In Hamlet, Shakespeare says, through his character Polonius, that "the apparel oft proclaims the man." This is a truth we are all aware of, because we all tend to judge others, at least superficially, by their "apparel," which could include such things as haircuts, tattoos, jewelry, and items they carry. There is probably no other place in literature where a person's apparel is given such an exhaustive inspection and interpretation as in "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle." Another Sherlock Holmes story in which a character's apparel is thoroughly scrutinized is "The League of Red-Headed Men."

In "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle," Holmes has nothing to examine but the black hat which a man named Henry Baker left behind when he fled the scene of an altercation with some street hoodlums. These are Holmes' deductions from his examination of the old hat:

"That the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that his wife has ceased to love him.”

“He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect,” he continued, disregarding my remonstrance. “He is a man who leads a sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid on in his house.”

When Henry Baker arrives at Baker Street to reclaim his hat and his lost goose, he turns out to be exactly as Holmes has described him. The fact that he has taken to drink has led him to become a regular at the Alpha Inn. Because he is a regular he was invited to join the goose club. The missing blue carbuncle happened to have been hidden in the goose he was carrying home when he was attacked by the hoodlums.

This opening part of the story should make us realize how much of ourselves we are advertising to the world at large by our "apparel." Just as we are judging others, both consciously and unconsciously, by their apparel, so too are they judging us. What are we proclaiming about ourselves?

This corresponds to the entries in Breckinridge's ledgers. He paid her seven shillings and sixpence for each of the twenty-four geese and sold them to Windigate at the Alpha Inn for twelve shillings apiece. Henry Baker was apparently paying three pence a week into the goose club, so he would have had a credit of approximately 150 pence or just a little over 12 shillings, since in those days there were 12 pence to a shilling (3 X 50 = 150). The landlord probably did not expect to make a profit on the geese but was just using the club as a way of attracting customers and keeping them coming back.

Holmes feels very strongly about this matter. In many of the Sherlock Holmes tales the great detective is motivated by the desire to aid an innocent man in serious danger of being imprisoned or disgraced. This not only helps to humanize the seemingly cold, cerebral detective but it also makes his involvement in non-paying cases more plausible. Edgar Allan Poe initiated this now standard convention of detective stories with "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." In that story C. Auguste Dupin wants to help a bank clerk named Le Bon who has been mistakenly accused of murdering the two women for their money. Dupin tells his friend the narrator:

"Le Bon once rendered me a service for which I am not ungrateful."

Motivation is of the utmost importance in any story. The protagonist's motivation drives the story to its conclusion. Holmes, of course, is the protagonist in most of the Sherlock Holmes stories--although Professor Moriarty may be considered the protagonist in one or two, such as "The Final Problem."

Henry Baker is a good example of how a skillful fiction writer creates a character to fit the needs of his plot. Baker is only a minor character, but he plays an important role in the story because he is the one who lost the goose that was brought to Sherlock Holmes by Peterson the commissionaire. (A commissionaire is not a policeman but more like a night watchman.) Baker is described as a large man. Only a large man would try to defend himself against several attackers, thereby accidentally breaking a shop window and causing him to run away under the mistaken notion that he needed to avoid arrest, leaving his goose behind. He is also obviously poor. Otherwise he would not take a whole year to buy the goose by paying a few pennies a week into the goose club at the Alpha Inn--and he would not risk fighting with several hoodlums to prevent them from stealing a goose it had taken him a whole year to pay for. But what would Baker be doing carrying a goose home in that neighborhood at four o'clock in the morning. As Holmes deduces from the size of the abandoned hat, Baker is very intelligent. He works as a freelance writer in the Reading Room at the British Museum and then goes to the nearby Alpha Inn which is a hangout for other poor scribblers like himself. He would only join the goose club if he went to the Alpha Inn on a regular basis. As Holmes also deduced, Baker is not happily married. So he has developed the habit of staying out late and not coming home until his wife is asleep. Hanging out at the Alpha Inn has made him an alcoholic, as Holmes also deduced before ever meeting him, and no doubt the man's alcoholism has had a deleterious effect on his work and his income. Money is important to him, since he earns so little, and this explains why he put up such a fight over his goose. Everything about Baker is intended to serve the needs of Doyle's complex plot. Through Henry Baker, Holmes learns that the goose came from the Alpha Inn. And through the cordial landlord at that establishment, Holmes and Watson learn that the goose came from the dealer named Breckinridge who operates out of a stall at Covent Garden Market.

If Baker had not been drunk, he would not have broken the shop-window. If he had brought the goose home to his wife, they would have eaten it but might not have noticed the Blue Carbuncle in its crop. And that precious jewel would probably have disappeared forever.

In various stories Holmes is frequently saying that he is interested in apparently trivial problems, and Watson is also repeating that his friend will take on anything that happens to interest him, even if there is no money to be earned and even if there is no apparent crime involved. Doyle gives Holmes this trait because it enables the author to deal with a broader range of subjects, characters, settings, and problems, thereby avoiding formulaic plots and giving himself more scope for his own creative imagination. We all have come to know Sherlock Holmes as a brilliant man who loves to use his analytical powers and who easily becomes bored and frustrated if he has nothing to challenge his mind.

The weather is very cold, and Henry Baker would be wearing an overcoat if he had one. No doubt he did own an overcoat in the past but sold it when he was in need of money. Now he wears a frock-coat which he buttons up to his chin and also has the collar turned up. When Holmes and Watson start for the Alpha Inn, Watson explains that

...we drew on our ulsters and wrapped cravats about our throats.

According to the article "Ulster coat" in Wikipedia:

The Ulster was originally a Victorian working daytime overcoat, with a cape and sleeves. It is often seen in period productions of Victorian novels, such as those of Charles Dickens and was referred to in the Sherlock Holmes stories A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, "A Scandal in Bohemia", "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" and "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor".

Arthur Conan Doyle creates a short-tempered character in Breckinridge in order to provide interesting dramatic conflict in this important scene. First the shopkeeper becomes angry when Holmes asks where he got the geese he sold to the landlord of the Alpha. Then he gets even more angry and even hostile when James Ryder shows up still trying to locate the goose he had forced to swallow the stolen Blue Carbuncle. Doyle also establishes that Breckinridge plays the horses, which inspires Holmes to bet a sovereign with the obstinate man. Holmes claims that he got one of the geese from the Alpha and that it was raised in the country, whereas Breckinridge knows it was raised in the city and wins the bet by showing Holmes his books.

This ploy of Holmes is reminiscent of what Polonius says to Reynaldo whom he is sending to spy on his son Laertes in Paris.

Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth;
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlasses and with assays of bias,
By indirections find directions out.
              Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 1

Henry Baker is a good example of a man of high intelligence who has never managed to use it to advance in the world. Holmes deduces Baker's superior intellect even before meeting him. Watson says:

“I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that this man was intellectual?”

For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. “It is a question of cubic capacity,” said he; “a man with so large a brain must have something in it.”

Henry Baker seems to be lacking in initiative and self-discipline. He spends many hours at the British Museum Reading Room, but no doubt he gets lost in reading about miscellaneous matters that intrigue him without helping him to earn a living through tutoring, editorial work, compiling popular articles, or even writing a book. Lately he has taken to drinking at a nearby pub, which explains how he got involved in the goose club. He has lost much of his youthful energy and ambition and has given up his early great expectations. It takes more than intelligence to be financially successful in this competitive world; it takes practicality, specialization, and initiative.

George Gissing, a contemporary of Arthur Conan Doyle and H. G. Wells, wrote about the insecure lives of freelance writers in his best novel, New Grub Street. His main character, Edwin Reardon, is another example of a highly intelligent and well-educated man who cannot make a living for himself and his wife and child through his writing.

The struggle for existence among books is nowadays as severe as among men.
--George Gissing

Oh, you heavy-laden, who at this hour sit down to the cursed travail of the pen; writing, not because there is something in your mind, in your heart, which must needs be uttered, but because the pen is the only tool you can handle, your only means of earning bread! Year after year the number of you is multiplied; you crowd the doors of publisher and editors, hustling, grappling, exchanging maledictions. Oh, sorry spectacle, grotesque and heart-breaking!

Innumerable are the men and women now writing for bread, who have not the least chance of finding in such work a permanent livelihood. They took to writing because they knew not what else to do, or because the literary calling tempted them by its independence and its dazzling prizes. They will hang on to the squalid profession, their earnings eked out by begging and borrowing until it is too late for them to do anything else--and then? With a lifetime of dread experience behind me, I say that he who encourages any young man or woman to look for his living to “literature” commits no less than a crime. If my voice had any authority, I would cry this truth aloud wherever men could hear. Hateful as is the struggle for life in every form, this rough-and-tumble of the literary arena seems to me sordid and degrading beyond all others. Oh, your paragraphings and your interviewings! And oh, the black despair that awaits those downtrodden in the fray!
--George Gissing, The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft

* *

According to Wikipedia:

"In a bird's digestive system, the crop is an expanded, muscular pouch near the gullet or throat. It is a part of the digestive tract, essentially an enlarged part of the oesophagus.

"While chickens and  turkeys possess a crop, geese do not have one, a fact which occasioned what many consider Sherlock Holmes' — or rather author Arthur Conan Doyle's — greatest forensic blunder."

The Wikipedia article footnotes a review of The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes in The Guardian which contains this comment on "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle":

In The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle - the only Holmes episode with a Christmas theme - a precious gem is concealed in a goose's crop, the storage pouch found at the opening to certain fowl's throats. Several commentators have debated whether this is anatomically possible as, unlike turkeys or chickens, geese do not actually possess a crop. 

Peterson was mistaken for a policeman because he was wearing an official-looking uniform. Arthur Conan Doyle makes this character a commissionaire, a uniformed security guard, rather than a policeman because it would probably have been impossible for a regular policeman to collect a reward for recovery of the blue carbuncle. Holmes probably intends to collect the reward from the Countess of Morcar and pass it on to Peterson, because she might assert that as a semi-official the commissionaire was not entitled to receive awards. In any case, Peterson is such a low-ranking and humble man that he might easily be put off by the Countess or the detectives handling the case.

According to Wikipedia and the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, a commissionaire was a only a uniformed security guard.

Breckinridge is an interesting character. He is obviously lower-class, but he is not impressed by the two obviously higher-class gentlemen, Holmes and Watson, he has to deal with. He is hostile and disrespectful throughout their meeting. This is attributable to the fact that Breckinridge is getting rich selling geese. Doyle has him tell Holmes that he is receiving five hundred more geese tomorrow. If he deals in such quantities, he must be making a lot of money. He should make a profit of 100 pounds just on that one batch of 500 geese. And he knows that there are many educated gentlemen who are far inferior to him in matters of income and practicality. Henry Baker, who probably doesn't even earn a hundred pounds in a whole year,  is an example of an educated man who can barely make a living. The two characters, Breckinridge and Baker, might be considered foils to each other. It is noteworthy that Breckinridge starts off by calling Holmes "mister" rather than "sir" and is deliberately insulting. He has come up the hard way in life and has been toughened by years of struggle in a competitive world. He likes money and is mainly interested in making money.

That is, a five-pound note. Holmes would have to imply that the bet was substantial to explain why he and Watson had come out so late in such cold weather.

Notice how Arthur Conan Doyle makes the scene dramatic by introducing a minor conflict between Holmes and Breckinridge, and then another between Breckinridge and Ryder.

This is an impressive number of geese, but London was a city of four million people and there would be a demand for geese even after Christmas. The fact that Breckinridge deals in such big quantities of fowls partly explains why he is so annoyed by the little man who is trying to find one specific goose out of all the geese that go through Breckinridge's stall. It further explains why he becomes so hostile towards Holmes, who is inquiring about that same goose.

There were probably 23 members of the goose club and the proprietor kept the 24th for himself in return for organizing the club. If each member paid three pence a week, there would be just enough over by Christmas to pay for the landlord's goose.

Henry Baker has been drinking, as usual. He comes home late because he doesn't want to run into his wife. His wife, as Holmes says, has ceased to love him. There are several reasons for her change. Baker is not a good provider. He spends too much on drinking. He comes home late. The fact that he is staggering will explain why he breaks the shop window: his balance is impaired and he staggers backwards when he raises his cane to defend himself. He decides to run from the officer because he broke the window. He has to drop the big goose because it is a handicap in his getaway. He loses his hat because one of the roughs knocked it off. 

In contrast to the warm and comfortable Sherlock Holmes, Watson has been out in the cold making the rounds of his patients. This makes Holmes' lifestyle and profession seem all the more enviable to the reader. We would all like to be like him. His life seems even more enviable than that of a rich man who doesn't have to work at all, because the rich man might suffer boredom while Holmes is always getting involved in interesting and exciting "adventures." 

All of this is typical of Sherlock Holmes. He has an enviable lifestyle, which is one of the reasons the stories have been so popular. Readers identify with him because they would like to be able to live like him. Most of the original readers of "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" would have to go to work in some office or factory immediately after Christmas, but Holmes is "lounging upon the sofa in a purple dressing gown" in front of a "crackling fire." As a rule his clients will come to him and he can always remain warm and comfortable. Being a "consultant" of any kind seems like an ideal occupation. It only involves listening and offering an opinion. Of course, it has taken Holmes some little time to acquire a reputation that will create a large demand for his services. He is successful because he solves people's problems, and he is motivated to keep solving people's problems in order to sustain the demand for his services. Watson, on the other hand, has to run around all day in the bitter cold to visit his patients in their homes, as was customary for general practitioners in older times. He sees his friend Sherlock Holmes in the morning and doesn't get back to see him again until after six-thirty that night.

Earlier in the story Watson had told Holmes he would return in the evening to see if Henry Baker turned up in response to the advertisements. Holmes had invited him to dinner with these words:

“Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I believe." 

People believed in physiognomy more in Victorian times than they do today. It was commonly thought that a person's character could be read in his or her facial features. Such a belief must have been quite useful to writers such as Doyle because it would make it easier for them to depict their characters. Doyle was an extremely credulous man, especially for one who wrote detective fiction. He believed in spiritualism, which involves communicating with the dead. He wrote a book titled The Coming of the Fairies (1922) inspired by a hoax perpetrated by a couple of young girls who faked pictures of fairies and other little supernatural creatures with an ordinary camera. 

If Henry Baker paid three pennies a week into the goose club, that would add up to 150 pennies in fifty weeks. Since there were 12 pence to a shilling, he would have built a credit of 12.5 shillings, or twelve and sixpence. The proprietor probably did not charge the good club members more for their geese than he paid himself but used the club to hold his regular customers and perhaps attract a few more regulars. Henry Baker could have just enough to pay for the goose plus a couple of pints of beer. He might have drunk a little more than usual on the night he lost his goose, because it was Christmas and the weather was cold and the affable Mr. Windigate might have given the regulars a round of drinks on the house.

Henry Baker does not own an overcoat. It was fairly common for men in need of cash to sell or pawn pieces of their clothing. They might dispose of a waistcoat (vest) first and then their overcoat. The "frock-coat" Baker is wearing is just a long jacket. It does not provide adequate protection in this cold winter weather. When Holmes and Watson go out they put on their ulsters, which are heavy overcoats, usually with extra thickness of the shoulders and upper back. Watson explains:

It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped cravats about our throats.

Holmes now knows that the goose came from the Alpha Inn and wants to find out where the proprietor got it. The fact that it is bitterly cold explains why Baker's goose remains in edible condition for several days.

Henry Baker is a good example of how a character is created to suit the author's plot needs. Baker is purposely made poor to explain why the goose and even the hat are so important to him. The goose is only worth twelve shillings, but that is a lot of money to Baker. He has been saving several pennies a week for a full year to pay for the Christmas bird. He is an intellectual and spends most of his time in the Reading Room at the British Museum because there is plenty of reading material and plenty of light. It is a magnet for all the starving artists in London, as George Gissing, a contemporary of the vastly more successful Arthur Conan Doyle, explains in his excellent novel about literary life, New Grub Street. There Baker would have access to all the newspapers, so he would be sure to see Holmes's ad. Otherwise Baker might not buy a newspaper. Since his wife no longer loves him, as Holmes observes to Watson, Baker would stay at the British Museum until closing time. Even then he would be reluctant to go home, so he would go to the Alpha Inn and stay for several hours. That would explain why, as a regular, he joined the goose club and why he was returning home so late and in an intoxicated state. His being intoxicated was what tempted the "roughs" to attack him and caused him to break the shop window with his cane. He wasn't in full control of his balance because of the liquor he had consumed. He probably staggered backwards as he raised his cane. Otherwise he would not have broken the window, would not have run when he saw the policeman coming, and would not have dropped the heavy goose to expedite his flight. His common name makes it impossible for Holmes to trace him, but this enables Doyle to set the scene easily at 221B Baker Street.

Geese can be fattened by cramming extra food, usually bits of bread, down their throats. This is how pate de foie gras is made.

The fact that the goose with the blue carbuncle in its crop is now "right in the middle of the flock" of twenty-six geese helps to explain why Ryder could have mistakenly taken the wrong bird.

Mrs. Oakshott is a little huffed because she will have to sell "Jem's bird" to Breckinridge for the same price as the others and his goose cost her a little bit more to be "especially fattened." It is three pounds heavier than most of the others.

This is to establish that the Oakshotts have already chosen the goose they want to eat themselves. Otherwise there would have been a possibility that they might have eaten the one they called "Jem's bird," since they had fattened it more than the others. But they would also have "especially fattened" the goose they had already chosen for themselves.

Perhaps Ryder would have been wise to drop the matter at this point and hope that the stolen jewel, if found and returned to the Countess for the reward, could not be traced to Mrs. Oakshott and through her to him.

Arthur Conan Doyle does not write a scene in which Holmes and Watson visit Mrs. Oakshott because they would not be likely to learn much of value from her. This link in the chain of possession is handled much more dramatically when Ryder confesses to Holmes and tells his whole story.

This little man, whose name is James Ryder, would not be able to retrieve the blue carbuncle even if Breckinridge told him Mrs. Oakshott's geese all went to Windigate at the Alpha Inn. Windigate could possibly tell him that a goose with a barred tail went to Henry Baker, but Ryder's only hope of finding Henry Baker would be by advertising in the newspapers or by hanging around the pub until Henry Baker came in and Windigate introduced them. If Ryder managed to contact Baker, he would be told how Baker had lost the goose. But that would be the end of the trail as far as Ryder was concerned, because Baker had no idea who found it or what the finder did with it. Presumably someone ate that goose by now and may have found the blue carbuncle or else thrown the bird's crop into the garbage. Ryder has to go with Holmes because Holmes represents his only hope of recovering the stolen jewel.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was an expert fiction writer. In plotting his Sherlock Holmes stories, he made them dramatic through telling them in a series of vivid scenes with considerable dialogue. The scenes are usually dramatized by the presence of some sort of conflict, even between Holmes and Watson. When Holmes gets Ryder to his sitting room at Baker Street, he has little trouble forcing the terrified man to confess, so there is not much conflict between the two men. But there is a great deal of conflict in the little story Ryder tells about how he stole the blue carbuncle, how he came to insert it in one of his sister's geese, and so on. There is even conflict between Ryder and his sister. He wants her to give him one particular goose but she insists on giving him the one that was especially fattened for him. Then when he wins this argument he discovers that he has taken the wrong goose! His sister has led him to Breckinridge, but Breckinridge won't lead him to the Alpha Inn, where he would have been able to find that his goose with the barred tail feathers had been given to Henry Baker. That information would not have been of much help to Ryder because the name Henry Baker is too common, and anyway he would assume that the bird was roasted and eaten on Christmas eve or Christmas day and that the jewel had either been discovered or thrown out with the bird's crop. If Ryder had seen Holmes' advertisement in one of the newspapers, he would have had no way of knowing that the lost goose was his bird, and he would have had no way of knowing that Henry Baker lost it on his way home from the Alpha Inn.

Conveniently for the author, the jewel thief turns up at Breckinridge's stall in Covent Garden while Holmes and Watson are still there. This saves Sir Arthur Conan Doyle the trouble of describing how the detective goes to Mrs. Oakshott's, learns about her brother, if possible, and then tries to track down James Ryder.

Notice how the meeting between Holmes and Ryder is dramatized by introducing conflict. Ryder doesn't want to reveal his true identity and is reluctant to go to Baker Street with Holmes because he is afraid of being arrested. Ryder wants to find out what Holmes knows without telling Holmes what he knows himself. He gives the false name of John Robinson, suggesting not only that he wants to keep his identity secret, but also that he is unlikely to reveal any part of the truth. Yet he sees that Holmes is the only person who can tell him what became of the blue carbuncle.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was an accomplished fiction writer. His story consists of a series of scenes. He knew that the way to make a scene interesting was to make it dramatic. And the way to make a scene dramatic is to introduce conflict. If Holmes had simply gone to Breckinridge and asked him where he bought the geese he sold to the Alpha Inn, and if Breckinridge had simply told him the answer, this scene would not have been dramatic or interesting. But Breckinridge is a feisty man who becomes angry and refuses to give Holmes the simple information he requests. Holmes ends up winning the conflict through appearing to lose it by losing his bet with Breckinridge as well as his fictitious bet with Watson. Breckinridge not only tells Holmes where he bought the geese but actually shows him his ledgers with the name and address of Mrs. Oakshott, egg and poultry supplier, who turns out to be the sister of the man who stole the blue carbuncle.

This is a minor conflict within the major conflict, which involved trying to identify the man who stole the jewel. Notice how every scene in the story is dramatic because it contains some sort of conflict. For example, when Henry Baker comes to Holmes he does not argue or quarrel with the detective, but he does describe a conflict he had with some "roughs" which caused him to lose both his hat and his Christmas goose.

Holmes is motivated to pursue this case because an innocent man may be accused to the robbery. Even if the jewel is recovered, John Horner is facing a term of seven years in prison for stealing it in the first place. If Horner is guilty, how did the blue carbuncle get into Henry Baker's goose? Somebody must have stuffed it down the bird's throat. Did Horner have access to a live goose?

This one sentence describes what will take place throughout the remainder of this complicated story. It tells what "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" is "about." The stolen jewel was found in the goose belonging to Henry Baker, but he probably did not steal it. So who did steal it? And how did it get in Henry Baker's goose? Since the jewel has been recovered, the only reason for wanting to solve the question, or questions, is that a man who may or may not be innocent is going on trial for "rifling" the jewel-case. The first step is to find Henry Baker, which can be a problem because he has such a common name, and find out if he knows anything about the blue carbuncle.

When Watson goes to see Holmes he says he sat down in front of the "crackling fire." Holmes later mentions that there are four million people in London. If they all use fireplaces for heat, with coal for fuel, we can imagine the amount of smoke that pours into the air. This made breathing unpleasant, and difficult for older people and those with respiratory problems. Also, the smoke that went up into the air had to come down as soot. Hats would have to be brushed practically every day to be kept clean, and people would have keep brushing their clothes as well. Holmes goes on to say that even a week's accumulation of dust upon a hat would put it in a sad state. All men wore hats or caps in those days.

Breckinridge has a whole list of people, including Mrs. Oakshott, who raise geese in their backyards in London. There must have been no zoning laws in those days. Geese are noisy birds. Mrs. Oakshott alone was raising twenty-six geese of which two dozen were bought by Breckinridge and sold to the proprietor of the Alpha Inn. Mrs. Oakshott is listed as an "egg and poultry supplier." She must keep chickens as well as geese. She would have to handle a great many birds during the year to make a significaant amount of money. Breckinridge paid her seven-and-a-half shillings apiece for 24 geese, which brought her a gross of nine pounds but must have cost quite a lot for feed, since they are such big birds. She would need to earn fifty or sixty pounds a year to make the enterprise worthwhile.

Holmes knows the man who first calls himself John Robinson is James Ryder because he has read his name and title in the newspaper story about the theft of the precious stone. Holmes deduces from Ryder's highly emotional behavior at Breckinridge's stall in Covent Garden that he must be after the blue carbuncle and must know it was in one of the geese Breckinridge bought from Ryder's sister. Since Henry Baker didn't steal the jewel, and since the accused John Horner is locked up in a cell, this frantic man must be the real thief and must be James Ryder, the hotel employee, who would have had many excellent opportunities to steal the blue carbuncle.

This indicates that Holmes has no intention of either keeping the blue carbuncle or returning it to the Countess of Morcar and collecting the reward for himself. He must be planning to collect the reward for Peterson, who, as a police officer, might find it awkward if not impossible to accept the money himself. Holmes is sensitive to Peterson's interests, and Peterson seems to trust him implicitly. Obviously, Watson is only recording what he personally observed and does not wish to speculate about what his friend Sherlock Holmes might have done with the blue carbuncle.

The blue carbuncle is what Hollywood movie makers call a "MacGuffin." It is something that causes all the conflict, like the black bird in Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. Alfred Hitchcock once told French film director Francois Truffaut that a story needs a MacGuffin but the MacGuffin is not of great importance other than to motivate the principal characters. The blue carbuncle in this Sherlock Holmes story is only important in setting the wheels of the complicated plot in motion. It brings Sherlock Holmes and the reader in contact with colorful characters like Henry Baker, Breckinridge the poultry dealer, and James Ryder the cowardly sneak thief. 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never has Watson tell the reader what Holmes did with the blue carbuncle. Presumably Holmes and Peterson have a tacit understanding that Holmes will collect the reward for him. Doyle does not want to call the reader's attention to this matter because Holmes might be breaking a law by giving the reward to Peterson, and Peterson might be breaking a law by accepting it. When Holmes says, "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone," he may be giving Peterson a significant look as if to say, "I'll take care of this matter on your behalf." Holmes often acts above or outside the law, as he does when he releases James Ryder and tells Watson, "I am not retained by the police to supply their deficiencies."

Note the use of the subjunctive with "fail." Modern English and American writers would say, "If this fails," or "If this should fail." Sherlock Holmes stories are often assigned reading in high school and college English classes, not only because they are interesting and valuable as models of short stories, but because Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has an excellent command of the English language. A student can learn to appreciate impeccable English usage from reading these stories and can also enhance his or her vocabulary

James Ryder is a timid, nervous man who has never committed a serious crime before. Doyle wanted him to be that sort of person so he would break down and make a full confession to Sherlock Holmes. But Doyle needed a stronger person involved in the theft in order to make Ryder's action seem plausible. That person was Catherine Cusack, the Countess of Morcar's waiting-maid. The whole scheme originated with the maid. No doubt she will get off free along with Ryder, since Holmes cannot accuse her without bringing in Ryder, and he has decided to let the little man go.

Holmes has tricked Ryder into betraying his guilt in front of two witnesses, himself and Watson. They can testify that Ryder was trying desperately to trace the goose that contained the blue carbuncle and therefore must have been the man who tried to hide it by stuffing it into the goose. Furthermore, Ryder is the brother of Mrs. Oakshott who raised the goose that went to the Alpha Inn, where it was given to Henry Baker. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle intentionally created James Ryder as a terrified little man with a guilty conscience who could easily be scared into making a full confession to Holmes and to the police if Holmes were to turn him in. Such a character was needed to pour out a full explanation of how the blue carbuncle got into Henry Baker's lost goose. "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" is similar to "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons" which is included in The Return of Sherlock Holmes.

That is, 7 shillings and 6 pence, or 7 1/2 shillings. Henry Baker paid about twelve or thirteen shillings for the goose he was carrying home from the pub. The proprietor of the Alpha Inn who initiated the goose club probably did not make any profit but used the club to attract regular customers. So Breckinridge the poultry merchant would be making a profit of around six shillings on each goose he sold.

This establishes Sherlock Holmes' main motivation for taking all this trouble. John Horner is in jail awaiting trial. According to Holmes, Horner could get sentenced to seven years in prison even though the blue carbuncle would have been recovered.

Heavy woolen overcoats. They usually had an extra woolen half-cape attached to the shoulders and back for additional protection of that part of the body. This is just a few days after Christmas and would be extremely cold in London. The emphasis on the cold weather is to help explain the fact that Baker's lost goose remained in edible condition longer. It was half-frozen. Poor Henry Baker had been wearing only a frock-coat. No doubt he had been forced to sell his overcoat to pay for rent, food, and beer. Watson does not explain why he and Holmes chose to walk for a quarter of an hour rather than take a cab, but it must have been that they enjoyed the exercise in spite of the cold weather.

George Gissing, a contemporary of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, wrote an excellent novel titled New Grub Street in which he describes the lives of freelance writers of the period. Gissing devotes considerable space to the reading room at the British Museum, where many struggling writers tried to earn their livings by turning out articles and books, most of which were rehashes of information contained in the materials available in the reading room. They might also be able to get work doing research, editing, proofreading, translating, and tutoring. It would appear that Henry Baker is drinking more and working less. His precarious and ill-paying profession would make him feel depressed, which would induce him to drown his sorrows in ale. Drinking is still an occupational hazard for freelance writers. George Orwell was a great admirer of George Gissing and wrote an essay about him. New Grub Street is still available in paperback. A summary of the book is available in eNotes.

This is a sign that Henry Baker is a writer. Sir Francis Bacon says in one of his essays that writing makes an "exact man." Baker does his work at the library at the British Museum.

This fact explains how Henry Baker came into possession of a big goose and why he was bringing it home at such a late hour. He was in the habit of drinking at the same pub, probably every evening, and staying there quite late. The proprietor had formed a "goose club" for the regulars, who all contributed a few pennies a week, as Baker will explain when he comes in answer to Holmes' advertisements. Baker received his goose at night and had to carry it home late. The policeman named Peterson who recovered the goose and brought it to Holmes told the detective that the man was staggering, a further suggestion that Baker was a fairly heavy drinker.

At that time there were twelve pence to a shilling and twenty shillings to a pound. Henry Baker must have been paying about one shilling a month into the goose club, so the bird cost him about twelve shillings by the end of the year. The landlord probably did not make any profit from the club but used it to keep his regular customers and attract others. Life was much simpler in those days.

Henry Baker is wearing a knit woolen bonnet because he has lost his only hat. He had given up hope of retrieving the hat he lost in the scuffle, but he cannot afford to buy a new one. This immediately identifies him as the man who lost the goose.

Henry Baker only fled because he accidentally broke a window with his cane while trying to defend himself from several "roughs," i.e., hoodlums, who attacked him on the dark street.

Since Sherlock Holmes already has possession of the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle, his only motive for delving into the case is to help John Horner, if Horner is innocent. Holmes thinks the man must be innocent because the carbuncle was in the possession of Henry Baker. First Holmes has to find out whether Baker knew the jewel was inside the bird's crop. When he learns that Baker obviously knew nothing about it, he then decides to find out who actually stole it. He is motivated by curiosity and a desire to help an innocent man who is going to be tried at the Assizes criminal court. It turns out that neither Henry Baker nor John Horner is guilty but a third party named James Ryder who works at the hotel where the owner of the blue carbuncle, the Countess of Morcar, has been staying. Although Watson often describes Holmes as a thinking machine with no feelings, Holmes is often motivated by a desire to help someone who is in serious danger. A reader of mystery stories usually identifies with a detective when that character is motivated by something other than a monetary fee or reward. The Countess is offering a reward of a thousand pounds for recovery of the blue carbuncle, but Holmes undoubtedly only plans to collect the reward for Peterson, the commissionaire, who found the goose dropped by Henry Baker when he fled. It might be awkward for Peterson to collect the reward himself because as a policeman it is his job to recover stolen property. Holmes is constantly ingratiating himself with the police, and consequently the police always treat him with the greatest consideration. They also bring him interesting cases they are unable to cope with themselves. 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle deliberately gives this important character an extremely common name in order to establish that it would be impossible to trace him directly. Doyle has Sherlock Holmes mention that the population of London was then approximately four million and that there would be "hundreds of Henry Bakers" in such an enormous city. Holmes can only manage to get in touch with the right Henry Baker by advertising in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall. St. James's, Evening News, Standard, Echo, and some other newspapers. That brings Henry Baker to Holmes in short order and the whole scene can take place in the familiar setting of 221B Baker Street. The owner of the hat and goose turns out to be exactly the sort of man Holmes describes from examining his black felt hat.