Artur Dojl - The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

PART ONE

I visited my friend Sherlock Holmes on the second morning of Christmas. When I arrived he was sitting in front of the fire, wearing his purple dressing-gown. Next to the sofa was a wooden chair, and on the chair was a dirty old hat. A magnifying glass and a forceps were on the chair, so the hat was probably part of one of Holmes' investigations.

'You are busy,' I said. 'Perhaps I interrupt you.'

'Not at all,' he replied, and indicated the hat. 'The problem is very simple, but it is still interesting and maybe even instructive.'

I sat down in an armchair and warmed my hands in front of the fire because it was very cold outside.

'I imagine,' I said, 'that this hat is connected with a terrible crime.'

'No, no. No crime,' said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. 'It is only one of those strange things that happens when four million human beings live within the small area of a city. With so many people, every imaginable combination of events is possible, and sometimes you can find a problem that is striking and strange but not criminal.

'Do you know Peterson, the commissionaire?'

'Yes.'

'This trophy' belongs to him.'

'It is his hat?'

'No, no. He found it. Its owner is unknown. Look at it carefully, and not as a dirty old hat, but as an intellectual problem. It arrived here on Christmas morning together with a good fat goose. That goose is probably cooking at Peterson's house at this very moment.

'These are the facts. About four o'clock on Christmas morning Peterson was returning from a party along Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw a tall man carrying a white goose. Then he saw some men attack the tall man. One of the attackers knocked his hat off, so the man lifted his walking stick to defence himself. But when he lifted the stick he broke a shop window by mistake. Peterson ran to help the man, but when the man saw Peterson with his commissionaire uniform, he thought he was a policeman, and he ran away and so did the attackers. Peterson was there all alone with the hat and the goose.'

'Of course, Peterson then returned the goose to its owner,' I said.

'No,' replied Holmes, 'that is the problem. It is true that "For Mrs Henry Baker" was written on a small card attached to the leg of the goose, and that the initials "H.B." are written on the lining of the hat. But there are thousands of Bakers and hundreds of Henry Bakers in London.'

'What, then, did Peterson do?'

'He brought both the goose and the hat to me on Christmas morning, because he knows that I am interested in even the smallest problems. I kept the goose until this morning and then I gave it to Peterson to cook for dinner.'

'Did the man who lost the goose put a notice in the newspaper?'

'No.'

'Then how can you discover who he is?' I asked.

'From his hat,' replied Holmes.

'You are joking! What can you learn from this dirty, old hat?'

'Here is my magnifying glass,' replied Holmes. 'You know my methods. Look at the hat and see what you can discover about the identity of the man.'

I picked up the hat and looked at it carefully. It was a very ordinary round black hat. It was very worn and inside I could see the initials 'H.B.' There was a hole in the brim for the hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. It was very dusty and spotted in several places, but the owner had tried to cover these spots with black ink.

'I can see nothing,' I said, and gave the hat to Holmes.

'On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything, but you do not reason with what you see.'

'Then please tell me what you can deduce from this hat,' I said.

'Well,' said Holmes as he looked at the hat carefully,' I can see that the man was highly intellectual, and that three years ago be had enough money, but recently he has had difficulties with money. He had foresight in the past, but much less now, which means he has some problem, probably drink. This is probably the reason why his wife has stopped loving him-'

'My dear Holmes!'

'He has, however, kept some self-respect,' continued Holmes. 'He stays at home and goes out very little, he is totally out of training, is middle-aged, has grey hair, which has been recently cut, and he uses lime-cream. These are the main facts. Also, I do not think he has gas lighting in his house.'

'You are certainly joking, Holmes.'

'Not at all. Don't you understand how I inferred these things?'

'I am certain that I am very stupid,' I replied, 'but I can't follow your reasoning. For example, how did you deduce that this man was an intellectual?'

To answer me Holmes put the hat on his head. The hat was too big for him and covered his eyes.

'It's a question of volume,' said Holmes. 'If a man has such a big brain, he must have something in it.'

'How do you know he has less money now than in the past?'

'This kind of hat first came out three years ago. It is a hat of the very best quality. If this man had enough money to buy such an expensive hat three years ago, but he has not bought another hat since then, then it is clear that he has much less money now.

'Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the foresight?'

Sherlock Holmes laughed. 'Here is the foresight,' he said, pointing at the hat-securer. 'Hat-securers are never sold with hats. This means that he ordered it, which is a certain sign of foresight. But since he has not replaced the broken elastic, this means that he has less foresight than before. But he has tried to hide some of the spots on his hat with ink which means he has not completely lost his self-respect.'

'Your reasoning is certainly very good,' I said.

'That he is middle-aged, that his hair is grey, that his hair has been recently cut and that he uses lime-cream can all be seen by looking closely at the inside of the hat. With the magnifying glass you can see the partially grey hairs cut by a barber's scissors. They slick to the hat and there is the distinct odour of lime-cream. Also, you will observe that the dust on the hat is the soft, brown dust you find in houses, not the hard, grey dust you find in the streets. This means that the hat is kept inside the house most of the time, and that he doesn't go out very often. Also you can see the sweat stain on the inside of the hat, which means he perspired a lot. A man who perspires so much can't be in the best of training.'

'But his wife - you said that she stopped loving him.'

'This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When a man's wife lets him go out in such bad condition it means that she doesn't love him anymore.'

'But he could be a bachelor,' I said.

'No, he was bringing the goose to make peace with his wife. Do you remember the card on its leg?'

'You have an answer for everything. But how did you deduce that he doesn't have gas lighting in his house?'

'Well, if you saw one or two wax stains on a hat, it could be by chance. But I can see at least five on this hat, which means that this man must use candles very frequently.'

'Well, it is very ingenious,' I said laughing, 'but since a crime has not been committed, all this seems to be a waste of time.'

PART TWO

Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door opened and Peterson, the commissionaire rushed in. He looked incredibly shocked.

'The goose, Mr Holmes! The goose, sir!' he cried.

'What? Has it returned to life and flown out of your kitchen window?' said Holmes.

'Look here, sir! Look what my wife found in its stomach!' He showed us a shiny blue stone in his hand.

'By Jove, Peterson,' said Holmes, 'this is a treasure! Do you know what you have got?'

'A diamond, sir! A precious stone! It cuts glass like butter.'

'It is more than a precious stone. It's the precious stone.'

'Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle 1 that was stolen?' I cried.