The Sign of Four Page #6

What's happening

on that boat?

They're fighting

among themselves.

Tonga,

Tonga.

The peg leg.

Stop!

Police!

Cease you.

You can burn in hell

Stop!

The sign of four

Watson look.

What a face.

Wait

Wait.

Let him wear

himself out.

So Jonathan Small.

I am sorry it's

come to this.

And so am I sir.

But I give you my

word gentlemen

I never laid hands

on young Mr. Sholto.

Of course you didn't.

Your little friends

dart killed him

while he was still

climbing the rope.

Well you speak as if

you were there sir.

Well if it had been

old Major Sholto

I would have swung for

him with a light heart.

But to be lagged over

this young Sholto,

cursed heart.

You must make a

clean breast of it

if you do I may

be of use to you.

Quite a family party.

I reckon I'll pull

that flask myself.

Now, where are

you going Small?

The Esmeralda,

at Gravesend,

outward bound

for the Brazils.

And nearly made it.

Another man at the engines

and you'd never

have caught us.

Where's the key my man?

At the bottom

of the river.

Now look here,

we've had enough of

you tonight Small.

Bring the cuffs in

men, I'm warning you.

Its alright constable

When we leave the stacks.

I suggest that we go

back to Baker Street.

Well I think Miss

Morstan should be there.

Well that's not the

regulation way Mr. Holmes.

Well I can at least

promise you a nice,

warming drink.

Very well gentlemen.

Well Miss Morstan

I am pleased and proud

to have been able to bring

the thief to justice.

Justice?

The pretty justice.

Who's loot is this

if it is not ours?

Where is the justice

that I should give it up

to those who have

never owned it?

You forget Small

they know nothing

of this matter.

We cannot tell

how far justice

may have originally

been on your side.

No sir.

You have been

fair spoken to me,

though I can say

that it's you

that I have to thank

for these

bracelets on my wrists.

Still I bear no

grudge for that.

If you want to

hear my story

I have no wish

to hold it back.

And what I say to

you is God's truth,

every word of it.

When I was a lad

I took the Queen's

shilling and was

posted out to India

with the Third Buff's.

A crocodile

snapped this off

when I was bathing

in the Ganges.

The sawbones

had my stump

in the tar barrel

nice and quick.

I was young and strong.

We got my discharge

and this fellow...

it's been a good

support to me

so there I was a

cripple at 20.

But I liked it out there

so I found myself a

job as an overseer

on an Indigo farm.

I was on horseback all

day so that was fine.

But I was never

in luck for long,

without a note of warning

the great

mutiny was on us.

I came back to the farm

one evening to find

my master and all his

family be murdered.

I didn't wait.

On that same evening I

was in the Fort of Agra,

the nearest city still

held by the British.

The old Fort of Agra,

a queer place,

huge,

it's full of

passages and rooms

and more entrances

than you can count.

There were many gates

and because I was an

ex-soldier and British

they put me in charge

of one of them

and gave me a

couple of Sikkhs

who'd stayed loyal to us.

It was a lonely place.

My 2 Punjabis were

experienced, fighting men.

Kartar Singh and

Indigo Singh.

Rebels?

No rebels.

The fort is safe.

There are no rebel

this side of the river.

You must be with us

or you must be

silenced forever.

With you how?

We want you to be rich,

which is why you British

came to this land.

Well I have no

objection of being rich.

Then swear by the

bones of your father

to raise no hand

and to speak no

word against us now

or ever afterwards

then you will have

quarter of the treasure.

But there are

only 3 of us.

Jagodish Singh my

foster brother

he must have his share.

There is no time

Sahib decide.

Well

provided the fort is

in no kind of danger

I swear.

What would you have

done Mr. Holmes?

I strongly suspect

I would have done

exactly as you did.

Yes I know the Sikkh.

He's not a man to

be trifled with.

One of our local Rajahs,

Rich as Croesus of course,

he'd gone in

with the rebels.

But... He wanted

to hedge his bet

just in case the

British came out on top.

So he made a plot to

get half his treasure

hidden in the Fort of Agra

sending one of

his men with it

in the guise

of a merchant

and Jagodish Singh

Kartar's brother

to be the guide.

They come challenging

sahib, in a major way

giving no caution to fear.

What then?

we do what has

to be done.

Who goes there?

A friend sahib.

A friend advance

and be recognized.

What have you with you?

A box sahib, old box.

Having some family papers.

No good to nobody

sahib only for myself.

Sahib, I'm no

ordinary beggar.

You will have money sahib.

and you comrades

sahib also.

Take him to the

main guardroom.

Never was a man more

compassed round with death.

If that man had escaped

the whole affair

would have come out.

I should have been

shot most like.

Which of you would have

held back his musket?

Kartar was for

burning him,

that's there religion.

But such a fire

was impossible.

Jagodish was for

throwing him down

into the great ditch

below the fort

where the jackal's

to clean him.

No doubt he was right.

I'm always for showing

some respect for the dead.

Then we turned

to the box,

this box.

Inside were more gems

than I could have ever

even had dreamed of.

A 143 diamonds of

the first order

including the Great Mogul,

the second largest

stone in existence.

97 emeralds,

170 rubies,

40 carbuncles,

61 agates.

Jagodish was right,

it was a great

mistake you made

burying the

body as you did

would you not

say so Watson?

Yes indeed.

Bodies not burned in India

are soon discovered.

So you and your

3 companions

were found guilty and

sent away for life

to the penal colony in

the Andaman Islands.

Blair Island sir.

Hopetown,

never was a place

worse named.

It was a place to sweat.

A place to rot.

A place to die.

And I sweated there

year after year

until your father

arrived Miss. Morstan.

corporal!

you will not maltreat

the white prisoner.

If it happens again

you'll be court marshaled.

He was our administrative

officer and he gave me

a nice cushy villa

in the dispensary.

He was as good and kind

a Christian gentleman

as I ever come across

and I hold no

grudge against him.

Or you Miss.

Thank you Mr. Small.

Well as I sat thinking

about the treasure

I could see all the offices

and the prison officials

at their drinking

and their gambling.

Major Sholto never

had much luck.

Night after night

he was the loser.

Some people are

born like that.

It's all over

for me Morstan.

I'm ruined.

I shall have to

send in my paper.

I don't suppose

you could manage

another couple

of hundred hey?

I had a pretty nasty

face in myself

and I have a daughter

back home to support.

Well I've got 2

wretched sons.

Ruined hey, damn pity.

So you decided to

approach your benefactor

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