The Sign of the Four

y of Pondi

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.

ne wall topped with broken glass. A single narrow iron-clamped door formed the only

cried a gruff vo

You surely know my

avily back, and a short, deep-chested man stood in the opening, with the yellow l

o are the others? I had no orde

I told my brother last night th

no orders. You know very well that I must stick to regulations.

ess manner. "This is too bad of you, McMurdo!" he said. "If I guarantee them, that is enou

friends o' yours, and yet no friends o' the master's. He pays me well

ou can have forgotten me. Don't you remember the amateur who fought three ro

there so quiet you had just stepped up and given me that cross-hit of yours under the jaw, I'd ha' known you without a

he scientific professions open to me," said Holmes, laughing

nswered. "Very sorry, Mr. Thaddeus, but orders are very str

here a moonbeam struck one corner and glimmered in a garret window. The vast size of the building, with its gloom and its deathly

I distinctly told Bartholomew that we should be here, and yet th

d the premises in th

nk that my father may have told him more than he ever told me. That is Bartholomew's window up t

e the glint of a light in that

all about it. But perhaps you would not mind waiting here for a minute or two, for if we all

n seized my wrist, and we all stood with thumping hearts, straining our ears. From the great black house there sounde

shall be back in a moment." He hurried for the door, and knocked in his peculiar way. W

have come, Mr. Thaddeus, sir!" We heard her reiterated rejoicings unt

wo who had never seen each other before that day, between whom no word or even look of affection 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

place!" she said

ose in it. I have seen something of the sort on the side of

the treasure-seekers. You must remember that they were six years

n, and Thaddeus Sholto came running out, with

and it." He was, indeed, half blubbering with fear, and his twitching feeble face peeping ou

e," said Holmes, in

Sholto. "I really do not fee

the passage. The old woman was pacing up and down with a scared look and restless pick

th an hysterical sob. "It does me good to see y

mured some few words of kindly womanly comfort which b

t an hour ago I feared that something was amiss, so I went up and peeped through the key-hole. You must go up, Mr. Thaddeus,-you must go up and l

s were trembling under him. Twice as we ascended Holmes whipped his lens out of his pocket and carefully examined marks which appeared to me to be mere shapeless smudges of dust upon the cocoa-nut mat

heels, with our long black shadows streaming backwards 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, ho

son," said he, more moved than I had ever

ce 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

I said to Holmes.

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

stood carboys of acid in wicker baskets. One of these appeared to leak or to have been broken, for a stream of dark-colored liquid had trickled out from it, and the air was heavy with a peculiarly pungent, tar-like odor. A set of steps sto

learly 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,

ith a significant rai

I read, with a thrill of hor

what does it all

h, I expected it. Look here!" He pointed to what looked li

like a tho

pick it out. But be care

the skin so readily that hardly any mark was left behind.

tery to me," said I. "It grow

every instant. I only require a few missing

as still standing in the door-way, the very picture of terror, wringing his hands a

ole through which we lowered it. I helped him to do it! I was the last person who saw

ime was

I am sure I shall. But you don't think so, gentlemen? Surely you don't think that it was I? Is it likely that I would have brought you he

his shoulder. "Take my advice, and drive down to the station to report this matter t

pefied fashion, and we heard him st