The Sign of the Four
“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 jack-in-office, 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 was always
a pretty stubborn one, so I just held on and bided my time.
“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 sort 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,
fever-stricken place, and all beyond our little clearings was infested
with wild cannibal natives, 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 of 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
sitting-room, 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 prison-officials,
crafty old hands who played a nice sly safe game. A very snug little
party they used to make.
“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 that there was anything unfair, but so it was. These
prison-chaps 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 good for him.
“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 major was raving about his losses.
“‘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 man.’
“‘Nonsense, old chap!’ said the other, slapping him upon the shoulder.
‘I’ve had a nasty facer myself, but—’ That was all I could hear, but it
was enough to set me thinking.
“A couple of days later Major Sholto was strolling on the beach: so I
took the chance of speaking to him.
“‘I wish to have your advice, major,’ said I.
“‘Well, Small, what is it?’ he asked, taking his cheroot from his lips.
“‘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 shortened for
me.’
“‘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 any
one. 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 heart that I had got him.
“‘You think, then, sir, that I should give the information to the
Governor-General?’ said I, quietly.
“‘Well, well, you must not do anything rash, or that you might repent.
Let me hear all about it, Small. Give me the facts.’
“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 within him.
“‘This is a very important matter, Small,’ he said, at last. ‘You must
not say a word to any one about it, and I shall see you again soon.’
“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.
“I repeated it as I had told it before.
“‘It rings true, eh?’ said he. ‘It’s good enough to act upon?’
“Captain Morstan nodded.
“‘Look here, Small,’ said the major. ‘We have been talking it over, my
friend here and I, and we have come to the conclusion 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 between you.’
“‘Hum!’ said he. ‘A fifth share! That is not very tempting.’
“‘It would come to fifty thousand apiece,’ said I.
“‘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 your part of the bargain.’
“‘If there were only one,’ he said.
“‘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 friend. I think we may very well trust him.’
“‘It’s a dirty business,’ the other answered. ‘Yet, as you say, the
money would save our commissions handsomely.’
“‘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 monthly relief-boat to inquire into the affair.’
“‘Not so fast,’ said I, growing colder as he got hot. ‘I must have the
consent of my three comrades. I tell you that it is four or none with
us.’
“‘Nonsense!’ he broke in. ‘What have three black fellows to do with our
agreement?’
“‘Black or blue,’ said I, ‘they are in with me, and we all go
together.’
“Well, the matter ended by a second meeting, at which Mahomet Singh,
Abdullah Khan, and Dost Akbar were all present. 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 sign of
four,—that is, of Abdullah, Akbar, Mahomet, and myself.
“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 mail-boats 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 day I lived only for vengeance. I thought of it by day and I
nursed it by night. It became an overpowering, absorbing 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 convict-gang 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 a little of his lingo from him, and this made him all the
fonder of me.
“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,
cocoa-nuts, and sweet potatoes.
“He was stanch 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