Holmes takes the case, and soon discovers that Major Sholto had died in 1882 within a week of his death, Mary received the first pearl. With the sixth pearl, she received a letter asking for a meeting, claiming she has been 'wronged'. She then received a large and valuable pearl in the post, a gift repeated once a year for six years. Four years later, Miss Morstan answered an anonymous newspaper advertisement, asking for her whereabouts. Mary contacted Major John Sholto, a former convict guard who had known her father and was now living in England however, he denied having seen Morstan, and Morstan was never heard from again. He requested her to meet him at the Langham Hotel, but he was not there when she arrived. Miss Morstan explains that, in December 1878, her father, Captain Arthur Morstan, had arrived in London, on leave from his post as a convict guard in the Andaman Islands. Holmes claims he needs a problem to solve and is bored shortly thereafter, Miss Mary Morstan arrives with a case. Watson remonstrates with Holmes about his cocaine usage. Doyle wrote four novels and 56 short stories featuring the fictional detective. The Sign of the Four (1890), also called The Sign of Four, is the second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes by British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?

The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle