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"Major Sholto was a very particular friend of papa's," she said "His letters were full of allusions to the major He and papa were in command of the troops at the Andaether By the way, a curious paper was found in papa's desk which no one could understand I don't suppose that it is of the slightest iht it with me It is here"

Holmes unfolded the paper carefully and smoothed it out upon his knee He then very methodically examined it all over with his double lens

"It is paper of native Indian manufacture," he rera with nues At one point is a small cross done in red ink, and above it is '337 fro In the left-hand corner is a curious hieroglyphic like four crosses in a line with their arh and coarse characters, 'The sign of the four,--Jonathan Sh, Abdullah Khan, Dost Akbar' No, I confess that I do not see how this bears upon the matter Yet it is evidently a document of importance It has been kept carefully in a pocket-book; for the one side is as clean as the other"

"It was in his pocket-book that we found it"

"Preserve it carefully, then, Miss Morstan, for it in to suspect that this matter may turn out to be much deeper and more subtle than I at first supposed I must reconsider my ideas" He leaned back in the cab, and I could see by his drawn brow and his vacant eye that he was thinking intently Miss Morstan and I chatted in an undertone about our present expedition and its possible outcome, but our companion maintained his impenetrable reserve until the end of our journey

It was a Septe, and not yet seven o'clock, but the day had been a dreary one, and a dense drizzly fog lay low upon the great city Mud-colored clouds drooped sadly over the muddy streets Down the Strand the laht which threw a feeble circular glilare from the shop-s streamed out into the stea radiance across the crowded thoroughfare There was, to host-like in the endless procession of faces which flitted across these narrow bars of light,--sad faces and glad, haggard and looloom once more I a, with the strange business upon which ere engaged, combined to make me nervous and depressed I could see fro fro Holmes alone could rise superior to petty influences He held his open note-book upon his knee, and froht of his pocket-lantern