Page 22 (1/1)

"We searched the garden that night, but found no sign of the intruder, save that just under thea single footmark was visible in the flower-bed But for that one trace, we inations had conjured up that wild, fierce face We soon, however, had another and a encies at work all round us Theof , his cupboards and boxes had been rifled, and upon his chest was fixed a torn piece of paper, with the words 'The sign of the four' scrawled across it What the phrase meant, or who our secret visitor e, none of h everything had been turned out My brother and I naturally associated this peculiar incident with the fear which hauntedhis life; but it is still a coht his hookah and puffed thoughtfully for a fewto his extraordinary narrative At the short account of her father's death Miss Morstan had turned deadly white, and for a moment I feared that she was about to faint She rallied however, on drinking a glass of water which I quietly poured out for her from a Venetian carafe upon the side-table Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair with an abstracted expression and the lids dra over his glittering eyes As I glanced at him I could not but think how on that very day he had complained bitterly of the commonplaceness of life Here at least was a probleacity to the utmost Mr Thaddeus Sholto looked from one to the other of us with an obvious pride at the effect which his story had produced, and then continued between the puffs of his overgrown pipe

"My brother and I," said he, "were, as you ine, much excited as to the treasure whichand delved in every part of the garden, without discovering its whereabouts It was -place was on his very lips at the e the splendor of theriches by the chaplet which he had taken out Over this chaplet my brother Bartholomew and I had soreat value, and he was averse to part with them, for, between friends, my brother was hiht, too, that if we parted with the chaplet itus into trouble It was all that I could do to persuade him to let me find out Miss Morstan's address and send her a detached pearl at fixed intervals, so that at least she ht never feel destitute"