Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-18
The Return of
Sherlock Holmes
BY A. CONAN DOYLE.
The Adventure of Black Peter.
downright 1904 by A Conan oyla err weklyJ
Copyright by uureP Co.

GLIDING the report of the inquest, with
some care BY the way. what do you make
OF that tobacco pouch, found on the scene
Of the crime? Is there no clue there?'
Hopkins looked surprised.
ut was the mans own pouch, sir. His
initials were inside 1t. And 1t was Of seal
skin-and he was an old sealer."
But he had no pipe"
mo. sir. we could find no pipe. Indeed.
he smoked very little, and yet he might
have kept some tobacco for his friends"
mo doubt. 1 only mention 1t because If
had been handling the case. I should have
been inclined to make that the starting
point of my investigation. However, my
friend DR.. Watson. knows nothing of this
matter, and should be none the worse for
hearing the sequence of events once more.
Just give us some short sketches of the es-
sentials."
Stanley Hopkins drew slip of paper from
his pocket.
II have a few dates here which will give
you the career of the dead man, Capt
Peter Carey. He was born in '45-ffty
years of age. He was a most daring ana
successful seal and whale fisher. In 1888
he commanded the steam seeler Sea Uni
corn of Dundee He had then had several
successful voyages in succession, and in
the following year, 1884. he retired. AFTER
that he travelled for some years, and finally
he bought small place called Woodman's
Lee, near Forest Row, in Sussex There
he has lived for six years, and there he
died just week ago today.
There were some most singular points
about the man. In ordinary life he was a
strict Puritan-a silent, gloomy felloW.
His household consisted of his wife, his
daughter aged twenty, and two female
servants These last were continually chang
ing, for it never very CHEEKY sltua-
tion and sometimes 1t became past al
bearing. The man was an intermittent
drunkard and when he had the hit on him
he was perfect fiend He had been known
to drive his wife and daughter out of doors
in the middle of the night. and fog them
through the park until the Whoie Vliiage
outside the gates was aroused by their
screams.
HE was summoned once for a savage
assault upon the old vicar, who had called
upon him to demonstrate with him upon
his conduct. In short, Mr.. Holmes, you
would go far before you found more dan
gerous man than Peter Carey, and l have
heard that he bore the same character
when he commanded his ship. He was
known in the trade as Black Peter, and
the name was given him, not only on ac-
count of his swarthy features and the color
of his huge beard, but for the humors which
were the terror of all around him. need
not say that he was loathed and avoided
by every one of his neighbors, and that
have not heard one single word Of sorrow
about his terrible end.
"You must have read in the account OF
the inquest about the mans cabin. MI
Holmes. but perhaps your friend here has
not heard of 1t. He had built himself a
wooden outhouse-he always called it the
house. and 1T was here that he slept every
night. 1t was a little, single-roomed hut,
sixteen feet by ten. He kept the key in his
pocket, made his own bed, cleaned 1t him
self, and allowed no other foot to cross the
threshold. There are small windows on
each side, which were covered by curtains
and never opened. One of these windows
was turned toward the high road and when
the light burned in 1t at night the folk
used to point it out to each other and won
der what Black Peter was doing in there.
That's the window, Mr.. Holmes which gave
US one of the few bits of positive evidence
that came out at the inquest.
you remember that a stonemason named
Slater, walking from Forest Row about /
o'clock in the morning-two days before
the murder-stopped as he passed the
grounds and looked at the square of light
still shining among the trees. He swears
that the shadow of mans head turned
sideways was clearly visible on the blind,
and that this shadow was certainly not that
of Peter Carey, whom he knew well. 1t was
that of a bearded man, but the beard was
short and bristled forward in way very
different from that of the captain. So he
says, but he had been two hours in the
public house, and it Is some distance from
the road to the window. Besides, this re-
done upon the Wednesday.
"On the Tuesday, Peter Carey was In one
of his blacklist moods, flushed with drink
and as savage as a dangerous wild beast.
He roamed about the house, and the wo-
men ran from it when they heard him COM
ing Late in the evening he went down to
his own hut. About 2 o'clock the following
morning his daughter. who slept with her
window open, heard q most fearful yell
from that direction but it was no unusual
thing for him to bawl and shout when he
was in drink, so no notice was taken. On
rising at one of the maids noticed that
the door of the hut was open, but great
was the terror which the man caused that