In 1888, Dr. Watson remonstrates with Holmes about his cocaine usage. Holmes claims that his mind "rebels at stagnation", and that he needs a problem to solve in order to stimulate himself.
Miss Mary Morstan then arrives with a case. She explains that, in December 1878, her father, Captain Arthur Morstan, arrived in London, on leave from his post as a convict guard in the Andaman Islands. He requested her to meet him at the Langham Hotel, but was not there when she arrived. Mary contacted Major John Sholto, a retired convict guard who was her father's only friend in London; however, he denied having seen Morstan, and nothing further has been heard of the Captain. Four years later, Mary answered an anonymous newspaper advertisement that said it would be "to her advantage" that she reveal her whereabouts; after replying with her address, Mary received a valuable pearl in the post, a gift repeated once a year for six years. With the sixth pearl, she received a letter asking for a meeting, claiming that she is a "wronged woman".
Holmes takes the case, and soon discovers that Major Sholto had died in 1882; within a week of his death, Mary received the first pearl. The only further clue Mary can give Holmes is a map of a fortress found in her father's desk, appended with the words "The Sign of the Four: Jonathan Small, Mahomet Singh, Abdullah Khan, Dost Akbar," and four small cross-like symbols.
Following the letter's instructions, Holmes, Watson, and Mary go to the Lyceum Theatre; there, they meet a coachman who takes them to the house of Major Sholto's son Thaddeus, the anonymous sender of the pearls. He reveals that Captain Morstan did, in fact, visit Major Sholto, demanding his half of a treasure that Sholto had secretly brought back from India. In the ensuing quarrel, Captain Morstan suffered a heart attack and died, striking his head on the treasure box as he fell. Afraid he would be suspected of murder, Major Sholto buried the body and hid the treasure, leaving out a small gold chaplet studded with twelve pearls. Thaddeus and his twin brother Bartholomew knew nothing of these events, until a letter from India caused their father to faint, and sicken to his death. On his deathbed, he confessed the truth to them; he was about to reveal to them where the treasure was hidden, when a bearded man appeared at the window and the Major died of fear. The brothers tried and failed to catch the intruder; later on, they found a note pinned to the Major's body, which read "The Sign of Four". Thaddeus began sending Mary the pearls to make things right, and the brothers searched for the treasure. Six years later, Bartholomew found and withheld it; Thaddeus then contacted Mary so they could both confront Bartholomew and demand their shares.
23 сен 2024
