Synopsis The Sign of Four

My name is Doctor Watson. I worked as a doctor in the British Army for several years. But one day, I was shot in the shoulder and could not work in the army anymore. I retired from the army and came back to England. That is why I was living in London with my friend, Sherlock Holmes. My friend was a very clever man. He was the most famous private detective in London. Sherlock Holmes did not care id his clients were rich or poor. He enjoyed solving their interesting problems. He was very happy when he was working. One afternoon, he did not seem very happy. I was worried about my friend. Actually, he feel boring because he did not has some work. He can’t live without interesting problems and mysteries. At the moment, there was a knock at the door, our housekeeper came into the room carrying a small white card on a silver tray. Holmes picked up the card, Miss Mary Morstan. Perhaps, it is a new client for Holmes. Miss Morstan looked worried and unhappy. She tell us that her father was a captain in the army in India, she was sent to school while her father was away. When she was 17, she received a letter from her father. It tells that her father was leaving India and coming back to England. He gave her the address of a hotel in London and asked her to meet him there.

Miss Morstan went to a hotel in London and asked for her father to the hotel manager. But the hotel manager tell her that Captain Morstan was not there, he had gone out the night before and not returned. Captain Morstan was one of the officers in charge of the prisoners in Andaman Islands. Captain Morstan have one good friends in London, named Major Sholto. He was also in charge of the prisoners in the Andaman Islands. Miss Morstan was try to ask about her father to Major Sholto but he didn’t know that her father had arrived in England. 4 years after her father disappeared, she received a small cardboard box that consist of a lovely pearl. She received 5 same pearls every year on the same day. She had come to see Holmes because she was received a note that she must go to the Lyceum Theatre tonight at 7 o’clock. She can bring 2 friends but she can’t bring police. Its from her unknown friend. At last, we -Miss Morstan, Holmes, and I- shall go there tonight. On the way to the Lyceum Theatre, Miss Morstan showed Holmes a piece of paper that was found in her father’s luggage. The drawn of the paper was looks like the plan of a large building and it was signed “The Sign of Four”. At the Lyceum Theatre, we meet a small dark man. He incite us to follow him to a house in a dark quiet street. Obviously, the man who want to meet us is Thaddeus Sholto, the son of Major Sholto. Thaddeus Sholto said that Captain Morstan had a very weak heart so he died. Miss Morstan very upset to hear that and I was very angry with Thaddeus Sholto. Thaddeus Sholto and his brother, Bartholomew, knew that their father was afraid of something. He often spoke about a man with a wooden leg who followed him. He seemed very afraid of this man.

One day in 1882, they father received a letter from India. This letter upset him very much then he became ill. Before Major Sholto died, he tell to his son that when he and Captain Morstan were in India, they found a great treasure called the Great Agra Treasure. Major Sholto brought it back to England, Captain Morstan followed him to ask for his share. But the treasure had made Thaddeus’s father greedy, he wanted to keep it all for himself. They had a terrible argument. Suddenly, the colour of Captain Morstan’s face changed and Major Sholto saw at once that Morstan was dead. Major Sholto asked his sons to find the treasure and share it with Miss Morstan. The next day, Thaddeus and his brother found a note on the bed beside their father’s body, these note were “The Sign of Four”. Thaddeus Sholto was send a letter to Miss Morstan because he want to tell her that yesterday, her brother and him found the Great Agra Treasure. Now, the treasure is at his father’s house, Pondicherry Lodge. I should have been very happy because Miss Morstan was going to be very rich, but I did not feel happy at all. I had fallen in love with her. If she became rich, I could not ask her to marry me because I did not have very much money. And then, Thaddeus take us to the Pondicherry Lodge. Bartholomew-Thaddeus brother- found the treasure chest in the secret room on the top floor of Pondicherry Lodge.

When we arrived at the Pondicherry Lodge, we find a shaken housekeeper who claims that Bartholomew has not emerged from his locked room all day. Holmes and I peeked through the keyhole of the room and find an unnatural grinning face leering at them. Breaking down the door, we find the body of Bartholomew, with a poisoned thorn lodged in his neck. After investigating for some time, Holmes concludes that two persons, one of whom had a wooden leg, committed the crime. According to Holmes, the second personage was an especially interesting individual, we called him pygmy. It also becomes apparent that the murderers have stolen the Great Agra Treasure. One of Holmes deductions reveals that the pygmy stepped in creosote during his escape. Following up on this lead, Holmes and I borrow a dog to follow the scent, the dog called Toby. We search leads them to the edge of the Thames, where it is clear the two criminals hired a boat. Over the next few days, Holmes recruits his agents, many child, to search the river for the boat. When these efforts fail, Holmes, in disguise, makes a search by himself, and discovers that the boat-Aurora- has been camouflaged.

That night, Holmes, several officers pursue, and I in a police barge. We gradually overtake the boat, which contains a wooden-legged man and a small pygmy native from the Andaman Islands. The native attempts to shoot Holmes with a blowpipe, and is consequently shot down by both Holmes and I. The Aurora runs aground and the wooden-legged man becomes entrapped in the mud, subsequently, he is captured. The wooden legged man, whose name is Jonathan Small, is brought back to Baker Street, along with an iron box, which was found on the boat. Jonathan Small proceeds to relay the story of the Agra treasure, which began when he was stationed as a fortress gatekeeper in India. Small explains that he was approached by three Arab guards and offered a share in a great fortune if he would help them murder the man who carried it. Small agreed. When the man, an emissary from a wealthy sheik arrived, the three Arabs murdered the man as Small blocked his escape. The four conspirators hid the treasure, but soon after were arrested for the murder of the emissary. Small was sent to a penal colony on the Andaman Islands, where he managed to befriend a native, named Tonga, who became his loyal companion. Small bribed two of the guards of the island, Sholto and Morstan, into helping him escape in exchange for a share in the fortune. The two agreed, and Sholto left to bring back the treasure. After some time, it became apparent to Small that Sholto had betrayed him, and he escaped from the island with Tonga. After many years, Small had tracked down Sholto, and arrived just in time to see him die. After the death, Small affixed the note that was found on the body, as a reference to himself and his three Arab companions. When he returned to the Pondicherry Lodge, Tonga murdered Bartholomew and the two stole the treasure.

Small concludes his narrative by revealing that in the course of the chase on the Thames river, he threw the treasure overboard. Small is taken to prison, and I, who has come to love Mary Morstan, proposes to her. At last, The Agra Treasure brought happiness to someone.