Look!" I said. "There's K.K.K. on the envelope. Those letters were on Uncle Elias's envelope too!" We were both shaking and afraid.
"Yes, and this time it says 'Put the papers in the garden'."
"Which papers? The papers in Uncle Elias's box? He burnt them!" I said.
"And where has this letter come from?" my father said. He looked at the envelope. "Dundee, Scotland. Well, I don't know anything about pips or papers. I'm not going to do anything."
"Father, you must tell the police," I said. I remem- bered my uncle's letter from India, and I was very worried.
"No, they'll laugh at me. Let's just forget about it," he replied.
'Three days later my poor father went to visit an old friend who lived some miles away. But he never came back. The police said that he was walking home in the dark when he fell down a hill. He was badly hurt, and he died soon after. They decided it was an accident, but I didn't agree. I thought it was murder, and I could not forget the five orange pips and the strange letters to my uncle and my father.
'But I've tried to forget, and I've lived alone in that house for nearly three years now. Then yesterday I got this.'
on the back, and five small orange pips. 'You see?' he said. 'It comes from East London, and it says "Put the papers in the garden". Those are the words that were in the letter to my father.'
'So what did you do next?' asked Holmes.
'Nothing,' answered Openshaw. He put his head in his hands. 'I don't know what to do. I'm afraid.'
'Nothing?' cried Holmes. 'Young man, you must do something fast. You're in danger!'
'Well,' I've talked to the police,' said Openshaw unhappily. 'But they laughed at me. They think that there's nothing to worry about.'
'How stupid they are!' cried Holmes. 'And why didn't you come to me immediately? Your enemies have had almost two days to make a plan. Haven't you found anything which will help us?'
'Well, I found this in the locked room,' said John Openshaw. He showed us a small, half-burnt piece of paper. 'It was with my uncle's papers. It's his writing. Look, it says:
March 7th 1869 Sent the pips to three people, Brown, Robinson and Williams.
March 9th Brown left.
March 10th Williams left.
March 12th Visited Robinson and finished business with him.