The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

Start reading

It is two days after Christmas. I visit my friend Sherlock Holmes at Baker Street. An old black hat hangs on a chair beside him. He has been looking at it very carefully.

“Does that hat belong to a criminal?” I ask.

Holmes laughs. At first, he thinks there is no crime at all. A man called Peterson brought him the hat and a goose.

Early on Christmas morning, Peterson saw some men attack a stranger in the street. The stranger carried the goose. One attacker knocked off his hat. The stranger lifted his stick and broke a shop window by mistake.

Peterson ran to help. But the stranger saw his uniform, became afraid and ran away. The attackers ran too. The hat and the goose stayed in the street.

There was a card on the goose. It said, “For Mrs. Henry Baker.” Inside the hat were the letters H. B. But there are many Henry Bakers in London.

The goose could not stay fresh for long, so Peterson took it home to cook. Holmes kept the hat.

He shows me the grey hair inside it and the marks on its surface. From these little signs, he tells me many things about its owner. Some seem likely. Others surprise me.

Then Peterson runs into the room with something in his hand.