The Sign of Four ..................................................................................................................................................1

Arthur Conan Doyle .................................................................................................................................1

Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantel piece, and his hypodermic syringe from its

neat morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle and rolled back his

left shirtcuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearm and wrist, all dotted

and scarred with innumerable puncturemarks. Finally, he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny

piston, and sank back into the velvetlined armchair with a long sigh of satisfaction.

Three times a day for many months I had witnessed this performance, but custom had not reconciled my

mind to it. On the contrary, from day to day I had become more irritable at the sight, and my conscience

swelled nightly within me at the thought that I had lacked the courage to protest. Again and again I had

registered a vow that I should deliver my soul upon the subject; but there was that in the cool, nonchalant air

of my companion which made him the last man with whom one would care to take anything approaching to a

liberty. His great powers, his masterly manner, and the experience which I had had of his many extraor

Yet upon that afternoon, whether it was the Beaune which I had taken with my lunch or the additional

exasperation produced by the extreme deliberation of his manner, I suddenly felt that I could hold out no

He raised his eyes languidly from the old blackletter volume which he had opened.

"No, indeed," I answered brusquely. "My constitution has not got over the Afghan campaign yet. I cannot

He smiled at my vehemence. "Perhaps you are right, Wat son," he said. "I suppose that its influence is

physically a bad one. I find it, however, so transcendently stimulating and clarify ing to the mind that its

"But consider!" I said earnestly. "Count the cost! Your brain may, as you say, be roused and excited, but it is

a pathological and morbid process which involves increased tissuechange and may at least leave a

permanent weakness. You know, too, what a black reaction comes upon you. Surely the game is hardly worth

the candle. Why should you, for a mere passing pleasure, risk the loss of those great powers with which you

have been endowed? Remember that I speak not only as one comrade to another but as a medical man to one

He did not seem offended. On the contrary, he put his finger tips together, and leaned his elbows on the

"My mind," he said, "rebels at stagnation. Give me prob lems, give me work, give me the most abstruse

cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmo sphere. I can dispense then with

artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. That is why I have

chosen my own particular profession, or rather created it, for I am the only one in the world."

"The only unofficial consulting detective," he answered. "I am the last and highest court of appeal in

detection. When Greg son, or Lestrade, or Athelney Jones are out of their depths which, by the way, is

their normal state the matter is laid before me. I examine the data, as an expert, and pronounce a

specialist's opinion. I claim no credit in such cases. My name figures in no newspaper. The work itself, the

pleasure of finding a field for my peculiar powers, is my highest reward. But you have yourself had some

"Yes, indeed," said I cordially. "I was never so struck by anything in my life. I even embodied it in a small

"I glanced over it," said he. "Honestly, I cannot congratulate you upon it. Detection is, or ought to be, an

exact science and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner. You have attempted to tinge it

with romanticism, which produces much the same effect as if you worked a lovestory or an elopement into

"But the romance was there," I remonstrated. "I could not tamper with the facts."

"Some facts should be suppressed, or, at least, a just sense of proportion should be observed in treating them.

The only point in the case which deserved mention was the curious analytical reasoning from effects to

I was annoyed at this criticism of a work which had been specially designed to please him. I confess, too, that

I was irritated by the egotism which seemed to demand that every line of my pamphlet should be devoted to

his own special doings. More than once during the years that I had lived with him in Baker Street I had

observed that a small vanity underlay my companion's quiet and didactic manner. I made no remark however,

but sat nursing my wounded leg. I had had a Jezaii bullet through it some time before, and though it did not

"My practice has extended recently to the Continent," said Holmes after a while, filling up his old brierroot

pipe. "I was consulted last week by Francois le Villard, who, as you probably know, has come rather to the

front lately in the French detective service. He has all the Celtic power of quick intuition but he is deficient in

the wide range of exact knowledge which is essential to the higher developments of his art. The case was

concerned with a will and possessed some features of interest. I was able to refer him to two parallel cases,

the one at Riga in 1857, and the other at St. Louis in 1871, which have suggested to him the true solution.

He tossed over, as he spoke, a crumpled sheet of foreign notepaper. I glanced my eyes down it, catching a

profusion of notes of admiration, with stray magnifiques, coupdemaitres and toursdeforce, all testifying

"Oh, he rates my assistance too highly," said Sherlock Holmes lightly. "He has coosiderable gifts himself. He

possesses two out of the three qualities necessary for the ideal detective. He has the power of observation and

that of deduction. He is only wanting in knowledge, and that may come in time. He is now translating my

"Oh, didn't you know?" he cried, laughing. "Yes, I have been guilty of several monographs. They are all upon

technical subjects. Here, for example, is one 'Upon the Distinction be tween the Ashes of the Various

Tobaccos.' In it I enumerate a hundred and forty forms of cigar, cigarette, and pipe tobacco, with coloured

plates illustrating the difference in the ash. It is a point which is continually turning up in criminal trials, and

which is sometimes of supreme importance as a clue. If you can say definitely, for example, that some

murder had been done by a man who was smoking an Indian lunkah, it obviously narrows your field of

search. To the trained eye there is as much differ ence between the black ash of a Trichinopoly and the

"I appreciate their importance. Here is my monograph upon the tracing of footsteps, with some remarks upon

the uses of plaster of Paris as a preserver of impresses. Here, too, is a curious little work upon the influence of

a trade upon the form of the hand, with lithotypes of the hands of slaters, sailors, cork cutters, compositors,

weavers, and diamondpolishers. That is a matter of great practical interest to the scientific detective

especially in cases of unclaimed bodies, or in discovering the antecedents of criminals. But I weary you with

"Not at all," I answered earnestly. "It is of the greatest interest to me, especially since I have had the

opportunity of observing your practical application of it. But you spoke just now of observation and

"Why, hardly," he answered, leaning back luxuriously in his armchair and sending up thick blue wreaths from

his pipe. "For example, observation shows me that you have been to the Wigmore Street PostOffice this

"Right!" said I. "Right on both points! But I confess that I don't see how you arrived at it. It was a sudden

"It is simplicity itself," he remarked, chuckling at my surprise "so absurdly simple that an explanation is

superfluous; and yet it may serve to define the limits of observation and of deduction. Observation tells me

that you have a little reddish mould adhering to your instep. Just opposite the Wigmore Street Office they

have taken up the pavement and thrown up some earth, which lies in such a way that it is difficult to avoid

treading in it in entering. The earth is of this peculiar reddish tint which is found, as far as I know, nowhere

"Why, of course I knew that you had not written a letter, since I sat opposite to you all morning. I see also in

your open desk there that you have a sheet of stamps and a thick bundle of postcards. What could you go into

the postoffice for, then, but to send a wire? Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be

"In this case it certainly is so," I replied after a little thought. "The thing, however, is, as you say, of the

simplest. Would you think me impertinent if I were to put your theories to a more severe test?"

"On the contrary," he answered, "it would prevent me from taking a second dose of cocaine. I should be

"I have heard you say it is difficult for a man to have any object in daily use without leaving the impress of

his individual ity upon it in such a way that a trained observer might read it. Now, I have here a watch

which has recently come into my possession. Would you have the kindness to let me have an opinion upon

I handed him over the watch with some slight feeling of amusement in my heart, for the test was, as I

thought, an impossible one, and I intended it as a lesson against the some what dogmatic tone which he

occasionally assumed. He balanced the watch in his hand, gazed hard at the dial, opened the back, and

examined the works, first with his naked eyes and then with a powerful convex lens. I could hardly keep from

smiling at his crestfallen face when he finally snapped the case to and handed it back.

"There are hardly any data," he remarked. "The watch has been recently cleaned, which robs me of my most

In my heart I accused my companion of putting forward a most lame and impotent excuse to cover his failure.

"Though unsatisfactory, my research has not been entirely barren," he observed, staring up at the ceiling with

dreamy, lacklustre eyes. "Subject to your correction, I should judge that the watch belonged to your elder

"Quite so. The W. suggests your own name. The date of the watch is nearly fifty years back, and the initials

are as old as the watch: so it was made for the last generation. Jewellery usually descends to the eldest son,

and he is most likely to have the same name as the father. Your father has, if I remember right, been dead

"He was a man of untidy habits very untidy and careless. He was left with good prospects, but he threw

away his chances, lived for some time in poverty with occasional short intervals of prosperity, and finally,

I sprang from my chair and limped impatiently about the room with considerable bitterness in my heart.

"This is unworthy of you, Holmes," I said. "I could not have believed that you would have descended to this.

You have made inquiries into the history of my unhappy brother, and you now pretend to deduce this

knowledge in some fanciful way. You cannot expect me to believe that you have read all this from his old

"My dear doctor," said he kindly, "pray accept my apolo gies. Viewing the matter as an abstract problem, I

had forgotten how personal and painful a thing it might be to you. I assure you, however, that I never even

"Then how in the name of all that is wonderful did you get these facts? They are absolutely correct in every

"Ah, that is good luck. I could only say what was the balance of probability. I did not at all expect to be so

"No, no: I never guess. It is a shocking habit destructive to the logical faculty. What seems strange to you

is only so because you do not follow my train of thought or observe the small facts upon which large

inferences may depend. For example, I began by stating that your brother was careless. When you observe

the lower part of that watchcase you notice that it is not only dinted in two places but it is cut and marked all

over from the habit of keeping other hard objects, such as coins or keys, in the same pocket. Surely it is no

great feat to assume that a man who treats a fiftyguinea watch so cavalierly must be a careless man. Nei

ther is it a very farfetched inference that a man who inherits one article of such value is pretty well provided

"It is very customary for pawnbrokers in England, when they take a watch, to scratch the numbers of the

ticket with a pin point upon the inside of the case. It is more handy than a label as there is no risk of the

number being lost or transposed. There are no less than four such numbers visible to my lens on the inside of

this case. Inference that your brother was often at low water. Secondary inference that he had

occasional bursts of prosper ity, or he could not have redeemed the pledge. Finally, I ask you to look at the

inner plate, which contains the keyhole. Look at the thousands of scratches all round the hole marks where

the key has slipped. What sober man's key could have scored those grooves? But you will never see a

drunkard's watch without them. He winds it at night, and he leaves these traces of his unsteady hand. Where

"It is as clear as daylight," I answered. "I regret the injustice which I did you. I should have had more faith in

your marvellous faculty. May I ask whether you have any professional inquiry on foot at present?"

"None. Hence the cocaine. I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for? Stand at the

window here. Was ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the

street and drifts across the dun coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What

is the use of having powers, Doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them? Crime is

commonplacc, existence is commonplace, and no qualities save those which are commonplace have any

I had opened my mouth to reply to this tirade when, with a crisp knock, our landlady entered, bearing a card

"Miss Mary Morstan," he read. "Hum! I have no recollec tion of the name. Ask the young lady to step up,

Miss Morstan entered the room with a firm step and an outward composure of manner. She was a blonde

young lady, small, dainty, well gloved, and dressed in the most perfect taste. There was, however, a plainness

and simplicity about her costume which bore with it a suggestion of limited means. The dress was a sombre

grayish beige, untrimmed and unbraided, and she wore a small turban of the same dull hue, relieved only by a

suspicion of white feather in the side. Her face had neither regularity of feature nor beauty of complexion, but

her expression was sweet and amiable, and her large blue eyes were singularly spiritual and sympathetic. In

an experience of women which extends over many nations and three separate continents, I have never looked

upon a face which gave a clearer promise of a refined and sensitive nature. I could not but observe that as she

took the seat which Sherlock Holmes placed for her, her lip trembled, her hand quivered, and she showed

"I have come to you, Mr. Holmes," she said,"because you once enabled my employer, Mrs. Cecil Forrester, to

unravel a little domestic complication. She was much impressed by your kindness and skill."

"Mrs. Cecil Forrester," he repeated thoughtfully. "I believe that I was of some slight service to her. The case,

"She did not think so. But at least you cannot say the same of mine. I can hardly imagine anything more

Holmes rubbed his hands, and his eyes glistened. He leaned forward in his chair with an expression of

"If your friend," she said, "would be good enough to stop, he might be of inestimable service to me."

"Briefly," she continued, "the facts are these. My father was an officer in an Indian regiment, who sent me

home when I was quite a child. My mother was dead, and I had no relative in England. I was placed,

however, in a comfortable boarding establishment at Edinburgh, and there I remained until I was seventeen

years of age. In the year 1878 my father, who was senior captain of his regiment, obtained twelve months'

leave and came home. He telegraphed to me from London that he had arrived all safe and directed me to

come down at once, giving the Langham Hotel as his address. His message, as I remember, was full of

kindness and love. On reaching London I drove to the Langham and was informed that Captain Morstan was

staying there, but that he had gone out the night before and had not returned. I waited all day without news of

him. That night, on the advice of the manager of the hotel, I communicated with the police, and next morning

we advertised in all the papers. Our inquiries led to no result; and from that day to this no word has ever been

heard of my unfortunate father. He came home with his heart full of hope to find some peace, some comfort,

"Remained at the hotel. There was nothing in it to suggest a clue some clothes, some books, and a

considerable number of curiosities from the Andaman Islands. He had been one of the officers in charge of

"Only one that we know of Major Sholto, of his own regi ment, the Thirtyfourth Bombay Infantry. The

major had retired some little time before and lived at Upper Norwood. We com municated with him, of

"I have not yet described to you the most singular part. About six years ago to be exact, upon the fourth of

May, 1882 an advertisement appeared in the Times asking for the address of Miss Mary Morstan, and

stating that it would be to her advan tage to come forward. There was no name or address appended. I had at

that time just entered the family of Mrs. Cecil Forrester in the capacity of governess. By her advice I

published my address in the advertisement column. The same day there arrived through the post a small

cardboard box addressed to me, which I found to contain a very large and lustrous pearl. No word of writing

was enclosed. Since then every year upon the same date there has always appeared a similar box, containing a

similar pearl, without any clue as to the sender. They have been pro nounced by an expert to be of a rare

variety and of considerable value. You can see for yourself that they are very hanasome."

She opened a flat box as she spoke and showed me six of the finest pearls that I had ever seen.

"Your statement is most interesting," said Sherlock Holmes. "Has anything else occurred to you?"

"Yes, and no later than today. That is why I have come to you. This morning I received this letter, which

"Thank you," said Holmes. "The envelope, too, please. Postmark, London, S. W. Date, July 7. Hum! Man's

thumb mark on corner probably postman. Best quality paper. Enve lopes at sixpence a packet.

Well, really, this is a very pretty little mystery! What do you intend to do, Miss Morstan?"

"Then we shall most certainly go you and I and yes. why Dr. Watson is the very man. Your

"But would he come?" she asked with something appealing in her voice and expression.

"You are both very kind," she answered. "I have led a retired life and have no friends whom I could appeal to.

"You must not be later," said Holmes. "There. is one other point, however. Is this handwriting the same as

"You are certainly a model client. You have the correct intuition. Let us see, now." He spread out the papers

upon the table and gave little darting glances from one to the other. "They are disguised hands, except the

letter," he said presently; "but there can be no question as to the authorship. See how the irrepressible Greek e

will break out, and see the twirl of the final s. They are undoubtedly by the same person. I should not like to

suggest false hopes, Miss Morstan, but is there any resemblance between this hand and that of your father?"

"I expected to hear you say so. We shall look out for you, then, at six. Pray allow me to keep the papers. I

may look into the matter before then. It is only halfpast three. Au revoir then."

"Au revoir," said our visitor; and with a bright, kindly glance from one to the other of us, she replaced her

Standing at the window, I watched her walking briskly down the street until the gray turban and white feather

He had lit his pipe again and was leaning back with drooping eyelids. "Is she?" he said languidly; "I did not

"You really are an automaton a calculating machine," I cried. "There is something positively inhuman in

"It is of the first importance," he cried, "not to allow your judgment to be biased by personal qualities. A

client is to me a mere unit, a factor in a problem. The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning. I

assure you that the most win ning woman I ever knew was hanged for poisoning three little children for

their insurancemoney, and the most repellent man of my acquaintance is a philanthropist who has spent

"I never make exceptions. An exception disproves the rule. Have you ever had occasion to study character in

"It is legible and regular," I answered. "A man of business habits and some force of character."

"Look at his long letters," he said. "They hardly rise above the common herd. That d might be an a, and that I

an e. Men of character always differentiate their long letters, however illegibly they may write. There is

vacillation in his k's and selfesteem in his capitals. I am going out now. I have some few references to make.

Let me recommend this book one of the most remark able ever penned. It is Winwood Reade's

I sat in the window with the volume in my hand, but my thoughts were far from the daring speculations of the

writer. My mind ran upon our late visitor her smiles, the deep rich tones of her voice, the strange mystery

which overhung her life. If she were seventeen at the time of her father's disappearance she must be

sevenandtwenty now a sweet age, when youth has lost its selfconsciousness and become a little

sobered by experience. So I sat and mused until such dangerous thoughts came into my head that I hurried

away to my desk and plunged furiously into the latest treatise upon pathology. What was I, an army surgeon

with a weak leg and a weaker banking account, that I should dare to think of such things? She was a unit, a

factor nothing more. If my future were black, it was better surely to face it like a man than to attempt to

It was halfpast five before Holmes returned. He was bright, eager, and in excellent spirits, a mood which in

"There is no great mystery in this matter," he said, taking the cup of tea which I had poured out for him; "the

"Well, that would be too much to say. I have discovered a suggestive fact, that is all. It is, however, very

suggestive. The details are still to be added. I have just found, on consulting the back files of the Times, that

Major Sholto, of Upper Norwood, late of the Thirtyfourth Bombay Infantry, died upon the twenty eighth

"No? You surprise me. Look at it in this way, then. Captain Morstan disappears. The only person in London

whom he could have visited is Major Sholto. Major Sholto denies having heard that he was in London. Four

years later Sholto dies. Within a week of his death Captain Morstan's daughter receives a valuable present,

which is repeated from year to year and now culminates in a letter which describes her as a wronged woman.

What wrong can it refer to except this deprivation of her father? And why should the presents begin

immediately after Sholto's death unless it is that Sholto's heir knows something of the mystery and desires to

"But what a strange compensation! And how strangely made! Why, too, should he write a letter now, rather

than six years ago? Again, the letter speaks of giving her justice. What justice can she have? It is too much to

suppose that her father is still alive. There is no other injustice in her case that you know of."

"There are difficulties; there are certainly difficulties," said Sherlock Holmes pensively; "but our expedition

of tonight will solve them all. Ah, here is a fourwheeler, and Miss Morstan is inside. Are you all ready?

I picked up my hat and my heaviest stick, but I observed that Holmes took his revolver from his drawer and

slipped it into his pocket. It was clear that he thought that our night's work might be a serious one.

Miss Morstan was muffled in a dark cloak, and her sensitive face was composed but pale. She must have

been more than woman if she did not feel some uneasiness at the strange enter prise upon which we were

embarking, yet her selfcontrol was perfect, and she readily answered the few additional questions which

"Major Sholto was a very particular friend of Papa's," she said. "His letters were full of allusions to the major.

He and Papa were in command of the troops at the Andaman Islands, so they were thrown a great deal

together. By the way, a curious paper was found in Papa's desk which no one could understand. I don't

suppose that it is of the slightest importance, but I thought you might care to see it, so I brought it with me. It

Holmes unfolded the paper carefully and smoothed it out upon his knee. He then very methodically examined

"It is paper of native Indian manufacture," he remarked. "It has at some time been pinned to a board. The

diagram upon it appears to be a plan of part of a large building with numerous halls, corridors, and passages.

At one point is a small cross done in red ink, and above it is '3.37 from left,' in faded pencil writing. In the

lefthand corner is a curious hieroglyphic like four crosses in a line with their arms touching. Beside it is

written, in very rough and coarse characters, 'The sign of the four Jonathan Small, Mahomet Singh,

Abdullah Khan, Dost Akbar.' No, I confess that I do not see how this bears upon the matter. Yet it is

evidently a document of importance. It has been kept carefully in a pocketbook, for the one side is as clean as

"Preserve it carefully, then, Miss Morstan, for it may prove to be of use to us. I begin to suspect that this

matter may turn out to be much deeper and more subtle than I at first supposed. I must reconsider my ideas."

He leaned back in the cab, and I could see by his drawn brow and his vacant eye that he was thinking

intently. Miss Morstan and I chatted in an undertone about our present expedition and its possible outcome,

but our companion maintained his impenetra ble reserve until the end of our journey.

It was a September evening and not yet seven o'clock, but the day had been a dreary one, and a dense drizzly

fog lay low upon the great city. Mudcoloured clouds drooped sadly over the muddy streets. Down the

Strand the lamps were but misty splotches of diffused light which threw a feeble circular glimmer upon the

slimy pavement. The yellow glare from the shopwindows streamed out into the steamy, vaporous air and

threw a murky, shifting radiance across the crowded thoroughfare. There was, to my mind, something eerie

and ghostlike in the endless procession of faces which flitted across these narrow bars of light sad faces

and glad, haggard and merry. Like all humankind, they flitted from the gloom into the light and so back into

the gloom once more. I am not subject to impressions, but the dull, heavy evening, with the strange business

upon which we were engaged, combined to make me nervous and depressed. I could see from Miss Morstan's

manner that she was suffering from the same feeling. Holmes alone could rise superior to petty influences. He

held his open notebook upon his knee, and from time to time he jotted down figures and memoranda in the

At the Lyceum Theatre the crowds were already thick at the sideentrances. In front a continuous stream of

hansoms and fourwheelers were rattling up, discharging their cargoes of shirt fronted men and beshawled,

bediamonded women. We had hardly reached the third pillar, which was our rendezvous, before a small,

"You will excuse me, miss," he said with a certain dogged manner, "but I was to ask you to give me your

He gave a shrill whistle, on which a street Arab led across a fourwheeler and opened the door. The man who

had addressed us mounted to the box, while we took our places inside. We had hardly done so before the

driver whipped up his horse, and we plunged away at a furious pace through the foggy streets.

The situation was a curious one. We were driving to an unknown place, on an unknown errand. Yet our

invitation was either a complete hoax which was an inconceivable hypothesis or else we had good

reason to think that important issues might hang upon our journey. Miss Morstan's demeanour was as reso

lute and collected as ever. I endeavoured to cheer and amuse her by reminiscences of my adventures in

Afghanistan; but, to tell the truth, I was myself so excited at our situation and so curious as to our destination

that my stories were slightly involved. To this day she declares that I told her one moving anecdote as to how

a musket looked into my tent at the dead of night, and how I fired a doublebarrelled tiger cub at it. At first I

had some idea as to the direction in which we were driving; but soon, what with our pace, the fog, and my

own limited knowledge of London, I lost my bearings and knew nothing save that we seemed to be going a

very long way. Sherlock Holmes was never at fault, however, and he muttered the names as the cab rattled

"Rochester Row," said he. "Now Vincent Square. Now we come out on the Vauxhall Bridge Road. We are

making for the Surrey side apparently. Yes, I thought so. Now we are on the bridge. You can catch glimpses

We did indeed get a fleeting view of a stretch of the Thames, with the lamps shining upon the broad, silent

water; but our cab dashed on and was soon involved in a labyrinth of streets upon the other side.

"Wordsworth Road," said my companion. "Priory Road. Lark Hall Lane. Stockwell Place. Robert Street.

Cold Harbour Lane. Our quest does not appear to take us to very fashionable regions."

We had indeed reached a questionable and forbidding neigh bourhood. Long lines of dull brick houses were

only relieved by the coarse glare and tawdry brilliancy of publichouses at the corner. Then came rows of

twostoried villas, each with a front ing of miniature garden, and then again interminable lines of new,

staring brick buildings the monster tentacles which the giant city was throwing out into the country. At

last the cab drew up at the third house in a new terrace. None of the other houses were inhabited, and that at

which we stopped was as dark as its neighbours, save for a single glimmer in the kitchenwindow. On our

knocking, however, the door was instantly thrown open by a Hindoo servant, clad in a yellow turban, white

loosefitting clothes, and a yellow sash. There was something strangely in congruous in this Oriental figure

"The sahib awaits you," said he, and even as he spoke, there came a high, piping voice from some inner

We followed the Indian down a sordid and common passage, illlit and worse furnished, until he came to a

door upon the right, which he threw open. A blaze of yellow light streamed out upon us, and in the centre of

the glare there stood a small man with a very high head, a bristle of red hair all round the fringe of it, and a

bald, shining scalp which shot out from among it like a mountainpeak from firtrees. He writhed his hands

together as he stood, and his features were in a perpetual jerk now smiling, now scowling, but never for an

instant in repose. Nature had given him a pendulous lip, and a too visible line of yellow and irregular teeth,

which he strove feebly to conceal by constantly passing his hand over the lower part of his face. In spite of

his obtrusive baldness he gave the impression of youth. In point of fact, he had just turned his thirtieth year.

"Your servant, Miss Morstan," he kept repeating in a thin, high voice. "Your servant, gentlemen. Pray step

into my little sanctum. A small place, miss, but furnished to my own liking. An oasis of art in the howling

We were all astonished by the appearance of the apartment into which he invited us. In that sorry house it

looked as out of place as a diamond of the first water in a setting of brass. The richest and glossiest of

curtains and tapestries draped the walls, looped back here and there to expose some richly mounted painting

or Oriental vase. The carpet was of amber and black, so soft and so thick that the foot sank pleasantly into it,

as into a bed of moss. Two great tigerskins thrown athwart it increased the suggestion of Eastern luxury, as

did a huge hookah which stood upon a mat in the corner. A lamp in the fashion of a silver dove was hung

from an almost invisible golden wire in the centre of the room. As it burned it filled the air with a subtle and

"Mr. Thaddeus Sholto," said the little man, still jerking and smiling. "That is my name. You are Miss

"A doctor, eh?" cried he, much excited. "Have you your stethoscope? Might I ask you would you have the

kindness? I have grave doubts as to my mitral valve, if you would be so very good. The aortic I may rely

I listened to his heart, as requested, but was unable to find anything amiss, save, indeed, that he was in an

"You will excuse my anxiety, Miss Morstan," he remarked airily. "I am a great sufferer, and I have long had

suspicions as to that valve. I am delighted to hear that they are unwarranted. Had your father, Miss Morstan,

I could have struck the man across the face, so hot was I at this callous and offhand reference to so delicate a

"I can give you every information," said he; "and, what is more, I can do you justice; and I will, too, whatever

Brother Bartholomew may say. I am so glad to have your friends here not only as an escort to you but also as

witnesses to what I am about to do and say. The three of us can show a bold front to Brother Bartholomew.

But let us have no outsiders no police or officials. We can settle everything satisfactorily among ourselves

without any interference. Nothing would annoy Brother Bart holomew more than any publicity."

He sat down upon a low settee and blinked at us inquiringly with his weak, watery blue eyes.

"For my part," said Holmes, "whatever you may choose to say will go no further."

"That is well! That is well" said he. "May I offer you a glass of Chianti, Miss Morstan? Or of Tokay? I keep

no other wines. Shall I open a flask? No? Well, then, I trust that you have no objection to tobaccosmoke, to

the balsamic odour of the Eastern tobacco. I am a little nervous, and I find my hookah an invaluable

He applied a taper to the great bowl, and the smoke bubbled merrily through the rosewater. We sat all three

in a semicircle, with our heads advanced and our chins upon our hands, while the strange, jerky little fellow,

"When I first determined to make this communication to you," said he, "I might have given you my address;

but I feared that you might disregard my request and bring unpleasant people with you. I took the liberty,

therefore, of making an appointment in such a way that my man Williams might be able to see you first. I

have complete confidence in his discretion, and he had orders, if he were dissatisfied, to proceed no further in

the matter. You will excuse these precautions, but I am a man of somewhat retiring, and I might even say

refined, tastes, and there is nothing more unaesthetic than a policeman. I have a natural shrinking from all

forms of rough materialism. I seldom come in contact with the rough crowd. I live, as you see, with some

little atmosphere of elegance around me. I may call myself a patron of the arts. It is my weakness. The

landscape is a genuine Corot, and though a connoisseur might perhaps throw a doubt upon that Salvator

Rosa, there cannot be the least question about the Bouguereau. I am partial to the modern French school."

"You will excuse me, Mr. Sholto," said Miss Morstan, "but I am here at your request to learn something

which you desire to tell me. It is very late, and I should desire the interview to be as short as possible."

"At the best it must take some time," he answered; "for we shall certainly have to go to Norwood and see

Brother Barth olomew. We shall all go and try if we can get the better of Brother Bartholomew. He is very

angry with me for taking the course which has seemed right to me. I had quite high words with him last night.

"If we are to go to Norwood, it would perhaps be as well to start at once," I ventured to remark.

"That would hardly do," he cried. "I don't know what he would say if I brought you in that sudden way. No, I

must prepare you by showing you how we all stand to each other. In the first place, I must tell you that there

are several points in the story of which I am myself ignorant. I can only lay the facts before you as far as I

"My father was, as you may have guessed, Major John Sholto, once of the Indian Army. He retired some

eleven years ago and came to live at Pondicherry Lodge in Upper Norwood. He had prospered in India and

brought back with him a con siderable sum of money, a large collection of valuable curiosi ties, and a staff

of native servants. With these advantages he bought himself a house, and lived in great luxury. My twin

"I very well remember the sensation which was caused by the disappearance of Captain Morstan. We read the

details in the papers, and knowing that he had been a friend of our father's we discussed the case freely in his

presence. He used to join in our speculations as to what could have happened. Never for an instant did we

suspect that he had the whole secret hidden in his own breast, that of all men he alone knew the fate of Arthur

"We did know, however, that some mystery, some positive danger, overhung our father. He was very fearful

of going out alone, and he always employed two prizefighters to act as porters at Pondicherry Lodge.

Williams, who drove you tonight, was one of them. He was once lightweight champion of En gland. Our

father would never tell us what it was he feared, but he had a most marked aversion to men with wooden legs.

On one occasion he actually fired his revolver at a woodenlegged man, who proved to be a harmless

tradesman canvassing for orders. We had to pay a large sum to hush the matter up. My brother and I used to

think this a mere whim of my father's, but events have since led us to change our opinion.

"Early in 1882 my father received a letter from India which was a great shock to him. He nearly fainted at the

breakfasttable when he opened it, and from that day he sickened to his death. What was in the letter we

could never discover, but I could see as he held it that it was short and written in a scrawling hand. He had

suffered for years from an enlarged spleen, but he now became rapidly worse, and towards the end of April

we were informed that he was beyond all hope, and that he wished to make a last communication to us.

"When we entered his room he was propped up with pillows and breathing heavily. He besought us to lock

the door and to come upon either side of the bed. Then grasping our hands he made a remarkable statement to

us in a voice which was broken as much by emotion as by pain. I shall try and give it to you in his own very

" 'I have only one thing,' he said, 'which weighs upon my mind at this supreme moment. It is my treatment of

poor Morstan's orphan. The cursed greed which has been my besetting sin through life has withheld from her

the treasure, half at least of which should have been hers. And yet I have made no use of it myself, so blind

and foolish a thing is avarice. The mere feeling of possession has been so dear to me that I could not bear to

share it with another. See that chaplet tipped with pearls beside the quininebottle. Even that I could not bear

to part with, although I had got it out with the design of sending it to her. You, my sons, will give her a fair

share of the Agra treasure. But send her nothing not even the chaplet until I am gone. After all, men

" 'I will tell you how Morstan died,' he continued. 'He had suffered for years from a weak heart, but he

concealed it from every one. I alone knew it. When in India, he and I, through a remarkable chain of

circumstances, came into possession of a considerable treasure. I brought it over to England, and on the night

of Morstan's arrival he came straight over here to claim his share. He walked over from the station and was

admitted by my faithful old Lal Chowdar, who is now dead. Morstan and I had a difference of opinion as to

the division of the treasure, and we came to heated words. Morstan had sprung out of his chair in a paroxysm

of anger, when he suddenly pressed his hand to his side, his face turned a dusky hue, and he fell backward,

cutting his head against the corner of the treasurechest. When I stooped over him I found, to my horror, that

" 'For a long time I sat half distracted, wondering what I should do. My first impulse was, of course, to call

for assis tance; but I could not but recognize that there was every chance that I would be accused of his

murder. His death at the moment of a quarrel, and the gash in his head, would be black against me. Again, an

official inquiry could not be made without bring ing out some facts about the treasure, which I was

particularly anxious to keep secret. He had told me that no soul upon earth knew where he had gone. There

" 'I was still pondering over the matter, when, looking up, I saw my servant, Lal Chowdar, in the doorway.

He stole in and bolted the door behind him. "Do not fear, sahib," he said; "no one need know that you have

killed him. Let us hide him away, and who is the wiser?" "I did not kill him," said I. Lal Chowdar shook his

head and smiled. "I heard it all, sahib," said he; "l heard you quarrel, and I heard the blow. But my lips are

sealed. All are asleep in the house. Let us put him away to gether." That was enough to decide me. If my

own servant could not believe my innocence, how could I hope to make it good before twelve foolish

tradesmen in a jurybox? Lal Chowdar and I disposed of the body that night, and within a few days the

London papers were full of the mysterious disappearance of Captain Morstan. You will see from what I say

that l can hardly be blamed in the matter. My fault lies in the fact that we concealed not only the body but

also the treasure and that I have clung to Morstan's share as well as to my own. I wish you, therefore, to make

"At this instant a horrible change came over his expression; his eyes stared wildly, his jaw dropped, and he

yelled in a voice which I can never forget, 'Keep him out! For Christ's sake keep him out!' We both stared

round at the window behind us upon which his gaze was fixed. A face was looking in at us out of the

darkness. We could see the whitening of the nose where it was pressed against the glass. It was a bearded,

hairy face, with wild cruel eyes and an expression of concentrated malevolence. My brother and I rushed

towards the window, but the man was gone. When we returned to my father his head had dropped and his

"We searched the garden that night but found no sign of the intruder save that just under the window a single

footmark was visible in the flowerbed. But for that one trace, we might have thought that our imaginations

had conjured up that wild, fierce face. We soon, however, had another and a more striking proof that there

were secret agencies at work all round us. The window of my father's room was found open in the morning,

his cup boards and boxes had been rifled, and upon his chest was fixed a torn piece of paper with the words

'The sign of the four' scrawled across it. What the phrase meant or who our secret visitor may have been, we

never knew. As far as we can judge, none of my father's property had been actually stolen, though everything

had been turned out. My brother and I naturally associated this peculiar incident with the fear which haunted

The little man stopped to relight his hookah and puffed thought fully for a few moments. We had all sat

absorbed, listening to his extraordinary narrative. At the short account of her father's death Miss Morstan had

turned deadly white, and for a moment I feared that she was about to faint. She rallied, however, on drinking

a glass of water which I quietly poured out for her from a Venetian carafe upon the sidetable. Sherlock

Holmes leaned back in his chair with an abstracted expression and the lids drawn low over his glittering eyes.

As I glanced at him I could not but think how on that very day he had complained bitterly of the

commonplaceness of life. Here at least was a problem which would tax his sagacity to the utmost. Mr.

Thaddeus Sholto looked from one to the other of us with an obvious pride at the effect which his story had

"My brother and I," said he, "were, as you may imagine, much excited as to the treasure which my father had

spoken of. For weeks and for months we dug and delved in every part of the garden without discovering its

whereabouts. It was maddening to think that the hidingplace was on his very lips at the moment that he

died. We could judge the splendour of the missing riches by the chaplet which he had taken out. Over this

chaplet my brother Bartholomew and I had some little discussion. The pearls were evidently of great value,

and he was averse to part with them, for, between friends, my brother was himself a little inclined to my

father's fault. He thought, too, that if we parted with the chaplet it might give rise to gossip and finally bring

us into trouble. It was all that I could do to persuade him to let me find out Miss Morstan's address and send

her a detached pearl at fixed intervals so that at least she might never feel destitute."

"It was a kindly thought," said our companion earnestly; "it was extremely good of you."

"We were your trustees," he said; "that was the view which I took of it, though Brother Bartholomew could

not altogether see it in that light. We had plenty of money ourselves. I desired no more. Besides, it would

have been such bad taste to have treated a young lady in so scurvy a fashion. 'Le mauvais godt mene au

crime.' The French have a very neat way of putting these things. Our difference of opinion on this subject

went so far that I thought it best to set up rooms for myself; so I left Pondicherry Lodge, taking the old

khitmutgar and Williams with me. Yester day, however, I learned that an event of extreme importance has

occurred. The treasure has been discovered. I instantly commu nicated with Miss Morstan, and it only

remains for us to drive out to Norwood and demand our share. I explained my views last night to Brother

Mr. Thaddeus Sholto ceased and sat twitching on his luxurious settee. We all remained silent, with our

thoughts upon the new development which the mysterious business had taken. Holmes was the first to spring

"You have done well, sir, from first to last," said he. "It is possible that we may be able to make you some

small return by throwing some light upon that which is still dark to you. But, as Miss Morstan remarked just

Our new acquaintance very deliberately coiled up the tube of his hookah and produced from behind a curtain

a very long befrogged topcoat with astrakhan collar and cuffs. This he but toned tightly up in spite of the

extreme closeness of the night and finished his attire by putting on a rabbitskin cap with hanging lappets

which covered the ears, so that no part of him was visible save his mobile and peaky face.

"My health is somewhat fragile," he remarked as he led the way down the passage. "I am compelled to be a

Our cab was awaiting us outside, and our programme was evidently prearranged, for the driver started off at

once at a rapid pace. Thaddeus Sholto talked incessantly in a voice which rose high above the rattle of the

"Bartholomew is a clever fellow," said he. "How do you think he found out where the treasure was? He had

come to the conclusion that it was somewhere indoors, so he worked out all the cubic space of the house and

made measurements everywhere so that not one inch should be unaccounted for. Among other things, he

found that the height of the building was seventyfour feet, but on adding together the heights of all the

separate rooms and making every allowance for the space between, which he ascertained by borings, he could

not bring the total to more than seventy feet. There were four feet unaccounted for. These could only be at the

top of the building. He knocked a hole, therefore, in the lath and plaster ceiling of the highest room, and

there, sure enough, he came upon another little garret above it, which had been sealed up and was known to

no one. In the centre stood the treasurechest resting upon two rafters. He lowered it through the hole, and

there it lies. He computes the value of the jewels at not less than half a million sterling."

At the mention of this gigantic sum we all stared at one another openeyed. Miss Morstan, could we secure

her rights, would change from a needy governess to the richest heiress in England. Surely it was the place of

a loyal friend to rejoice at such news, yet I am ashamed to say that selfishness took me by the soul and that

my heart turned as heavy as lead within me. I stammered out some few halting words of congratulation and

then sat downcast, with my head drooped, deaf to the babble of our new acquaintance. He was clearly a

confirmed hypochondriac, and I was dreamily conscious that he was pouring forth intermi nable trains of

symptoms, and imploring information as to the composition and action of innumerable quack nostrums, some

of which he bore about in a leather case in his pocket. I trust that he may not remember any of the answers

which I gave him that night. Holmes declares that he overheard me caution him against the great danger of

taking more than two drops of castoroil, while I recommended strychnine in large doses as a sedative.

However that may be, I was certainly relieved when our cab pulled up with a jerk and the coachman sprang

"This, Miss Morstan, is Pondicherry Lodge," said Mr. Thad deus Sholto as he handed her out.

It was nearly eleven o'clock when we reached this final stage of our night's adventures. We had left the damp

fog of the great city behind us, and the night was fairly fine. A warm wind blew from the westward, and

heavy clouds moved slowly across the sky, with half a moon peeping occasionally through the rifts. It was

clear enough to see for some distance, but Thaddeus Sholto took down one of the sidelamps from the carriage

Pondicherry Lodge stood in its own grounds and was girt round with a very high stone wall topped with

broken glass. A single narrow ironclamped door formed the only means of entrance. On this our guide

There was a grumbling sound and a clanking and jarring of keys. The door swung heavily back, and a short,

deepchested man stood in the opening, with the yellow light of the lantern shining upon his protruded face

"That you, Mr. Thaddeus? But who are the others? I had no orders about them from the master."

"No, McMurdo? You surprise me! I told my brother last night that I should bring some friends."

"He hain't been out o' his rooms today, Mr. Thaddeus, and I have no orders. You know very well that I must

stick to regula tions. I can let you in, but your friends they must just stop where they are."

This was an unexpected obstacle. Thaddeus Sholto looked about him in a perplexed and helpless manner.

"This is too bad of you, McMurdo!" he said. "If I guarantee them, that is enough for you. There is the young

"Very sorry, Mr. Thaddeus," said the porter inexorably. "Folk may be friends o' yours, and yet no friend o' the

master's. He pays me well to do my duty, and my duty I'll do. I don't know none o' your friends."

"Oh, yes you do, McMurdo," cried Sherlock Holmes ge nially. "I don't think you can have forgotten me.

Don't you remember that amateur who fought three rounds with you at Alison's rooms on the night of your

"Not Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" roared the prizefighter. "God's truth! how could I have mistook you? If instead

o' standin' there so quiet you had just stepped up and given me that crosshit of yours under the jaw, I'd ha'

known you without a question. Ah, you're one that has wasted your gifts, you have! You might have aimed

"You see, Watson, if all else fails me, I have still one of the scientific professions open to me," said Holmes,

"In you come, sir, in you come you and your friends," he answered. "Very sorry, Mr. Thaddeus, but orders

Inside, a gravel path wound through desolate grounds to a huge clump of a house, square and prosaic, all

plunged in shadow save where a moonbeam struck one corner and glim mered in a garret window. The vast

size of the building, with its gloom and its deathly silence, struck a chill to the heart. Even Thaddeus Sholto

"I cannot understand it," he said. "There must be some mistake. I distinctly told Bartholomew that we should

be here, and yet there is no light in his window. I do not know what to make of it."

"Yes; he has followed my father's custom. He was the fa vourite son you know, and I sometimes think that

my father may have told him more than he ever told me. That is Bartholomew's window up there where the

moonshine strikes. It is quite bright, but there is no light from within, I think."

"None," said Holmes. "But I see the glint of a light in that little window beside the door."

"Ah, that is the housekeeper's room. That is where old Mrs. Bernstone sits. She can tell us all about it. But

perhaps you would not mind waiting here for a minute or two, for if we all go in together, and she has had no

He held up the lantern, and his hand shook until the circles of light flickered and wavered all round us. Miss

Morstan seized my wrist, and we all stood, with thumping hearts, straining our ears. From the great black

house there sounded through the silent night the saddest and most pitiful of sounds the shrill, broken

"It is Mrs. Bernstone," said Sholto. "She is the only woman in the house. Wait here. I shall be back in a

He hurried, for the door and knocked in his peculiar way. We could see a tall old woman admit him and sway

"Oh, Mr. Thaddeus, sir, I am so glad you have come! I am so glad you have come, Mr. Thaddeus, sir!"

We heard her reiterated rejoicings until the door was closed and her voice died away into a muffled

Our guide had left us the lantern. Holmes swung it slowly round and peered keenly at the house and at the

great rubbish heaps which cumbered the grounds. Miss Morstan and I stood together, and her hand was in

mine. A wondrous subtle thing is love, for here were we two, who had never seen each other before that day,

between whom no word or even look of affec tion had ever passed, and yet now in an hour of trouble our

hands instinctively sought for each other. I have marvelled at it since, but at the time it seemed the most

natural thing that I should go out to her so, and, as she has often told me, there was in her also the instinct to

turn to me for comfort and protection. So we stood hand in hand like two children, and there was peace in our

"It looks as though all the moles in England had been let loose in it. I have seen something of the sort on the

"And from the same cause," said Holmes. "These are the traces of the treasureseekers. You must remember

that they were six years looking for it. No wonder that the grounds look like a gravelpit. "

At that moment the door of the house burst open, and Thad deus Sholto came running out, with his hands

"There is something amiss with Bartholomew!" he cried. "I am frightened! My nerves cannot stand it."

He was, indeed, half blubbering with fear, and his twitching, feeble face peeping out from the great astrakhan

"Yes, do!" pleaded Thaddeus Sholto. "I really do not feel equal to giving directions."

We all followed him into the housekeeper's room, which stood upon the lefthand side of the passage. The old

woman was pacing up and down with a scared look and restless, picking fingers, but the sight of Miss

"God bless your sweet, calm face!" she cried with a hysteri cal sob. "It does me good to see you. Oh, but I

Our companion patted her thin, workworn hand and mur mured some few words of kindly, womanly

"Master has locked himself in and will not answer me," she explained. "All day I have waited to hear from

him, for he often likes to be alone but an hour ago I feared that something was amiss, so I went up and

peeped through the keyhole. You must go up, Mr. Thaddeus you must go up and look for yourself. I have

seen Mr. Bartholomew Sholto in joy and in sorrow for ten long years, but I never saw him with such a face

Sherlock Holmes took the lamp and led the way, for Thaddeus Sholto's teeth were chattering in his head. So

shaken was he that I had to pass my hand under his arm as we went up the stairs, for his knees were trembling

under him. Twice as we ascended, Holmes whipped his lens out of his pocket and carefully exam ined

marks which appeared to me to be mere shapeless smudges of dust upon the cocoanutmatting which served

as a staircarpet. He walked slowly from step to step, holding the lamp low, and shooting keen glances to

right and left. Miss Morstan had re mained behind with the frightened housekeeper.

The third flight of stairs ended in a straight passage of some length, with a great picture in Indian tapestry

upon the right of it and three doors upon the left. Holmes advanced along it in the same slow and methodical

way, while we kept close at his heels, with our long black shadows streaming backward down the corridor.

The third door was that which we were seeking. Holmes knocked without receiving any answer, and then

tried to turn the handle and force it open. It was locked on the inside, however, and by a broad and powerful

bolt, as we could see when we set our lamp up against it. The key being turned, however, the hole was not

entirely closed. Sherlock Holmes bent down to it and instantly rose again with a sharp intaking of the breath.

"There is something devilish in this, Watson," said he, more moved than I had ever before seen him. "What

I stooped to the hole and recoiled in horror. Moonlight was streaming into the room, and it was bright with a

vague and shifty radiance. Looking straight at me and suspended, as it were, in the air, for all beneath was in

shadow, there hung a face the very face of our companion Thaddeus. There was the same high, shining

head, the same circular bristle of red hair, the same bloodless countenance. The features were set, however, in

a horrible smile, a fixed and unnatural grin, which in that still and moonlit room was more jarring to the

nerves than any scowl or contortion. So like was the face to that of our little friend that I looked round at him

to make sure that he was indeed with us. Then I recalled to mind that he had mentioned to us that his brother

"The door must come down," he answered, and springing against it, he put all his weight upon the lock.

It creaked and groaned but did not yield. Together we flung ourselves upon it once more, and this time it gave

way with a sudden snap, and we found ourselves within Bartholomew Sholto's chamber.

It appeared to have been fitted up as a chemical laboratory. A double line of glassstoppered bottles was

drawn up upon the wall opposite the door, and the table was littered over with Bunsen burners, testtubes,

and retorts. In the corners stood carboys of acid in wicker baskets. One of these appeared to leak or to have

been broken, for a stream of darkcoloured liquid had trickled out from it, and the air was heavy with a

peculiarly pungent, tarlike odour. A set of steps stood at one side of the room in the midst of a litter of lath

and plaster, and above them there was an opening in the ceiling large enough for a man to pass through. At

By the table in a wooden armchair the master of the house was seated all in a heap, with his head sunk upon

his left shoulder and that ghastly, inscrutable smile upon his face. He was stiff and cold and had clearly been

dead many hours. It seemed to me that not only his features but all his limbs were twisted and turned in the

most fantastic fashion. By his hand upon the table there lay a peculiar instrument a brown, closegrained

stick, with a stone head like a hammer, rudely lashed on with coarse twine. Beside it was a torn sheet of

notepaper with some words scrawled upon it. Holmes glanced at it and then handed it to me.

In the light of the lantern I read with a thrill of horror, "The sign of the four."

"It means murder," said he, stooping over the dead man. "Ah! I expected it. Look here!"

He pointed to what looked like a long dark thorn stuck in the skin just above the ear.

I took it up between my finger and thumb. It came away from the skin so readily that hardly any mark was

"This is all an insoluble mystery to me," said I. "It grows darker instead of clearer."

"On the contrary," he answered, "it clears every instant. I only require a few missing links to have an entirely

We had almost forgotten our companion's presence since we entered the chamber. He was still standing in the

doorway, the very picture of terror, wringing his hands and moaning to him self. Suddenly, however, he

"The treasure is gone!" he said. "They have robbed him of the treasure! There is the hole through which we

lowered it. I helped him to do it! I was the last person who saw him! I left him here last night, and I heard him

"It was ten o'clock. And now he is dead, and the police will be called in, and I shall be suspected of having

had a hand in it. Oh, yes, I am sure I shall. But you don't think so, gentlemen? Surely you don't think that it

was l? Is it likely that I would have brought you here if it were l? Oh, dear! oh, dear! I know that I shall go

"You have no reason for fear, Mr. Sholto," said Holmes kindly, putting his hand upon his shoulder; "take my

advice and drive down to the station to report the matter to the police. Offer to assist them in every way. We

The little man obeyed in a halfstupefied fashion, and we heard him stumbling down the stairs in the dark.

"Now, Watson," said Holmes, rubbing his hands, "we have half an hour to ourselves. Let us make good use

of it. My case is, as I have told you, almost complete; but we must not err on the side of overconfidence.

"Surely," said he with something of the air of a clinical professor expounding to his class. "Just sit in the

corner there, that your footprints may not complicate matters. Now to work! In the first place, how did these

folk come and how did they go? The door has not been opened since last night. How of the window?" He

carried the lamp across to it, muttering his obser vations aloud the while but addressing them to himself

rather than to me. "Window is snibbed on the inner side. Framework is solid. No hinges at the side. Let us

open it. No waterpipe near. Roof quite out of reach. Yet a man has mounted by the window. It rained a little

last night. Here is the print of a foot in mould upon the sill. And here is a circular muddy mark, and here

again upon the floor, and here again by the table. See bere, Watson! This is really a very pretty

"It is something much more valuable to us. It is the impres sion of a wooden stump. You see here on the sill

is the boot mark, a heavy boot with a broad metal heel, and beside it is the mark of the timbertoe."

"Quite so. But there has been someone else a very able and efficient ally. Could you scale that wall,

I looked out of the open window. The moon still shone brightiy on that angle of the house. We were a good

sixty feet from the ground, and, look where I would, I could see no foothold, nor as much as a crevice in the

"Without aid it is so. But suppose you had a friend up here who lowered you this good stout rope which I see

in the corner, securing one end of it to this great hook in the wall. Then, I think, if you were an active man,

you might swarm up, wooden leg and all. You would depart, of course, in the same fashion, and your ally

would draw up the rope, untie it from the hook, shut the window, snib it on the inside, and get away in the

way that he originally came. As a minor point, it may be noted," he continued, fingering the rope, "that our

woodenlegged friend, though a fair climber, was not a professional sailor. His hands were far from horny.

My lens discloses more than one blood mark, especially towards the end of the rope, from which I gather

"This is all very well," said I; "but the thing becomes more unintelligible than ever. How about this

"Yes, the ally!" repeated Holmes pensively. "There are fea tures of interest about this ally. He lifts the case

from the regions of the commonplace. I fancy that this ally breaks fresh ground in the annals of crime in this

country though parallel cases sug gest themselves from India and, if my memory serves me, from

"How came he, then?" I reiterated. "The door is locked; the window is inaccessible. Was it through the

"The grate is much too small," he answered. "I had already considered that possibility."

"You will not apply my precept," he said, shaking his head. "How often have I said to you that when you

have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? We know that he

did not come through the door, the window, or the chimney. We also know that he could not have been

concealed in the room, as there is no concealment possible. When, then, did he come?"

"Of course he did. He must have done so. If you will have the kindness to hold the lamp for me, we shall now

extend our researches to the room above the secret room in which the treasure was found."

He mounted the steps, and, seizing a rafter with either hand, he swung himself up into the garret. Then, lying

The chamber in which we found ourselves was about ten feet one way and six the other. The floor was

formed by the rafters, with thin lath and plaster between, so that in walking one had to step from beam to

beam. The roof ran up to an apex and was evidently the inner shell of the true roof of the house. There was no

furniture of any sort, and the accumulated dust of years lay thick upon the floor.

"Here you are, you see," said Sherlock Holmes, putting his hand against the sloping wall. "This is a trapdoor

which leads out on to the roof. I can press it back, and here is the roof itself, sloping at a gentle angle. This,

then, is the way by which Number One entered. Let us see if we can find some other traces of his

He held down the lamp to the floor, and as he did so I saw for the second time that night a startled, surprised

look come over his face. For myself, as I followed his gaze, my skin was cold under my clothes. The floor

was covered thickly with the prints of a naked foot clear, welldefined, perfectly formed, but scarce half

"I was staggered for the moment," he said, "but the thing is quite natural. My memory failed me, or I should

have been able to foretell it. There is nothing more to be learned here. Let us go down."

"What is your theory, then, as to those footmarks?" I asked eagerly when we had regained the lower room

"My dear Watson, try a little analysis yourself," said he with a touch of impatience. "You know my methods.

"It will be clear enough to you soon," he said, in an offhand way. "I think that there is nothing else of

He whipped out his lens and a tape measure and hurried about the room on his knees, measuring, comparing,

examining, with his long thin nose only a few inches from the planks and his beady eyes gleaming and

deepset like those of a bird. So swift, silent, and furtive were his movements, like those of a trained

bloodhound picking out a scent, that I could not but think what a terrible criminal he would have made had he

turned his energy and sagacity against the law instead of exerting them in its defence. As he hunted about, he

kept muttering to himself, and finally he broke out into a loud crow of delight.

"We are certainly in luck," said he. "We ought to have very little trouble now. Number One has had the

misfortune to tread in the creosote. You can see the outline of the edge of his small foot here at the side of

this evilsmelling mess. The carboy has been cracked, you see, and the stuff has leaked out."

"I know a dog that would follow that scent to the world's end. If a pack can track a trailed herring across a

shire, how far can a specially trained hound follow so pungent a smell as this? It sounds like a sum in the rule

of three. The answer should give us the But hallo! here are the accredited representatives of the law."

Heavy steps and the clamour of loud voices were audible from below, and the hall door shut with a loud

"Before they come," said Holmes, "just put your hand here on this poor fellow's arm, and here on his leg.

"Quite so. They are in a state of extreme contraction, far exceeding the usual rigor mortis. Coupled with this

distortion of the face, this Hippocratic smile, or 'risus sardonicus,' as the old writers called it, what conclusion

"Death from some powerful vegetable alkaloid," I answered, "some strychninelike substance which would

"That was the idea which occurred to me the instant I saw the drawn muscles of the face. On getting into the

room I at once looked for the means by which the poison had entered the system. As you saw, I discovered a

thorn which had been driven or shot with no great force into the scalp. You observe that the part struck was

that which would be turned towards the hole in the ceiling if the man were erect in his chair. Now examine

I took it up gingerly and held it in the light of the lantern. It was long, sharp, and black, with a glazed look

near the point as though some gummy substance had dried upon it. The blunt end had been trimmed and

"With all these data you should be able to draw some just inference. But here are the regulars, so the auxiliary

As he spoke, the steps which had been coming nearer sounded loudly on the passage, and a very stout, portly

man in a gray suit strode heavily into the room. He was redfaced, burly, and plethoric, with a pair of very

small twinkling eyes which looked keenly out from between swollen and puffy pouches. He was closely

followed by an inspector in uniform and by the still palpitating Thaddeus Sholto.

"Here's a business!" he cried in a muffled, husky voice. "Here's a pretty business! But who are all these?

"Why, of course I do!" he wheezed. "It's Mr. Sherlock Holmes, the theorist. Remember you! I'll never forget

how you lectured us all on causes and inferences and effects in the Bishopgate jewel case. It's true you set us

on the right track; but you'll own now that it was more by good luck than good guidance."

"Oh, come, now, come! Never be ashamed to own up. But what is all this? Bad business! Bad business! Stern

facts here no room for theories. How lucky that I happened to be out at Norwood over another case! I was

"No, no. Still, we can't deny that you hit the nail on the head sometimes. Dear me! Door locked, I understand.

"Well, well, if it was fastened the steps could have nothing to do with the matter. That's common sense. Man

might have died in a fit; but then the jewels are missing. Ha! I have a theory. These flashes come upon me at

times. Just step outside, Ser geant, and you, Mr. Sholto. Your friend can remain. What do you think

of this, Holmes? Sholto was, on his own confession, with his brother last night. The brother died in a fit, on

"On which the dead man very considerately got up and locked the door on the inside."

"Hum! There's a flaw there. Let us apply common sense to the matter. This Thaddeus Sholto was with his

brother; there was a quarrel: so much we know. The brother is dead and the jewels are gone. So much also we

know. No one saw the brother from the time Thaddeus left him. His bed had not been slept in. Thaddeus is

evidently in a most disturbed state of mind. His appearance is well, not attractive. You see that I am

"You are not quite in possession of the facts yet," said Holmes. "This splinter of wood, which I have every

reason to believe to be poisoned, was in the man's scalp where you still see the mark; this card, inscribed as

you see it, was on the table, and beside it lay this rather curious stoneheaded instrument. How does all that

"Confirms it in every respect," said the fat detective pom pously. "House is full of Indian curiosities.

Thaddeus brought this up, and if this splinter be poisonous Thaddeus may as well have made murderous use

of it as any other man. The card is some hocuspocus a blind, as like as not. The only question is, how did

With great activity, considering his bulk, he sprang up the steps and squeezed through into the garret, and

immediately afterwards we heard his exulting voice proclaiming that he had found the trapdoor.

"He can find something," remarked Holmes, shrugging his shoulders; "he has occasional glimmerings of

"You see!" said Athelney Jones, reappearing down the steps again; "facts are better than theories, after all.

My view of the case is confirmed. There is a trapdoor communicating with the roof, and it is partly open."

"Oh, indeed! You did notice it, then?" He seemed a little crestfallen at the discovery. "Well, whoever noticed

"Ask Mr. Sholto to step this way. Mr. Sholto, it is my duty to inform you that anything which you may

say will be used against you. I arrest you in the Queen's name as being concerned in the death of your

"There, now! Didn't I tell you!" cried the poor little man throwing out his hands and looking from one to the

"Don't trouble yourself about it, Mr. Sholto," said Holmes; "I think that I can engage to clear you of the

"Don't promise too much, Mr. Theorist, don't promise too much!" snapped the detective. "You may find it a

"Not only will I clear him, Mr. Jones, but I will make you a free present of the name and description of one of

the two people who were in this room last night. His name, I have every reason to believe, is Jonathan Small.

He is a poorly educated man, small, active, with his right leg off, and wearing a wooden stump which is worn

away upon the inner side. His left boot has a coarse, squaretoed sole, with an iron band round the heel. He is

a middleaged man, much sunburned, and has been a convict. These few indications may be of some

assistance to you, coupled with the fact that there is a good deal of skin missing from the palm of his hand.

"Ah! the other man?" asked Athelney Jones in a sneering voice, but impressed none the less, as I could easily

"Is a rather curious person," said Sherlock Holmes, turning upon his heel. "I hope before very long to be able

"This unexpected occurrence," he said, "has caused us rather to lose sight of the original purpose of our

"I have just been thinking so," I answered; "it is not right that Miss Morstan should remain in this stricken

"No. You must escort her home. She lives with Mrs. Cecil Forrester in Lower Camberwell, so it is not very

far. I will wait for you here if you will drive out again. Or perhaps you are too tired?"

"By no means. I don't think I could rest until I know more of this fantastic business. I have seen something of

the rough side of life, but I give you my word that this quick succession of strange surprises tonight has

shaken my nerve completely. I should like, however, to see the matter through with you, now that I have got

"Your presence will be of great service to me," he answered. "We shall work the case out independently and

leave this fellow Jones to exult over any mare'snest which he may choose to construct. When you have

dropped Miss Morstan, I wish you to go on to No. 3 Pinchin Lane, down near the water's edge at Lambeth.

The third house on the righthand side is a bird stuffer's; Sherman is the name. You will see a weasel

holding a young rabbit in the window. Knock old Sherman up and tell him, with my compliments, that I want

"Yes, a queer mongrel with a most amazing power of scent. I would rather have Toby's help than that of the

"I shall bring him then," said I. "It is one now. I ought to be back before three if I can get a fresh horse."

"And I," said Holmes, "shall see what I can learn from Mrs. Bernstone and from the Indian servant, who, Mr.

Thaddeus tells me, sleeps in the next garret. Then I shall study the great Jones's methods and listen to his not

The police had brought a cab with them, and in this I escorted Miss Morstan back to her home. After the

angelic fashion of women, she had borne trouble with a calm face as long as there was someone weaker than

herself to support, and I had found her bright and placid by the side of the frightened housekeeper. ln the cab,

however, she first turned faint and then burst into a passion of weeping so sorely had she been tried by the

adven tures of the night. She has told me since that she thought me cold and distant upon that journey. She

little guessed the struggle within my breast, or the effort of selfrestraint which held me back. My sympathies

and my love went out to her, even as my hand had in the garden. I felt that years of the conventionalities of

life could not teach me to know her sweet, brave nature as had this one day of strange experiences. Yet there

were two thoughts which sealed the words of affection upon my lips. She was weak and helpless, shaken in

mind and nerve. It was to take her at a disadvantage to obtrude love upon her at such a time. Worse still, she

was rich. If Holmes's researches were successful, she would be an heiress. Was it fair, was it honourable, that

a halfpay surgeon should take such advantage of an intimacy which chance had brought about? Might she

not look upon me as a mere vulgar fortuneseeker? I could not bear to risk that such a thought should cross

It was nearly two o'clock when we reached Mrs. Cecil Forrester's. The servants had retired hours ago, but

Mrs. Forrester had been so interested by the strange message which Miss Morstan had received that she had

sat up in the hope of her return. She opened the door herself, a middleaged, graceful woman, and it gave me

joy to see how tenderly her arm stole round the other's waist and how motherly was the voice in which she

greeted her. She was clearly no mere paid dependant but an honoured friend. I was introduced, and Mrs.

Forrester earnestly begged me to step in and tell her our adventures. I explained, however, the impor tance

of my errand and promised faithfully to call and report any progress which we might make with the case. As

we drove away I stole a glance back, and I still seem to see that little group on the step the two graceful,

clinging figures, the halfopened door, the halllight shining through stained glass, the barometer, and the

bright stairrods. It was soothing to catch even that passing glimpse of a tranquil English home in the midst

And the more I thought of what had happened, the wilder and darker it grew. I reviewed the whole

extraordinary sequence of events as I rattled on through the silent, gaslit streets. There was the original

problem: that at least was pretty clear now. The death of Captain Morstan, the sending of the pearls, the

adver tisement, the letter we had had light upon all those events. They had only led us, however, to a

deeper and far more tragic mystery. The Indian treasure, the curious plan found among Morstan's baggage,

the strange scene at Major Sholto's death, the rediscovery of the treasure immediately followed by the murder

of the discoverer, the very singular accompaniments to the crime, the footsteps, the remarkable weapons, the

words upon the card, corresponding with those upon Captain Morstan's chart here was indeed a labyrinth

in which a man less singularly endowed than my fellowlodger might well despair of ever find ing the clue.

Pinchin Lane was a row of shabby, twostoried brick houses in the lower quarter of Lambeth. I had to knock

for some time at No. 3 before I could make any impression. At last, however, there was the glint of a candle

"Go on, you drunken vagabond," said the face. "If you kick up any more row, I'll open the kennels and let out

"Go on!" yelled the voice. "So help me gracious, I have a wiper in this bag, and I'll drop it on your 'ead if you

"I won't be argued with!" shouted Mr. Sherman. "Now stand clear, for when I say 'three,' down goes the

"Mr. Sherlock Holmes " I began; but the words had a most magical effect, for the window instantly slammed

down, and within a minute the door was unbarred and open. Mr. Sherman was a lanky, lean old man, with

"A friend of Mr. Sherlock is always welcome," said he. "Step in, sir. Keep clear of the badger, for he bites.

Ah, naughty, naughty; would you take a nip at the gentleman?" This to a stoat which thrust its wicked head

and red eyes between the bars of its cage. "Don't mind that, sir; it's only a slowworm. It hain't got no fangs, so

I gives it the run o' the room, for it keeps the beetles down. You must not mind my bein' just a little short wi'

you at first, for I'm guyed at by the children, and there's many a one just comes down this lane to knock me

He moved slowly forward with his candle among the queer animal family which he had gathered round him.

In the uncer tain, shadowy light I could see dimly that there were glancing, glimmering eyes peeping down

at us from every cranny and corner. Even the rafters above our heads were lined by solemn fowls, who lazily

shifted their weight from one leg to the other as our voices disturbed their slumbers.

Toby proved to be an ugly, longhaired, lopeared creature, half spaniel and half lurcher, brown and white in

colour, with a very clumsy, waddling gait. It accepted, after some hesitation, a lump of sugar which the old

naturalist handed to me, and, having thus sealed an alliance, it followed me to the cab and made no

difficulties about accompanying me. It had just struck three on the Palace clock when I found myself back

once more at Pondicherry Lodge. The exprizefighter McMurdo had, I found, been arrested as an

accessory, and both he and Mr. Sholto had been marched off to the station. Two constables guarded the

narrow gate, but they allowed me to pass with the dog on my mentioning the detective's name.

Holmes was standing on the doorstep with his hands in his pockets, smoking his pipe.

"Ah, you have him there!" said he. "Good dog, then! Athelney Jones has gone. We have had an immense

display of energy since you left. He has arrested not only friend Thaddeus but the gatekeeper, the

housekeeper, and the Indian servant. We have the place to ourselves but for a sergeant upstairs. Leave the dog

We tied Toby to the hall table and reascended the stairs. The room was as we had left it, save that a sheet had

been draped over the central figure. A wearylooking policesergeant reclined in the corner.

"Lend me your bull's eye, Sergeant," said my companion. "Now tie this bit of card round my neck, so as to

hang it in front of me. Thank you. Now I must kick off my boots and stockings. Just you carry them down

with you, Watson. I am going to do a little climbing. And dip my handkerchief into the creosote. That will

We clambered up through the hole. Holmes turned his light once more upon the footsteps in the dust.

"I wish you particularly to notice these footmarks," he said. "Do you observe anything noteworthy about

"Not at all. Look here! This is the print of a right foot in the dust. Now I make one with my naked foot beside

"Your toes are all cramped together. The other print has each toe distinctly divided."

"Quite so. That is the point. Bear that in mind. Now, would you kindly step over to that flapwindow and

smell the edge of the woodwork? I shall stay over here, as I have this handkerchief in my hand."

"That is where he put his foot in getting out. If you can trace him, I should think that Toby will have no

By the time that I got out into the grounds Sherlock Holmes was on the roof, and I could see him like an

enormous glow worm crawling very slowly along the ridge. I lost sight of him behind a stack of chimneys,

but he presently reappeared and then vanished once more upon the opposite side. When I made my way

"Confound the fellow! It's a most breakneck place. I ought to be able to come down where he could climb up.

There was a scuffling of feet, and the lantern began to come steadily down the side of the wall. Then with a

"It was easy to follow him," he said, drawing on his stock ings and boots. "Tiles were loosened the whole

way along, and in his hurry he had dropped this. It confirms my diagnosis, as you doctors express it."

The object which he held up to me was a small pocket or pouch woven out of coloured grasses and with a

few tawdry beads strung round it. In shape and size it was not unlike a cigarettecase. Inside were half a

dozen spines of dark wood, sharp at one end and rounded at the other, like that which had struck

"They are hellish things," said he. "Look out that you don't prick yourself. I'm delighted to have them, for the

chances are that they are all he has. There is the less fear of you or me finding one in our skin before long. I

would sooner face a Martini bullet, myself. Are you game for a sixmile trudge, Watson?"

"Here you are, doggy! Good old Toby! Smell it, Toby, smell it!" He pushed the creosote handkerchief under

the dog's nose, while the creature stood with its fluffy legs separated, and with a most comical cock to its

head, like a connoisseur sniffing the bouquet of a famous vintage. Holmes then threw the handker chief to a

distance, fastened a stout cord to the mongrel's collar, and led him to the foot of the waterbarrel. The

creature instantly broke into a succession of high, tremulous yelps and, with his nose on the ground and his

tail in the air, pattered off upon the trail at a pace which strained his leash and kept us at the top of our speed.

The east had been gradually whitening, and we could now see some distance in the cold gray light. The

square, massive house, with its black, empty windows and high, bare walls, towered up, sad and forlorn,

behind us. Our course led right across the grounds, in and out among the trenches and pits with which they

were scarred and intersected. The whole place, with its scattered dirtheaps and illgrown shrubs, had a

blighted, illomened look which harmonized with the black tragedy which hung over it.

On reaching the boundary wall Toby ran along, whining ea gerly, underneath its shadow, and stopped

finally in a corner screened by a young beech. Where the two walls joined, several bricks had been loosened,

and the crevices left were worn down and rounded upon the lower side, as though they had frequently been

used as a ladder. Holmes clambered up, and taking the dog from me he dropped it over upon the other side.

"There's the print of Woodenleg's hand," he remarked as I mounted up beside him. "You see the slight

smudge of blood upon the white plaster. What a lucky thing it is that we have had no very heavy rain since

yesterday! The scent wili lie upon the road in spite of their eightandtwenty hours' start."

I confess that I had my doubts myself when I reflected upon the great traffic which had passed along the

London road in the interval. My fears were soon appeased, however. Toby never hesitated or swerved but

waddled on in his peculiar rolling fashion. Clearly the pungent smell of the creosote rose high above all other

"Do not imagine," said Holmes, "that I depend for my success in this case upon the mere chance of one of

these fellows having put his foot in the chemical. I have knowledge now which would enable me to trace

them in many different ways. This, however, is the readiest, and, since fortune has put it into our hands, I

should be culpable if I neglected it. It has, however prevented the case from becoming the pretty little

intellectuai problem which it at one time promised to be. There might have been some credit to be gained out

"There is credit, and to spare," said I. "I assure you, Holmes, that I marvel at the means by which you obtain

your results in this case even more than I did in the Jefferson Hope murder. The thing seems to me to be

deeper and more inexplicable. How, for example, could you describe with such confidence the wooden

"Pshaw, my dear boy! it was simplicity itself. I don't wish to be theatrical. It is all patent and aboveboard.

Two officers who are in command of a convictguard learn an important secret as to buried treasure. A map

is drawn for them by an Englishman named Jonathan Small. You remember that we saw the name upon the

chart in Captain Morstan's possession. He had signed it in behalf of himself and his associates the sign of

the four, as he somewhat dramatically called it. Aided by this chart, the officers or one of them gets

the treasure and brings it to England, leaving, we will suppose, some condition under which he received it

unfulfilled. Now, then, why did not Jonathan Small get the treasure himself? The answer is obvious. The

chart is dated at a time when Morstan was brought into close associa tion with convicts. Jonathan Small did

not get the treasure because he and his associates were themselves convicts and could not get away."

"It is more than that. It is the only hypothesis which covers the facts. Let us see how it fits in with the sequel.

Major Sholto remains at peace for some years, happy in the possession of his treasure. Then he receives a

"Or had escaped. That is much more likely, for he would have known what their term of imprisonment was. It

would not have been a surprise to him. What does he do then? He guards himself against a woodenlegged

man a white man, mark you, for he mistakes a white tradesman for him and actually fires a pistol at him.

Now, only one white man's name is on the chart. The others are Hindoos or Mohammedans. There is no other

white man. Therefore we may say with confidence that the woodenlegged man is identical with Jonathan

"Well, now, let us put ourselves in the place of Jonathan Small. Let us look at it from his point of view. He

comes to England with the double idea of regaining what he would con sider to be his rights and of having

his revenge upon the man who had wronged him. He found out where Sholto lived, and very possibly he

established communications with someone in side the house. There is this butler, Lal Rao, whom we have

not seen. Mrs. Bernstone gives him far from a good character. Small could not find out, however, where the

treasure was hid, for no one ever knew save the major and one faithful servant who had died. Suddenly Small

learns that the major is on his deathbed. ln a frenzy lest the secret of the treasure die with him, he runs the

gauntlet of the guards, makes his way to the dying man's win dow, and is only deterred from entering by the

presence of his two sons. Mad with hate, however, against the dead man, he enters the room that night,

searches his private papers in the hope of discovering some memorandum relating to the treasure, and finally

leaves a memento of his visit in the short inscription upon the card. He had doubtless planned beforehand

that, should he slay the major, he would leave some such record upon the body as a sign that it was not a

common murder but, from the point of view of the four associates, something in the nature of an act of

justice. Whimsical and bizarre conceits of this kind are common enough in the annals of crime and usually

"Now what could Jonathan Small do? He could only continue to keep a secret watch upon the efforts made to

find the treasure. Possibly he leaves England and only comes back at intervals. Then comes the discovery of

the garret, and he is instantly informed of it. We again trace the presence of some confederate in the

household. Jonathan, with his wooden leg, is utterly unable to reach the lofty room of Bartholomew Sholto.

He takes with him, however, a rather curious associate, who gets over this difficulty but dips his naked foot

into creosote, whence come Toby, and a sixmile limp for a halfpay officer with a damaged tendo Achillis."

"Quite so. And rather to Jonathan's disgust, to judge by the way he stamped about when he got into the room.

He bore no grudge against Bartholomew Sholto and would have preferred if he could have been simply

bound and gagged. He did not wish to put his head in a halter. There was no help for it, however: the savage

instincts of his companion had broken out, and the poison had done its work: so Jonathan Small left his

record, lowered the treasurebox to the ground, and followed it himself. That was the train of events as far as

I can decipher them. Of course, as to his personal appearance, he must be middleaged and must be sun

burned after serving his time in such an oven as the Andamans. His height is readily calculated from the

length of his stride, and we know that he was bearded. His hairiness was the one point which impressed itself

upon Thaddeus Sholto when he saw him at the window. I don't know that there is anything else."

"Ah, well, there is no great mystery in that. But you will know all about it soon enough. How sweet the

morning air is! See how that one little cloud floats like a pink feather from some gigantic flamingo. Now the

red rim of the sun pushes itself over the London cloudbank. It shines on a good many folk, but on none, I

dare bet, who are on a stranger errand than you and I. How small we feel with our petty ambitions and

strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of Nature! Are you well up in your Jean Paul?"

"That was like following the brook to the parent lake. He makes one curious but profound remark. It is that

the chief proof of man's real greatness lies in his perception of his own small ness. It argues, you see, a

power of comparison and of apprecia tion which is in itself a proof of nobility. There is much food for

"It is just possible that we may need something of the sort if we get to their lair. Jonathan I shall leave to you,

He took out his revolver as he spoke, and, having loaded two of the chambers, he put it back into the

We had during this time been following the guidance of Toby down the halfrural villalined roads which

lead to the metropolis. Now, however, we were beginning to come among continuous streets, where labourers

and dockmen were already astir, and slatternly women were taking down shutters and brushing door steps.

At the squaretopped corner publichouses business was just beginning, and roughlooking men were

emerging, rubbing their sleeves across their beards after their morning wet. Strange dogs sauntered up and

stared wonderingly at us as we passed, but our inimitable Toby looked neither to the right nor to the left but

trotted onward with his nose to the ground and an occasional eager whine which spoke of a hot scent.

We had traversed Streatham, Brixton, Camberwell, and now found ourselves in Kennington Lane, having

borne away through the side streets to the east of the Oval. The men whom we pursued seemed to have taken

a curiously zigzag road, with the idea probably of escaping observation. They had never kept to the main road

if a parallel side street would serve their turn. At the foot of Kennington Lane they had edged away to the left

through Bond Street and Miles Street. Where the latter street turns into Knight's Place, Toby ceased to

advance but began to run backward and forward with one ear cocked and the other drooping, the very picture

of canine indecision. Then he waddled round in circles, looking up to us from time to time, as if to ask for

"What the deuce is the matter with the dog?" growled Holmes. "They surely would not take a cab or go off in

He was indeed off, for after sniffing round again he suddenly made up his mind and darted away with an

energy and determi nation such as he had not yet shown. The scent appeared to be much hotter than before,

for he had not even to put his nose on the ground but tugged at his leash and tried to break into a run. I could

see by the gleam in Holmes's eyes that he thought we were nearing the end of our journey.

Our course now ran down Nine Elms until we came to Broderick and Nelson's large timberyard just past the

White Eagle tavern. Here the dog, frantic with excitement, turned down through the side gate into the

enclosure, where the sawyers were already at work. On the dog raced through sawdust and shavings, down an

alley, round a passage, between two woodpiles, and finally, with a triumphant yelp, sprang upon a large

barrel which still stood upon the handtrolley on which it had been brought. With lolling tongue and blinking

eyes Toby stood upon the cask, looking from one to the other of us for some sign of apprecia tion. The

staves of the barrel and the wheels of the trolley were smeared with a dark liquid, and the whole air was

Sherlock Holmes and I looked blankly at each other and then burst simultaneously into an uncontrollable fit

"He acted according to his lights," said Holmes, lifting him down from the barrel and walking him out of the

timberyard. "If you consider how much creosote is carted about London in one day, it is no great wonder

that our trail should have been crossed. It is much used now, especially for the seasoning of wood. Poor Toby

"Yes. And, fortunately, we have no distance to go. Evidently what puzzled the dog at the corner of Knight's

Place was that there were two different trails running in opposite directions. We took the wrong one. It only

There was no difficulty about this. On leading Toby to the place where he had committed his fault, he cast

"We must take care that he does not now bring us to the place where the creosotebarrel came from," I

"I had thought of that. But you notice that he keeps on the pavement, whereas the barrel passed down the

It tended down towards the riverside, running through Bel mont Place and Prince's Street. At the end of

Broad Street it ran right down to the water's edge, where there was a small wooden wharf. Toby led us to the

very edge of this and there stood whining, looking out on the dark current beyond.

Several small punts and skiffs were lying about in the water and on the edge of the wharf. We took Toby

Close to the rude landingstage was a small brick house, with a wooden placard slung out through the second

window. "Mordecai Smith" was printed across it in large letters, and, underneath, "Boats to hire by the hour

or day." A second inscription above the door informed us that a steam launch was kept a statement which

was confirmed by a great pile of coke upon the jetty. Sherlock Holmes looked slowly round, and his face

"This looks bad," said he. "These fellows are sharper than I expected. They seem to have covered their tracks.

He was approaching the door of the house, when it opened, and a little curlyheaded lad of six came running

"You come back and be washed, Jack," she shouted. "Come back, you young imp; for if your father comes

"Dear little chap!" said Holmes strategically. "What a rosy cheeked young rascal! Now, Jack, is there

"Lor' bless you, sir, he is that, and forward. He gets a'most too much for me to manage, 'specially when my

"Away, is he?" said Holmes in a disappointed voice. "I am sorry for that, for I wanted to speak to Mr. Smith."

"He's been away since yesterday mornin', sir, and, truth to tell, I am beginnin' to feel frightened about him.

"Why, bless you, sir, it is in the steam launch that he has gone. That's what puzzles me, for I know there ain't

more coals in her than would take her to about Woolwich and back. If he's been away in the barge I'd ha'

thought nothin'; for many a time a job has taken him as far as Gravesend, and then if there was much doin'

"He might, sir, but it weren't his way. Many a time I've heard him call out at the prices they charge for a few

odd bags. Besides, I don't like that woodenlegged man, wi' his ugly face and outlandish talk. What did he

"Yes, sir, a brown, monkeyfaced chap that's called more'n once for my old man. It was him that roused him

up yesternight and, what's more, my man knew he was comin', for he had steam up in the launch. I tell you

"But, my dear Mrs. Smith," said Holmes, shrugging his shoulders, "you are frightening yourself about

nothing. How could you possibly tell that it was the woodenlegged man who came in the night? I don't quite

"His voice, sir. I knew his voice, which is kind o' thick and foggy. He tapped at the winder about three it

would be. 'Show a leg, matey,' says he: 'time to turn out guard.' My old man woke up Jim that's my eldest

and away they went without so much as a word to me. I could hear the wooden leg clackin' on the stones."

"I am sorry, Mrs. Smith, for I wanted a steam launch, and I have heard good reports of the Let me see,

"Ah! She's not that old green launch with a yellow line, very broad in the beam?"

"No, indeed. She's as trim a little thing as any on the river. She's been fresh painted, black with two red

"Thanks. I hope that you will hear soon from Mr. Smith. I am going down the river, and if I should see

anything of the Aurora I shall let him know that you are uneasy. A black funnel, you say?"

"Ah, of course. It was the sides which were black. Good morning, Mrs. Smith. There is a boatman here with

"The main thing with people of that sort," said Holmes as we sat in the sheets of the wherry, "is never to let

them think that their information can be of the slightest importance to you. If you do they will instantly shut

up like an oyster. If you listen to them under protest, as it were, you are very likely to get what you want."

"My dear fellow, it would be a colossal task. She may have touched at any wharf on either side of the stream

between here and Greenwich. Below the bridge there is a perfect labyrinth of landingplaces for miles. It

"No. I shall probably call Athelney Jones in at the last mo ment. He is not a bad fellow, and I should not like

to do anything which would injure him professionally. But I have a fancy for working it out myself, now that

we have gone so far." "Could we advertise, then, asking for information from wharfingers?

"Worse and worse! Our men would know that the chase was hot at their heels, and they would be off out of

the country. As it is, they are likely enough to leave, but as long as they think they are perfectly safe they will

be in no hurry. Jones's energy will be of use to us there, for his view of the case is sure to push itself into the

daily press, and the runaways will think that everyone is off on the wrong scent."

"Take this hansom, drive home, have some breakfast, and get an hour's sleep. It is quite on the cards that we

may be afoot tonight again. Stop at a telegraph office, cabby! We will keep Toby, for he may be of use to us

We pulled up at the Great Peter Street PostOffice, and Holmes dispatched his wire.

"You remember the Baker Street division of the detective police force whom I employed in the Jefferson

"This is just the case where they might be invaluable. If they fail I have other resources, but I shall try them

first. That wire was to my dirty little lieutenant, Wiggins, and I expect that he and his gang will be with us

It was between eight and nine o'clock now, and I was con scious of a strong reaction after the successive

excitements of the night. I was limp and weary, befogged in mind and fatigued in body. I had not the

professional enthusiasm which carried my companion on, nor could I look at the matter as a mere abstract

intellectual problem. As far as the death of Bartholomew Sholto went, I had heard little good of him and

could feel no intense antipathy to his murderers. The treasure, however, was a differ ent matter. That, or part

of it, belonged rightfully to Miss Morstan. While there was a chance of recovering it I was ready to devote

my life to the one object. True, if I found it, it would probably put her forever beyond my reach. Yet it would

be a petty and selfish love which would be influenced by such a thought as that. If Holmes could work to find

the criminals, I had a tenfold stronger reason to urge me on to find the treasure.

A bath at Baker Street and a complete change freshened me up wonderfully. When I came down to our room

"Here it is," said he, laughing and pointing to an open newspaper. "The energetic Jones and the ubiquitous

reporter have fixed it up between them. But you have had enough of the case. Better have your ham and eggs

I took the paper from him and read the short notice, Which was headed "Mysterious Business at Upper

"Isn't it gorgeous!" said Holmes, grinning over his coffee cup. "What do you think of it?"

"I think that we have had a close shave ourselves of being arrested for the crime."

"So do I. I wouldn't answer for our safety now if he should happen to have another of his attacks of energy."

At this moment there was a loud ring at the bell, and I could hear Mrs. Hudson, our landlady, raising her

"By heavens, Holmes," I said, half rising, "I believe that they are really after us."

"No, it's not quite so bad as that. It is the unofficial force the Baker Street irregulars."

As he spoke, there came a swift pattering of naked feet upon the stairs, a clatter of high voices, and in rushed

a dozen dirty and ragged little street Arabs. There was some show of discipline among them, despite their

tumultuous entry, for they instantly drew up in line and stood facing us with expectant faces. One of their

number, taller and older than the others, stood forward with an air of lounging superiority which was very

"Got your message, sir," said he, "and brought 'em on sharp. Three bob and a tanner for tickets."

"Here you are," said Holmes, producing some silver. "In future they can report to you, Wiggins, and you to

me. I cannot have the house invaded in this way. However, it is just as well that you should all hear the

instructions. I want to find the whereabouts of a steam launch called the Aurora, owner Mordecai Smith,

black with two red streaks, funnel black with a white band. She is down the river somewhere. I want one boy

to be at Mordecai Smith's landingstage opposite Millbank to say if the boat comes back. You must divide it

out among yourselves and do both banks thoroughly. Let me know the moment you have news. Is that all

"The old scale of pay, and a guinea to the boy who finds the boat. Here's a day in advance. Now off you go!"

He handed them a shilling each, and away they buzzed down the stairs, and I saw them a moment later

"If the launch is above water they will find her," said Holmes as he rose from the table and lit his pipe. "They

can go every where, see everything, overhear everyone. I expect to hear be fore evening that they have

spotted her. In the meanwhile, we can do nothing but await results. We cannot pick up the broken trail until

"No: I am not tired. I have a curious constitution. I never remember feeling tired by work, though idleness

exhausts me completely. I am going to smoke and to think over this queer business to which my fair client

has introduced us. If ever man had an easy task, this of ours ought to be. Woodenlegged men are not so

"I have no wish to make a mystery of him to you, anyway. But you must have formed your own opinion.

Now, do consider the data. Diminutive footmarks, toes never fettered by boots, naked feet, stoneheaded

wooden mace, great agility, small poi soned darts. What do you make of all this?"

"A savage!" I exclaimed. "Perhaps one of those Indians who were the associates of Jonathan Small."

"Hardly that," said he. "When first I saw signs of strange weapons I was inclined to think so, but the

remarkable character of the footmarks caused me to reconsider my views. Some of the inhabitants of the

Indian Peninsula are small men, but none could have left such marks as that. The Hindoo proper has long and

thin feet. The sandalwearing Mohammedan has the great toe well separated from the others because the

thong is com monly passed between. These little darts, too, could only be shot in one way. They are from a

"This is the first volume of a gazetteer which is now being published. It may be looked upon as the very latest

Hum! hum! What's all this? Moist climate, coral reefs, sharks, Port Blair. convict barracks, Rutland Island,

Nice, amiable people, Watson! If this fellow had been left to his own unaided devices, this affair might have

taken an even more ghastly turn. I fancy that, even as it is, Jonathan Small would give a good deal not to have

"Ah, that is more than I can tell. Since, however, we had already determined that Small had come from the

Andamans, it is not so very wonderful that this islander should be with him. No doubt we shall know all

about it in time. Look here, Watson; you look regularly done. Lie down there on the sofa and see if I can put

He took up his violin from the corner, and as I stretched myself out he began to play some low, dreamy,

melodious air his own, no doubt, for he had a remarkable gift for improvi sation. I have a vague

remembrance of his gaunt limbs, his earnest face and the rise and fall of his bow. Then I seemed to be floated

peacefully away upon a soft sea of sound until I found myself in dreamland, with the sweet face of Mary

It was late in the afternoon before I woke, strengthened and refreshed. Sherlock Holmes still sat exactly as I

had left him save that he had laid aside his violin and was deep in a book. He looked across at me as I stirred,

"Unfortunately, no. I confess that I am surprised and disap pointed. I expected something definite by this

time. Wiggins has just been up to report. He says that no trace can be found of the launch. It is a provoking

"Can I do anything? I am perfectly fresh now, and quite ready for another night's outing."

"No; we can do nothing. We can only wait. If we go our selves the message might come in our absence and

"Then I shall run over to Camberwell and call upon Mrs. Cecil Forrester. She asked me to, yesterday."

"On Mrs. Cecil Forrester?" asked Holmes with the twinkle of a smile in his eyes.

"Well, of course on Miss Morstan, too. They were anxious to hear what happened."

"I would not tell them too much," said Holmes. "Women are never to be entirely trusted not the best of

"All right! Good luck! But, I say, if you are crossing the river you may as well return Toby, for I don't think it

I took our mongrel accordingly and left him, together with a halfsovereign, at the old naturalist's in Pinchin

Lane. At Camberwell I found Miss Morstan a little weary after her night's adventures but very eager to hear

the news. Mrs. Forrester, too, was full of curiosity. I told them all that we had done, suppress ing, however,

the more dreadful parts of the tragedy. Thus although I spoke of Mr. Sholto's death, I said nothing of the

exact manner and method of it. With all my omissions, however, there was enough to startle and amaze them.

"It is a romance!" cried Mrs. Forrester. "An injured lady, half a million in treasure, a black cannibal, and a

woodenlegged ruffian. They take the place of the conventional dragon or wicked earl."

"And two knighterrants to the rescue," added Miss Morstan with a bright glance at me.

"Why, Mary, your fortune depends upon the issue of this search. I don't think that you are nearly excited

enough. Just imagine what it must be to be so rich and to have the world at your feet!"

It sent a little thrill of joy to my heart to notice that she showed no sign of elation at the prospect. On the

contrary, she gave a toss of her proud head, as though the matter were one in which she took small interest.

"It is for Mr. Thaddeus Sholto that I am anxious," she said. "Nothing else is of any consequence; but I think

that he has behaved most kindly and honourably throughout. It is our duty to clear him of this dreadful and

It was evening before I left Camberwell, and quite dark by the time I reached home. My companion's book

and pipe lay by his chair, but he had disappeared. I looked about in the hope of seeing a note, but there was

"I suppose that Mr. Sherlock Holmes has gone out," I said to Mrs. Hudson as she came up to lower the blinds.

"No, sir. He has gone to his room, sir. Do you know, sir," sinking her voice into an impressive whisper, "I am

"Well, he's that strange, sir. After you was gone he walked and he walked, up and down, and up and down,

until I was weary of the sound of his footstep. Then I heard him talking to himself and muttering, and every

time the bell rang out he came on the stairhead, with 'What is that, Mrs. Hudson?' And now he has slammed

off to his room, but I can hear him walking away the same as ever. I hope he's not going to be ill, sir. I

ventured to say something to him about cooling medicine, but he turned on me, sir, with such a look that I

"I don't think that you have any cause to be uneasy, Mrs. Hudson," I answered. "I have seen him like this

I tried to speak lightly to our worthy landlady, but I was myself somewhat uneasy when through the long

night I still from time to time heard the dull sound of his tread, and knew how his keen spirit was chafing

At breakfasttime he looked worn and haggard, with a little fleck of feverish colour upon either cheek.

"You are knocking yourself up, old man," I remarked. "I heard you marching about in the night."

"No, I could not sleep," he answered. "This infernal prob lem is consuming me. It is too much to be balked

by so petty an obstacle, when all else had been overcome. I know the men, the launch, everything; and yet I

can get no news. I have set other agencies at work and used every means at my disposal. The whole river has

been searched on either side, but there is no news, nor has Mrs. Smith heard of her husband. I shall come to

the conclusion soon that they have scuttled the craft. But there are objections to that."

"No, I think that may be dismissed. I had inquiries made, and there is a launch of that description."

"I have considered that possibility, too, and there is a search party who will work up as far as Richmond. If

no news comes today I shall start off myself tomorrow and go for the men rather than the boat. But surely,

We did not, however. Not a word came to us either from Wiggins or from the other agencies. There were

articles in most of the papers upon the Norwood tragedy. They all appeared to be rather hostile to the

unfortunate Thaddeus Sholto. No fresh details were to be found, however, in any of them, save that an

inquest was to be held upon the following day. I walked over to Camberwell in the evening to report our

illsuccess to the ladies, and on my return I found Holmes dejected and somewhat mo rose. He would

hardly reply to my questions and busied himself all the evening in an abstruse chemical analysis which

involved much heating of retorts and distilling of vapours, ending at last in a smell which fairly drove me out

of the apartment. Up to the small hours of the morning I could hear the clinking of his testtubes which told

In the early dawn I woke with a start and was surprised to find him standing by my bedside, clad in a rude

"I am off down the river, Watson," said he. "I have been turning it over in my mind, and I can see only one

"No; you can be much more useful if you will remain here as my representative. I am loath to go, for it is

quite on the cards that some message may come during the day, though Wiggins was despondent about it last

night. I want you to open all notes and telegrams, and to act on your own judgment if any news should come.

"I am afraid that you will not be able to wire to me, for I can hardly tell yet where I may find myself. If I am

in luck, however, I may not be gone so very long. I shall have news of some sort or other before I get back."

I had heard nothing of him by breakfast time. On opening the Standard, however, I found that there was a

"That is satisfactory so far as it goes," thought I. "Friend Sholto is safe, at any rate. I wonder what the fresh

clue may be though it seems to be a stereotyped form whenever the police have made a blunder."

I tossed the paper down upon the table, but at that moment my eye caught an advertisement in the agony

This was clearly Holmes's doing. The Baker Street address was enough to prove that. It struck me as rather

ingenious because it might be read by the fugitives without their seeing in it more than the natural anxiety of

It was a long day. Every time that a knock came to the door or a sharp step passed in the street, I imagined

that it was either Holmes returning or an answer to his advertisement. I tried to read, but my thoughts would

wander off to our strange quest and to the illassorted and villainous pair whom we were pursuing. Could

there be, I wondered, some radical flaw in my compan ion's reasoning? Might he not be suffering from

some huge selfdeception? Was it not possible that his nimble and specula tive mind had built up this wild

theory upon faulty premises? I had never known him to be wrong, and yet the keenest reasoner may

occasionally be deceived. He was likely, I thought, to fall into error through the overrefinement of his logic

his prefer ence for a subtle and bizarre explanation when a plainer and more commonplace one lay ready

to his hand. Yet, on the other hand, I had myself seen the evidence, and I had heard the reasons for his

deductions. When I looked back on the long chain of curious circumstances, many of them trivial in them

selves but all tending in the same direction, I could not disguise from myself that even if Holmes's

At three o'clock on the afternoon there was a loud peal at the bell, an authoritative voice in the hall, and, to

my surprise, no less a person than Mr. Athelney Jones was shown up to me. Very different was he, however,

from the brusque and masterful professor of common sense who had taken over the case so confidently at

Upper Norwood. His expression was downcast, and his bearing meek and even apologetic.

"Yes, and I cannot be sure when he will be back. But perhaps you would care to wait. Take that chair and try

"Thank you; I don't mind if I do," said he, mopping his face with a red bandanna handkerchief.

"Well, half a glass. It is very hot for the time of year, and I have had a good deal to worry and try me. You

"Well, I have been obliged to reconsider it. I had my net drawn tightly round Mr. Sholto, sir, when pop he

went through a hole in the middle of it. He was able to prove an alibi which could not be shaken. From the

time that he left his brother's room he was never out of sight of someone or other. So it could not be he who

climbed over roofs and through trapdoors. It's a very dark case, and my professional credit is at stake. I

"Your friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, is a wonderful man, sir," said he in a husky and confidential voice. "He's

a man who is not to be beat. I have known that young man go into a good many cases, but I never saw the

case yet that he could not throw a light upon. He is irregular in his methods and a little quick perhaps in

jumping at theories, but, on the whole, I think he would have made a most promising officer, and I don't care

who knows it. I have had a wire from him this morning, by which I understand that he has got some clue to

He took the telegram out of his pocket and handed it to me. It was dated from Poplar at twelve o'clock.

"Ah, then he has been at fault too," exclaimed Jones with evident satisfaction. "Even the best of us are thrown

off some times. Of course this may prove to be a false alarm but it is my duty as an officer of the law to

A heavy step was heard ascending the stair, with a great wheezing and rattling as from a man who was sorely

put to it for breath. Once or twice he stopped, as though the climb were too much for him, but at last he made

his way to our door and entered. His appearance corresponded to the sounds which we had heard. He was an

aged man, clad in seafaring garb, with an old peajacket buttoned up to his throat. His back was bowed his

knees were shaky, and his breathing was painfully asthmatic. As he leaned upon a thick oaken cudgel his

shoulders heaved in the effort to draw the air into his lungs. He had a coloured scarf round his chin, and I

could see little of his face save a pair of keen dark eyes, overhung by bushy white brows and long gray

sidewhiskers. Altogether he gave me the impression of a re spectable master mariner who had fallen into

"Yes. I knows well where it is. An' I knows where the men he is after are. An' I knows where the treasure is. I

"It was to him I was to tell it," he repeated with the petulant obstinacy of a very old man.

"No, no; I ain't goin' to lose a whole day to please no one. If Mr. Holmes ain't here, then Mr. Holmes must

find it all out for himself. I don't care about the look of either of you, and I won't tell a word."

"Wait a bit, my friend," said he. "You have important information, and you must not walk off. We shall keep

The old man made a little run towards the door, but, as Athelney Jones put his broad back up against it, he

"Pretty sort o' treatment this!" he cried, stamping his stick. "I come here to see a gentleman, and you two,

"You will be none the worse," I said. "We shall recompense you for the loss of your time. Sit over here on the

He came across sullenly enough and seated himself with his face resting on his hands. Jones and I resumed

We both started in our chairs. There was Holmes sitting close to us with an air of quiet amusement.

"Here is the old man," said he, holding out a heap of white hair. "Here he is wig, whiskers, eyebrows, and

all. I thought my disguise was pretty good, but I hardly expected that it would stand that test."

"Ah, you rogue!" cried Jones, highly delighted. "You would have made an actor and a rare one. You had the

proper work house cough, and those weak legs of yours are worth ten pound a week. I thought I knew the

"I have been working in that getup all day," said he, lighting his cigar. "You see, a good many of the

criminal classes begin to know me especially since our friend here took to publishing some of my cases:

so I can only go on the warpath under some simple disguise like this. You got my wire?"

"It has all come to nothing. I have had to release two of my prisoners, and there is no evidence against the

"Never mind. We shall give you two others in the place of them. But you must put yourself under my orders.

You are welcome to all the official credit, but you must act on the lines that I point out. Is that agreed?"

"Well, then, in the first place I shall want, a fast police boat a steam launch to be at the Westminster

"That is easily managed. There is always one about there, but I can step across the road and telephone to

"When we secure the men we shall get the treasure. I think that it would be a pleasure to my friend here to

take the box round to the young lady to whom half of it rightfully belongs. Let her be the first to open it. Eh,

"Rather an irregular proceeding," said Jones, shaking his head. "However, the whole thing is irregular, and I

suppose we must wink at it. The treasure must afterwards be handed over to the authorities until after the

"Certainly. That is easily managed. One other point. I should much like to have a few details about this matter

from the lips of Jonathan Small himself. You know I like to work the details of my cases out. There is no

objection to my having an unofficial interview with him, either here in my rooms or elsewhere, as long as he

"Well, you are master of the situation. I have had no proof yet of the existence of this Jonathan Small.

However, if you can catch him, I don't see how I can refuse you an interview with him."

"Only that I insist upon your dining with us. It will be ready in half an hour. I have oysters and a brace of

grouse, with something a little choice in white wines. Watson, you have never yet recognized my merits

Our meal was a merry one. Holmes could talk exceedingly well when he chose, and that night he did choose.

He appeared to be in a state of nervous exaltation. I have never known him so brilliant. He spoke on a quick

succession of subjects on miracle plays, on medieval pottery, on Stradivarius violins, on the Buddhism of

Ceylon, and on the warships of the future handling each as though he had made a special study of it. His

bright humour marked the reaction from his black depression of the preceding days. Athelney Jones proved to

be a sociable soul in his hours of relaxation and faced his dinner with the air of a bon vivant. For myself, I felt

elated at the thought that we were nearing the end of our task, and I caught something of Holmes's gaiety.

When the cloth was cleared Holmes glanced at his watch and filled up three glasses with port.

"One bumper," said he, "to the success of our little expedi tion. And now it is high time we were off. Have

"You had best take it, then. It is well to be prepared. I see that the cab is at the door. I ordered it for halfpast

It was a little past seven before we reached the Westminster wharf and found our launch awaiting us. Holmes

The small change was made, we stepped on board, and the ropes were cast off. Jones, Holmes, and I sat in the

stern. There was one man at the rudder, one to tend the engines, and two burly policeinspectors forward.

Our craft was evidently a very fast one. We shot past the long lines of loaded barges as though they were

stationary. Holmes smiled with satisfaction as we overhauled a river steamer and left her behind us.

"We shall have to catch the Aurora, and she has a name for being a clipper. I will tell you how the land lies,

"Well, I gave my mind a thorough rest by plunging into a chemical analysis. One of our greatest statesmen

has said that a change of work is the best rest. So it is. When I had succeeded in dissolving the hydrocarbon

which I was at work at, I came back to our problem of the Sholtos, and thought the whole matter out again.

My boys had been up the river and down the river without result. The launch was not at any landingstage or

wharf, nor had it returned. Yet it could hardly have been scuttled to hide their traces, though that always

remained as a possible hypothe sis if all else failed. I knew that this man Small had a certain degree of low

cunning, but I did not think him capable of anything in the nature of delicate finesse. That is usually a product

of higher education. I then reflected that since he had certainly been in London some time as we had

evidence that he maintained a continual watch over Pondicherry Lodge he could hardly leave at a

moment's notice, but would need some little time, if it were only a day, to arrange his affairs. That was the

"It seems to me to be a little weak," said I; "it is more probable that he had arranged his affairs before ever he

"No, I hardly think so. This lair of his would be too valuable a retreat in case of need for him to give it up

until he was sure that he could do without it. But a second consideration struck me. Jonathan Small must have

felt that the peculiar appearance of his companion, however much he may have topcoated him, would give

rise to gossip, and possibly be associated with this Norwood tragedy. He was quite sharp enough to see that.

They had started from their headquarters under cover of darkness, and he would wish to get back before it

was broad light. Now, it was past three o'clock, according to Mrs. Smith, when they got the boat. It would be

quite bright, and people would be about in an hour or so. Therefore, I argued, they did not go very far. They

paid Smith well to hold his tongue, reserved his launch for the final escape, and hurried to their lodgings with

the treasurebox. In a couple of nights, when they had time to see what view the papers took, and whether

there was any suspicion, they would make their way under cover of darkness to some ship at Gravesend or in

the Downs, where no doubt they had already arranged for passages to America or the Colonies."

"Quite so. l argued that the launch must be no great way off, in spite of its invisibility. I then put myself in the

place of Small and looked at it as a man of his capacity would. He would probably consider that to send back

the launch or to keep it at a wharf would make pursuit easy if the police did happen to get on his track. How,

then, could he conceal the launch and yet have her at hand when wanted? I wondered what I should do myself

if I were in his shoes. I could only think of one way of doing it. I might hand the launch over to some

boatbuilder or repairer, with directions to make a trifling change in her. She would then be removed to his

shed or yard, and so be effectually concealed, while at the same time I could have her at a few hours' notice."

"It is just these very simple things which are extremely liable to be overlooked. However, I determined to act

on the idea. I started at once in this harmless seaman's rig and inquired at all the yards down the river. I drew

blank at fifteen, but at the sixteenth Jacobson's I learned that the Aurora had been handed over to them

two days ago by a woodenlegged man, with some trivial directions as to her rudder. 'There ain't naught

amiss with her rudder,' said the foreman. 'There she lies, with the red streaks.' At that moment who should

come down but Mordecai Smith, the missing owner. He was rather the worse for liquor. I should not, of

course, have known him, but he bellowed out his name and the name of his launch. 'I want her tonight at

eight o'clock,' said he 'eight o'clock sharp, mind, for I have two gentlemen who won't be kept waiting.'

They had evidently paid him well, for he was very flush of money, chucking shillings about to the men. I

followed him some distance, but he subsided into an alehouse; so I went back to the yard, and, happening to

pick up one of my boys on the way, I stationed him as a sentry over the launch. He is to stand at the water's

edge and wave his handkerchief to us when they start. We shall be lying off in the stream, and it will be a

"You have planned it all very neatly, whether they are the right men or not," said Jones; "but if the affair were

in my hands I should have had a body of police in Jacobson's Yard and arrested them when they came down."

"Which would have been never. This man Small is a pretty shrewd fellow. He would send a scout on ahead,

"But you might have stuck to Mordecai Smith, and so been led to their hidingplace," said I.

"In that case I should have wasted my day. I think that it is a hundred to one against Smith knowing where

they live. As long as he has liquor and good pay, why should he ask questions? They send him messages

While this conversation had been proceeding, we had been shooting the long series of bridges which span the

Thames. As we passed the City the last rays of the sun were gilding the cross upon the summit of St. Paul's. It

"That is Jacobson's Yard," said Holmes, pointing to a bristle of masts and rigging on the Surrey side. "Cruise

gently up and down here under cover of this string of lighters." He took a pair of nightglasses from his

pocket and gazed some time at the shore. "I see my sentry at his post," he remarked, "but no sign of a

"Suppose we go downstream a short way and lie in wait for them," said Jones eagerly.

We were all eager by this time, even the policemen and stokers, who had a very vague idea of what was

"We have no right to take anything for granted," Holmes answered. "It is certainly ten to one that they go

downstream, but we cannot be certain. From this point we can see the entrance of the yard, and they can

hardly see us. It will be a clear night and plenty of light. We must stay where we are. See how the folk swarm

"Dirtylooking rascals, but I suppose every one has some little immortal spark concealed about him. You

would not think it, to look at them. There is no a priori probability about it. A strange enigma is man!"

"Winwood Reade is good upon the subject," said Holmes. "He remarks that, while the individual man is an

insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty. You can, for example, never foretell

what any one man will do, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to. Individuals

vary, but percentages remain constant. So says the statistician. But do I see a handkerchief? Surely there is a

"And there is the Aurora," exclaimed Holmes, "and going like the devil! Full speed ahead, engineer. Make

after that launch with the yellow light. By heaven, I shall never forgive myself if she proves to have the heels

She had slipped unseen through the yardentrance and passed between two or three small craft, so that she

had fairly got her speed up before we saw her. Now she was flying down the stream, near in to the shore,

"We must catch her!" cried Holmes between his teeth. "Heap it on, stokers! Make her do all she can! If we

We were fairly after her now. The furnaces roared, and the powerful engines whizzed and clanked like a great

metallic heart. Her sharp, steep prow cut through the still riverwater and sent two rolling waves to right and

to left of us. With every throb of the engines we sprang and quivered like a living thing. One great yellow

lantern in our bows threw a long, flickering funnel of light in front of us. Right ahead a dark blur upon the

water showed where the Aurora lay, and the swirl of white foam behind her spoke of the pace at which she

was going. We flashed past barges, steamers, merchantvessels, in and out, behind this one and round the

other. Voices hailed us out of the darkness, but still the Aurora thundered on, and still we followed close

"Pile it on, men, pile it on!" cried Holmes, looking down into the engineroom, while the fierce glow from

At that moment, however, as our evil fate would have it, a tug with three barges in tow blundered in between

us. It was only by putting our helm hard down that we avoided a collision, and before we could round them

and recover our way the Aurora had gained a good two hundred yards. She was still, however, well in view,

and the murky, uncertain twilight was settling into a clear, starlit night. Our boilers were strained to their

utmost, and the frail shell vibrated and creaked with the fierce energy which was driving us along. We had

shot through the pool, past the West India Docks, down the long Deptford Reach, and up again after rounding

the Isle of Dogs. The dull blur in front of us resolved itself now clearly into the dainty Aurora. Jones turned

our searchlight upon her, so that we could plainly see the figures upon her deck. One man sat by the stern,

with something black between his knees, over which he stooped. Beside him lay a dark mass, which looked

like a Newfoundland dog. The boy held the tiller, while against the red glare of the furnace I could see old

Smith, stripped to the waist, and shovelling coals for dear life. They may have had some doubt at first as to

whether we were really pursuing them, but now as we followed every winding and turning which they took

there could no longer be any question about it. At Greenwich we were about three hundred paces behind

them. At Blackwall we could not have been more than two hundred and fifty. I have coursed many creatures

in many countries during my checkered career, but never did sport give me such a wild thrill as this mad,

flying manhunt down the Thames. Steadily we drew in upon them, yard by yard. In the silence of the night

we could hear the panting and clanking of their machinery. The man in the stern still crouched upon the deck,

and his arms were moving as though he were busy, while every now and then he would look up and measure

with a glance the distance which still separated us. Nearer we came and nearer. Jones yelled to them to stop.

We were not more than four boat'slengths behind them, both boats flying at a tremendous pace. It was a

clear reach of the river, with Barking Level upon one side and the melancholy Plumstead Marshes upon the

other. At our hail the man in the stern sprang up from the deck and shook his two clenched fists at us, cursing

the while in a high, cracked voice. He was a goodsized, powerful man, and as he stood poising himself with

legs astride I could see that from the thigh downward there was but a wooden stump upon the right side. At

the sound of his strident, angry cries, there was move ment in the huddled bundle upon the deck. It

straightened itself into a little black man the smallest I have ever seen with a great, misshapen head

and a shock of tangled, dishevelled hair. Holmes had already drawn his revolver, and I whipped out mine at

the sight of this savage, distorted creature. He was wrapped in some sort of dark ulster or blanket, which left

only his face exposed, but that face was enough to give a man a sleepless night. Never have I seen features so

deeply marked with all bestiality and cruelty. His small eyes glowed and burned with a sombre light, and his

thick lips were writhed back from his teeth, Which grinned and chattered at us with half animal fury.

We were within a boat'slength by this time, and almost within touch of our quarry. I can see the two of them

now as they stood, the white man with his legs far apart, shrieking out curses, and the unhallowed dwarf with

his hideous face, and his strong yellow teeth gnashing at us in the light of our lantern.

It was well that we had so clear a view of him. Even as we looked he plucked out from under his covering a

short, round piece of wood, like a schoolruler, and clapped it to his lips. Our pistols rang out together. He

whirled round, threw up his arms and, with a kind of choking cough, fell sideways into the stream. I caught

one glimpse of his venomous, menacing eyes amid the white swirl of the waters. At the same moment the

wooden legged man threw himself upon the rudder and put it hard down so that his boat made straight in for

the southern bank, while we shot past her stern, only clearing her by a few feet. We were round after her in an

instant, but she was already nearly at the bank. It was a wild and desolate place, where the moon glim mered

upon a wide expanse of marshland, with pools of stag nant water and beds of decaying vegetation. The

launch, with a dull thud, ran up upon the mudbank, with her bow in the air and her stern flush with the

water. The fugitive sprang out, but his stump instantly sank its whole length into the sodden soil. In vain he

struggled and writhed. Not one step could he possibly take either forward or backward. He yelled in impotent

rage and kicked frantically into the mud with his other foot, but his struggles only bored his wooden pin the

deeper into the sticky bank. When we brought our launch alongside he was so firmly anchored that it was

only by throwing the end of a rope over his shoulders that we were able to haul him out and to drag him, like

some evil fish, over our side. The two Smiths, father and son, sat sullenly in their launch but came aboard

meekly enough when commanded. The Aurora herself we hauled off and made fast to our stern. A solid iron

chest of Indian workmanship stood upon the deck. This, there could be no question, was the same that had

contained the illomened treasure of the Sholtos. There was no key, but it was of considerable weight, so we

transferred it carefully to our own little cabin. As we steamed slowly upstream again, we flashed our

searchlight in every direction, but there was no sign of the Islander. Somewhere in the dark ooze at the

"See here," said Holmes, pointing to the wooden hatchway. "We were hardly quick enough with our pistols;"

There, sure enough, just behind where we had been standing, stuck one of those murderous darts which we

knew so well. It must have whizzed between us at the instant we fired. Holmes smiled at it and shrugged his

shoulders in his easy fashion, but I confess that it turned me sick to think of the horrible death which had

Oor captive sat in the cabin opposite to the iron box which he had done so much and waited so long to gain.

He was a sunburned recklesseyed fellow, with a network of lines and wrinkles all over his mahogany

features, which told of a hard, openair life. There was a singular prominence about his bearded chin which

marked a man who was not to be easily turned from his purpose. His age may have been fifty or thereabouts,

for his black, curly hair was thickly shot with gray. His face in repose was not an unpleasing one, though his

heavy brows and aggres sive chin gave him, as I had lately seen, a terrible expression when moved to anger.

He sat now with his handcuffed hands upon his lap, and his head sunk upon his breast, while he looked with

his keen, twinkling eyes at the box which had been the cause of his illdoings. It seemed to me that there was

more sorrow than anger in his rigid and contained countenance. Once he looked up at me with a gleam of

"Well, Jonathan Small," said Holmes, lighting a cigar, "I am sorry that it has come to this."

"And so am I, sir," he answered frankly. "I don't believe that I can swing over the job. I give you my word on

the book that I never raised hand against Mr. Sholto. It was that little hellhound; Tonga, who shot one of his

cursed darts into him. I had no part in it, sir. I was as grieved as if it had been my bloodrelation. I welted the

little devil with the slack end of the rope for it, but it was done, and I could not undo it again."

"Have a cigar," said Holmes; "and you had best take a pull out of my flask, for you are very wet. How could

you expect so small and weak a man as this black fellow to overpower Mr. Sholto and hold him while you

"You seem to know as much about it as if you were there, sir. The truth is that I hoped to find the room clear.

I knew the habits of the house pretty well, and it was the time when Mr. Sholto usually went down to his

supper. I shall make no secret of the business. The best defence that I can make is just the simple truth. Now,

if it had been the old major I would have swung for him with a light heart. I would have thought no more of

knifing him than of smoking this cigar. But it's cursed hard that I should be lagged over this young Sholto,

"You are under the charge of Mr. Athelney Jones, of Scotland Yard. He is going to bring you up to my

rooms, and I shall ask you for a true account of the matter. You must make a clean breast of it, for if you do I

hope that I may be of use to you. I think T can prove that the poison acts so quickly that the man was dead

"That he was, sir. I never got such a turn in my life as when I saw him grinning at me with his head on his

shoulder as I climbed through the window. It fairly shook me, sir. I'd have half killed Tonga for it if he had

not scrambled off. That was how he came to leave his club, and some of his darts too, as he tells me, which I

dare say helped to put you on our track; though how you kept on it is more than I can tell. I don't feel no

malice against you for it. But it does seem a queer thing," he added with a bitter smile, "that I, who have a fair

claim to half a million of money, should spend the first half of my life building a breakwater in the

Andamans, and am like to spend the other half digging drains at Dartmoor. It was an evil day for me when

first I clapped eyes upon the merchant Achmet and had to do with the Agra treasure, which never brought

anything but a curse yet upon the man who owned it. To him it brought murder, to Major Sholto it brought

At this moment Athelney Jones thrust his broad face and heavy shoulders into the tiny cabin.

"Quite a family party," he remarked. "I think I shall have a pull at that flask, Holmes. Well, I think we may

all congratulate each other. Pity we didn't take the other alive, but there was no choice. I say, Holmes, you

must confess that you cut it rather fine. It was all we could do to overhaul her."

"All is well that ends well," said Holmes. "But I certainly did not know that the Aurora was such a clipper."

"Smith says she is one of the fastest launches on the river, and that if he had had another man to help him

with the engines we should never have caught her. He swears he knew nothing of this Norwood business."

"Neither he did," cried our prisoner "not a word. I chose his launch because I heard that she was a flier.

We told him nothing; but we paid him well, and he was to get something handsome if we reached our vessel,

"Well, if he has done no wrong we shall see that no wrong comes to him. If we are pretty quick in catching

our men, we are not so quick in condemning them." It was amusing to notice how the consequential Jones

was already beginning to give himself airs on the strength of the capture. From the slight smile which played

over Sherlock Holmes's face, I could see that the speech had not been lost upon him.

"'We will be at Vauxhall Bridge presently," said Jones, "and shall land you, Dr. Watson, with the

treasurebox. I need hardly tell you that I am taking a very grave responsibility upon myself in doing this. It

is most irregular, but of course an agreement is an agreement. I must, however, as a matter of duty, send an

inspector with you, since you have so valuable a charge. You will drive, no doubt?"

"It is a pity there is no key, that we may make an inventory first. You will have to break it open. Where is the

"Hum! There was no use your giving this unnecessary trou ble. We have had work enough already through

you. However, Doctor, I need not warn you to be careful. Bring the box back with you to the Baker Street

They landed me at Vauxhall, with my heavy iron box, and with a bluff, genial inspector as my companion. A

quarter of an hour's drive brought us to Mrs. Cecil Forrester's. The servant seemed surprised at so late a

visitor. Mrs. Cecil Forrester was out for the evening, she explained, and likely to be very late. Miss Morstan,

however, was in the drawingroom, so to the drawingroom I went, box in hand, leaving the obliging

She was seated by the open window, dressed in some sort of white diaphanous material, with a little touch of

scarlet at the neck and waist. The soft light of a shaded lamp fell upon her as she leaned back in the basket

chair, playing over her sweet grave face, and tinting with a dull, metallic sparkle the rich coils of her

luxuriant hair. One white arm and hand drooped over the side of the chair, and her whole pose and figure

spoke of an absorbing melancholy. At the sound of my footfall she sprang to her feet, however, and a bright

"I heard a cab drive up," she said. "I thought that Mrs. Forrester had come back very early, but I never

"I have brought something better than news," said I, putting down the box upon the table and speaking

jovially and boister ously, though my heart was heavy within me. "I have brought you something which is

"Yes, this is the great Agra treasure. Half of it is yours and half is Thaddeus Sholto's. You will have a couple

of hundred thousand each. Think of that! An annuity of ten thousand pounds. There will be few richer young

I think I must have been rather overacting my delight, and that she defected a hollow ring in my

congratulations, for I saw her eyebrows rise a little, and she glanced at me curiously.

"No, no," I answered, "not to me but to my friend Sherlock Holmes. With all the will in the world, I could

never have followed upa clue which has taxed even his analytical genius. As it was, we very nearly lost it at

I narrated briefly what had occurred since I had seen her last. Holmes's new method of search, the discovery

of the Aurora, the appearance of Athelney Jones, our expedition in the evening, and the wild chase down the

Thames. She listened with parted lips and shining eyes to my recital of our adventures. When I spoke of the

dart which had so narrowly missed us, she turned so white that I feared that she was about to faint.

"It is nothing," she said as I hastened to pour her out some water. "I am all right again. It was a shock to me to

"That is all over," I answered. "It was nothing. I will tell you no more gloomy details. Let us turn to

something brighter. There is the treasure. What could be brighter than that? I got leave to bring it with me,

"It would be of the greatest interest to me," she said. There was no eagerness in her voice, however. It had

struck her, doubtless, that it might seem ungracious upon her part to be indifferent to a prize which had cost

"What a pretty box!" she said, stooping over it. "This is Indian work, I suppose?"

"And so heavy!" she exclaimed, trying to raise it. "The box alone must be of some value. Where is the key?"

"Small threw it into the Thames," I answered. "I must borrow Mrs. Forrester's poker."

There was in the front a thick and broad hasp, wrought in the image of a sitting Buddha. Under this I thrust

the end of the poker and twisted it outward as a lever. The hasp sprang open with a loud snap. With trembling

fingers I flung back the lid. We both stood gazing in astonishment. The box was empty!

No wonder that it was heavy. The ironwork was twothirds of an inch thick all round. It was massive, well

made, and solid, like a chest constructed to carry things of great price, but not one shred or crumb of metal or

As I listened to the words and realized what they meant, a great shadow seemed to pass from my soul. I did

not know how this Agra treasure had weighed me down until now that it was finally removed. It was selfish,

no doubt, disloyal, wrong, but I could realize nothing save that the golden barrier was gone from between us.

"Because you are within my reach again," I said, taking her hand. She did not withdraw it. "Because I love

you, Mary, as truly as ever a man loved a woman. Because this treasure, these riches, sealed my lips. Now

that they are gone I can tell you how I love you. That is why I said, 'Thank God.' "

A very patient man was that inspector in the cab, for it was a weary time before I rejoined him. His face

"There goes the reward!" said he gloomily. "Where there is no money there is no pay. This night's work

would have been worth a tenner each to Sam Brown and me if the treasure had been there."

"Mr. Thaddeus Sholto is a rich man," I said; "he will see that you are rewarded, treasure or no."

His forecast proved to be correct, for the detective looked blank enough when I got to Baker Street and

showed him the empty box. They had only just arrived, Holmes, the prisoner, and he, for they had changed

their plans so far as to report themselves at a station upon the way. My companion lounged in his armchair

with his usual listless expression, while Small sat stolidly opposite to him with his wooden leg cocked over

his sound one. As I exhibited the empty box he leaned back in his chair and laughed aloud.

"Yes, I have put it away where you shall never lay hand upon it," he cried exultantly. "It is my treasure, and if

I can't have the loot I'll take darned good care that no one else does. I tell you that no living man has any right

to it, unless it is three men who are in the Andaman convictbarracks and myself. I know now that I cannot

have the use of it, and I know that they cannot. I have acted all through for them as much as for myself. It's

been the sign of four with us always. Well, I know that they would have had me do just what I have done, and

throw the treasure into the Thames rather than let it go to kith or kin of Sholto or Morstan. It was not to make

them rich that we did for Achmet. You'll find the treasure where the key is and where little Tonga is. When I

saw that your launch must catch us, I put the loot away in a safe place. There are no rupees for you this

"You are deceiving us, Small," said Athelney Jones sternly; "if you had wished to throw the treasure into the

"Easier for me to throw and easier for you to recover," he answered with a shrewd, sidelong look. "The man

that was clever enough to hunt me down is clever enough to pick an iron box from the bottom of a river. Now

that they are scattered over five miles or so, it may be a harder job. It went to my heart to do it though. I was

half mad when you came up with us. However, there's no good grieving over it. I've had ups in my life, and

"This is a very serious matter, Small," said the detective. "If you had helped justice, instead of thwarting it in

"Justice!" snarled the exconvict. "A pretty justice! Whose loot is this, if it is not ours? Where is the justice

that I should give it up to those who have never earned it? Look how I have earned it! Twenty long years in

that feverridden swamp, all day at work under the mangrovetree, all night chained up in the filthy

convicthuts, bitten by mosquitoes, racked with ague, bullied by every cursed blackfaced policeman who

loved to take it out of a white man. That was how I earned the Agra treasure, and you talk to me of justice

because I cannot bear to feel that I have paid this price only that another may enjoy it! I would rather swing a

score of times, or have one of Tonga's darts in my hide, than live in a convict's cell and feel that another man

Small had dropped his mask of stoicism, and all this came out in a wild whirl of words, while his eyes blazed,

and the hand cuffs clanked together with the impassioned movement of his hands. I could understand, as I

saw the fury and the passion of the man, that it was no groundless or unnatural terror which had possessed

"You forget that we know nothing of all this," said Holmes quietly. "We have not heard your story, and we

"Well, sir, you have been very fairspoken to me, though I can see that I have you to thank that I have these

bracelets upon my wrists. Still, I bear no grudge for that. It is all fair and aboveboard. If you want to hear

my story, I have no wish to hold it back. What I say to you is God's truth, every word of it. Thank you, you

"I am a Worcestershire man myself, born near Pershore. I dare say you would find a heap of Smalls living

there now if you were to look. I have often thought of taking a look round there, but the truth is that I was

never much of a credit to the family, and I doubt if they would be so very glad to see me. They were all

steady, chapelgoing folk, small farmers, well known and respected over the countryside, while I was always

a bit of a rover. At last, however, when I was about eighteen, I gave them no more trouble, for I got into a

mess over a girl and could only get out of it again by taking the Queen's shilling and joining the Third Buffs,

"I wasn't destined to do much soldiering, however. I had just got past the goosestep and learned to handle

my musket, when I was fool enough to go swimming in the Ganges. Luckily for me, my company sergeant,

John Holder, was in the water at the same time, and he was one of the finest swimmers in the service. A

crocodile took me just as I was halfway across and nipped off my right leg as clean as a surgeon could have

done it, just above the knee. What with the shock and the loss of blood, I fainted, and should have been

drowned if Holder had not caught hold of me and paddled for the bank. I was five months in hospital over it,

and when at last I was able to limp out of it with this timber toe strapped to my stump, I found myself

"I was, as you can imagine, pretty down on my luck at this time, for I was a useless cripple, though not yet in

my twentieth year. However, my misfortune soon proved to be a blessing in disguise. A man named Abel

White, who had come out there as an indigoplanter, wanted an overseer to look after his coolies and keep

them up to their work. He happened to be a friend of our colonel's, who had taken an interest in me since the

acci dent. To make a long story shon, the colonel recommended me strongly for the post, and, as the work

was mostly to be done on horseback, my leg was no great obstacle, for I had enough thigh left to keep a good

grip on the saddle. What I had to do was to ride over the plantation, to keep an eye on the men as they

worked, and to report the idlers. The pay was fair, I had com fortable quarters, and altogether I was content

to spend the remainder of my life in indigoplanting. Mr. Abel White was a kind man, and he would often

drop into my little shanty and smoke a pipe with me, for white folk out there feel their hearts warm to each

"Well, I was never in luck's way long. Suddenly, without a note of warning, the great mutiny broke upon us.

One month India lay as still and peaceful, to all appearance, as Surrey or Kent; the next there were two

hundred thousand black devils let loose, and the country was a perfect hell. Of course you know all about it,

gentlemen a deal more than I do, very like, since reading is not in my line. I only know what I saw with

my own eyes. Our plantation was at a place called Muttra, near the border of the Nonhwest Provinces. Night

after night the whole sky was alight with the burning bungalows, and day after day we had small companies

of Europeans passing through our estate with their wives and children, on their way to Agra, where were the

nearest troops. Mr. Abel White was an obstinate man. He had it in his head that the affair had been

exaggerated, and that it would blow over as suddenly as it had sprung up. There he sat on his veranda,

drinking whiskypegs and smoking cheroots, while the country was in a blaze about him. Of course we stuck

by him, I and Dawson, who, with his wife. used to do the bookwork and the managing. Well, one fine day

the crash came. I had been away on a distant plantation and was riding slowly home in the evening, when my

eye fell upon something all huddled together at the bottom of a steep nullah. I rode down to see what it was,

and the cold struck through my heart when I found it was Dawson's wife, all cut into ribbons, and half eaten

by jackals and native dogs. A little further up the road Dawson himself was lying on his face, quite dead, with

an empty re volver in his hand, and four sepoys lying across each other in front of him. I reined up my

horse, wondering which way I should turn; but at that moment I saw thick smoke curling up from Abel

White's bungalow and the flames beginning to burst through the roof. I knew then that I could do my

employer no good, but would only throw my own life away if I meddled in the matter. From where I stood I

could see hundreds of the black fiends, with their red coats still on their backs, dancing and howling round

the burning house. Some of them pointed at me, and a couple of bullets sang past my head: so I broke away

across the paddyfields, and found myself late at night safe within the walls at Agra.

"As it proved, however, there was no great safety there, either. The whole country was up like a swarm of

bees. Wher ever the English could collect in little bands they held just the ground that their guns

commanded. Everywhere else they were helpless fugitives. It was a fight of the millions against the hundreds;

and the cruellest part of it was that these men that we fought against, foot, horse, and gunners, were our own

picked troops, whom we had taught and trained, handling our own weapons and blowing our own

buglecalls. At Agra there were the Third Bengal Fusiliers, some Sikhs, two troops of horse, and a battery of

artillery. A volunteer corps of clerks and merchants had been formed, and this I joined, wooden leg and all.

We went out to meet the rebels at Shahgunge early in July, and we beat them back for a time, but our powder

"Nothing but the worst news came to us from every side which is not to be wondered at, for if you look at

the map you will see that we were right in the heart of it. Lucknow is rather better than a hundred miles to the

east, and Cawnpore about as far to the south. From every point on the compass there was nothing but torture

"The city of Agra is a great place, swarming with fanatics and fierce devilworshippers of all sorts. Our

handful of men were lost among the narrow, winding streets. Our leader moved across the river, therefore,

and took up his position in the old fort of Agra. I don't know if any of you gentlemen have ever read or heard

anything of that old fort. It is a very queer place the queerest that ever I was in, and I have been in some

rum corners, too. First of all it is enormous in size. I should think that the enclosure must be acres and acres.

There is a modern part, which took all our garrison, women, children, stores, and everything else, with plenty

of room over. But the modern part is nothing like the size of the old quarter, where nobody goes, and which is

given over to the scorpions and the centipedes. It is all full of great deserted halls, and winding passages, and

long corridors twisting in and out, so that it is easy enough for folk to get lost in it. For this reason it was

seldom that anyone went into it, though now and again a party with torches might go exploring.

"The river washes along the front of the old fort, and so protects it, but on the sides and behind there are

many doors, and these had to be guarded, of course, in the old quarter as well as in that which was actually

held by our troops. We were short handed, with hardly men enough to man the angles of the building and to

serve the guns. It was impossible for us, there fore, to station a strong guard at every one of the innumerable

gates. What we did was to organize a central guardhouse in the middle of the fort, and to leave each gate

under the charge of one white man and two or three natives. I was selected to take charge during certain hours

of the night of a small isolated door upon the southwest side of the building. Two Sikh troopers were placed

under my command, and I was instructed if anything went wrong to fire my musket, when I might rely upon

help coming at once from the central guard. As the guard was a good two hundred paces away, however, and

as the space between was cut up into a labyrinth of passages and corridors, I had great doubts as to whether

"Well, I was pretty proud at having this small command given me, since I was a raw recruit, and a

gamelegged one at that. For two nights I kept the watch with my Punjabees. They were tall, fiercelooking

chaps, Mahomet Singh and Abdullah Khan by name, both old fighting men, who had borne arms against us at

Chilian Wallah. They could talk English pretty well, but I could get little out of them. They preferred to stand

together, and jabber all night in their queer Sikh lingo. For myself, I used to stand outside the gateway,

looking down on the broad, winding river and on the twinkling lights of the great city. The beating of drums,

the rattle of tomtoms, and the yells and howls of the rebels, drunk with opium and with bang, were enough to

remind us all night of our dangerous neighbours across the stream. Every two hours the officer of the night

"The third night of my watch was dark and dirty, with a small driving rain. It was dreary work standing in the

gateway hour after hour in such weather. I tried again and again to make my Sikhs talk, but without much

success. At two in the morning the rounds passed and broke for a moment the weariness of the night. Finding

that my companions would not be led into conver sation, I took out my pipe and laid down my musket to

strike the match. In an instant the two Sikhs were upon me. One of them snatched my firelock up and levelled

it at my head, while the other held a great knife to my throat and swore between his teeth that he would

"My first thought was that these fellows were in league with the rebels, and that this was the beginning of an

assault. If our door were in the hands of the sepoys the place must fall, and the women and children be treated

as they were in Cawnpore. Maybe you gentlemen think that I am just making out a case for myself, but I give

you my word that when I thought of that, though I felt the point of the knife at my throat, I opened my mouth

with the intention of giving a scream, if it was my last one, which might alarm the main guard. The man who

held me seemed to know my thoughts; for, even as I braced myself to it, he whispered: 'Don't make a noise.

The fort is safe enough. There are no rebel dogs on this side of the river.' There was the ring of truth in what

he said, and I knew that if I raised my voice I was a dead man. I could read it in the fellow's brown eyes. I

" 'Listen to me, sahib,' said the taller and fiercer of the pair, the one whom they called Abdullah Khan. 'You

must either be with us now, or you must be silenced forever. The thing is too great a one for us to hesitate.

Either you are heart and soul with us on your oath on the cross of the Christians, or your body this night shall

be thrown into the ditch, and we shall pass over to our brothers in the rebel army. There is no middle way.

Which is it to be death or life? We can only give you three minutes to decide, for the time is passing, and

" 'How can I decide?' said I. 'You have not told me what you want of me. But I tell you now that if it is

anything against the safety of the fort I will have no truck with it, so you can drive home your knife and

" 'It is nothing against the fort,' said he. 'We only ask you to do that which your countrymen come to this land

for. We ask you to be rich. If you will be one of us this night, we will swear to you upon the naked knife, and

by the threefold oath which no Sikh was ever known to break, that you shall have your fair share of the loot.

" 'But what is the treasure then?' I asked. 'I am as ready to be rich as you can be if you will but show me how

" 'You will swear, then,' said he, 'by the bones of your father, by the honour of your mother, by the cross of

your faith, to raise no hand and speak no word against us, either now or afterwards?'

" 'Then my comrade and I will swear that you shall have a quarter of the treasure which shall be equally

" 'No; Dost Akbar must have his share. We can tell the tale to you while we wait them. Do you stand at the

gate, Mahomet Singh, and give notice of their coming. The thing stands thus, sahib, and I tell it to you

because I know that an oath is binding upon a Feringhee, and that we may trust you. Had you been a lying

Hindoo, though you had sworn by all the gods in their false temples, your blood would have been upon the

knife and your body in the water. But the Sikh knows the Englishman, and the Englishman knows the Sikh.

" 'There is a rajah in the northern provinces who has much wealth, though his lands are small. Much has

come to him from his father, and more still he has set by himself, for he is of a low nature and hoards his gold

rather than spend it. When the troubles broke out he would be friends both with the lion and the tiger with

the sepoy and with the Company's raj. Soon, how ever, it seemed to him that the white men's day was come,

for through all the land he could hear of nothing but of their death and their overthrow. Yet, being a careful

man, he made such plans that, come what might, half at least of his treasure should be left to him. That which

was in gold and silver he kept by him in the vaults of his palace, but the most precious stones and the choicest

pearls that he had he put in an iron box and sent it by a trusty servant, who, under the guise of a merchant,

should take it to the fort at Agra, there to lie until the land is at peace. Thus, if the rebels won he would have

his money, but if the Company conquered, his jewels would be saved to him. Having thus divided his hoard,

he threw himself into the cause of the sepoys, since they were strong upon his borders. By his doing this,

mark you, sahib, his property becomes the due of those who have been true to their salt.

" 'This pretended merchant, who travels under the name of Achmet, is now in the city of Agra and desires to

gain his way into the fort. He has with him as travellingcompanion my fosterbrother Dost Akbar, who

knows his secret. Dost Akbar has promised this night to lead him to a sidepostern of the fort, and has chosen

this one for his purpose. Here he will come presently, and here he will find Mahomet Singh and myself

awaiting him. The place is lonely, and none shall know of his coming. The world shall know the merchant

Achmet no more, but the great treasure of the rajah shall be divided among us. What say you to it, sahib?'

"In Worcestershire the life of a man seems a great and a sacred thing; but it is very different when there is fire

and blood all round you, and you have been used to meeting death at every turn. Whether Achmet the

merchant lived or died was a thing as light as air to me, but at the talk about the treasure my heart turned to it,

and I thought of what I might do in the old country with it, and how my folk would stare when they saw their

ne'erdowell coming back with his pockets full of gold moi dores. I had, therefore, already made up my

mind. Abdullah Khan, however, thinking that I hesitated, pressed the matter more closely.

" 'Consider, sahib,' said he, 'that if this man is taken by the commandant he will be hung or shot, and his

jewels taken by the government, so that no man will be a rupee the better for them. Now, since we do the

taking of him, why should we not do the rest as well? The jewels will be as well with us as in the Company's

coffers. There will be enough to make every one of us rich men and great chiefs. No one can know about the

matter, for here we are cut off from all men. What could be better for the purpose? Say again, then, sahib,

" 'It is well,' he answered, handing me back my firelock. 'You see that we trust you, for your word, like ours,

" 'The plan is his. He has devised it. We will go to the gate and share the watch with Mahomet Singh.'

"The rain was still falling steadily, for it was just the begin ning of the wet season. Brown, heavy clouds

were drifting across the sky, and it was hard to see more than a stonecast. A deep moat lay in front of our

door, but the water was in places nearly dried up, and it could easily be crossed. It was strange to me to be

standing there with those two wild Punjabees waiting for the man who was coming to his death.

"Suddenly my eye caught the glint of a shaded lantern at the other side of the moat. It vanished among the

" 'You will challenge him, sahib, as usual,' whispered Abdul lah. 'Give him no cause for fear. Send us in

with him, and we shall do the rest while you stay here on guard. Have the lantern ready to uncover, that we

"The light had flickered onward, now stopping and now advancing, until I could see two dark figures upon

the other side of the moat. I let them scramble down the sloping bank, splash through the mire, and climb

" 'Friends,' came the answer. I uncovered my lantern and threw a flood of light upon them. The first was an

enormous Sikh with a black beard which swept nearly down to his cum merbund. Outside of a show I have

never seen so tall a man. The other was a little fat, round fellow with a great yellow turban and a bundle in his

hand, done up in a shawl. He seemed to be all in a quiver with fear, for his hands twitched as if he had the

ague, and his head kept turning to left and right with two bright little twinkling eyes, like a mouse when he

ventures out from his hole. It gave me the chills to think of killing him, but I thought of the treasure, and my

heart set as hard as a flint within me. When he saw my white face he gave a little chirrup of joy and came

" 'Your protection, sahib,' he panted, 'your protection for the unhappy merchant Achmet. I have travelled

across Rajpootana, that I might seek the shelter of the fort at Agra. I have been robbed and beaten and abused

because I have been the friend of the Company. It is a blessed night this when I am once more in safety I

" 'An iron box,' he answered, 'which contains one or two little family matters which are of no value to others

but which I should be sorry to lose. Yet I am not a beggar; and I shall reward you, young sahib, and your

"I could not trust myself to speak longer with the man. The more I looked at his fat, frightened face, the

harder did it seem that we should slay him in cold blood. It was best to get it over.

" 'Take him to the main guard,' said I. The two Sikhs closed in upon him on each side, and the giant walked

behind, while they marched in through the dark gateway. Never was a man so compassed round with death. I

"I could hear the measured tramp of their footsteps sounding through the lonely corridors. Suddenly it ceased,

and I heard voices and a scuffle, with the sound of blows. A moment later there came, to my horror, a rush of

footsteps coming in my direction, with a loud breathing of a running man. I turned my lantern down the long

straight passage, and there was the fat man, running like the wind, with a smear of blood across his face, and

close at his heels, bounding like a tiger, the great blackbearded Sikh, with a knife flashing in his hand. I

have never seen a man run so fast as that little merchant. He was gaining on the Sikh, and I could see that if

he once passed me and got to the open air he would save himself yet. My heart softened to him, but again the

thought of his treasure turned me hard and bitter. I cast my firelock between his legs as he raced past, and he

rolled twice over like a shot rabbit. Ere he could stagger to his feet the Sikh was upon him and buried his

knife twice in his side. The man never uttered moan nor moved muscle but lay where he had fallen. I think

myself that he may have broken his neck with the fall. You see, gentlemen, that I am keeping my promise. I

am telling you every word of the business just exactly as it happened, whether it is in my favour or not."

He stopped and held out his manacled hands for the whisky and water which Holmes had brewed for him.

For myself, I confess that I had now conceived the utmost horror of the man not only for this coldblooded

business in which he had been concerned but even more for the somewhat flippant and careless way in which

he narrated it. Whatever punishment was in store for him, I felt that he might expect no sympathy from me.

Sherlock Holmes and Jones sat with their hands upon their knees, deeply interested in the story but with the

same disgust written upon their faces. He may have observed it, for there was a touch of defiance in his voice

"It was all very bad, no doubt," said he. "I should like to know how many fellows in my shoes would have

refused a share of this loot when they knew that they would have their throats cut for their pains. Besides, it

was my life or his when once he was in the fort. If he had got out, the whole business would come to light,

and I should have been courtmartialled and shot as likely as not; for people were not very lenient at a time

"Well, we carried him in, Abdullah, Akbar, and I. A fine weight he was, too, for all that he was so shorrt.

Mahomet Singh was left to guard the door. We took him to a place which the Sikhs had already prepared. It

was some distance off, where a winding passage leads to a great empty hall, the brick walls of which were all

crumbling to pieces. The earth floor had sunk in at one place, making a natural grave, so we left Achmet the

merchant there, having first covered him over with loose bricks. This done, we all went back to the treasure.

"It lay where he had dropped it when he was first attacked. The box was the same which now lies open upon

your table. A key was hung by a silken cord to that carved handle upon the top. We opened it, and the light of

the lantern gleamed upon a collection of gems such as I have read of and thought about when I was a little lad

at Pershore. It was blinding to look upon them. When we had feasted our eyes we took them all out and made

a list of them. There were one hundred and forty three diamonds of the first water, including one which has

been called, I believe, 'the Great Mogul,' and is said to be the second largest stone in existence. Then there

were ninetyseven very fine emeralds, and one hundred and seventy rubies, some of which, however, were

small. There were forty carbuncles, two hundred and ten sapphires, sixtyone agates, and a great quantity of

beryls, onyxes, cats'eyes, turquoises, and other stones, the very names of which I did not know at the time,

though I have become more familiar with them since. Besides this, there were nearly three hundred very fine

pearls, twelve of which were set in a gold coronet. By the way, these last had been taken out of the chest, and

"After we had counted our treasures we put them back into the chest and carried them to the gateway to show

them to Mahomet Singh. Then we solemnly renewed our oath to stand by each other and be true to our secret.

We agreed to conceal our loot in a safe place until the country should be at peace again, and then to divide it

equally among ourselves. There was no use dividing it at present, for if gems of such value were found upon

us it would cause suspicion, and there was no privacy in the fort nor any place where we could keep them.

We carried the box, therefore, into the same hall where we had buried the body, and there, under certain

bricks in the bestpreserved wall, we made a hollow and put our treasure. We made careful note of the place,

and next day I drew four plans, one for each of us, and put the sign of the four of us at the bottom, for we had

sworn that we should each always act for all, so that none might take advan tage. That is an oath that I can

"Well, there's no use my telling you gentlemen what came of the Indian mutiny. After Wilson took Delhi and

Sir Colin re lieved Lucknow the back of the business was broken. Fresh troops came pouring in, and Nana

Sahib made himself scarce over the frontier. A flying column under Colonel Greathed came round to Agra

and cleared the Pandies away from it. Peace seemed to be settling upon the country, and we four were

beginning to hope that the time was at hand when we might safely go off with our shares of the plunder. In a

moment, however, our hopes were shattered by our being arrested as the murderers of Achmet.

"It came about in this way. When the rajah put his jewels into the hands of Achmet he did it because he knew

that he was a trusty man. They are suspicious folk in the East, however: so what does this rajah do but take a

second even more trusty servant and set him to play the spy upon the first. This second man was ordered

never to let Achmet out of his sight, and he followed him like his shadow. He went after him that night and

saw him pass through the doorway. Of course he thought he had taken refuge in the fort and applied for

admission there himself next day, but could find no trace of Achmet. This seemed to him so strange that he

spoke about it to a sergeant of guides, who brought it to the ears of the commandant. A thorough search was

quickly made, and the body was discovered. Thus at the very moment that we thought that all was safe we

were all four seized and brought to trial on a charge of murder three of us because we had held the gate

that night, and the fourth because he was known to have been in the company of the murdered man. Not a

word about the jewels came out at the trial, for the rajah had been deposed and driven out of India: so no one

had any particular interest in them. The murder, however, was clearly made out, and it was certain that we

must all have been con cerned in it. The three Sikhs got penal servitude for life, and I was condemned to

"It was rather a queer position that we found ourselves in then. There we were all four tied by the leg and

with precious little chance of ever getting out again, while we each held a secret which might have put each

of us in a palace if we could only have made use of it. It was enough to make a man eat his heart out to have

to stand the kick and the cuff of every petty jackinoffice. to have rice to eat and water to drink, when that

gorgeous fortune was ready for him outside, just waiting to be picked up. It might have driven me mad; but I

"At last it seemed to me to have come. I was changed from Agra to Madras, and from there to Blair Island in

the Andamans. There are very few white convicts at this settlement, and, as I had behaved well from the first,

I soon found myself a son of privileged person. I was given a hut in Hope Town, which is a small place on

the slopes of Mount Harriet, and I was left pretty much to myself. It is a dreary, feverstricken place, and all

beyond our little clearings was infested with wild cannibal na tives, who were ready enough to blow a

poisoned dart at us if they saw a chance. There was digging and ditching and yam planting, and a dozen

other things to be done, so we were busy enough all day; though in the evening we had a little time to

ourselves. Among other things, I, learned to dispense drugs for the surgeon, and picked up a smattering of his

knowledge. All the time I was on the lookout for a chance to escape; but it is hundreds of miles from any

other land, and there is little or no wind in those seas: so it was a terribly difficult job to get away.

"The surgeon, Dr. Somerton, was a fast, sporting young chap, and the other young officers would meet in his

rooms of an evening and play cards. The surgery, where I used to make up my drugs, was next to his

sittingroom, with a small window between us. Often, if I felt lonesome, I used to turn out the lamp in the

surgery, and then, standing there, I could hear their talk and watch their play. I am fond of a hand at cards

myself, and it was almost as good as having one to watch the others. There was Major Sholto, Captain

Morstan, and Lieutenant Bromley Brown, who were in command of the native troops, and there was the

surgeon himself, and two or three prisonofficials, crafty old hands who played a nice sly safe game. A very

"Well, there was one thing which very soon struck me, and that was that the soldiers used always to lose and

the civilians to win. Mind, I don't say there was anything unfair, but so it was. These prisonchaps had done

little else than play cards ever since they had been at the Andamans, and they knew each other's game to a

point, while the others just played to pass the time and threw their cards down anyhow. Night after night the

soldiers got up poorer men, and the poorer they got the more keen they were to play. Major Sholto was the

hardest hit. He used to pay in notes and gold at first, but soon it came to notes of hand and for big sums. He

sometimes would win for a few deals just to give him heart, and then the luck would set in against him worse

than ever. All day he would wander about as black as thunder, and he took to drinking a deal more than was

"One night he lost even more heavily than usual. I was sitting in my hut when he and Captain Morstan came

stumbling along on the way to their quarters. They were bosom friends, those two, and never far apart. The

" 'It's all up, Morstan,' he was saying as they passed my hut. 'I shall have to send in my papers. I am a ruined

" 'Nonsense, old chap!' said the other, slapping him upon the shoulder. ~I've had a nasty facer myself. but '

"A couple of days later Major Sholto was strolling on the beach: so I took the chance of speaking to him.

" 'I wanted to ask you, sir,' said I, 'who is the proper person to whom hidden treasure should be handed over. I

know where half a million worth lies, and, as I cannot use it myself, I thought perhaps the best thing that I

could do would be to hand it over to the proper authorities, and then perhaps they would get my sentence

" 'Half a million, Small?' he gasped, looking hard at me to see if I was in earnest.

" 'Quite that, sir in jewels and pearls. It lies there ready for anyone. And the queer thing about it is that the

real owner is outlawed and cannot hold property, so that it belongs to the first comer.'

" 'To government, Small,' he stammered, 'to government.' But he said it in a halting fashion, and I knew in my

" 'You think, then, sir, that I should give the information to the governorgeneral?' said I quietly.

" 'Well, well, you must not do anything rash, or that you might repent. Let me hear all about it, Small. Give

"I told him the whole story, with small changes, so that he could not identify the places. When I had finished

he stood stock still and full of thought. I could see by the twitch of his lip that there was a struggle going on

" 'This is a very important matter, Small,' he said at last. 'You must not say a word to anyone about it, and I

"Two nights later he and his friend, Captain Morstan, came to my hut in the dead of the night with a lantern.

" 'I want you just to let Captain Morstan hear that story from your own lips, Small,' said he.

" 'Look here, Small,' said the major. 'We have been talking it over, my friend here and I, and we have come to

the conclu sion that this secret of yours is hardly a government matter, after all, but is a private concern of

your own, which of course you have the power of disposing of as you think best. Now the question is, What

price would you ask for it? We might be inclined to take it up, and at least look into it, if we could agree as to

terms.' He tried to speak in a cool, careless way, but his eyes were shining with excitement and greed.

" 'Why, as to that, gentlemen,' I answered, trying also to be cool but feeling as excited as he did, 'there is only

one bargain which a man in my position can make. I shall want you to help me to my freedom, and to help

my three companions to theirs. We shall then take you into partnership and give you a fifth share to divide

" 'But how can we gain your freedom? You know very well that you ask an impossibility.'

" 'Nothing of the sort,' I answered. 'I have thought it all out to the last detail. The only bar to our escape is that

we can get no boat fit for the voyage, and no provisions to last us for so long a time. There are plenty of little

yachts and yawls at Calcutta or Madras which would serve our turn well. Do you bring one over. We shall

engage to get aboard her by night, and if you will drop us on any part of the Indian coast you will have done

" 'None or all,' I answered. 'We have sworn it. The four of us must always act together.'

" 'You see, Morstan,' said he, 'Small is a man of his word. He does not flinch from his friends. I think we may

" 'It's a dirty business,' the other answered. 'Yet, as you say, the money will save our commissions

" 'Well, Small,' said the major, 'we must, I suppose, try and meet you. We must first, of course, test the truth

of your story. Tell me where the box is hid, and I shall get leave of absence and go back to India in the

" 'Not so fast,' said I, growing colder as he got hot. 'I must have the consent of my three comrades. I tell you

" 'Nonsense!' he broke in. 'What have three black fellows to do with our agreement?'

"Well, the matter ended by a second meeting, at which Mahomet Singh, Abdullah Khan, and Dost Akbar

were all pres ent. We talked the matter over again, and at last we came to an arrangement. We were to

provide both the officers with charts of the part of the Agra fort, and mark the place in the wall where the

treasure was hid. Major Sholto was to go to India to test our story. If he found the box he was to leave it

there, to send out a small yacht provisioned for a voyage, which was to lie off Rutland Island, and to which

we were to make our way, and finally to return to his duties. Captain Morstan was then to apply for leave of

absence, to meet us at Agra, and there we were to have a final division of the treasure, he taking the major's

share as well as his own. All this we sealed by the most solemn oaths that the mind could think or the lips

utter. I sat up all night with paper and ink, and by the morning I had the two charts all ready, signed with the

"Well, gentlemen, I weary you with my long story, and I know that my friend Mr. Jones is impatient to get

me safely stowed in chokey. I'll make it as short as I can. The villain Sholto went off to India, but he never

came back again. Captain Morstan showed me his name among a list of passengers in one of the mailboats

very shortly afterwards. His uncle had died, leaving him a fortune, and he had left the Army; yet he could

stoop to treat five men as he had treated us. Morstan went over to Agra shortly afterwards and found, as we

expected, that the treasure was indeed gone. The scoundrel had stolen it all without carrying out one of the

conditions on which we had sold him the secret. From that I lived only for vengeance. I thought of it by day

and I nursed it by night. It became an overpowering, absorb ing passion with me. I cared nothing for the law

nothing for the gallows. To escape, to track down Sholto, to have my hand upon his throat that was my

one thought. Even the Agra treasure had come to be a smaller thing in my mind than the slaying of Sholto.

"Well, I have set my mind on many things in this life, and never one which I did not carry out. But it was

weary years before my time came. I have told you that I had picked up something of medicine. One day when

Dr. Somerton was down with a fever a little Andaman Islander was picked up by a convictgang in the

woods. He was sick to death and had gone to a lonely place to die. I took him in hand, though he was as

venomous as a young snake, and after a couple of months I got him all right and able to walk. He took a kind

of fancy to me then, and would hardly go back to his woods, but was always hanging about my hut. I learned

"Tonga for that was his name was a fine boatman and owned a big, roomy canoe of his own. When I

found that he was devoted to me and would do anything to serve me, I saw my chance of escape. I talked it

over with him. He was to bring his boat round on a certain night to an old wharf which was never guarded,

and there he was to pick me up. I gave him directions to have several gourds of water and a lot of yams,

"He was staunch and true, was little Tonga. No man ever had a more faithful mate. At the night named he had

his boat at the wharf. As it chanced, however, there was one of the convict guard down there a vile

Pathan who had never missed a chance of insulting and injuring me. I had always vowed vengeance, and now

I had my chance. It was as if fate had placed him in my way that I might pay my debt before I left the island.

He stood on the bank with his back to me, and his carbine on his shoulder. I looked about for a stone to beat

"Then a queer thought came into my head and showed me where I could lay my hand on a weapon. I sat

down in the darkness and unstrapped my wooden leg. With three long hops I was on him. He put his carbine

to his shoulder, but I struck him full, and knocked the whole front of his skull in. You can see the split in the

wood now where I hit him. We both went down together, for I could not keep my balance; but when I got up

I found him still lying quiet enough. I made for the boat, and in an hour we were well out at sea. Tonga had

brought all his earthly possessions with him, his arms and his gods. Among other things, he had a long

bamboo spear, and some Andaman cocoa nut matting, with which I made a sort of a sail. For ten days we

were beating about, trusting to luck, and on the eleventh we were picked up by a trader which was going from

Singapore to Jiddah with a cargo of Malay pilgrims. They were a rum crowd, and Tonga and I soon managed

to settle down among them. They had one very good quality: they let you alone and asked no questions.

"Well, if I were to tell you all the adventures that my little chum and I went through, you would not thank me,

for I would have you here until the sun was shining. Here and there we drifted about the world, something

always turning up to keep us from London. All the time, however, I never lost sight of my purpose. I would

dream of Sholto at night. A hundred times I have killed him in my sleep. At last, however, some three or four

years ago, we found ourselves in England. I had no great difficulty in finding where Sholto lived, and I set to

work to discover whether he had realized on the treasure, or if he still had it. I made friends with someone

who could help me I name no names, for I don't want to get anyone else in a hole and I soon found that

he still had the jewels. Then I tried to get at him in many ways; but he was pretty sly and had always two

"One day, however, I got word that he was dying. I hurried at once to the garden, mad that he should slip out

of my clutches like that, and, looking through the window, I saw him lying in his bed, with his sons on each

side of him. I'd have come through and taken my chance with the three of them, only even as I looked at him

his jaw dropped, and I knew that he was gone. I got into his room that same night, though, and I searched his

papers to see if there was any record of where he had hidden our jewels. There was not a line, however, so I

came away, bitter and savage as a man could be. Before I left I bethought me that if I ever met my Sikh

friends again it would be a satisfaction to know that I had left some mark of our hatred; so I scrawled down

the sign of the four of us, as it had been on the chart, and I pinned it on his bosom. It was too much that he

should be taken to the grave without some token from the men whom he had robbed and befooled.

"We earned a living at this time by my exhibiting poor Tonga at fairs and other such places as the black

cannibal. He would eat raw meat and dance his wardance: so we always had a hatful of pennies after a day's

work. I still heard all the news from Pondicherry Lodge, and for some years there was no news to hear,

except that they were hunting for the treasure. At last, however, came what we had waited for so long. The

treasure had been found. It was up at the top of the house in Mr. Banholomew Sholto's chemical laboratory. I

came at once and had a look at the place, but I could not see how, with my wooden leg, I was to make my

way up to it. I learned, however, about a trapdoor in the roof, and also about Mr. Sholto's supperhour. It

seemed to me that I could manage the thing easily through Tonga. I brought him out with me with a long rope

wound round his waist. He could climb like a cat, and he soon made his way through the roof, but, as ill luck

would have it, Bartholomew Sholto was still in the room, to his cost. Tonga thought he had done something

very clever in killing him, for when I came up by the rope I found him strutting about as proud as a peacock.

Very much surprised was he when I made at him with the rope's end and cursed him for a little bloodthirsty

imp. I took the treasure box and let it down, and then slid down myself, having first left the sign of the four

upon the table to show that the jewels had come back at last to those who had most right to them. Tonga then

"I don't know that I have anything else to tell you. I had heard a waterman speak of the speed of Smith's

launch, the Aurora, so l thought she would be a handy craft for our escape with old Smith, and was to give

him a big sum if he got us safe to our ship. He knew, no doubt, that there was some screw loose, but he was

not in our secrets. All this is the truth, and if I tell it to you, gentlemen, it is not to amuse you for you have

not done me a very good turn but it is because I believe the best defence I can make is just to hold back

nothing, but let all the world know how badly I have myself been served by Major Sholto, and how innocent I

"A very remarkable account," said Sherlock Holmes. "A fitting windup to an extremely interesting case.

There is nothing at all new to me in the latter part of your narrative except that you brought your own rope.

That I did not know. By the way, I had hoped that Tonga had lost all his darts; yet he managed to shoot one at

"He had lost them all, sir, except the one which was in his blowpipe at the time."

"Is there any other point which you would like to ask about?" asked the convict affably.

"Well, Holmes," said Athelney Jones, "you are a man to be humoured, and we all know that you are a

connoisseur of crime; but duty is duty, and I have gone rather far in doing what you and your friend asked

me. I shall feel more at ease when we have our storyteller here safe under lock and key. The cab still waits,

and there are two inspectors downstairs. I am much obliged to you both for your assistance. Of course you

"You first, Small," remarked the wary, Jones as they left the room. "I'll take particular care that you don't club

me with your wooden leg, whatever you may have done to the gentleman at the Andaman Isles."

"Well, and there is the end of our little drama," I remarked after we had sat some time smoking in silence. "I

fear that it may be the last investigation in which I shall have the chance of studying your methods. Miss

"Not at all. I think she is one of the most charming young ladies I ever met and might have been most useful

in such work as we have been doing. She had a decided genius that way witness the way in which she

preserved that Agra plan from ali the other papers of her father. But love is an emotional thing, and whatever

is emotional is opposed to that true cold reason which I place above all things. I should never marry myself,

"I trust," said I, laughing, "that my judgment may survive the ordeal. But you look weary."

"Strange," said I, "how terms of what in another man I should call laziness alternate with your fits of splendid

"Yes," he answered, "there are in me the makings of a very fine loafer, and also of a pretty spry, sort of a

By the way, apropos of this Norwood business, you see that they had, as I surmised, a confederate in the

house, who could be none other than Lal Rao, the butler: so Jones actually has the undivided honour of

"The division seems rather unfair," I remarked. "You have done all the work in this business. I get a wife out

"For me," said Sherlock Holmes, "there still remains the cocainebottle." And he stretched his long white