Chapter 1 The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

Meet the Author

• Arthur Conan is a British writer known for his detective stories and novels.
• Born: 22 May 1859
• Place of Birth: Scotland, later lived in England.
• Died: 7 July 1930
• Famous Works: ‘Holmes & Watson’, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Sign of Four, and A Study in Scarlet.
• Best Known for: He is celebrated for bringing out the fictional character of Sherlock Holmes, a detective.

Summary of the Chapter

The Journey of the Gem:

• The gem is stolen from the hotel
• The gem is with the real thief, Ryder, the hotel attendant.
• Ryder, the real thief, goes to see his sister
• He then put the gem in the mouth of a goose bred by his sister.
• This goose goes to Mr Breckinridge, the goose seller.
• From Mr. Breckinridge it goes to Mr Henry Baker who buys it from Breckinridge
• It then lands with Mr Peterson who finds Mr Baker’s goose
• Peterson gives it to Sherlock Holmes.

The chapter is an extract from a Sherlock Holmes mystery by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The chapter opens from the perspective of Conan. He is Sherlock Holmes' good friend. It is the day after Christmas. Conan is visiting Holmes' house. He spots the hat that is going through the examination hung on the chair. He also spots a lens and forceps that has been used for the inspection.

Holmes was happy to have him at home so that he could discuss the finding from his investigation. Holmes tells the story of how the hat landed up with him. Mr. Henry Baker was walking home with a fat goose. Mr. Peterson, the commissioner, was walking behind Henry. Then Henry was attacked by some goons. Peterson went to help Henry. But Henry mistook him for a cop and all of them including the goons fled the site.

In that rough fight Henry lost his hat and goose on the road. Peterson wanted to return the goose and found out from the hat that it belonged to Henry Baker. But Peterson found it difficult to find Henry as there are thousands in the city with the same name. Thus, he brought the goose and the hat to Holmes as he was aware that such situations interested Holmes.

In the Sherlock Holmes examination of the hat he understood the features of the person that they were looking for. Conan found it hard to get any clue about the person from the hat. According to him it was just another ordinary black hat of usual round shape.

Holmes concluded that the man led a sedentary life and was intelligent. He also came to the conclusion that he was a middle-aged man with gray hair and used lime cream on his hair. He is also not in good form. His friend was curious about his observations and asked how he managed to come to these conclusions by examining just a hat.

1. The hat is large so he got some brains, hence clever.
2. Found out some gray hair and fine whiffs of lime cream from the hat.

At this moment Peterson rushed into Holmes home with a blue diamond his wife found in the goose. Sherlock Holmes recognised it as the gem that he recently read about in the newspaper. The theft of the paper was present in the papers. It was stolen from the countess of Morcar during her stay at the Hotel Cosmopolitan.

Apparently the plumber was accused of the theft. Ryder the hotel attendant told the police that he had seen the plumber with the gem. Then, Holmes was interested in finding the mystery behind the gem and the hat.

First Step by Holmes

Found at the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at 221B, Baker Street.

Baker came to Holmes seeing this in the paper. They understood that he was innocent. Thus, Holmes gave me a fine goose as a replacement for the one he lost.

Second Step by Holmes

Tracing the seller, Mr Breckinridge from whom Henry Baker bought the goose. By meeting Mr. Breckindrige he understood that the goose came from a lady called Mrs. Oakshort from Brixton Road.

Soon, there was a noise and confusion as Ryder had come to meet Mr Breckinridge. This saved them from going out to look for his sister. Ryder had gone to meet his sister as they partnered in the sales of goose. He left the gem in the goose’s mouth thinking that it was for him to avoid being caught red-handed by his sister for stealing the gem.

Unfortunately he got the wrong goose and the real one with the gem was sold to Mr Breckinridge and then to Mr Henry Baker. To retrieve the gem from Henry, Rdyer sent the goons but he could not get hold of it as the goose ended up with Peterson and eventually with Sherlock Holmes.

But as it happened, neither did Ryder get the goose nor did he recover the gem because Mr Peterson came by and frightened the roughs away and brought the goose to Holmes.

Another Interesting Read:

If you enjoyed this chapter you might also like to read an excerpt from another classic book Pride & Prejudice, check out the chapter titled My Dearest Lizzy and know everything about it.

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