Sample of Narrative: The Sign of Four

Sherlock Holmes was a famous private detective who lived in London with his best friend, Dr.Watson, a retired British army doctor. Together they helped each other to solve mysterious cases. Both lived at 221 Baker Street in London.

One day, a beautiful lady named Miss Morstan came to the house for some help. Dr.Watson fell in love for the very first time with her. Miss Morstan told Holmes, “My father, Captain Morstan has been lost since returning to England from India in 1878. from then on, i always receive a beautiful pearl every year on the date my father lost.”

“This morning,” she continued, “i got a letter asking me to come to Lyceum Theater at 7 p.m. tonight. So, please accompany me to go there.”

At Lyceum Theater, a man named Theodore Sholto greeted the tree of them. “Miss Morstan, my name is Theodore Sholto. Nice to see you,” he said. “Do you want to know about your father’s death? Let me tell you. My father and yours were friend during their service in India.”

“One day, they found the treasure of Agra and they promised to share it when they returned to England. But your father broke the promise and they had a severe quarrel and your father got a heart attack and soon died.”

“A few years later my father was seriously ill and he told my brother and me the truth and asked us to divide the treasure fairly. He told us to send you a pearl each year.”

“Before he could tell the place of the treasure, an ugly face appeared in the window and killed my father then the murderer ran into the dark of the night.”

“Finally we found father’s treasure was kept in Pondicherry Lodge, an old house of my father and now we would like to divide the treasure.” Theodore ended the story.

Holmes, Dr.Watson, Miss Morstan, and Theodore went to Pondicherry Lodge. When they arrived there they found that Theodore’s brother had died. He was killed by a poison thorn and the treasure was gone.

Holmes and Dr.Watson investigated the case. They found that there were two murderers in this case. One was one-legged man and the other one was a Pigmy man. 

As soon as they found out about the murder, the police chased these men on the river. The Pigmy man was shot dead and the one-legged man was caught. Unfortunately the treasure was thrown into the river.

“The treasure belonged to us the Sign of Four: me, the Pigmy man, and my two Indian friends. Your fathers had stolen it from us in India,” said the one-legged man.

Miss Morstan could not become a rich lady but this was a good thing for Dr.Watson because he was able to marry Miss Morstan.

Taken from:

Melania Wiannastiti., R.B. Yani S.B., Endang Sri M., M. Purwati.,Marta Yuliani., 2007. English for a Better Life: Grade XI. Bandung: Pakar Raya