The Sign of the Four Trivia Quiz

Answer: Injecting himself with cocaine

The tale opens with Holmes going through the ritual, not uncommon in late Victorian England, of injecting himself with cocaine. Having watched this procedure "three times a day for many months," Watson's patience is at the breaking point and he cannot keep from remonstrating with Holmes.

The great detective responds that he only resorts to the drug when he is bored. When he has a problem or puzzle to solve, a case to work on, such artificial stimulation is unnecessary. Fortunately for Watson's peace of mind, a suitably intriguing problem soon presents itself - fortunately for his peace of mind as regards his friend, at any rate.

Answer: Mary Morstan

Dr. Watson is immediately taken with Miss Morstan. Indeed, he gives a rather rapturous account of her charms. Notwithstanding, she is a sensible young lady, who states her circumstances succinctly. Her father, Captain Morstan of the 34th Bombay Infantry, who was one of the officers in charge of the convict guard in the Andaman Islands, disappeared under mysterious circumstances and has not been heard of for nearly ten years. Six years ago, soon after taking a position with Mrs. Cecil Forester, she received an untraceable package containing one beautiful and obviously valuable pearl, and every year the gift has been repeated. Finally, that very morning she received an anonymous letter appointing the time and place of an assignation, telling her she is a wronged woman who shall receive justice and advising her to bring two friends.

Helen Stoner is from "The Adventure of the Speckled Band".
Elsie Patrick appears in "The Adventure of the Dancing Men".
Laura Lyons is a character in "The Hound of the Baskervilles".

Answer: Mr. Thaddeus Sholto

Thaddeus Sholto is an unprepossessing individual; a hypochondriac and chatterer, who seems unable to come to the point. At length, however, the visitors gather that his late father had been in possession of a treasure, since inherited by Thaddeus and his twin brother Bartholomew, which was rightfully co-owned by Miss Morstan's father.

The upshot is that the whole party, including Thaddeus, sets out to visit Bartholomew at Pondicherry Lodge.

Answer: Bartholomew Sholto has been murdered and the treasure is missing.

Bartholomew is found murdered, evidently by a fast-acting poison, locked in his room on the top floor, with a curious note nearby. To add to Thaddeus' natural distress at finding his brother dead, and by violence, the treasure he brought Holmes' party there to collect is missing.

It does not take Holmes long to discover how the apparent thief, a wooden-legged man, and his accomplice entered and exited the room. Furnished with a considerable amount of information about the fugitives, Holmes and Watson wait only for the arrival of the police before setting out in pursuit.

Answer: Inspector Athelney Jones

Holmes does not share Mr. Athelney Jones' high opinion of his abilities as a detective. All he is willing to concede is that Jones is a very energetic man. Within a few minutes of arriving upon the scene, Jones forms an, obviously erroneous, opinion of the case. Holmes is happy to leave him to it.

Answer: A dog

Mr. Sherman, a taxidermist of No. 3, Pinchin Lane, Lambeth, is the owner of Toby, "a queer mongrel, with a most amazing power of scent." In Dr. Watson's words:
"Toby proved to be an ugly, long-haired, lop-eared creature, half spaniel and half lurcher, brown-and-white in colour, with a very clumsy waddling gait." With this unlikely guide, Holmes and Watson set off upon their quest.

Answer: No

Toby leads the hunters a long chase which, after a comical wrong turn, brings them to the end of a pier on the bank of the Thames. Here, after ascertaining that the fugitives boarded the steam launch Aurora owned by Mordecai Smith, Holmes too is stymied.

Answer: the Baker Street Irregulars

The Baker Street Irregulars, a ragtag crew of street urchins, serve as Holmes' eyes and ears throughout London. They can go anywhere and everywhere, forming a most effective intelligence force. But even they can find no trace of the Aurora. In the end, it takes considerable legwork, and perseverance, by Holmes to discover her whereabouts.

Answer: On the River Thames

Mr. Jones is so disheartened at his failure to make progress on the case that he not only agrees to accompany Holmes on his seemingly hopeless pursuit of the Aurora, but he places a fast police launch at Holmes' disposal. After an exciting chase along the river, Holmes and Jones finally apprehend the wooden-legged man, Jonathan Small, though his associate, the Andaman islander Tonga, jumps overboard before he can be apprehended.

Camberwell is where Miss Morstan lives, as a governess, with Mrs. Cecil Forester.

Answer: Through murder

During the Sepoy Mutiny or Great Mutiny, 1857-8, Jonathan Small found himself at the ancient fort of Agra, taking part in the defence. In command of two Punjaubees, he "was selected to take charge during certain hours of the night of a small isolated door upon the southwest side of the building." One rainy night these men, Mahomet Singh and Abdullah Khan made him, as they say, an offer he couldn't refuse. If he conspired in the murder of a certain Achmet, who was secretly carrying a great treasure to be hidden in the fort of Agra on behalf of a northern raja, they and their co-conspirator Dost Akbar would cut him in for a fourth of the haul.

Otherwise, they would dispatch him. Naturally, Small chose to join the conspiracy.

Answer: Jonathan Small agreed to cut them in in exchange for his own and his confederates' freedom.

Discovering that the major had incurred heavy gambling debts during his time at the penal colony, Small, with the reluctant consent of his confederates, shared the treasure's location with Sholto and Morstan in return for Sholto's contrivance in their escape.

Answer: False

Major Sholto may have been an officer, but he was no gentleman. Using the chart and directions Small gave him, Sholto recovered the treasure and decamped to England, giving out that he had inherited a fortune from an uncle. He neither made any attempt to secure the freedom of 'the four', legally or clandestinely, nor contacted Morstan with an offer to share the loot.

When Morstan confronted him at Pondicherry Lodge some years later, demanding his share, Sholto refused him. A heated discussion ensued, during which Morstan struck his head and died; or so Sholto claimed.

His own manservant thought he had killed the captain, either deliberately or accidentally, and in light of the major's character (or lack thereof), the idea is plausible enough.

Answer: No

Small is a complex character; venal, vindictive, greedy, out for the main chance. When the opportunity to escape presented itself he seized it, without attempting to include his comrades. Yet, by his lights, he has acted honorably in the matter of the Agra treasure.

"None or all," I answered. "We have sworn it. The four of us must always act together."

After Major Sholto's death, he slips into the room to leave the sign of the four on the dead man's breast. On finding Bartholomew Sholto dead, he leaves the sign of the four near the body. And when his capture becomes inevitable, he acts, as he believes, not only in his own interest, but in that of the four:

"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 convict-barracks 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 of 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 journey."

Answer: She is relieved.

Although Watson's reaction to the empty treasure box is one of profound relief, he is at first puzzled to find that Miss Morstan appears to have the same response...until he realizes that she reciprocates his feelings and, therefore, shares his belief that her inheritance of the treasure would have placed an insuperable barrier between them. With that barrier removed, they can and do speak freely. Watson leaves Mrs. Forester's house an engaged man.

Answer: Injecting himself with cocaine

The end of the tale finds Holmes and Watson where they were at the beginning, comfortably ensconced in their sitting room.

"By the way, à propos 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 having caught one fish in his great haul."

"The division seems rather unfair," I remarked. "You have done all the work in this business. I get a wife out of it, Jones gets the credit, pray what remains for you?"

"For me," said Sherlock Holmes, "there still remains the cocaine-bottle." And he stretched his long white hand up for it.