Study guide 2 for The Sign of Four, Chapters 5-9.

1) Describe the atmosphere at Pondicherry Lodge and the crime scene Holmes, Watson, Sholto, and Miss Morstan find there.

2) Compare Watson and Holmes’s reactions to the crime scene.3) What is Holmes’s most important “precept” (121) in solving a case?4) Detail the clues at the crime scene that Holmes seems to find most significant.5) Holmes uses two foreign phrases during Chapter 6. Use Google to translate

them.6) Contrast Athelney Jones’s approach with Holmes’s.7) Emotion versus reason continues to be a subject or theme in the story.

Where do we see this theme specifically?8) Who is Toby?9) Does the city of London continue to play a role in the mystery? Explain.10) Watson accuses Holmes of “mere speculation” (132) and later doubts him

altogether (146). Is either the accusation or the doubt just? Why or why not?11)How accurate is the media’s reporting of the case?12)“A street arab” was a Victorian English term for a homeless young boy. How

does Holmes make use of such boys? What does this use tell us about him and his methods?

13)How does Watson finally come to understand who the “other man” (141)with Jonathan Small is?

14)What new interests and capabilities does Holmes reveal at the ends of both chapters 8 and 9?

15)Imagine if Sherlock Holmes fully narrated the story rather than Watson. Would it be as interesting? Explain.