Mary Morstan arrives with a case. She explains ten years earlier, her father Captain Arthur Morstan disappeared immediately after arriving in London from his military service abroad. Mary contacted his friend, Major Sholto, who denied having seen him. Four years later, she received a valuable pearl in the post, a gift repeated once a year for six years. With the sixth pearl, she received a letter asking for a meeting claiming that she is a wronged woman.
Holmes takes the case, The only further clue Mary can give Holmes is a map of a fortress found in her father's desk, appended with the words The Sign of the Four: Jonathan Small, Mahomet Singh, Abdullah Khan, Dost Akbar," and four small cross-like symbols.Following the letter's instructions, Holmes, Watson, and Mary go to the Lyceum Theatre; they meet a coachman who takes them to the house of Major Sholto's son Thaddeus, the anonymous sender of the pearls. He reveals that Captain Morstan did, in fact, visit Major Sholto, demanding his half of a treasure that Sholto had secretly brought back from India. In the ensuing quarrel, Captain Morstan suffered a heart attack and died, striking his head on the treasure box as he fell. Thaddeus and his twin brother Bartholomew only learned of this when their father revealed it while on his deathbed; he was about to reveal to them where the treasure was hidden, when a bearded man appeared at the window and the Major died of fear. The brothers tried and failed to catch the intruder; later on, they found a note pinned to the Major's body, which read The Sign of Four. Thaddeus began sending Mary the pearls to make things right, and the brothers searched for the treasure. Six years later, Bartholomew found and withheld it; Thaddeus then contacted Mary so they could both confront Bartholomew and demand their shares.The party, heads to Bartholomew's house, Pondicherry Lodge, Upper Norwood. As they enter the house, the worried housekeeper reveals that Bartholomew has locked himself in his laboratory and refuses to come out. Mary Morstan stays downstairs to comfort the housekeeper, while the others rush up to the laboratory door; through the keyhole, they can see Bartholomew Sholto slumped in his chair, with a fixed and unnatural grin upon his face. Upon further inspection of the body Holmes discovers a poisonous thorn above Bartholomew's ear. The treasure box is also gone, though there is a hole in the ceiling where it used to be.While the police wrongly take Thaddeus in as a suspect, Holmes deduces from footmarks and other clues that there are two persons involved in the murder a one-legged white man named Jonathan Small, and a small Andamanese accomplice, who accidentally stepped in creosote. Borrowing Toby, a trained scent hound, from a naturalist, Holmes traces the pair to a boat landing. Learning that Small has hired a steam launch named the Aurora Holmes with the help of the Baker Street Irregulars and his own disguises traces the boat to a repair yard. In a police launch Holmes and Watson pursue the Aurora when it flees the yard; the islander attempts to shoot a dart at Holmes, and is shot dead himself. Small attempts to flee, However, the treasure box is now empty; Small not wanting to surrender the gems, had scattered them into the Thames during the chase.Small confesses that he was once a soldier of the Third Buffs in India, and lost his right leg to a crocodile while bathing in the Ganges. He then became an overseer on an indigo plantation; the 1857 rebellion occurred, and he was forced to flee to the Agra fortress. While standing guard one night, he was overpowered by Sikh troopers, who gave him a choice; be killed or help them waylay Achmet, a disguised servant of an outlawed rajah, who had sent Achmet with a box of jewellery to the British for safekeeping. Small saw his chance, and made a deal with the officers Sholto would recover the treasure, and in return send a boat to pick up Morstan, Small, and the Sikhs so they could all meet and divide it. However Sholto stole the treasure for himself, returning to England after inheriting a fortune from his uncle. Morstan went after Sholto but never returned, and Small vowed vengeance against Sholto. Four years later, Small escaped prison with the help of Tonga, an islander whose life he had once saved. the news of this escape that shocked Sholto into his fatal illness. Small arrived too late to hear of the treasure's location, but left the note in the room anyway as revenge for the treatment of himself and the Sikhs. When Bartholomew eventually found the treasure, Small only planned to steal it; however, miscommunication led Tonga to kill Bartholomew before Small could stop him. Small decides the treasure brings nothing but bad luck to anyone who has it; to Achmet& Bartholomew, death; to Major Sholto, fear&guilt; and for Small himself, penal servitude for life.Mary is left with no treasure, save the pearls; however she and Watson have fallen in love.
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