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do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for 
it. But that my girl should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was 
more than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction than if he 
had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought back his son; but I had 
gained the cover of the wood, though I was forced to go back to fetch the cloak 
which I had dropped in my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that 
occurred." 

"Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man signed the 
statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we may never be exposed to such 
a temptation." 

"I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" 

"In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you will soon 
have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the Assizes. I will keep your 
confession, and if McCarthy is condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall 
never be seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or dead, shall 
be safe with us." 

"Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, when they 
come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace which you have given to mine." 
Tottering and shaking in all his giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. 

"God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate play such 
tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such a case as this that I do not 
think of Baxter's words, and say, 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock 
Holmes.' " 

James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a number of 
objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and submitted to the defending 
counsel. Old Turner lived for seven months after our interview, but he is now dead; 
and there is every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily 
together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their past. 



Adventure V 

The Five Orange Pips 



HEN I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes cases 
between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which present 
strange and interesting features that it is no easy matter to know which 
to choose and which to leave. Some, however, have already gained 
publicity through the papers, and others have not offered a field for those peculiar 
qualities which my friend possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object 
of these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his analytical skill, and would 
be, as narratives, beginnings without an ending, while others have been but partially 
cleared up, and have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and surmise 
than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to him. There is, however, 
one of these last which was so remarkable in its details and so startling in its results 
that I am tempted to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are points 
in connection with it which never have been, and probably never will be, entirely 
cleared up. 

The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater or less interest, 
of which I retain the records. Among my headings under this one twelve months 
I find an account of the adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendi- 
cant Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a furniture warehouse, 
of the facts connected with the loss of the British barque "Sophy Anderson", of 
the singular adventures of the Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of 
the Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, Sherlock 
Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to prove that it had been 
wound up two hours before, and that therefore the deceased had gone to bed within 
that time — a deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the 
case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of them present such 
singular features as the strange train of circumstances which I have now taken up 
my pen to describe. 

It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales had set in 
with exceptional violence. All day the wind had screamed and the rain had beaten 
against the windows, so that even here in the heart of great, hand-made London