The Sign of The Four
The Sign of The Four, was published in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine in February 1890. Later that year the first book editions of the story were published with the shortened title The Sign of Four.
The story met with an equally modest reception from the public. There the matter could have ended, and the two stories would probably have been classified as minor late-Victorian novels of crime and detection. Happily, a fortuitous combination of circumstances ensued: George Newnes launched a new magazine, and Dr Conan Doyle, having given up medicine and taken up writing for a living, needed the money, and offered to write it for it.
George Newnes deserves the credit for producing The Strand Magazine, the best quality monthly magazine of its kind, and the editor, Greenhough Smith, the credit for accepting a series of six short stories by Doyle, under the heading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The series ran from July 1891 to June 1892. It is published in book form by Spencer Blackett in 1890.
Major players: Holmes, Watson, Mary Morstan, Thaddeus Sholto, Bartholomew Sholto, Jonathan Small, Inspector Athelney Jones, Tonga, Toby. Originally subtitled ‘The Problem of the Sholtos’.
Plot Outline
Sherlock Holmes is weary of inactivity, and turns to his old consolation, cocaine: "My mind rebels at stagnation... give me problems, give me work... what is the use of having powers, doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them?" He has hardly finished speaking when a card is handed in - that of Miss Mary Morstan. She proves to be such a charming young lady that Watson at once loses his susceptible heart. Holmes is only interested in the puzzles she sets him. Mary Morstan is the daughter of Captain Morstan, an Indian Army officer who had disappeared in London ten years before and has not been heard of since. Four years after his strange disappearance, Miss Morstan, now a governess, had received an anonymous gift of a large and lustrous pearl, since when she has received a pearl each year, with still no clue to the sender. But on the day of her visit to Holmes a summons has reached her to meet the unknown giver outside the Lyceum Theatre at seven that evening. 'If you are distrustful, bring two friends. You are a wronged woman, and shall have justice.' Holmes and Watson agree to accompany her to the rendezvous, and Holmes meanwhile does a little research, which shows that Major Sholto, the vanish Captain Morstan's only friend in London, had died within a week of Miss Morstan's receiving the first pearl.
The rendezvous is kept, and the three are taken by an uncommunicative coachman to the strange abode of Mr. Thaddeus Sholto - 'an oasis of art in the howling desert of South London'. This eccentric hypochondriac proves to be the son of the late Major Sholto of Pondicherry Lodge, Upper Norwood. On his death-bed, Major Sholto had told his two sons of the wonderful Agra treasure, to which Miss Morstan is rightful heir, her father having died of apoplexy when arguing with Major Sholto about its disposal. Holmes, Watson and Miss Morstan accompany Thaddeus to Pondicherry Lodge to reclaim the treasure, but arrive to find brother Bartholomew dead from poisoning, and the treasure gone. A trail of footsteps leads Holmes and Watson on a thrilling chase after the murderer, following which they hear the strange story of Jonathan Small, Tonga, the faithful Andaman Islander, and the Agra Treasure, for whose possession several men have died.
Download the story from the Guttenburg Project