The Five Orange Pips
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THE. ADVENTURES. OF SHERLOCK HOLME~ Facsimile from the Strand Magazine, Volumes II"and oi; July 1891 -June 1892. A dventur.es of Sherlock- Ilo~mes. ADVENTURE V.-THE FIVE ORANGE -PIPS. By A. CONAN DOYLE • . ' ~~:::A.Ii~l.;1HEN I glance -over my notes cumstances lvhich I have nOlV taken up my VIIO-"llhiII and records of the Sherlock p~n to describe. ~\I~r/~ Holmes cases between the It' \vas in the latter days of September, years "82 and '90, I am faced and the equinoctial gales had set in ,vith by so many which present exceptional violence. All day the \vind ~~~---... strange and interesting fea had screamed' and the rain had beaten tures, that it is no easy nlatter to know again~t the windows, so that even here in which to choose and which to leave. ~ome, the heart of great, hand-made London lve however, have alr~dy gained pUblicity lvere forced to raise our minds for the inst;lnt through th~ papers, and -others have not from the routine of life, and to recognise offered a field for ~ose peculia~ qualities the presence of those great elemental forces which my friend possessed. in so high a which shriek at mankind through the bari degree, and -which it is the object of these of his civilisa~ion, like untamed· beasts in. a p~pers to illustrate. Some, too, have cage. As evening drew in the storm grew baffled his analytical skill, and' would be, as higher and louder, and the wind cried and narratives, beginnings lvithout an ending,' sOQbed like a child in the chimney. Sher while othefs have been but partially cleared lock Holmes sat moodily at one $ide of the up, and' have their explanations founded firep'lace cross-indexing his records ofcrime, rather upon conjecture a:nd surmise than on whIlst I at the other was 'd'eep "iii-one of that' absolute logical proof ,vhich ,vas so _ Clark. Russell's fine sea-stories, until the dear to him. There is, however, one of hoWl of the gale fronl ,vithout seemed to these last \vhich was so remarkable in its blend lvith the text, 'and the splash of the details and so startling in its resul~s, that'I I rain to lengthen out into the long swash of am tempted to give some account of it, in the sea waves. My ,vife lvas on a visit to spite of the fact that there ar~ points in ner mother's, and for a few days I ,vas a connection with it ,vhich never have been, dweller once more in myoId quarters at and probably never 'viU be, entirely cleared Baker..;street. - up. ': "Why," said I, glancing up at my com The year ' 87 furnished us lvith a long panion, "th3:t 'vas. surely the bell. Who series 'of cases of greater or less interest., of ' could come to-night? Some friend of yours, which I. retain the records. Among my perhaps?" . headings under this one twelve months, I , "Except yourself I have none,11 he find an account of the adventure of the answered. "I do 110t encourag~ visitors." Paradol 'Chanlber, of the Amateur Mendi " A client, then? " cant Society, who held a luxurious club in' " If so, it is a serious case. Nothing l~ss the lower vault of a furniture warehouse, of would bring a man out on such a day, and the facts connected with the loss of the at such an hour. But I take it that it is British 'barque Sophy Atzderson, of the sin more likely to be some crony of the land- gular adventures of the Grice Patersons lady'S." " in the island of Uffa, and finally of the Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his con Camber \VeIl poisoning case. In the latter, jecture~ however, for there came a step in as may be remembered, Sherlock Holmes the passage, and a tapping ~t the ftoor. He was able, by winding up the dead man's stretched out his long arm to ~urn the lamp watch, to prove that it had :b~en lvound away from himself and towards the vaca~t up two, hours ago, and that therefore chair upon which a new-comer must sit. the deceased had gone to bed within 1£ Come in! " said he. that" time-a deduction which was of the The man \\Tho entered was young, some greatest importance in clearing up the case. fwo-and-t\v~ntyat the outside, well groomed All these I may sketch out at SO!lle future and trimly clad, with something of refine date, but none of them present such sin ment and delicacy in his bearing. The gular features as the strange train of cir- streaming umbrella which he held in his 175 176 THE STRAND MAGAZINE. hand, and his long shining waterproof told " And yet I question, sir, whether, in all of the fierce weather through which he had your experience, you have ever listened to come. He looked about him anxiously in a more mysterious and inexplicable chain the glare of the lamp, and I could see that of events than those "hich have happened/ his face was pale and his in my own family." eyes heavy, like those of . " You fill me with a man who is weighed interest," said Holmes. down with some great " Pray give us the anxiety. essential facts from the "lowe you an .apo commencement, and I logy," he said, raising can afterwards question his golden jt"llce·1/ez to you as to those ' details his eyes. "I trust that which seem to me to be I am not intruding. I most important." fear that I have brought The young man pulled some traces of the storm his chair up, and pushed and the rain into your his wet feet out towards snug chamber." the blaze. "Give me your coat "My name", said he , and umbrella," said "is John Openshaw, but Holmes. " They may my own' affairs have, as rest here on the hook, far as I can understand and will be dry presently. it, little to do with this You have come up from awful business. It is a the south-west, I see." hereditary matter, so in "Yes, from Horsham." order to give you an idea " That clay,-and chalk of the facts, I must go mixture which I see upon back to the commence your toe-caps is quite ment of the affair. distinctive. " " You must know that " I have come for my grandfath-::r had two advice." sons-my uncle Elias "That is easily got." and my father Joseph. " And help." " My father had a small "That is not always /\ factory at Coventry, so easy." o f HE L tlOh:ED ABOUT HIM ANXIOUSLV, which he enlarged at the " I have heard of you, time of the invention of Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Pren bicycling. He was the patentee of the dergast how you saved him m the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his Tankerville Clllb Scandal." business met with such success that he was "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully able to sell it, and to retire upon a hand accused of cheating at cards." so me competence. !' He said that you could solve any· "My uncle Elias emigrated to America thing." when he was a young man, and became a "He ~aid too much." planter in Florida, where he was reported "That you are never beaten." to have done very well. At the time of " I have been beaten four times-three the war he fought in Jackson's army, and times by men, and once by a woman." afterwards under Hood, where he roseto be ,. But What is that compared with the a colonel. When Lee laid down his arms number of your successes? " my uncle returned to his plantation, where "It is true that I have been generally he remained for three or four years. About successful. " 1869 or 1870 he came back to Europe, and "Then you may be so with me." took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. " I beg that you will draw your chair up He had made a very considerable fortune to the fire, and favour me with some details in the States, and his reason for leaving as to your case." them was his aversion to the negroes, and " It is no ordinary one." his dislike of the Republican policy in ex "None of those which come to me are tending the franchise to them. He was , I am the last court of appeal." a singular man, fierce and quick-tem- AD'PENTURESOF SHERLOCK HOLMES. 177 pered, very fo~l-mouthed when he was envelope, and sa,v scrawled in red ink angry, and of a most retiring disposition. upon the inner flap, Just above the gum, During all th~ years that he lived at Hors- the letter K three times rep~ated.· There ham I doubt if ever he set foot in the was nothing else save the five dried pips. town. He had a garden and two or three What could be the reason of his overpower:o: fields round his house, and' there he would ing terror? I left the breakfast table, and take ,his exercise, tho~gh very often for ~s I ascended the stair I m~t him coming weeks on end he would never leave his down with an old rusty key; which must room. He drank a great deal of brandy, and have belonged to th~ attic, in one hand, and s~oked very heavily, but he would see no a small brass box, like a cash box, 'in the society, and did nc!: ,vant any friends, not other.