At the exact moment when things seem to have taken an unexpected and hopelessly entangled turn, Holmes announces that he has solved the case.
This line is a perfect example of quintessential Holmes. “On the contrary,” he answered, “it clears every instant.” Watson/Sherlock Holmes, 109 “This is all an insoluble mystery to me,” said I. This occurs again later in the story, even more dramatically, in the case of Bartholomew Sholto’s murder. This ominous line is the first instance in which the “sign of the four” becomes associated with sudden death. “The window of my father’s room was found open in the morning, his cupboards and boxes had been rifled, and upon his chest was fixed a torn piece of paper, with the words, ‘The sign of the four’ scrawled across it.” Thadeous Sholto, 109 With no problem to solve, however, his energetic genius becomes frustrated. In his proper element, he is the ultimate thinking machine. This line, spoken by Holmes after Watson reprimands him for his use of cocaine, reveals part of the complex nature of Holmes.
I can dispense then with artificial stimulants.” Sherlock Holmes, 89-90 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. “My mind,” he said, “rebels at stagnation.
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