کا.کا.کا

Chapter three

K.K.K.

Sherlock Holmes sat silently, and watched the fire. Then he said to me, ‘John Openshaw is in real danger. Why did his Uncle Elias have to leave America? Because he had enemies. When he came back to England he was afraid. That’s why he lived a lonely life and locked all his doors so carefully. Now where did those letters come from? Did you see?’

‘The first from Pondicherry in India, the second from Dundee in Scotland and the third from East London,’ I answered. ‘Does that tell you anything,’ asked Holmes.

‘They’re all sea ports. The writer was on a ship when he wrote the letters,’ I replied. I was pleased with my answer.

‘Very good, Watson,’ said Holmes. ‘Somebody sent some pips from India, and arrived seven weeks later to kill Uncle Elias. Then he sent some pips from Scotland and arrived three days later to kill John’s father. Do you see why I’m worried now? He has sent pips to John from London, John’s enemy is in London already!’

‘Good God, Holmes,’ I cried. ‘Who is this man?’

‘More than one man, I think. They belong to the Ku Klux Klan. That explains the “K.K.K.”. Haven’t you ever heard of it? It’s a very secret group of Americans from the South. They wanted to stop equality for black people and to kill anyone who didn’t agree with them. The police couldn’t stop them. But in 1869 Uncle Elias, who belonged to this secret group, suddenly left America with all their papers, and so the group could not go on. Of course the group wanted to get the papers back. You remember the half-burnt paper? That was Uncle Elias’s American diary. While he was working for the K.K.K, he sent the pips to frighten those three men. Two left the country, but one didn’t, so the K.K.K “finished business with him”, or killed him. The K.K.K always worked like that.’

‘Well, I hope they won’t kill young Openshaw,’ I said.