The Sign of Four
Chapters - Arthur Conan Doyle
Chapter 1: The Science of Deduction
Holmes, bored between cases, injects himself with cocaine - a seven-per-cent solution - while Watson watches with medical disapproval. The chapter establishes the central tension of Holmes's character: a mind that requires constant stimulation and turns to drugs when no case provides it.
POV: Dr John H. Watson·On page: Sherlock Holmes·Mentioned: Mary Morstan, Mrs Hudson, Inspector Lestrade
Chapter 2: The Statement of the Case
Mary Morstan arrives at Baker Street with a puzzle: her father vanished ten years ago, she has been receiving anonymous gifts of pearls ever since, and now she has received a letter inviting her to meet an unknown person. Holmes agrees to accompany her. Watson, it is immediately apparent, is falling in love.
POV: Dr John H. Watson·On page: Sherlock Holmes, Mary Morstan
Chapter 3: In Quest of a Solution
Holmes, Watson, and Mary Morstan visit the anonymous correspondent, Thaddeus Sholto, who reveals that Mary's father and his own father served together in India and shared a secret - a vast treasure. Sholto's father stole the treasure and the guilt killed him. Thaddeus wants to make amends.
POV: Dr John H. Watson·On page: Sherlock Holmes, Mary Morstan
Chapter 4: The Story of the Bald-headed Man
Thaddeus takes them to Pondicherry Lodge, his brother Bartholomew's house, to share the treasure. They arrive to find Bartholomew dead in his locked laboratory, his face frozen in a ghastly grin, a poisoned thorn in his neck. The treasure is gone.
POV: Dr John H. Watson·On page: Sherlock Holmes, Mary Morstan
Chapter 5: The Tragedy of Pondicherry Lodge
Holmes examines the crime scene and identifies two sets of footprints: one a man with a wooden leg, the other a small bare foot. He also finds a note signed "The Sign of the Four." The locked room was entered through a trapdoor in the roof.
POV: Dr John H. Watson·On page: Sherlock Holmes, Mary Morstan
Chapter 6: Sherlock Holmes Gives a Demonstration
Holmes demonstrates his methods to the police, tracing the wooden-legged man and his small companion through chemical analysis, footprints, and the trajectory of a creosote barrel. The trail leads toward the Thames.
POV: Dr John H. Watson·On page: Sherlock Holmes
Chapter 7: The Episode of the Barrel
Holmes traces the wooden-legged man to a boat-builder's yard and identifies the launch they will use to escape. The investigation reveals that the small companion is Tonga, an Andaman Islander - accounting for the bare feet and the poisoned dart.
POV: Dr John H. Watson·On page: Sherlock Holmes, Mary Morstan
Chapter 8: The Baker Street Irregulars
Holmes deploys the Baker Street Irregulars - his network of street children - to search every boatyard on the Thames for the missing launch. Meanwhile Watson accompanies Mary Morstan and finds himself increasingly unable to mention the treasure without feeling it stands between them.
POV: Dr John H. Watson·On page: Sherlock Holmes, Mary Morstan·Mentioned: Mrs Hudson
Chapter 9: A Break in the Chain
The trail goes cold briefly before the Irregulars locate the launch. Holmes charters a police boat for a pursuit down the Thames - one of the great set pieces of the canon.
POV: Dr John H. Watson·On page: Sherlock Holmes, Mary Morstan, Mrs Hudson
Chapter 10: The End of the Islander
The Thames chase. Holmes's boat overtakes the fugitives. Tonga fires a poisoned dart that misses Watson by inches before being shot and killed. Jonathan Small, the wooden-legged man, is captured. The treasure chest is recovered.
POV: Dr John H. Watson·On page: Sherlock Holmes, Jonathan Small, Tonga
Chapter 11: The Great Agra Treasure
The treasure chest is opened - and found empty. Small threw the contents into the Thames rather than let anyone else have it. Watson, relieved that the fortune no longer separates him from Mary Morstan, proposes. She accepts.
POV: Dr John H. Watson·On page: Sherlock Holmes, Mary Morstan
Chapter 12: The Strange Story of Jonathan Small
Jonathan Small tells his story: a soldier in India who lost his leg to a crocodile, fell in with three Sikh confederates, and murdered a servant to steal the Agra treasure during the Indian Mutiny. The four men were imprisoned, the treasure hidden, and Small spent decades pursuing what he considered rightfully his. The Sign of Four was their pact.
POV: Dr John H. Watson·On page: Sherlock Holmes, Mary Morstan