Sherlock Holmes - The Five Orange Pips (ASH)

A young gentleman named John Openshaw visits Holmes one night with a strange story. His uncle Elias had emigrated to the United States as a young man, establishing himself as a planter in Florida and joining the Confederate States Army, in which he rose to the rank of colonel. In 1869 or 1870, he returned to England and purchased an estate near Horsham in Sussex, adopting a reclusive lifestyle. He later allowed John to live on the estate and gave him full access to the property, except for one storage room that was always kept locked. On 10 March 1883, Elias received a letter postmarked Pondicherry, bearing the inscription "K.K.K." and containing only five orange pips (seeds).

The arrival of this letter badly unnerved Elias, and he sent John to bring a lawyer to the estate. By the time John returned, Elias had retrieved a box marked "K.K.K." from the locked room and burned its contents. Elias made a will naming his brother Joseph (John's father) as his heir, with the intent that John should eventually inherit the estate from him. Elias's already-reclusive behaviour became even more bizarre; he would either lock himself in his room and drink heavily, or rush about the grounds in a frenzy while carrying a pistol. On 2 May 1883, seven weeks after receiving the letter, he was found dead in a garden pool. The death was ruled a suicide, but John did not believe that Elias could have killed himself.

Joseph took possession of the estate and examined the room, finding scattered records of Elias's time in the United States. On 4 January 1885, he received a letter postmarked Dundee, identical to the one received by Elias and containing instructions to put "the papers" on the sundial in the garden. John realised that the papers being demanded must have been the ones burned by Elias. Despite John's urging, Joseph decided not to involve the police. Three days later, he was found dead at the bottom of a chalk pit; the death was ruled an accident, but again John had his doubts.

John has now received a letter postmarked London that orders him to put the papers on the sundial, but the local police are convinced that the letters are merely practical jokes. The only clue he can provide is a page from Elias's diary, dated March 1869 and detailing that pips were sent to three men; two were later "cleared" and one was "visited." Holmes suggests that John put the page in the box that had contained the other papers, along with a note detailing their destruction, and leave the box on the sundial.

After John departs, Holmes deduces that Elias had returned to England and gone into hiding because something in the United States had prompted him to flee for his life, and that the letters were sent from a sailing ship based on their postmarks and the time lapse between the first two mailings and the recipients' deaths. He recognises "K.K.K." as the Ku Klux Klan, an anti-Reconstruction era domestic terrorist group in the South that was active until its sudden collapse in 1869 – triggered, Holmes theorises, by Elias's return to England with vital records that the other members have since been trying to recover. Opponents of the Klan would receive a warning, and would be killed unless they either fled or renounced their opposition.

The next morning's newspaper carries an article on the discovery of John's body in the River Thames, apparently the result of an accidental drowning after falling off the Waterloo Bridge. Now convinced that all three Openshaw men were murdered, Holmes spends the day checking the records of sailing ships and finds only one that could have been in Pondicherry, Dundee, and London when the letters were mailed – an American barque, the Lone Star. He puts five orange pips into an envelope with the note "S.H. for J.O.", addresses it to the captain, and mails it to the vessel's home port of Savannah, Georgia. He also sends a telegram to the Savannah police, informing them that the captain and mates – the only American crewmen – are wanted in England for murder.

Holmes' desire for vengeance ultimately goes unfulfilled, as the Lone Star is destroyed in a severe gale. No trace is ever found except for a broken sternpost marked "L.S.", seen floating on the waves of the Atlantic Ocean.

Story from Arthur Conan Doyle - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in 1891.

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