Locations Mentioned:Afghanistan, Watson tells stories of his time there, to cheer and amuse Miss Morstan while in the carriage on the way to Thaddeus Sholto’s house.Agra, city & old fort in India where Small and other Europeans took refuge during the rebel uprising.“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 the old fort. It is a very queer place—the queerest that ever I was in, and I have been in some rum 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 centipedes. It is all full of great deserted halls, and winding passages, and long corridors twisted in and out, so that it is easy enough for folk to get lost in it. For this reason it is seldom that anyone went in it, though now and again a party with torches might go exploring. The river washes along the front of the old fort, and so protects it, but on the sides and behind there are many doors, and these had to be guarded.”Alison’s rooms, where Holmes had fought three rounds with Bartholomew’s porter, McMurdo, four years earlier.Andaman, Blair Island, where Small was imprisoned, worked dispensing drugs for the surgeon, and he and Tonga had escaped from. Captain Morstan had curiosities from amongst his things at the hotel.Andaman Islands situated 340 miles to the north of Sumatra, in the Bay of Bengal. Port Blair, convict barracks, Rutland Island. Where Holmes thought that Tonga was most likely from.Ballarat, where Watson said he had seen something of the sort left by prospectors. Referring to the dugout grounds at Pondicherry Lodge.Calcutta and Madras, Small wanted Sholto and Morstan to get a small yacht from there to use for an escape.Cawnpore, Indian city where women and children were slaughtered by the rebels.Delhi, Wilson took back from the mutineers.Esmeralda, at Gravesend, the vessel Small and Tonga were heading to in the Aurora to escape from London.Ganges River, where Small lost his right leg to a crocodile.Gravesend or in the Downs, where Holmes thought Small had arranged for passage to America or the Colonies.Hope Town, a small place on the slopes of Mount Harriet, where Small lived in a hut. “It is a dreary, fever-stricken place.”India and Senegambia, places Holmes thought had parallel cases.Madras, Small was there when being transferred from Agra to Andamans, Blair Island.Muttra, near the border of the Northwest Provinces. Where the Abel White plantation where Small worked was located.Upper Norwood, home of Major Sholto.Poplar, where Holmes sent Jones a telegram asking him to go to Baker St. at once.Rajpootana, states of India under British control that Achmet had crossed on his way to Agra.Richmond, as far as the search-party had gone looking for the steam launch Aurora.Rutland Island, where Sholto and Morstan were to have the small yacht for Small.Singapore to Jiddah, the route of the trader ship that picked up Small and Tonga at sea in the canoe.South America, Watson thought the possible origin of the murderer.Shahgunge, where Small fought the rebels after leaving the plantation.Rochester Road, Vincent Square, Vauxhall Bridge Road (making way for Surrey side), Wordsworth Road, Priority Road, Lark Hill Lane, Stockwell Place, Robert Street, Cold Harbor Lane. Places Holmes called out while he, Watson, and Miss Morstan were in the cab en route to meet Sholto. “I guess it does not appear to take us to very fashionable regions.”Woolwich and Gravesend, places Mordecai’s wife said that he had at one time been with his boat Aurora.
Evidence & Clues:Only friend Captain Morstan had in London was Major Sholto.“Envelope post-mark, London, S. W. dated, July 7 man’s thumb-mark on corner, probably postman. Best quality paper. Envelopes at sixpence a packet. Particular man in his stationery. No address.”“Our father would never tell us what it was he feared, but he had a most marked aversion to men with wooden legs.”“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 coconut-matting which served as a stair-carpet” (leading to Bartholomew’s room).The door to Bartholomew’s room was locked on the inside by a broad and powerful bolt.A torn sheet of note-paper with some words scrolled up on it. “The sign of four.”The floor was covered thickly with the prints of a naked foot.“Your toes are all cramped together. The other print has each toe distinctly divided.”“A small pocket or pouch woven out of coloured grasses and with a few tawdry beads strung around it. In shape and size it was not unlike a cigarette-case. Inside were half a dozen spines of dark wood, sharp at one end and rounded at the other, like that which had struck Bartholomew Sholto.”“Now, do consider the data. Diminutive footmarks, toes never fettered by boots, naked feet, stone-headed wooden mace, great agility, small poison darts.”
Motive:Agra treasure. “He computes value of the jewels at not less than half a million sterling.”“For weeks and for months we dug and delved in every part of the garden without discovering its whereabouts.”“He had come to the conclusion that it was somewhere indoors, so he worked out all the cubic space of the house and made measurements everywhere so that not one inch should be unaccounted for. Among other things, he found that the height of the building was seventy-four feet, but on adding together the heights of all the separate rooms and making every allowance for the space between, which he ascertained by borings, he could not bring total to more than seventy feet. There were four feet unaccounted for. These could only be at the top of the building. He knocked a hole, therefore, in the lath and plaster ceiling of the highest room, and there, sure enough, he came upon another little garret above it, which had been sealed up and was known to no one. In the centre stood the treasure-chest resting upon two rafters.”“You’ll find the treasure where the key is and where little Tonga is.”“The man that was clever enough to hunt me down is clever enough to pick an iron box from the bottom of the river.”“There were one hundred and forty-three diamonds of the first water, including one which had been called, I believe, ‘The Great Mogul,’ and is said to be the second largest stone in existence. Then there were ninety-seven very fine emeralds, and one hundred and seventy rubies, some of which, however, were small. There were forty carbuncles, two hundred and ten sapphires, sixty-one agates, and a great quantity of beryls, onyxes, cat’s-eyes, turquoises, and other stones, the very names of which I did not know at the time, though I have become more familiar with them since. Besides this, there were nearly three hundred very fine pearls, twelve of which were set in a gold coronet. By the way, these last had been taken out of the chest, and were not there when I recovered.” (Six of the twelve were ones sent to Miss Morstan.)Treasure Chest“