Chapter 4 of The Sign of the four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
Chapter 4, the story of the bald-headed, man.
We followed the Indian down a sordid and common passage
ill-lit and worse furnished. And he came to a door upon the
right, which he threw open. A blaze of yellow light streamed
out upon us and in the center of the glare there, stood a small
man with a very high head. A bristle of red hair, All
Around The Fringe of it and a bald shining scalp, which shot
out from among it, like a mountain peak from fir-trees.
He rides 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, to 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 30th 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 would furnish to my own liking.
I know aces of Art in the howling desert of South London.
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.
Vars, 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 to Great Tiger skins thrown a thwart, 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
center of the room as it burned. It filled the air with a subtle
and aromatic odor Mr. Thaddeus sholto said, the little man
still jerking and smiling. That is my name.
You are Miss morstan. Of course, and these gentlemen.
This is mr. Sherlock Holmes, and this is dr.
Watson ha dr. Hey, 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 upon but I should value.
Your opinion upon the mitral. I listened to his heart as
requested but was unable to find anything amiss save indeed that
he was in an ecstasy. Fear for, he shivered from head
to foot it. Appears to be normal.
I said, you have no cause for uneasiness.
You will excuse my anxiety, Miss morstan, he remarked are early.
I'm a great, sufferer, and I have long had suspicions as to
that valve, I am delighted to hear that.
They are unwarranted. How'd your father Miss morstan
refrain from throwing a strain upon his heart?
He might have been alive now. I could have struck the man
across the face. So hot was I at this callous and
offhand reference to so delicate a matter Miss morstan sat down
and her face grew white to the lips.
I knew in my heart that he was dead said she 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'm so glad to have your friends
here, not only as an escort to you, but also as witnesses to
what I'm 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 Tools, we can settle everything satisfactorily among
ourselves without any interference.
Nothing would annoy brother, Bartholomew, more than any
publicity. He sat down upon a low City and
blinked at us inquiringly with his weak, watery blue eyes, for
my part, I said Holmes whatever you may choose to say will go no
further. I nodded to show my agreement.
That is well that is well said he may I offer you a glass of
Chianti. Miss morstan or of took a?
I keep. No.
Other wines shall I open a flask.
No. Well then I To have no objection
to tobacco smoke to the mild balsamic odor of the Eastern
tobacco. I'm a little nervous and I find
my hookah an invaluable sedative He applied a taper to the great
bowl and the smoke bubbled merrily through the rosewater.
We sat all three in a semi-circle with our heads
Advanced and our Chin's Upon Our Hands.
While the strange jerky little fellow with his high shining
head. Puffed uneasily in the center.
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 to 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 anesthetic than a
policeman. I have a natural shrinking.
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
coral. 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 Bartholomew.
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.
You cannot imagine what a terrible fellow.
He is when he's angry, If we're to go to Norwood, it would
perhaps be as well to start at once.
I ventured to remark, he laughed until his ears were quite read.
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 know them
myself. my father was as you may have guessed major Jon schull
toe once of the Indian army, he retired some 11 years ago and
came to live at pondicherry lodge in Upper Norwood He had
prospered in India and brought back with him.
A considerable sum of money, a large collection of valuable
Curiosities and a staff of native servants.
With these advantages, he bought himself a house and lived in
great luxury. My twin brother Bartholomew and
I were the only children 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 fathers, 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. You the fate of Arthur morstan.
We didn't know, however, that some mystery, some positive
danger. Overhang our father, he was very
fearful of going out alone and he always employed to
prizefighters to act as Porter's at pondicherry lodge Williams.
Who drove you. Tonight was one of them.
He was once lightweight champion of England.
Our father would never tell us what it was, he feared, but he
had a most marked a version two men with wooden legs On one
occasion. He actually fired his revolver
to wooden-legged man. Who proved, to be a harmless
Tradesmen canvassing for orders. We had to pay a large sum to
hush the matter up my brother and I used to think this is 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 Breakfast Table when he And 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 scrolling 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 words. 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 curse it 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 chocolate dipped with
pearls beside the quinine bottle.
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 have been as bad
as this and have recovered. I will tell you how most and
died. He continued, he had suffered
for years from a weak heart, but he concealed it from everyone, I
alone knew it. When in India he and I threw 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. Lauda.
Who is now dead more Stan 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 backwards cutting his head
against the corner of the treasure chest.
When I stooped over him I found him.
My horror that he was dead. For a long time, I sat half
distracted wondering what I should do.
My first impulse was of course to call for assistance, 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 bringing 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 seemed to be no necessity,
why any so lever? Should know.
I was still pondering over the matter when looking up, I saw my
servant now child are in the doorway he stolen 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 for way and who is the wiser?
I did not kill him. Said I love chowder shook his
head and smiled. I heard it all side.
Said, he, I heard you quarrel and I heard the blow, but my
lips are sealed. All are asleep in the house.
Let us put him away together. That was enough to decide me if
my own servant, could not believe my innocence.
How could, I hope to make it good before 12:00?
Foolish Tradesman in a jury box, Now, chowder and I disposed of
the body that night and within a few days, the London papers were
full of mysterious disappearance of Captain morstan.
You will see from what I say that I can hardly be blamed in
the matter. My fault lies in the fact that
we concealed not only the body, but also the treasurer and that
I have clung to mauston's share as well as to my own.
I wish you therefore to make restitution, put your ears down
to my mouth. The treasure is hidden in 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 around at the window behind us upon which his
gaze was fixed. Her 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
return to my father, his head had dropped, and his pulse had
ceased to beat, we searched the Garden that night but found no
sign of the intruder say that just under the window, a single
foot Mark was visible in the flower bed.
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 the most striking proof that there were
secret agencies at work all around us.
The window of my father's room was found open in the morning
his cupboards and boxes had been rifled and upon his chest was
fixed. A torn piece of paper.
With the words, the sign of the four scroll 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 my father during his
life, But it is still a complete mystery to us.
The little man stopped to realize his hookah and puffed
thoughtfully 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 side-table 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 commonplace nurse of life.
Here at least was a problem which would tax his segesta t 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 produced, and then continued between the
puffs of his overgrown pipe. My brother and I said, he, well,
as you may imagine much excited as to the treasure which my
father had spoken of for weeks and four months, we dug and
delved in every part of the garden without discovering its
whereabouts. It was maddening to think that
the hiding place was on his very lips at the moment that he died.
We could judge the Splendor of his 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 a 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. The little man waved his hand,
deprecatingly. We will trustees.
He said that was a 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 and so scurvy, a fashion Le mauvais, goo meno cream, the
French have a very neat way of putting these things are Prince
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 kicked Maga and Williams with me yesterday.
However, I learn that an event of extreme importance has
occurred. The treasure has been
discovered, I instantly communicated 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 Bartholomew. So we shall be expected.
If not welcome, visitors. Mr. Satya Schult oh ceased and
sat twitching on his luxurious City.
We all remain silent with our thoughts upon the new
development which the mysterious business had taken Holmes was
the first to Spring to his feet. 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 now it is late and we had
best put the matter through without delay.
Our new acquaintance, very deliberately coiled up the tube
of his hookah and produced from behind a curtain, a very long
before a good top coat with us truck and collar and cuffs this.
He buttoned tightly up in spite of the extreme closeness of the
night and finished his attire by putting on a rabbit skin cap
with hanging lappets which cover the ears.
So that no part of him was visible save his mobile and piki
face. My health is somewhat fragile.
He remarked as he led the way down the passage.
I am compelled to be a valetudinarian.
I'll cap was awaiting us outside in our program 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 wheels Bartholomew's. 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 74 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
whole therefore in the late and plaster ceiling of the highest
room. And there.
Sure enough. He came upon another little
Garrett above it, which had been sealed up and was known to no
one in the center. Stood, the treasure chest
resting upon two Rafters he loaded through the hole and
there it lies. He computes the value of the
jewels at not less than a half a million Sterling.
At The Mention Of This gigantic. Some, we all stared at one
another open I'd 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. It I'm 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 down.
Just with my head drooped death to the babble of our new
acquaintance. He was clearly a confirmed
hypochondriac and I was dreamily conscious that he was pouring
forth, interminable trains of symptoms and imploring
information as to the composition and action of
innumerable quack, nostrums summer, 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 a great danger of taking
more than two drops of castor oil 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 down to open the door.
This Miss morstan is pondicherry Lodge said mr.
Thaddeus sholto as he handed her out, end of chapter 4.