A Study in Sherlock. Raymond G. Farney

Holmes had once unraveled a little domestic complication. She was much impressed by his kindness and skill. In lower Camberwell. “A middle-aged, graceful woman, and it gave me joy to see how tenderly her arm stole around Miss Morstan’s waist and how motherly was the voice in which she greeted her.”Mrs. Hudson. Announces Miss Morstan.— I could hear Mrs. Hudson, raising her voice in a wail of expostulation and dismay. “It is the unofficial force—the Baker Street irregulars.”Khitmutgar, Thaddeus Hindu servant. “Clad in a yellow turban, white loose-fitting clothes, and a yellow sash. There was something strangely incongruous in this Oriental figure framed in the commonplace doorway of a third-rate suburban dwelling-house.”Lal Rao, Bartholomew Sholto’s butler, an inside confederate of Jonathan Small.McMurdo, Bartholomew porter who answered the door at Podicherry Lodge when Thaddeus, Holmes, Watson and Miss Morstan arrived. Also a prize-fighter who four years earlier had fought three rounds with Holmes at Alison’s rooms.Mordecai Smith, hired by Small to take them upriver with the treasure. Owner and captain of the Aurora. “Smith says she is one of the fastest launches on the river, and that if he had had another man to help him with the engines we should never have caught her. He swears he knew nothing of this Norwood business.”— “Neither he did,” cried our prisoner, “not a word. I chose his launch because I heard that she was a flier. We told him nothing; but we paid him well, and he was to get something handsome if we reached our vessel.”— “Well, if he has done no wrong we shall see no wrong comes to him.”Mrs. Smith, Mordecai’s wife. A stoutish, red faced woman— “The main thing with people of that sort,” said Holmes, “is never to let them think that their information can be of the slightest importance to you. If you listen to them under protest, as it were, you are very likely to get what you want.”Jack Smith, Mordecai’s son. A little curly-headed lad of six.Sherman “a bird stuffer’s” ---”The old naturalist’s” (Holmes tells Watson.) “Knock old Sherman up and tell him, with my compliments, that I want Toby at once.”Williams, Major Sholto’s porter and coachman. Prize fighter, was once lightweight champion.Sent by Thaddeus to pick up Miss Morstan, Holmes, and Watson at the Lyceum Theatre.A small, dark, brisk man.—A pair of wonderful penetrating and questioning eyes.—Toby (a dog), “I know a dog that would follow that scent to the world’s end. If a pack can track a trailed herring across a shire, how far can a specially trained hound follow so pungent a smell as this?”“A queer mongrel with the most amazing power of scent. I would rather have Toby’s help than that of the whole detective force of London.”— “Toby lives at No.7 on the left here.”“Toby proved to be an ugly, long-haired, brown and white in colour, with a very clumsy, waddling gait.”“Here you are, doggie! Good old Toby! Smell it, Toby, smell it!” He pushed the creosote handkerchief under the dog’s nose, while the creature stood with its fluffy legs separated, and with the most comical cock to his head, like a connoisseur sniffing the bouquet of a famous vintage. Holmes then threw the handkerchief to a distance, fastened a stout cord to the mongrel’s collar, and led him to the foot of the water-barrel. The creature instantly broke into a succession of high, tremulous yelps and with his nose on the ground and his tail in the air, patterned off upon the trail at a pace which strained his leash and kept us at the top of our speed.“Toby never hesitated or swerved but waddled on in his particular rolling fashion. Clearly the pungent smell of the creosote rose high above all the other contending scents.”“Toby looked neither to the right nor to the left but trotted onward with his nose to the ground and an occasional eager whine which spoke of a hot scent.”“Toby has lost his character for the infallibility.” “He acts according to his lights,” said Holmes.— “Poor Toby is not to blame.”“Toby could eat the scraps, I dare say.”

       Others Mentioned:Captain Arthur Morstan, Mary’s late father, 34th Bombay infantry. “He had suffered for years from a weak heart, but he concealed it from everyone. Died of a heart attack after arriving in London ten years earlier while at Pondicherry Lodge with Major Sholto. “He suddenly pressed his hand to his side, his face turned a dusty hue, and he fell backwards, cutting his head against a corner of the treasure-chest.”Major John Sholto, friend of and served with Captain Morstan of the Thirty-fourth Bombay Infantry. Retired eleven years earlier to Pondicherry Lodge, Upper Norwood, bringing from India a considerable sum of money and a large collection of valuable curiosities.Father of Thaddeus and Bartholomew. “Died upon twenty-eighth of April, 1882.”Left the army after inheriting a fortune from his uncle.Went to India to verify the treasure existed, took it, didn’t return to Andaman but went to England.— “The scoundrel had stolen it all without carrying out one of the conditions on which we had sold him the secret.”Uncle of Major Sholto died, leaving him a fortune.Lieutenant Bromley commanded native soldiers with Major Sholto and Captain Morstan at Blair Island in Andamans.Lal Chowdar, Major Sholto’s servant who helped the major dispose of Captain Morstan’s body. He had died before Major Sholto.Dawson & his wife, coworkers of Small at the plantation, did the book-work and managing. Both killed in the uprising.Freinghee, what Europeans inhabiting India were called.Street Arab held the four-wheeler for Williams, the driver, while he spoke to Miss Morstan, Holmes and Watson at the Lyceum Theatre “He gave a shrill whistle, on which a street Arab led across a four-wheeler and opened the door.”Hindoos or Mohammedans Holmes thought were three of the Sign of Four, and Jonathan Small the fourth.— “The Hindoo proper has long and thin feet. The sandal-wearing Mohammedan has the great toe well separated from the others because the thong is commonly passed between.”Sergeant John Holder saved Small from drowning in the Ganges when his leg was bitten off by a crocodile.Jim, Mordecai’s oldest son, who went with his father, Small, and Tonga on Aurora.A rajah, in the northern provinces, the original owner of the treasure which he had inherited from his father. He had been deposed and driven out of India.Malay pilgrims, the cargo of the trader ship that picked up Small and Tonga at sea.Nana Sahib, leader of the mutiny. “Made himself scarce over the frontier.”Pandies, name of the Sepoys taking part in the mutiny.A vile Pathan, a convict-guard to Small killed with his wooden leg, guarded the wharf where Small was to meet Tonga with his canoe for escape.Sepoy, what native Indian soldiers for the Britain are called.Dr. Somerton, surgeon, “a fast, sporting young chap” who Small worked with in the Andamans, Blair Island prison.The three Sikhs, members of the sign of four. Abdullah Khan, “the taller and fiercer.” Dost Akbar, “an enormous Sikh with a black beard which swept nearly down to his cummerbund. I have never seen so tall a man.” Klan’s foster-brother, and accompanied Achmet on his travel to the fort Agra and Mahomet Singh stood guard with Small at the gate.“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.”Jean Paul Richter & Carlyle, two writers mentioned by Holmes and Watson.Wilson, Sir Colin, Lucknow, and Colonel Greathed, who put down the mutiny.Abel White, an indigo-planter who Small worked for after being discharged from the army. Killed in the uprising.“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 sprang up. There he sat on his veranda, drinking whiskey-pegs and smoking cheroots, while the country was in a blaze about him.”Winwood Reade, a writer that Holmes quotes.

       Locations:Baker Street.Thaddeus Sholto’s Home, “Our guest does not appear to take us to very fashionable regions.” We had indeed reached a questionable and forbidding neighborhood. Long lines of dull brick houses were only relieved by the coarse glare and tawdry brilliancy of public-houses at the corner. Then came rows of two-storied villas, each with a fronting of miniature garden, and then again interminable lines of new, staring building—the monster tentacles which the giant city was throwing out into the country. At last the cab drew up at the third house in a new terrace. None of the other houses were inhabited, and that at which we stopped was as dark as its neighbours, save for a single glimmer in the kitchen window.“A third-rate suburban dwelling-house.”“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 paintings or Oriental vase. 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. Two great tiger-skins thrown athwart it increased the suggestive 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 gold wire in the centre of the room. As it burned it filled the