The five orange pips

1887. In the latter days of September, a storm unleashes on London. While Mary Watson is visiting her mother (* see below), John lives for a few days at Baker Street again. Despite the violent weather, a client arrives: young John Openshaw seems to have  inherited a dreadful fate!

His uncle Elias left for United States. He became a wealthy planter in Florida, but, after the victory of the North, opposed to any policy in favour of "negroes", he came back to England, where he lived alone but for his nephew. One day John saw him receive a letter containing only five orange pips. His uncle left all colors. Terrified, he cried "KKK! My sins have overtaken me!". He drank much more than usual and some times later committed suicide.

His brother inherited the house. In the attic, in a locked room, the Openshaw found the remains of some destroyed papers. Only one piece escaped, mentioning KKK, names and dates. Two years later, John's father received the same strange letter. John was anxious, but his father laughed. Fiddlesticks! However, a few days later, he died accidentally.

Two years went by before it was John's turn to receive the fatal letter... On the advice of Major Pendergast, he came to Sherlock Holmes straightaway.

After some questions and advice about what to do, the detective promises to solve that case quickly.

But on the following morning, Dr Watson reads in the paper that young Openshaw drowned, because of the storm. Holmes is deeply shaken. He makes the case a personal matter, and soon discovers who sent the letters: some members of the Klu Klux Klan, seeking to recover compromising papers taken by Elias Openshaw. The men are aboard a boat, and Holmes send a cable to have them arrested. But they will encounter the same fate than their latest victim, and never reach their destination.

Here we see two unusual mistakes...

A little one is made by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself: * dead when Mary Morstan was a child (The sign of the four), Mary's mother came back to life!

More significant: Sherlock Holmes makes a terrible mistake. He underestimates the threat upon his client. Watson writes that he was "more depressed and shaken that I ever saw him". Despite the quick solution to the case, there is little doubt Holmes will keep a strong memory of poor Openshaw.