The Sign of Four

Thanks Saanchi!
So...the 2nd book starts off with Holmes showing us that he is a crack addict. His wrist and forearm were "all dotted and scarred with innumberable puncture-marks," (89). Holmes finds it "so transcendently stimulating and clarifying to the mind that its secondary action is a matter of small moment," (89). Holmes is a thinker. When he is given a problem to solve, he is in his "own proper atmosphere," (90). He uses cocaine to basically keep his brain sharp. Holmes "cannot live without brainwork," (93). Holmes explains his reason for using cocaine in the following passage:
"My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. That is why I have chosen my own particular profession, or rather created it, for I am the only one in the world," (90).

The story begins when a young lady named Miss Morstan comes to Holmes's and Watson's house. She wants them to escort her because she received a letter from a mysterious person who told her to go to the Lyceum Theatre. Her father went to fight in India and when he came back to visit Miss Morstan, he disappeared. She knows that her father's only friend is Major Sholto. Sholto also died.

Indeed Holmes is very work-oriented. Dr. Watson was the only one who noticed how attractive Miss Morstan was. Holmes didn't care at all. Holmes simply replies that he didn't observe. And apparently Holmes has had an affair with a woman before whose case he had to solve. She was hanged for poisoning three little children for their insurance money. As Watson says, Holmes is "really are[an] automaton-a calculating machine," (96).
Holmes, Watson and Miss Morstan head to the theatre and board a cab to a house where they are brought to see someone, a sahib.