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3. The Five Orange Pips

On a cold stormy September evening in 1887, my friend Sherlock Holmes and I were sitting

by the fireplace in his flat on Baker Street. My wife was visiting her mother at that time,

so I stayed with Holmes for a few days. At a late hour that evening, when we were both

reading our books, the doorbell rang suddenly. We looked up at each other in surprise.

"'Who can that be?' I asked.

"'Were you expecting anyone to night Holmes?'

"'No,' answered Holmes.

"'Perhaps it's a client with a serious problem. No one can go out in this terrible weather,

and at this time of the night for an unimportant reason. Or someone has come to see the landlady

downstairs. Who knows? Then there was a tap at the flat store, and Holmes rose from his

armchair to open it. The visitor was a well -dressed young gentleman. He was about 20 years old

and looked very nervous. He left his umbrella outside the door because it was dripping wet,

and Holmes hung his wet coat on a hook by the door.

"'I need your help, Mr. Holmes,' he said quickly.

"'It's a very urgent matter. I have heard about you from a friend's uncle. And today I got your

address from him. You saved him from a scandal. I know you can help me, too. Take a seat, please.

Relax, and tell me the problem,' said Holmes in a kind and calm voice.

"'My name is John Openshaw,' he began. There has been a chain of mysterious events in my family.

"'First, let me tell you about the family. My grandfather had two sons. My uncle Elias and

my father, Joseph Openshaw. My father had a tire factory. He was very successful in his business.

"'Later, he sold the factory and retired. My uncle Elias went to live in America when he was a

young man. He owned a plantation in one of the southern states, Florida, and became very rich.

He had many African slaves. They were working in the fields. My uncle didn't like the African

Americans. He didn't want them to have equal rights as the white men. So, during the Civil War,

he joined the southern army and fought against the northern soldiers. When the southern army lost the

war, the black Americans had equal rights as the white Americans.

Uncle Elias stayed in Florida for three or four more years. Then, in 1869, he returned to England.

He wanted to live in the countryside. He bought a big estate in Sussex, near the town of Horsham,

and lived there. Uncle Elias had a big garden and big fields around his house. He was a very ill -tempered

man. He never went out of the house. He drank and smoked heavily. He didn't have any friends.

But he loved me and wanted me to live with him. So, my father sent me to his house when I was 12

in the year 1878. Uncle Elias took very good care of me and taught me many things when he wasn't

drunk. As I grew older, he gave me the control of his estate. I became the master of the house.

I had the keys to all the rooms and could go anywhere in the house.

But there was a locked secret room in the attic. No one could go in there.

I was very curious, so I sometimes peeped through the keyhole. I only saw the trunks and bundles in it.

One morning, in March 1883, Uncle Elias received a letter from a city in India called Pondicherry.

He was startled because he didn't know anyone there. He quickly opened the envelope. And,

to our surprise, there was no letter inside. But when five orange pips fell out of the envelope,

my uncle's face became white immediately. His hands began to shake and he cried out,

K K K. Oh my God, they have found me. I will die.

Then, he quickly went upstairs to his room. I looked at the envelope. On the back of its flap,

I saw the letters K K K K in red ink. I didn't understand anything.

Why was my uncle so afraid? I asked myself.

About half an hour later, Uncle Elias came back down the stairs with a small brass cash box.

There was an old rusty key in his hand, too. Perhaps it was the key to the mysterious locked

room in the attic. He sent a servant to the town to fetch his lawyer and went back to his room again.

After the lawyer arrived, my uncle called me to his room. The fire in the room was burning

brightly and there was a big pile of ashes in front of the fire. They were the ashes of burnt

paper. The small brass cash box was beside the fireplace. It was open and empty. I saw the three

letters K K K on its lid. I was surprised. Uncle Elias asked the lawyer to write his will.

Then, he turned to me and said, John, when I die, your father will have all my wealth,

and when he dies, all my money and estate will be yours. If my wealth causes problems for you,

give everything to your worst enemy. When the lawyer finished writing the will,

he asked me to sign it as the witness. Then, he took the will and left.

After that day, Uncle Elias locked himself in his room all the time. He drank more heavily

than before. Sometimes he came out of the room very drunk. He screamed and said he was not afraid

of anyone. He often wandered around the garden with a gun in his hand. And one night, he was very

drunk and went out again. But he didn't come back. I was very worried. The next morning,

we found Uncle Elias lying with his face down in a small pool at the far end of the garden.

Everyone thought he fell in the water and drowned. But I didn't think so because the water was very

shallow. The police said he killed himself. I didn't think that was true because Uncle Elias

was afraid to die. At this point, Holmes stopped the young man for a moment. When exactly did your

uncle die, he asked. And what was the date when he received the envelope?

We found him dead on the 2nd of May, 1883, seven weeks after the letter came. He received it on

the 10th of March, John Openshaw answered. Then he went on. After my uncle's death,

my father inherited his wealth. 14 ,000 pounds and all of his land.

In January, 1884, my father began to live with me. I told my father about the envelope and the

five orange pips. And he laughed. He thought it was funny. Together, we searched the room in the

attic a few times. But we didn't find anything important. There were many papers and notebooks

with my uncle's notes from the war years and some political documents. The cash box was there too.

It was empty. On the inside of its lid, there was a paper label with the letters K, K, K on it.

Everything was normal for about a year. But one morning, in the first week of January,

in 1885, when we were having breakfast, my father received a letter. Again, there were five

orange pips inside the envelope, but no letter. My father was puzzled. He couldn't understand it.

He was a little scared too. What does this mean, John? He asked and handed the envelope to me.

I saw three Ks on the back of its flap and my hands began to shake with fear.

Oh, my uncle also received an envelope like this. I told you that, I said. There was a short note

above the three Ks saying, put the papers on the sundial. What papers? And where is the sundial,

my father cried out? The papers in my uncle's small brass cash box, I think, I said. But he

burned all of them. And the sundial is here, in the garden. My father looked at the stamp on the

envelope. It comes from Dundee, Scotland. I have no friends there. Someone is playing a joke on me,

he said. We should tell the police, I warned him. But he said, nonsense. The police will just laugh

at this. Three days later, my father went to another town to visit an old friend. On the second day

of his visit, his friend sent me a telegram. He was asking me to come immediately and see

my father in the hospital. You see, when my father was walking back to his friend's home

late in the evening, he fell down a hill. His head was badly injured, and he was in a coma.

So, I went there as fast as I could, but my father died, just when I got there. The police

decided that it was an accident. But when I thought of the two letters with the five orange

pips and the three Ks, I was sure that it was murder, and I was scared. They can try to kill me too,

I thought. Luckily, nothing strange or dangerous has happened for the past two years. But yesterday,

I received this in the post, the young man said, and took out an envelope from his pocket.

He showed us the letters K K K on the back of its flap. Then he pointed to the stamp and said,

look, they sent it from East London. And the note here says, put the papers on the sundial.

My father received an envelope just like this two years ago before he died. It had five orange

pips inside and the same instruction on the back of its flap.

You are in danger, young man, said Holmes, with a worried look on his face.

Did you do anything after you got this envelope? I just went to the police and showed the envelope

to them. John Openshaw answered, but they laughed at me. They thought it was a joke.

Well, the police are usually wrong, said Holmes angrily. Why didn't you come to me as soon as you got

the envelope? I didn't know about you, answered the young man. I talked to my friend's uncle today.

He advised me to see you and gave me your address, so here I am. You must act quickly now, Holmes said.

It has been two days since you got the envelope, so your enemy had enough time for their next plan.

Now we must make a quick plan too, but we don't have any information to help us.

Oh, I have something to show you, cried out John Openshaw.

I found this in the attic room this morning, and he took out a small piece of paper from his pocket.

The tip of it was half burned. It was lying on the floor. I think it's a part of a page from my

uncle's diary. This is definitely his handwriting. Holmes placed the lamp on the table, and the three

of us bent over the paper and looked at it carefully. The date on the top was March 1869.

We read the dates, names, and notes under it very quickly. We didn't understand anything.

Fourth, met Hudson at the same place.

Seventh, sent the pips to McCauley, Paramore, and John Swain.

Ninth, McCauley, left.

Tenth, John Swain.

Left.

Twelfth, visited Paramore.

Finished the business with him, I hope.

I'm glad you have found this, Mr. Openshaw, said Holmes.

Now go home immediately.

Put this paper in your uncle's brass box, and write a note saying your uncle burned all the other

papers. Put the note inside the brass box, too. Then, leave the brass box on the sundial.

When they find it there, they will stop bothering you, and you will be safe. After Openshaw left,

Holmes lit his pipe and sat by the fire. Then he said, there are several questions about this case.

First of all, what does the letter K stand for? Please give me that encyclopedia from the shelf

beside you, Watson. I'll look up information about it.

The next question is, why did Uncle Elias leave America and come to England?

But this is easy. The answer is, because he had enemies in America.

He was afraid of death. So here, he locked himself in his house. He didn't see anyone,

and he drank heavily to forget his fear.

And the third question is, why did the three envelopes come from different places?

Did you note down the names of those places, Watson?

Yes, I did, I answered. The first was from Pondicherry, India, the second from Dundee, Scotland,

and the third from London. From East London, Holmes said, what does this tell us?

These places are all sea -ports, I said. The enemy was sailing on a ship when he wrote them,

and he posted them when the ship stopped at those ports. That is very good, Watson.

You have become a detective too, Holmes said and smiled. Then he went on.

The enemy killed Uncle Elias seven weeks after he sent the letter from India.

Next, he or they sent a letter from Scotland, and three days later, they came here and killed John's father.

And the third letter came from East London. That means the enemy is here.

Oh my God, John Openshaw will die very soon, I cried out.

Yes, and the enemy can't be just one person. It is a group of men, Holmes said, and read a page

of the Encyclopedia on his knees. Here it is. The three Ks stand for Ku Klux Klan.

This was a secret group of soldiers and men from the southern states of America.

The members of this group did not want the African Americans to have equal rights.

They threatened and killed the supporters of the black people. They sent them five orange

pips first. They tried to frighten them and stop them from supporting the black people.

But Uncle Elias belonged to the group too, didn't he? I asked.

Yes, he was working for them, said Holmes. Remember the three names on his diary page?

He sent those men letters with five orange pips. So two of them left America in fear.

The third one didn't. Perhaps the KKK killed him after Elias left the group.

But why did he leave America and come to live in Sussex?

He was afraid, answered Holmes, and he escaped to England. He brought all the group's papers with

him too. The group couldn't work without those papers, so they wanted to get the papers back.

They threatened Elias with the five orange pips. They killed him because he didn't give them the

papers. I hope they don't kill Young Open Shaw, I said with fear. The next morning, at breakfast,

Holmes said, I must stop those men from killing Young Open Shaw. I am going to his house when I

finish my coffee. At that moment, I picked up the day's paper and saw a big headline.

You are too late, Holmes, I cried out. John Open Shaw is dead. We read the article quickly.

The police found his dead body in the River Thames near London station last night. The young man was

going to the station to take the train to Horsham. He fell into the river in the dark and drowned.

Oh no, cried out Holmes. They killed him when he was going home last night. The poor man came to

me for help. I couldn't protect him. I feel terrible. But I am going to find those men, he said, and left

the flat in a hurry. Holmes came back home in the evening. He was very tired, but looked happy.

Watson, I know their names now, he said loudly. I am going to send them a surprise. Then he quickly

took an orange from the cupboard and removed their pips. He put five of them into an envelope.

On the inside of the flap, he wrote SH4J0. Then he sealed the envelope and wrote the address on it.

To Captain James Calhoun, Lone Star, Savannah, Georgia.

Captain Calhoun will get this envelope when his ship enters the Savannah port in Georgia,

America, he said, and laughed to himself quietly. It will frighten him, and he will wait for his death

like the Open Shaw's did. Who is Captain Calhoun? I asked curiously.

He is the leader of the group, Holmes answered. I will send envelopes with five orange pips to the

other two Americans too. But tell me Holmes, how did you find his name?

I looked at hundreds of ship papers at the dock today. He said, I spent the whole day for that.

Only one ship, Lone Star, was at the three ports at the time of the letters.

Lone Star was in Pondicherry in January and February, 1883, and it was in Dundee, Scotland,

in January, 1885. Holmes went on, saying, so I became sure that the enemy was traveling on the ship,

Lone Star. I also learned that the Lone Star was at the port of London until this morning.

It arrived a week ago. I talked to a cargo man. He said the Captain and two American passengers

were not on the ship last night. They returned to the ship early this morning,

and then the ship set off for the Savannah port in America.

Oh, I also sent a telegram to the police in Savannah. When the ship lands, they will catch

the three murderers. You couldn't save the young Open Shaw's life. But you have done a good

job again, Holmes. You have found the murderers. They will go to prison, I said.

After that day, we waited for a long time for news of the Lone Star. We looked at the newspapers

every day. Did the Savannah police arrest the Captain and the other two KKK men? We were very

curious about it. Finally, we heard the news about the ship. The Lone Star sank in the middle

of the Atlantic Ocean during a terrible storm. It went down in the ocean with all the crew and

the passengers on it. So, Captain Calhoun and the other two American men never reached America

and never received the orange pips. They were the murderers of three men,

and, in the end, a storm at sea took their own lives.