New Book - The Sign of Four - Sherlock Holmes 2 - by Arthur Conan Doyle (Pages 1 - 27)

 

First Published: February 1, 1890

In the first chapter of this book we find Holmes and Watson at home. Holmes injects heroine, which Watson disapproves of, and Holmes claims that he needs some stimulant when he is bored. Then they receive the visit of a woman who introduces herself as Mary Morstan.

Mary tells them that her father used to be an officer in India. She was sent back home, and in 1878 her father sent word that he was coming home. Mary was supposed to meet him in a hotel, but he never turned up. The receptionist told him that he was staying there and had gone out, but the man never returned. Then six years ago in 1882 there was an advertisment in the Times, requesting the address of Mary Morstan, and she sent it. After that every year she has received a box inside which there was a pearl. Now this morning he got a note telling her that she had been wronged and if she wanted to know, she should wait near the Lyceum Theatre, and she can bring two friends. Holmes and Watson agree to go with her.

Before meeting Mary that night, Holmes discovers that the friend who Mary had contacted when her father disappeared, Major Sholto, is dead. That night the three are approached by a man where Mary was told to wait. They follow the man's instructions to get into the carriage, and they are taken to a house where a man receives them.

The man introduces himself as Thaddeus Sholto and is Major Sholto's son. He tells them that Mary's father and his had brought from India a chaplet of pearls, and the night Mary was supposed to see her father, both Captain Morstan and Sholto argued, and apparently Morstan felt ill after the confrontation and fell, hitting his head and dying. Sholto's servant arrived and told his master that he knew that he had killed him but he would help him. Sholto tried to protest, but the servant didn't believe him, so he had no other reason than get rid of Morstan's body.

This is something that Thadeus learnt when his father was dying. When Sholto was confessing to him and his brother Bartholomew, Sholto screamed as he saw someone watching them through the window. Thadeus went out but he didn't see the person, but there was a note with a line saying 'The Sign of Four'.