights: & Other Tales of Suspense Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGhostly Tales: Spine-Chilling Stories of the Victorian Age Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Weiser Book of Horror and the Occult: Hidden Magic, Occult Truths, and the Stories That Started It All Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The History of Spiritualism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Christmas Library: 250+ Essential Christmas Novels, Poems, Carols, Short Stories...by 100+ Authors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection (Mahon Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMysteries and Adventures Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Keinplatz Experiment: and Other Tales of Twilight and the Unseen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Sherlock Holmes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Seasons Edition--Spring) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe New Revelation Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Big Book of Christmas Tales: 250+ Short Stories, Fairytales and Holiday Myths & Legends Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGothic Classics: 60+ Books in One Volume Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Arthur Conan Doyle Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBest Horror Stories of Arthur Conan Doyle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTales for a Winter's Night Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Classic Tales of Science Fiction & Fantasy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Captain of the Pole-Star: And Other Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to The Sign of the Four
Titles in the series (14)
The Return of Sherlock Holmes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sign of the Four Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hound of the Baskervilles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Valley of Fear Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Study in Scarlet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5His Last Bow: Some Later Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hound of the Baskervilles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Return of Sherlock Holmes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Study in Scarlet Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sign of the Four Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Valley of Fear Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related ebooks
The Sign of the Four Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Valley of Fear Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Return of Sherlock Holmes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hound of the Baskervilles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5His Last Bow: Some Later Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Study in Scarlet Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHound of the Baskervilles (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSherlock Holmes - 101 Amazingly True Facts You Didn't Know: 101BookFacts.com Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAdventures of Sherlock Holmes (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHis Last Bow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Elementary Sherlock Holmes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Return of Moriarty: Sherlock Holmes' Nemesis Lives Again Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Casebook Of Sherlock Holmes(Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Literary Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Volume Two Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLittle Book of Sherlock Holmes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Triumphs of Eugene Valmont Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Rivals of Sherlock Holmes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings221B: Studies in Sherlock Holmes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStudy Guide to Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sherlock Holmes and the Plague of Dracula Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Hound Of The Baskervilles(Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Best Supernatural Tales of Arthur Conan Doyle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLaurie R. King's Sherlock Holmes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Introducing Sherlock Holmes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sherlock Holmes - The Complete Short Stories Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Mystery For You
The Paris Apartment: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pretty Girls: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hallowe'en Party: Inspiration for the 20th Century Studios Major Motion Picture A Haunting in Venice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5None of This Is True: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stories of Ray Bradbury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hunting Party: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Short Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Devil in a Blue Dress (30th Anniversary Edition): An Easy Rawlins Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Flight: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Still Life: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pale Blue Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Daughter: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pieces of Her: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Murder Under a Red Moon: A 1920s Bangalore Mystery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summit Lake Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Big Sleep Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hidden Staircase: Nancy Drew #2 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Life We Bury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pharmacist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Club: A Reese's Book Club Pick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Write a Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dean Koontz: Series Reading Order - with Summaries & Checklist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The People Next Door Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5False Witness: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Did I Kill You?: A Thriller Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Kept Woman: A Will Trent Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Woman in the Library: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Sign of the Four
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Sign of the Four - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Sign of the Four
Arthur Conan Doyle
Contents
Introduction
I The Science of Deduction
II The Statement of the Case
III In Quest of a Solution
IV The Story of the Bald-Headed Man
V The Tragedy of Pondicherry Lodge
VI Sherlock Holmes Gives a Demonstration
VII The Episode of the Barrel
VIII The Baker Street Irregulars
IX A Break in the Chain
X The End of the Islander
XI The Great Agra Treasure
XII The Strange Story of Jonathan Small
Introduction
by Otto Penzler
About one hundred years ago, Sherlock Holmes was described as one of the three most famous people who ever lived, the other two being Jesus Christ and Houdini. There are some who claim that he is a fictional character, but this notion is, of course, absurd. Every schoolchild knows what he looks like and what he does for a living, and most know many of his peculiar characteristics.
The tall, slender, hawk-nosed figure, with his deerstalker hat and Inverness cape, is instantly recognizable in every corner of the world. In addition to the superb stories describing his adventures written by his friend, roommate, and chronicler Dr. John H. Watson (with the assistance of his literary agent, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), Holmes has been impersonated on the stage, television, and radio, and in countless motion pictures. More than twenty-five thousand books, stories, and articles have been written about him by famous authors, amateur writers, and scholars.
Sherlock (he was nearly named Sherrinford) was born on January 6, 1845, on the farmstead of Mycroft (the name of his older brother) in the North Riding of Yorkshire. He solved his first case (eventually titled The Gloria Scott
) while a twenty-year-old student at Oxford. Following graduation, he became the world’s first consulting detective—a vocation he followed for twenty-three years.
In January 1881 he was looking for someone to share his new quarters at 221B Baker Street and a friend introduced him to Dr. John H. Watson. Before agreeing to share the apartment, the two men aired their respective shortcomings. Holmes confessed, I get in the dumps at times, and don’t open my mouth for days on end.
He also smokes a vile shag tobacco and conducts experiments with loathsome-smelling chemicals. And he failed to mention an affection for cocaine. Although he ruefully noted his fondness for scratching away at the violin while in contemplation, he proved to be a virtuoso who could calm his roommate’s raw nerves with a melodious air.
Watson’s admitted faults include the keeping of a bull pup, a strong objection to arguments because his nerves cannot stand them, a penchant for arising from bed at all sorts of ungodly hours,
and an immense capacity for laziness.
I have another set of vices when I’m well,
he said, but those are the principal ones at present.
They became friends, and Watson chronicled the deeds of his illustrious roommate, often to the displeasure of Holmes, who resented the melodramatic and sensational tales. He believed that the affairs, if told at all, should be put to the public as straightforward exercises in cold logic and deductive reasoning.
Holmes possesses not only excellent deductive powers but also a giant intellect. Anatomy, chemistry, mathematics, British law, and sensational literature are but a few areas of his vast sphere of knowledge, although he is admittedly not well versed in such subjects as astronomy, philosophy, and politics. He has published several distinguished works on erudite subjects: Upon the Distinction between the Ashes of the Various Tobaccos; A Study of the Influence of a Trade upon the Form of the Hand; Upon the Polyphonic Motets of Lassus; A Study of the Chaldean Roots in the Ancient Cornish Language; and, his magnum opus, The Practical Handbook in Bee Culture, with Some Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen. His four-volume The Whole Art of Detection has not yet been published. When he needs information that his brain has not retained, he refers to a small, carefully selected library of reference works and a series of commonplace books. Since Holmes cares only about facts that aid his work, he ignores whatever he considers superfluous. He explains his theory of education thus: I consider that a man’s brain originally is like an empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. … It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before.
An athletic body complements Holmes’s outstanding intelligence. He seems even taller than his six feet because he is extremely thin. His narrow, hooked nose and sharp, piercing eyes give him a hawklike appearance. He often astonished Watson with displays of strength and agility; he is a superb boxer, fencer, and singlestick player. He needed all his strength when he met his nemesis, the ultimate arch-criminal Professor James Moriarty, in a struggle at the edge of the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland. The evenly matched adversaries, locked in battle, fell over the cliff; both were reported to be dead. All England mourned the passing of its great keeper of the law, but in 1894, after being missing for three years, Holmes returned. He had not been killed in the fall, after all, but had seized a good opportunity to fool his many enemies in the underworld. He had taken over the identity of a Danish explorer, Sigerson, and traveled to many parts of the world, including New Jersey, where he is believed to have had an affair with Irene Adler (who will always be the woman to Holmes), and to Tibet, where he learned the secret of long life from the Dalai Lama.
When Miss Adler (the famous and beautiful opera singer Holmes first meets in A Scandal in Bohemia
) died in 1903, he retired to keep bees on the southern slopes of the Sussex Downs with his old housekeeper, Mrs. Martha Hudson. He came out of retirement briefly before World War I, but his life since then has been quiet.
Holmes has outlived the people who have participated at various times in his adventures. In addition to Mycroft, Watson, Moriarty, Irene Adler, and Mrs. Hudson, the best-known auxiliary personalities in the stories include Billy the page boy, who occasionally announces visitors to 221B; Mary Morstan, who becomes Mrs. Watson; the Baker Street Irregulars, street urchins led by Wiggins, who scramble after information for Holmes’s coins; Lestrade, an inept Scotland Yard inspector; Stanley Hopkins, a Scotland Yard man of greater ability; Gregson, the smartest of the Scotland Yarders
according to Holmes; and Colonel Sebastian Moran, the second most dangerous man in London.
The first story written about Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlet, originally appeared in Beeton’s Christmas Annual for 1887 and subsequently was published in book form in London by Ward, Lock & Company in 1888; the first American edition was published by J. B. Lippincott & Company in 1890. Holmes is called to assist Scotland Yard on what Inspector Tobias Gregson calls a bad business during the night at 3, Lauriston Gardens.
An American, Enoch J. Drebber, has been murdered, and Yard men can point to only a single clue, the word Rache scrawled on the wall in blood. They believe it to be the first letters of a woman’s name, Rachel, but Holmes suggests that it is the German word for revenge. Soon, the dead man’s private secretary, Stangerson, is also found murdered; the same word is written in blood nearby. A long middle section of this novel, dealing with Mormons, is an unusual flashback.
The Sign of the Four first appeared simultaneously in the English and American editions of Lippincott’s Magazine for February 1890. Spencer Blacket published the first English book edition in the same year; P. F. Collier published the first American book edition in 1891. Calling at 221B Baker Street for help is Mary Morstan, a fetching young lady by whom Watson is totally charmed; ultimately, he marries her. She is the daughter of a captain in the Indian Army who mysteriously disappeared ten years earlier and has never been heard from again. Four years after the disappearance, Miss Morstan received an anonymous gift, a huge, lustrous pearl, and got another like it each year thereafter. Holmes and Watson accompany her to a tryst with the eccentric Thaddeus Sholto, twin brother of Bartholomew Sholto and the son of a major who was Captain Morstan’s only friend in London. Holmes sets out to find a fabulous treasure and is soon involved with the strange Jonathan Small and Tonga.
A Scandal in Bohemia
first appeared in the Strand Magazine in July 1891; its first book appearance was in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892). The first published short story in which Holmes appears features the detective in an uncharacteristic battle of wits with a lady, and with no real crime to solve. The king of Bohemia has had a rather indiscreet affair with Irene Adler, who threatens to create an international scandal when he attempts to discard her and marry a noblewoman. Holmes is hired to obtain possession of a certain unfortunate photograph before it can be sent to the would-be bride’s royal family. Holmes is outwitted, and he never stops loving Irene for fooling him.
In The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), Sir Charles Baskerville, of Baskerville Hall, Dartmoor, Devon, has been found dead. There are no signs of violence at the scene, but his face is incredibly distorted with terror. Dr. James Mortimer enlists the aid of Holmes to protect the young heir to the estate, Sir Henry Baskerville. Watson goes to the grim moor to keep an eye on Sir Henry but is warned to return to London by a neighbor, Beryl Stapleton, the lovely sister of a local naturalist, who hears a blood-chilling moan at the edge of the great Grimpen Mire and identifies it as the legendary Hound of the Baskervilles, calling for its prey.
The original stories about Holmes number sixty; more than that number have been written by other authors, however. Even Conan Doyle wrote a parody of the characters, How Watson Learned the Trick,
first published in The Book of the Queen’s Dolls’ House in 1924. The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1974) by Nicholas Meyer was a longtime bestseller. Among the most famous pastiches are those by H. F. Heard, whose Mr. Mycroft is a pseudonymous Holmes; the tales of August Derleth, whose Solar Pons is the Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street
; and The Unique Hamlet
(1920) by Vincent Starrett, in which the great detective appears under his true name.
Other names (and guises) under which Holmes has appeared are Herlock Sholmes and Holmlock Shears (in Maurice LeBlanc’s The Exploits of Arsène Lupin, 1907, and The Fair-haired Lady, 1909); Picklock Holes (in R. C. Lehmann’s The Adventures of Picklock Holes, 1901); Shylock Homes (in John Kendrick Bangs’s series of short stories in American newspapers in 1903, reprinted as Shylock Homes: His Posthumous Memoirs, 1973; Bangs also wrote many parodies of Holmes using the detective’s real name, as in The Pursuit of the House-Boat, 1897; The Enchanted Type-Writer, 1899; and R. Holmes & Co., 1906, in which the hero is the son of Sherlock Holmes and the grandson of A. J. Raffles); Shamrock Jolnes (by O. Henry in two stories in Sixes and Sevens, 1911); Hemlock Jones (by Bret Harte in The Stolen Cigar-Case
in Condensed Novels: Second Series, 1902); and Schlock Homes in many stories by Robert L. Fish.
Today, of course, Holmes continues to be a multimedia superstar, appearing in two internationally successful films starring Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes; the BBC television series Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch; and Elementary, the wildly popular CBS series starring Jonny Lee Miller as Holmes and Lucy Liu as Dr. Watson.
Chapter I
The Science of Deduction
SHERLOCK HOLMES TOOK his bottle from the corner of the mantel-piece and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle, and rolled back his left shirt-cuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearm and wrist all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks. Finally he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the velvet-lined arm-chair with a long sigh of satisfaction.
Three times a day for many months I had witnessed this performance, but custom had not reconciled my mind to it. On the contrary, from day to day I had become more irritable at the sight, and my conscience swelled nightly within me at the thought that I had lacked the courage to protest. Again and again I had registered a vow that I should deliver my soul upon the subject, but there was that in the cool, nonchalant air of my companion which made him the last man with whom one would care to