I had a vague recollection of having heard my friend Edward Malone, of the Gazette, speak of Professor Challenger, with whom he had been associated in some remarkable adventures. I am so busy, however, with my own profession, and my firm has been so overtaxed with orders, that I know little of what is going on in the world outside my own special interests. My general recollection was that Challenger has been depicted as a wild genius of a violent and intolerant disposition.

When an Englishwoman receives mysterious gifts of pearls and a letter promising t o right wrongs done to her, she calls upon Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to i nvestigate. Who is sending the beautiful Miss Morstan a rare and priceless pearl each year? Holmes and Watson pursue Indian treasures, and murders whose ominous trademark is "the sign of four." It is in this, the second Holmes novel that the great detective fully comes to life ?as a melancholic and an inscrutable master of deduction. Includes unique illustrations.

A historical romance and tale of adventure, set in England during the fourteenth century. Descendent of a noble family, Nigel Loring is the last of his race, and living alone with his aged grand-mother, upon a small remnant of their great estate.