The Sign of the Four Chapter 12

Books at bedtime. The sign of the four, chapter 12, the strange story of Jonathan Small. A very patient man was that inspector in the cab. For it was a weary time before I rejoined him.

His face clouded over when I showed him the empty box. "There goes the reward," said he gloomily. "Where there is no money, there is no pay. This night's work would have been worth the tenor each to San Brown and me if the treasure had been there."

Mr. Thaddeus Shulto is a rich man, I said. He will see that you are rewarded treasure or no. The inspector shook his head despondently, however. "It's a bad job," he repeated, and so Mr. Athenley Jones will think.

This forecast proved to be correct. For the detective looked blank enough when I got to Baker Street and showed him the empty box. They had only just arrived, homes, the prisoner and he. But they had changed their plans so far to report themselves at the station upon the way.

My companion lounged in his armchair with his usual listless expression. While small sat stolidly opposite to him with his wooden leg cocked over his sound one. As I exhibited the empty box, he lent back in his chair and laughed aloud. This is your doing small, said Ursuline Jones angrily?

"Yes, I have put it away where you shall never lay hand upon it," he cried, exonzantly. It is my treasure, and if I can't have the loot, I'll take darn 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 arc to man convict barracks 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 the four with us always. Well, I know that they would have had me do this just what I have done and throw the treasure into the Thames rather than let it go to Kith or Kin or Shalto or of Mauston. It was not to make them rich that we did it for Acmet.

You'll find the treasure where the key is and where little tongres. 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. You were deceiving us all small, said us Emily Jones sternly.

If you had wished to throw the treasure into the Thames, it would have been easier for you to have thrown the box and all. Easier for me to throw and easier for you to recover he answered with a shrewd side long look. The man that was clever enough to hunt me down is clever enough to pick an iron box from the bottom of a river. Now that they are scattered over five miles or so it may be a harder job.

It went to my heart to do it though. I was half mad when you came up with us. However, there's no good grieving over it. I've had my ups in my life and I've had my downs but I've learned not to cry over spilled milk.

This is a very serious matter small said the detective. If you had helped justice instead of thwarting it in this way you would have had a better chance at your trial. Justice snarled the ex-convert, a pretty justice. Whose loot is this?

If it is not ours. Where is the justice that I should give it up to those who have never earned it? Look how I have earned it. 20 long years in a fever-ridden swamp.

All day at work under the mangrove tree all night chained up in a filthy convict's hut, bitten by mosquitoes racked with argue, bullied by ever-cursed black face policeman who loved to take it out of a white man. That was how I earned the accret treasure and you talk to me of justice because I cannot bear to feel that I have paid this price only that another man enjoyed. I would rather swing a score of times or have one of Tonga's darts in my hide than live in a convict cell and feel that another man is at ease in a palace with the money that should have been mine. Once more had dropped his mask of stoicism and all this came out in a wild whirl of words.

While his eyes blazed and the handcuffs clank together with the impassioned movement of his hands, I could understand and I saw the fury and the passion of the man that it was no groundless or unnatural, which had possessed major chalto when he first learned that this injured convict was upon his track. You forget that we know nothing of all this said homes quietly. We have not heard your story and we cannot tell how far justice may originally have been on your side. Well, sir, you have been very fair spoken to me though I can see that I have you to thank and that I have these bracelets upon my wrists.

Still. I bear no grudge for that. It is all fair and above board. If you want to hear my story, I have no wish to hold it back.

What I say to you is God's truth, every word of it. Thank you. You can put the glass beside me here and I'll put my lips to it if I am dry. I am a Worcestershire man myself, born near Persia.

I dare say you would find a heap of smalls living there now if you were to look. I have to often thought of taking a look around there but the truth is that I may never much have credit to the family and I doubt if they would be so very glad to see me. They were all steady, chapel-going folk, small farmers, well known and respected over the countryside. I was always a bit of a rower.

At last, however, when I was about 18, I gave them no more trouble. For I got into a mess over a girl and could only get out of it again by taking the Queen Shilling and joining the third buff, which was just starting for India. I wasn't destined to do much soldering, however. I had just got past the goo step and learned to handle my musket when I was full enough to go swimming in the Ganges.

Luckily for me, my company Sergeant John Holder was in the water at the same time and he was one of the finest swimmers in the service. A crocodile took me. Just as I was halfway across and nipped off my right leg as clean as a surgeon could have done it just above the knee. What?

With this shock and the loss of blood, I fainted and I should have drowned if Holder had not caught hold of me and paddled for the bank. I was five months in hospital over it and when at last I was able to limp out of it with this timber toe strapped to my stump. I found myself invalidated out of the army and unfitted for any active occupation. I was, as you can imagine, pretty down on my luck at this time.

But I was a useless cripple, though not yet in my twenty-if year. However, my misfortune soon proved to be a blessing in disguise. A man named Abel White, who would come out there as an indigo planter, wanted an overseer to look after his cooleys and keep them up to their work. Only happened to be a friend of our colonels, who would take an interest in me since the accident.

To make a long story short, the colonel recommended me strongly for the post, as the work was mostly to be done on horseback. My leg was no great obstacle, for I had enough knee left to keep a good grip of the saddle. What I had to do was to ride over the plantation, to keep an eye on the men as they worked, to report the idlers. The pay was fair, and I had comfortable quarters.

And all together, I was content to spend the remainder of my life in indigo planting. Mr Abel White was a kind man, and he would often drop into my little shanty and smoke a pipe with me. For White folk out there feel their hearts warm to each other as they never do here at home. Well.

I was never in luck's way long. Suddenly, without a no-till warning, the great mutiny broke upon us. One month, India lay is still and peaceful, to all appearances as Sarayaw Kent. The next, there were 200,000 black devils let loose, and the country was a perfect hell.

Of course, you know all about it, gentlemen. A deal more than I do very like, since reading is not in my line. I only know what I saw with my own eyes. Our plantation was a place called Mucktra, near the border of the north-west prozomances.

Night after night, the whole sky was a light, with the burning bungalows. And day after day, we had small companies of Europeans passing through our estate with their wives and children on their way to Agra, where were the nearest dreams. Mr. Abel White was an obstinate man. He had it in his head that the affair had been exaggerated, and that it would blow over as suddenly as it had sprung up.

There he sat, upon his oranda, drinking whiskey pegs and smoking shiruits, while the country was in the blaze about him. Of course, we stuck by him, I and Dawson, who, with his wife, who used to do the bookwork and the managing, well, one fine day, the crash came. I'd been away on a distant plantation, and was riding slowly home in the evening, when my eye fell upon something all huddled together at the bottom of a steep nuller. I rode down to see what it was, and the coal struck through my heart when I found it was Dawson's wife, all cut into ribbons and half eaten by jackals and native dogs.

A little further up the road, Dawson himself was lying on his face quite dead, with an empty revolver in his hand and four sepoids lying across each other in front of him. I reigned up my horse, rewondering which way I should turn. But at that moment I saw thick smoke curling up from Abel White's bungalow, and the flames beginning to burst through the roof. I knew then that I could do for my employer was no good, but would only throw my own life away if I meddled in the matter.

From where I stood, I could see hundreds of black fiends with their red coats still on their backs, dancing and howling around the burning house. Some of them pointed at me, and a couple of bullets sang past my head, so I broke away across the paddy fields and found myself late at night safe within the walls of Agra. As it proved, however, there was no great safety there either. The whole country was up like a swarm of bees.

Wherever the English could collect in little bands, they held just the ground that their guns commanded. Everywhere else, they were helpless fugitives. It was a fight of the millions against the hundreds. And the cruelest part of it was that these men that we fought against foot, horse and gunners were our own picked troops whom we had taught and trained, handling our own weapons and blowing our own buglecalls.

At Agra, there were the third Bengal fuseliers, some Sikhs, two troops of horse and a battery of artillery. A volunteer corps of Clarkson merchants had been formed, and this I joined, wooden leg and all. We went out to meet the rebels at Shangguon, early in July, and we beat them back for a time. But our powder gave out, and we had to fall back upon the city.

Nothing but the worst news came to us from every side, which is not to be wandered at. For if you look at the map, you will see that we were right in the heart of it. Luck now is rather better than a hundred miles to the east, and cornpore about as far to the south. From every point on the compass, there was nothing but torture and murder, an outrage.

The city of Agra is a great place, swarming with fanatics and fierce devil worshippers of all sorts. Our handful of men were lost among the narrow, winding streets. Our leader moved across the river, therefore, and took up his position in the old fort of Agra. I don't know if any of you gentlemen have ever read or heard anything of that old fort.

It is quite a queer place, the queerest that I have ever been in some run corners too. First of all, it is enormous in size. I should think that the enclosure must be acres and acres. There is a modern part, which took all our garrison, women, children, stores and everything else, with plenty of room over.

But the modern part is nothing like the size of the old quarter, where nobody goes, and which is given over to the scorpions and the centipedes. It is all full of great deserted halls and winding passages and long corridors twisting in and out, so that it is easy enough for folks to get lost in. For this reason, it was seldom that anyone went into it, though now and again a party with torches may go exploring. The river washes along the front of the old fort, and so protects it, but on the other sides and behind there are many doors, and these had to be guarded, of course, in the old quarter, as well as in that which was actually held by troops.

We were short-handed, with hardly men enough to man the angles of the building and to serve the guns. It was impossible for us, therefore to station a strong guard at every one of the innumerable gates. But we did, what to organise a central guardhouse in the middle of the fort, and to leave each gate under the charge of one white man and two or three natives. I was selected to take charge during certain hours of the night of a small isolated door upon the southwest side of the building.

Two seat troopers were placed under my command, and I was instructed if anything went wrong to fire my musket, when I might rely upon help coming at once from the central guard. As the guard was a good 200 paces away, however, and as the space-batine was cut up into a labyrinth of passages and corridors, I had great doubts as to whether they could arrive in time to be of any use in case of an actual attack. Well, I was pretty proud at having this small command given to me, since I was a raw recruit and a game-legged one at that. For two nights I kept the watch with my Punjabis.

They were tall fierce looking chaps, Muhammad Singh and Abdullah Khan by name, both old fighting man who had born arms against us at the Chilianwala. They could talk English pretty well, but I could get little out of them. They preferred to stand together and jabber all night in their queer-seeklingo. For myself, I used to stand outside the gateway, looking down on the broad, winding river and on the twinkling lights of the great city.

The beating of drums, the rattle of tauntoms and the yells and howls of rebels drunk with opium and with bang, were enough to remind us all night of our dangerous neighbours across the stream. Every two hours the officers of the night used to come round to all the posts to make sure that all was well. The third night of my watch was dark and dirty, with a small driving-brain. It was dreary work standing in the gateway, hour after hour and such weather.

I tried again and again to make my six talk, but without much success. At two in the morning the rounds passed and broke for a moment the weariness of the night. Everything that my companions would not be led into conversation, I took out my pipe and laid down my musket to strike the match. In an instant the two seaks were upon me.

One of them snatched my firelock and levelled it up at my firehead while the other held a great knife to my throat and swore between his teeth that he would plunge it into me if I moved. My first thought was that these fellows were in league with the rebels and that this was the beginning of an assault. If our doors were open to the hands of the sepoids the place must fall and the women and children would be treated as if they were cornpulled. Maybe you gentlemen think that I was just making out a case for myself, but I give you my word when I thought of that, though I felt the point of the knife at my throat.

I opened my mouth with the intention of giving a scream. If I was my last one, which might alarm the main guard. The man who held me seemed to know my thoughts for even as I braced myself to it he whispered, don't make a noise, the fort is safe enough. There were no rebel dogs on this side of the river.

There was a ring of truth in what he said and I knew that if I raised my voice I was a dead man. I could read it in the fellows brown eyes. I waited therefore in silence to see what is they wanted from me. Listen to me, Sir Hiib, said the taller and the fiercer of the pair, the one whom they called Abdullah Khan.

You must either be with us now or you must be silenced forever. This thing is too greater one for us to hesitate. Either you are a heart and soul with us on your oath, on the cross of the Christians, or your body this night shall be thrown into the ditch and we shall pass over to our brothers in the rebel army. There is no middle way, which is it to be death or life.

We can only give you three minutes to decide for the time is passing and all must be done before the rounds come again. How can I decide, Sir Hiib? You have not told me what you want from me, but I tell you now that if it is anything against the safety of the fort I will have no truck with it so you can drive home your knife and welcome. It is nothing against the fort said he.

We only ask you to do which your countrymen came to this land for. We ask you to be rich. If you will be one of us this night, we will swear to you upon the naked knife and by the threshold oath with no seek has ever known to break that you shall have your fair share of the loot. A quarter of the treasure shall be yours.

We can say no fairer. But what is this treasure then I ask? I am as ready to be rich as you can be if you will but show me how it can be done. You will swear then, said he, by the bones of your father, by the honour of your mother, by the cross of your faith, to raise no hand and speak no word against us either now or afterwards.

I will swear it, I answered, provided that the fort is not endangered. I will swear that you shall have a quarter of the treasure which shall be equally divided among the four of us. There are but three said I. No.

Dost Akbar must have his share. We can tell the tale to you while we wait them. Do you stand at the gate, Muhammad is seeing it and give notice of their coming. The three stands thus the hyb and I tell it to you because I know that an oath is binding upon a forengey and that we must trust you.

Had he been a lying Hindu though had you sworn by all the gods in their false temples your blood would have been upon the knife and your body in the water but the seat knows the Englishman and the Englishman knows the seat. Here can then to what I have to say. There is a rajar in the northern provinces which has much wealth though his lands are small much has come to him from his father and more still he is set by himself. Three years of low nature and haunts his goals rather than spends it.

When the troubles broke out he would be friends both with the lion and the tiger, with the sapoy and with the company's raj. Soon however it seemed to him that the white men's days was come. Thought though all the land he could hear of nothing but their death and their overthrow. Yet being a careful man he made such plans that come what might half at least of his treasure should be left to him.

That which was in gold and silver he kept by him in the vaults of his palace. But the most precious stones and the choices pulls that he had put into an iron box and sent it by a trusty servant who under the guise of a merchant should take it to the fort at Agra. There to lie until the land is at peace. Thus if the rebels won he would have his money but if the company conquered his jewels they would be saved to him.

Having thus divided his horde he threw himself into the cause of the sapoy's since they were strong amongst his borders. By doing this mark you sayib his property becomes due of those who have been true to their soul. This pretend merchant who travels under the name of Agra is now in the city of Agra and desires to gain his way into the fort. He has with him as traveling companion my foster brother Dost Agra who knows his secret.

Dost Agra has promised this night to lead his to the side post of the fort and has chosen this one for his purpose. Here he will come presently and he will find Mahatma Singh and myself awaiting him. The place is lonely and none shall know of his coming. The world shall know of the merchant Agment no more but the great treasure of the Raja shall be divided amongst us.

Just say you to it sayib. In Worstesha the life of a man seems a great and sacred thing but it is very different when there is fire and blood all around you and you have been used to meeting death at every turn. Whether Agment the merchant lived or died was a thing as a light as air to me but at the talk about the treasure my heart turned to it and I thought of what I might do in the old country with it and how my folk would stare when they saw their near do well coming back with his pockets full of gold mortars. I had therefore already made up my mind Abdullah Khan however thinking that I had had a stator pressed the matter more closely.

Consider Sahib said he that if this man is taken by the commandant he will be hung all shot and his jewels taken by the government so that no man will be a rupee the better for them. Now since we do the taking of him why should we not do the rest as well the jewels will be as well with us with the company's coffers there will be enough to make every one of us rich men and great chiefs no one can know about the matter for here we are cut all from men what could be better for the purpose say again then Sahib whether you are with us or if we must look upon you as an enemy I am with you with heart and soul said I it is well he answered handing me back my phylog for see that we trust you for your word like ours is not to be broken we have now only to wait for my brother in the merchant does your brother know then of what you will do the plan is his he has devised it we will go to the gate and share the watch with Mahatma Singh the rain was still falling steadily for it was just beginning of the wet season brown heavy clouds were drifting across the sky and it was hard to see more than a stone cast a deep moat lay in front of our door but the water was in places nearly dried up and it could easily be crossed it was strange to me to be standing there with those two wild pin jabs waiting for the man who is coming to his death suddenly my eye caught the glint of a shaded lantern on the other side of the moat it vanished among the mound heaps and then appeared again coming slowly in our direction they are exclaimed you will challenge him say he was usual whispered up to the given no cause for fear send us in with him and we shall do the rest once you stay here on guard have the lantern ready to uncover that we may be sure that it did indeed our man the light had flickered onwards now stopping and now advancing until I could see the two dark figures upon the other side of the moat I let them scramble down the sloping bank splash through the mire and climb halfway up to the gate before I challenge them who goes there said I in a subdued voice friends came the answer I uncovered my lantern and threw a flood of light upon them the first was an enormous seek with a black beard which swept nearly down to his come a band outside of a show I've never seen so tall a man the other was a little fat round fellow with a great yellow turban and a bundle in his hand done up in a shawl he seemed to be all in a quiver with fear for his hands twitched as if he had had the agio and his head kept turning to the left and the right with two bright twinkling eyes like a mouse when he ventures out from his own it gave me the chills to think of killing him but I thought of the treasure and my heart set as hard as a flint within me when he saw my white face he gave a little cheer of a joy and came running up towards me your protection so heep he panted your protection for the unhappy merchant admit I have travelled across the country that I might seek the shelter of the fauna agra I have been robbed and beaten and abused because I have not been the friend of a company it is blessed night this when I am once more in safety I am my poor possessions what have you in the bundle I asked an I in boxy answered which contains one or two little family matters which are of no value to others but which I should be sorry to lose yet I am not a beggar and I should reward you young sir heep and your governor also if you will give me the shelter I asked I could not trust myself to speak long with the man the more I looked at this fat frightened face the harder did it seem that we should slay him in cold blood it was best to get it over take him to the main guard said I the two seaks closed in upon him on each side and the giant walked behind what they marched in through the dark gateway never was a man so compassed round with death I remained at the gateway with a lantern I could hear the measured tramp of their footsteps sounding through the lonely corridors suddenly it ceased and I heard voices and a scuffle with the sounds of blows a moment later they came to my horror a rush of footsteps coming in my direction with a loud breathing of a running man I turned my lantern down the long straight passage and there was the fat man running like a wind with a smear of blood across his face and closes its heels bounding like a tiger the great black bearded seagr with a knife flashing in his hand I've never seen a man run so fast as that little merchant he was gaining on the seagr and I could see that if he once passed me and got to the open air he would save himself yet my heart softened to him but again the thoughts of his treasure turned me hard and bitter I cast my phylock between my legs and he raced past and as he rolled twice over like a shot rapid ear he could stagger to his feet the seagr was upon him and buried his knife twice in his side the man never uttered a moan nor moved a muscle but lay where he had fallen I think myself that he may have broken his neck with the form you see gentlemen that I am keeping my promise I am telling you every work of the business just exactly as it happened whether it was in my favour or not he stopped and held out his manacled hands for the whiskey and water which homes had brewed for him for myself I confessed that I had now conceived the uttermost horror of the man not only for his cold blooded business in which he had been concerned but even more for the somewhat flippant and careless way in which he narrated it whatever punishment was in store for him I felt that he might expect no sympathy from me Sherlock Holmes and Jones sat with their hands upon their knees deeply interested in the story but with the same disgust written upon their faces he may have observed it for there was a touch of defiance in his voice and manner as he proceeded it was all very bad no doubt city I should like to know how many fellows in my shoes would have effused a share of this loot when they knew that they would have had their throats cut for their pains besides it was my life or his when once he was in the fort if he had got out the whole business would come to light and I should have been court-martialed and shocked like he is not for people were not very lenient at a time like that go on with your story said home shortly well we carried him in Abdullah Akbar and I a fine way he was too for all that he was so short my hummus sing was left to guard the door we took him to a place where the seeks had already prepared it was some distance off where a winding passage leads to a great empty hall the brick walls of which were all cumbling to pieces the earth floor had sunk in at one place making a natural grave so he left agnet the merchant there having first covered him over with the loose bricks this done we all went back to the treasure it lay there where he had dropped it where he had first been attacked the box was the same one which now lies open upon your floor a key was hung by a silicon cord to that carved handle upon the top we opened it and the light the lantern gleamed upon a collection of gems such as I have read of and thought about when I was a little lad in partial it was blinding to look upon when we had feasted our eyes we took them all out and made a list of them there were 143 diamonds of the first water including one which has been called I believe the great mogul and is said to be the second largest stone in existence then there were 97 very fine emeralds and 170 rubies some of which however were small there were 40 car bunkles 210 sapphires 61 aggets and a great quantity of barrels on axis cat size turquoise and other stones the very names of which I did not know at the time though I have become more familiar with since besides this there were nearly 300 very fine pearls 12 of which was set in a gold coronate by the way these last had been taken out of the chest and were not there when I recovered it after we had counted our treasures we put them back into the chest and carried them to the gateway to show them to my hummus sing then we solemnly renewed our oath to stand by each other and be true to our secret we agreed to conceal our loot in a safe place until a country should be a peace again and then divide it equally among ourselves there was no use dividing it at present for if the gems of such value were found upon us it would cause suspicion and there was no privacy in the fort nor any place where we could keep them we carried the box therefore into the same hall where we had buried the body and there under certain bricks in the best preserved wall we made a hollow and put our treasure we made careful note of the place and next day I drew four plans one for each of us and put the sign of the four of us at the bottom for we had sworn that we should each always act for all so that none may take advantage that is a note that I can put my hand to my heart and swear that I have never broken well there's no use telling you my gentlemen what came of the Indian Mutiny after Wilson took Delhi and Sir Colin relieved luck now the back of the business was broken fresh troops came pouring in and NASA hid made himself scarce over the frontier a flying column under Colonel Grated came around to Agra and cleared the pandies away from it peace seemed to be settling upon the country and we for were beginning to hope that the time was at hand when we might find safety and go off with our shares of plunder in a moment however our hopes were shattered by our being arrested as the murderers of Agna it came about in this way when the Rajah put his jewels into the hands of Agna he did it because he knew that he was a trusty man they are suspicious folk in the east however so what does this Rajah do but take a second even more trusty servant and set him to play the spy upon us first this second man was ordered never to let Agna out of his sight and he followed him like a shadow he went after him that night and saw him pass through the doorway of course he thought he had taken refuge in the fort and applied for admission there himself the next day but could find no trace of Agna this seemed to make it so strange that he spoke about its sergeant of the guides who brought it to the years of the command a thorough search was quickly made and the body was discovered thus at the very moment that we thought always safe we were all four seized and brought to trial on a charge of murder three of us because we had held the gate that night and the fourth because he was known to have been in the company of the murdered man not a word about the jewels came out at the trial for the Rajah had been deposed and driven out of India so no one had any particular interest in them the murder however was clearly made out and it was certain that we must all have been concerned in it the three seeks got penal servitude for life and I was condemned to death though my sentence was afterwards commuted into the same as the others it was a rather queer position 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 each of us 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 him mad but I was always a pretty stubborn one so I 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 and into the addamans there a very few white complex at this settlement and as I 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 was a dreary fever stricken place and all beyond our little clearings was infested with wild cannibal natives who were ready enough to blow a poison darsis if they ever saw a chance there was digging and ditching and the am planting and it does another things to be done so we were busy enough all day though in the evening we had little time to ourselves among other things I learned to dispense drugs from the surgeon and picked up a smattering of his knowledge all the time I was on the lookout for a chance to escape but it is hundreds of miles from other lands and there is little no window no seas so it was terribly difficult to get away the surgeon doctor somatin was a far 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 loaned some 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 a fond of a hand of cards myself and it was almost as good as having one to watch the others there was major sholto captain morston and lieutenant bromley brown who were in the command of the native troops and there was a surgeon himself and two or three prison officials crafty old hands who played a nice slice 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 always used to lose and their civilians would win mind I don't say that there was anything unfair but so it was these prison chaps had didn't know the rest of the louts but play cards ever since they had been at the adamns and they knew each other's games to a point while the others just played past time and threw their cards down any now night after night the soldiers got up poor men and the poor were 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 seem to be set against him and the worse would happen all day he would wonder about his blackest thunder and he took to drinking and 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 morston came stumbling along on the way to their quarters they were buzzing friends loasting and never far apart the major was raving about his losses it's all that morston he was saying as he passed the hut I shall have to send in my papers I'm a ruined man nonsense old chap said the other slapping him upon the shoulder I've had a nasty face 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 a chance of speaking to him I wish to have your advice major said I well small what is it he asked taking his cherry root from his lips I wanted to ask you sir who is the proper person to whom hidden treasure should be handed over I know we're half a million worth lies and as I cannot use it myself I thought perhaps the best thing I could do would be to hand it over to the proper authorities and then perhaps they could get my sentence shortened for me half a million small he got looking hard at me to see if I was an earnest quite that sir in jewels and pearls it lies there ready for anyone and the queer thing about it is the real owner is outlawed and cannot hold property so that it belongs to the first come a to government small he stammered to government but he said it in a halting fashion and I knew in my heart that I'd 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 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 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 were to anyone about it and I shall see you again soon to nights later he and his friend captain morston came to my heart in the dead of night with a lantern I want you just to let captain morston hear the story from your own lips small city I repeated it as I told it before it rings true it said he it's good enough to act upon captain morston nodded look here small said the major we have been talking it over my friend here and we've 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 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 gentleman I answered trying to be as cool as I could 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 to the partnership and give you a fifth share to divide between you a fifth that's not very tempting it would come to fifty thousand a piece that I but how can we gain your freedom you know very well you are asking impossibility nothing of the sort I answered I have thought at all to the last detail the only bar to our escape is that we can get no boat fit for voyage and no provisions to last us for longer time there are plenty of little yachts and yawls at Calcutta or Madras which would serve our turn well do bring one over we shall engage to get abroad her by night and if you will drop us any part the ending 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 Mauston said he small as 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 old 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 rotor to inquire into the affair not so far said I growing colder as he got hot I must have the consent of my three comrades I tell you that it is for or none with us nonsensey broken we have three black fellows to do with our agreement black or blue said I they are in with me and we are all together well the matter ended by second meeting at which Moham as sing 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 the officers with charts the parts of the agra fort and marked the place in the wall where the treasure was hid major sholter was go to India to test our story if he found a 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 morston was then to apply for leave of absence to meet us agra and there we were to have a final division of the treasure he taking the measures share as well is his own all this we sealed by the most solemn of oaths and that for the mine could utter I sat up all night with paper and ink and by morning I had two charts already signed with the sign of the four that is Abdullah Akbar Mohammed 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 choky I'll make it as short as I can the villain sholter went off to India but he never came back again captain morston showed me his name among a list of passengers in one of the male boats very shortly afterwards his uncle had died leaving him a fortune and he had left the army yet he could not stoop to treat five men as he had treated us morston went over to agra shortly afterwards and found as we expected that the in treasure was indeed gone the scoundrel had stolen it all without carrying one of the five conditions which we had sold in 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 sholter to have my hand upon his throat that was my one thought even the agra treasured come to be a smaller thing in my mind than slaying of sholter well I have set my mind on many things in my life and never won which I did not carry out but I was weary for the years of my time came I have told you that I'd picked up something of medicine one day when dr. summison was down with a fever a little adamant 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 venomous as a young snake and after a couple of months I got a mort right unable to walk he took a kind of fancy to me then and would hardly go back to his woods but he was always hanging about by my heart I learned a little of his lingo and this made him all the more funter of me Tonga that was his name was a fine boatman and owned a big roomy canoe of his own when I found that he had devoted to me and would do anything to serve me I saw my chance of escape I talked over with him and 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 goards of water and a lot of yams and coconuts and sweet potatoes he was starch and true was little Tonga no man had ever been more faithful at the night named he had his boat at the wharf as it chance however there was one of the convict guard down there a vile patent who had never missed a chance of insulting or injuring me I had always vowed vengeance and now I had my chance it was as if fate had placed him in my way that I may pay my debt before I left the island he stood on the bank with his back to me and his car buying on his shoulder I looked about for a stone to beat out his brains with but none I could see then a queer thought came into my head and show me where I could lay my hands on a weapon I sat down in the darkness and unstrap my wooden leg with three long hops I was on him he put his carbine to his shoulder but I struck him full and knocked the whole front of his skull and you can see the split of the wood now where I hid him we both went down together for I could not keep my balance but when I got up I found him still lying quiet enough I made for the boat and in an hour we were all out to sea Tonga had brought all his unearthly possessions with him his arms and his gods among other things he had a long bamboo spear and some and a man coconut matting which it made a sort of sale for ten days we were beating about trusting to luck and on the eleventh we were picked up by a trader which was going from Singapore to Jitter with a cargo of malai pilgrims they were a rum crowd and Tonga and I soon managed to settle down among them they had one very good quality they let you alone and asked no questions well if I were to tell you about all the adventures that my little chairman I went through you would not thank me for I would have you here until the sun was shining here and there we drifted about the world something always turning up to keep us from landing all the time however I never lost sight of my purpose I would dream of shaltto at the night a hundred times I've killed him in my sleep at last however some three or four years ago we found ourselves in England I had no great difficulty in finding where shaltto lived I set to work to discover whether he had realized the treasure or if he was still had it I'd made friends with someone who could help me I named no names friedo want anyone to get into a false hole and I soon found that he still had the jewels then I tried to get at him in many ways but he was pretty sly and had always two price fighters besides his sons and his kitmurga on the guard over him one day however I got word that he was dying I hurried at once to the garden mad that he would slip out of my clutches like that and looking through the window I saw him lying in his bed with his sons each side of him I have come through and take my chance with the three of them only even as I looked at them and I saw his jaw dropped I knew that he was gone I got into his room the same night and I searched his papers to see if there was any record of where he'd hid my jewels there was not a line however so I came away bitter and savage as a man could be before I left I thought myself that should I ever meet my seek friends again it would be a satisfaction to know that I'd left some mark of our hatred so I scroll down the sign of the four of us as it had been on the chart and I pinned it on his bism it was too much that he should be taken to the grave without some token from the men who he had robbed him before we earned a living at this time by my exhibiting poor tomgur at fairs and other such places of the black cannibal he would eat raw meat and dance in the ward dance so we always had a hat full of pennies after a day's work I still heard all the news from Bondickry Lodge and for some years there was no news to hear except that they were hunting for the treasure at last however came what we'd waited for for so long the treasure had been found it was up at the top of the house in mr bar tholamue shaltos chemical laboratory I came at once and had a look at the place but I could not see how my wooden leg and I was able to make why why I I learned however about a trap door in the roof and also about mr shaltos supper hour it seemed to me that I could manage the thing easily through tonga I brought him out with me for a long rope wound around his waist he could climb like a cat and he had soon made his way through the roof but ill luck would have it botholamue shaltos was still in the room to his cost tonga thought he had done something very clever in killing him for when I came up by the rope I found him strutting about as proud as a peacock very much surprised was he when I made him with the rope sending cursed him for the little blood thirsty him I took the treasure box and let it down and then slid down the rope myself having first left the signer the forer upon the table to show that the jewels had come back at last to those who had most right to them tonga then pulled the rope up closed the window and made off the way he had come I don't know that I have anything else to tell you I heard a watermelon speaker the speed of the Smith's launch of the aurora so I thought she would be a handy craft for our escape I engaged with old mr smith and was to give him a big sum if he got us saved to our ship he knew no doubt that was there was some screw loose but he was not in our secrets all this is the truth and if I tell it to you gentlemen it is not to amuse you for you have not done me a very good turn but it is because I believe the best offense I can make is just a whole back nothing but let all the world know how badly I have been served myself by major shaltto and how innocent I am of the death of his son a very remarkable account said mr. Sherlock Holmes a fitting wind up to an extremely interesting case there is nothing at all new to me in the latter part of your narrative except that you brought your own rope that I did not know by the way I had hoped that tonga had lost all his darts yet he managed to shoot one of us in the boot he had lost them all sir except the one which was in his blowpipe at the time of course mr. Holmes I had not thought of that is there any other point which you would like to ask about ask the convict affably I think not thank you my companions answered well Holmes said a thelny Jones you are man to be humid and we all know that you are a connoisseur of crime but duty is duty and I have gone rather far in doing what you and your friends asked me I shall feel more ease when we have our storyteller here safe under lock and key the cab still awaits then there are two inspectors downstairs I am much obliged to you both for your assistance of course you will be wanted at the trial goodnight to you goodnight gentlemen both said Jonathan small you first small remark the wary Jones as they left the room I'll take a particular care of you that you don't club me with your wooden leg whatever you may have done to the gentleman at the Andaman Isles well and there is the end of our little drama I remarked after we had set up sometimes smoking in silence I fear that I may be the last investigation which I shall have the chance of studying your methods miss morston has done me the honour to accept me as a husband in perspective he gave the most dismal groan I feared it much said he I really cannot congratulate you I was a little hurt have you ever been reasoned to be disassafied with my choice I asked not at all I think she is one of the most charming and ladies I've ever met and might have been the most useful in such work if we've been doing she had a decided genius that way witness the way in which you preserved that agra plan for all the other papers of her father but love is an emotional thing and whatever is emotional is opposed to that true cold reason what I have placed above all things I should never marry myself lest I bias my judgment I trust said I laughing that my judgment may survive the ordeal but you look weary yes the reaction is already upon me I should be a limp as a rag for a week strange said I how terms of what in another man I should call laziness alternate with your fits of splendid energy and vigol yes he answered there are in me the makings of a very fine loafer and also of a pretty spryce or tovello I often think of those lines of the old guff by the way purpose of this norwood business you see that they had as I surmised a confederate in the house it could be the none other than lorale the butler so jones actually had the undivided honour of having caught one fish in this great hall 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 they still remains the cocaine bottle and he stretched his long white hand up for it