Arthur Conan Doyle · 1892
Questions on the text, each answered in the book’s own words, with the minute you hear it.
Challenge a friend: 123BookWarThe text
Answer The second morning after Christmas
“I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the compliments of the season.”
Answer Four million
“Only one of those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have four million human beings all jostling each other within the space of a few square miles.”
Answer Peterson, the commissionaire
“about four o’clock on Christmas morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was returning from some small jollification and was making his way homeward down Tottenham Court Road.”
Answer Goodge Street
“As he reached the corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger and a little knot of roughs.”
Answer For Mrs. Henry Baker
“It is true that ‘For Mrs. Henry Baker’ was printed upon a small card which was tied to the bird’s left leg”
Answer Five
“One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with burning tallow”
Answer In the goose’s crop
“See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!”
Answer A thousand pounds
“but the reward offered of £ 1000 is certainly not within a twentieth part of the market price.”
Answer December 22nd
“Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady’s jewel-case.”
Answer Solder the second bar of the grate
“in order that he might solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose.”
Answer Catherine Cusack
“Catherine Cusack, maid to the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder’s cry of dismay on discovering the robbery”
Answer Inspector Bradstreet, B division
“Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence in the strongest terms.”
Answer 6:30 this evening
“Mr. Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at 221B, Baker Street.”
Answer In the banks of the Amoy River in southern China
“It was found in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is blue in shade instead of ruby red.”
Answer Forty grains
“There have been two murders, a vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal.”
Answer A woodcock
“I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop.”
Answer A Scotch bonnet
“I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight.”
Answer Windigate, the host
“This year our good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to receive a bird at Christmas.”
Answer Two dozen
“Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden.”
Answer Country bred
“But I’m always ready to back my opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the bird I ate is country bred.”
Answer A sovereign
“He drew a sovereign from his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words.”
Answer John Robinson
“The man hesitated for an instant. “My name is John Robinson,” he answered with a sidelong glance.”
Answer Maudsley
“I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and has just been serving his time in Pentonville.”
Answer Twenty-six
“There’s twenty-six of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen for the market.”
Answer Commuting a felony
“I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just possible that I am saving a soul.”
“The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle,” The Strand Magazine, January 1892; collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, George Newnes, London, 1892. This text follows the Project Gutenberg transcription (#1661). Public domain.