#please let it appear in the tags tumblr
(Interestingly enough, the official English title for this arc is “The Sign of Mary”, while the Japanese title is “The Sign of the Four”, which is the title of the Conan Doyle novel this arc is based on.)
John brought his fiancé Mary to Baker Street. He met her thanks to the case he and Sherlock took on for Mrs. Cecil Forrester 2 months ago. Back then, Mrs. Cecil invited them to come over for a meal as thanks for their help, but Sherlock was not interested in going so John went alone. That was where he met Mary, who was a live-in governess (tutor) in the Forrester household.
Ms. Hudson noticed that Sherlock was looking at her appraisingly so she makes an excuse to get herself and Sherlock out of the room to have a private talk with him. Outside the room, she tells Sherlock that he seems to not have noticed it, but he’s being jealous right now, much to Sherlock’s denial.
However, in Ms. Hudson’s point of view, Sherlock looks as if he had his good friend taken away from him. Ms. Hudson then asks Sherlock not to say or do anything that might drive her away, like use his power of deduction on her. Sherlock reluctantly agrees.
Once they come back into the room, John eagerly talks about their plans for a simple wedding ceremony and how he wants Ms. Hudson and Sherlock to attend.
However, Sherlock notices that Mary has been acting odd and hasn’t been smiling the whole time, even when John is trying his absolute best to keep their conversation going. So he asks her if there is anything else she’d like to say to him apart from their engagement.
As Sherlock has guessed, Mary admits that there is something she wanted to consult Sherlock on, but had been holding back since she didn’t want to make it seem like this is the real reason she came here.
At John’s behest, Sherlock then listens to what Mary has to say.
There is a mystery she would like Sherlock to solve, and presents him with a box with 6 huge pearls inside. She explains that someone kept sending her a pearl every year for the past 6 years. However, the sender has never revealed their name.
When asked for more details, Mary begins by talking about her father’s disappearance 10 years ago. Mary’s father was appointed a job in India and took a holiday from that job to come back to the country.
Her father definitely checked in at the hotel they were supposed to meet at, but was gone by the time Mary was there. He has been missing since then, and even getting the police to search for him and announcing it in newspapers didn’t help. Mary believes that he must have gotten dragged into some trouble.
When asked if her father had any military friends in the country, Mary answers that she can only think of Major Sholto, who was in the same squad as her father. However, when she tried to contact him back then, Sholto told her that he was not even aware that her father was in Britain.
Then she talks about another mystery. 6 years ago, there was a notice in The Times (A British newspaper in London), asking for Mary’s whereabouts. The person who sponsored the notice did not reveal his name or leave a contact address.
Mrs. Forrester’s recommended that Mary post her current address in an ad. Right on the day she did so, a pearl was delivered to their address, and she received one pearl every year since then.
Sherlock then asks if there was anything else that happened, like for example, did someone threaten her? Mary gives a reaction at that, but replies negatively. Instead, she presents a letter she received a month ago.
In the letter, the sender writes that Mary has suffered an injustice and they would like to make up for it. They would be waiting at the third pillar from the entrance of the Lyceum Theatre at 19:00 every night. She is allowed to bring 2 friends with her if she is uncomfortable going alone.
Sherlocks believes it to be dangerous, but they might find out about the mystery of her father’s disappearance this way. Then, he also warns Mary that her father might actually be involved in something troubling, rather than just dragged into it.
However, Mary still wants to know the truth regardless. And so Sherlock agrees to take on the case and tells her to meet up with them again tomorrow. There’s something he needs to check out.
Once John and Mary have left, Sherlock tells Ms. Hudson that Mary is still hiding something from them. She was still acting suspicious the whole time, making him wonder what she is hiding and why. Sherlock finds Mary more of a mystery than the case itself.
The next day, as Sherlock leaves the British Museum Reading Room, he thought about needing to wrap up Mary’s case quickly so he can focus on the Lord of Crime. However, there is still something nagging Sherlock about this case– Mary’s reaction when he said the word “threatened”.
The time appointed in the letter arrived and everyone headed to the meeting place. Sherlock then shares that Sholto, the friend of her father, died a week before the first pearl was sent to her.
On the other hand, Mary shows him a map that she found while checking her father’s notepad.
In the map was a floor plan of a place as big as a fortress, 4 signatures and 4 cross signs.
Once they arrived at the meeting place, a servant of the letter’s sender approached them.
That servant brought them to the residence of Thaddeus Sholto. Mary tries to asks him to get straight to the point, but he says he can’t right now because he needs to go his Family home and meet up with his brother.
When asked why, Thaddeus explains that his brother seems to have found the Treasures of Agra, their father’s legacy. Upon hearing this, Mary mutters, “So the Treasures of Agra does exist.” Much to Sherlock’s shock.
