A young Sussex gentleman named John Openshaw has a strange story: in 1869 his uncle Elias Openshaw had suddenly come back to England to settle on an estate at Horsham West Sussex after living for years in the United States as a planter in Florida and serving as a colonel in the Confederate Army.
Not being married, Elias had allowed his nephew to stay at his estate. Strange incidents have occurred; one is that although John could go anywhere in the house, he could never enter a locked room containing his uncle's trunks. Another peculiarity was that in March 1883 a letter postmarked Pondicherry, in India, arrived for the Colonel inscribed only "K. K. K." with five orange pips (seeds) enclosed.
More strange things happened: Papers from the locked room were burnt and a will was drawn up leaving the estate to John Openshaw. The Colonel's behaviour became bizarre. He would either lock himself in his room and drink or he would go shouting forth in a drunken sally with a pistol in his hand. On 2 May 1883 he was found dead in a garden pool.
On 4 January 1885 Elias's brother Joseph – John's father – received a letter postmarked Dundee with the initials "K. K. K." and instructions to leave "the papers" on the sundial. Despite his son's urging, Joseph Openshaw refused to call the police. Three days later, Joseph Openshaw was found dead in a chalk-pit. The only clue with which John Openshaw can furnish Holmes is a page from his uncle's diary marked March 1869 describing orange pips having been sent to three men, of whom two fled and the third has been "visited."
