The Sign of the Four (SoundCraft Audiobooks) characters

Appears from the start

A consulting detective established in practice at 221B Baker Street, called in by private clients and by the official police when a case defeats them. Between cases he is restless and low-spirited, and at the opening of this book he is dosing himself with a solution of cocaine three times a day, which his companion openly deplores. He works from close observation and from an enormous store of specialised knowledge, holding that a detective should reason as an exact science; he has written monographs on such subjects as tobacco ash and the tracing of footsteps, and keeps a wide acquaintance among boatmen, cabmen and street children that he uses as a private intelligence service. He is a practised actor and disguise artist, and impatient of anything he considers sentiment intruding on reasoning.

Also known as Dr. Watson

Appears from the start

A former army surgeon, invalided home from Afghanistan, who shares rooms with Sherlock Holmes and records his cases. His health is not what it was and an old wound still troubles him. Warm-tempered where Holmes is cold, he objects strongly to his friend's drug habit and argues with him about it, and he takes an immediate personal interest in the young woman who brings the case, which he suspects will not survive a close look at the difference in their circumstances.

First appears in chapter 2

A young governess in the household of a Mrs. Cecil Forrester, self-possessed and plainly dressed, who comes to Baker Street with an odd story. Her father, an Indian Army officer, vanished in London ten years earlier; six years ago an unknown person began sending her a large pearl once a year; and now she has been asked by letter to meet the sender, bringing two friends but no police. She is entirely alone in the world and asks Holmes to find out what is being done to her and why.

First appears in chapter 2

Mary Morstan's father, a captain in an Indian regiment stationed for years in the Andaman Islands. Arriving in London on leave in 1878, he telegraphed his daughter to meet him at his hotel, went out that evening and was never seen again. His luggage was untouched and no trace of him was ever found. Among the effects returned to his daughter was a curious paper marked with a plan and four signatures.

First appears in chapter 4

An officer of the same Indian regiment as Captain Morstan, and the only man in England known to have been his friend. He retired to a large suburban house at Norwood, lived in unexplained wealth and unexplained fear of strangers and of men with wooden legs, and died in 1882. According to his son he had been carrying a secret about an Indian treasure, and about Morstan's fate, that he tried and failed to unburden himself of on his deathbed.

First appears in chapter 4

One of Major Sholto's twin sons, a small, restless, prematurely bald man who has furnished a shabby suburban house as an art collector's retreat and complains constantly about his own heart. He is the sender of the pearls and of the letter, and says he wishes to see justice done to Miss Morstan. He explains what his father confessed at his death and takes the party to his brother, who he says has now found the treasure at the family house.

First appears in chapter 4

Thaddeus Sholto's twin brother, who lives at the family house, Pondicherry Lodge in Norwood, and holds the opposite view to his brother about sharing the inheritance. He has spent years searching the grounds and the building for the hidden treasure and has recently traced it to a sealed room in the roof.

First appears in chapter 5

The porter at the gate of Pondicherry Lodge, a former prizefighter who follows his employer's standing order to admit no one without permission. He recognises Holmes as an amateur boxer he once fought at a benefit, and lets the party in on the strength of it.

First appears in chapter 6

A Scotland Yard inspector, stout, red-faced and heavily confident, who takes charge at Pondicherry Lodge. He is dismissive of theorising and of Holmes personally, assembles a case out of the people who happen to be on the premises, and makes arrests on it within the hour.

First appears in chapter 6

An ugly, long-haired mongrel kept by a naturalist in Lambeth, with an exceptional nose that Holmes rates above the whole detective force of London for following a scent through streets. Holmes borrows him to trace a distinctive chemical smell left by an intruder.

First appears in chapter 7

The owner of a small steam launch kept at a wharf on the Thames near the Tower, who has been missing from home along with his boat and his elder son since the night in question. His wife and his younger son give Holmes what they know of the launch and of the wooden-legged customer who hired it.

First appears in chapter 7

A powerfully built man with a wooden leg, one of the four names signed on the chart found among Captain Morstan's effects. From marks at Pondicherry Lodge Holmes concludes that he climbed the wall and the roof with an unusually small companion, and that the two of them left by boat down the Thames with the treasure.

First appears in chapter 8

The leader of a crowd of ragged street children whom Holmes employs and pays by the day, with a reward for whoever brings the news he wants. Holmes sets them to work the whole length of the London riverside for a particular steam launch.

First appears in chapter 10

The very small companion of the wooden-legged man, a native of the Andaman Islands, devoted to him and armed with a blowpipe and poisoned darts. He is seen for the first time during the pursuit down the river, crouched on the deck of the fleeing launch.