Mastery Content

In this lesson, students will be mastering the following:

Mastery Content:

• James Ryder confesses to the crime.

• He explains how he hid the jewel in a goose and how it was lost.
• Sherlock Holmes lets him go free.
 Do Now How do you want students to capture these ideas?
Explain the importance of each of the locations in The Blue
Carbuncle. Consider why Conan Doyle wanted to use real
locations in his stories.
James Ryder – reading How will you manage the reading? Will you read to the class? Will
Twenty minutes is enough time to read, gloss the vocab and they read sections? When will you stop to explain unfamiliar words?
complete comprehension questions. Consider how you want students to discuss these questions, and
Read the rest of the story. whether you want them to write down the answers to these questions
There are some check for understanding questions to see as well.
students’ comprehension of the final pages.
Holmes lets James Ryder go free Resource: Sherlock Holmes and James Ryder
Lesson Guide

Students to discuss why Holmes let Ryder go free – why he

should and why he should have handed him into the police.
After discussion, students need to collate their ideas into a table,
listing why Holmes was right to let him free and why he should
have handed him in.
Should Sherlock Holmes have let James Ryder go free? There is deliberately no structure suggested for this task as it is more
Students need to write a response on whether Holmes was right discursive than an essay response. Students have also spent time
to let Ryder go free. discussing their ideas as well and have written some points down,
which will have enabled them to generate content for a paragraph.
You could write a first paragraph together as a class, or ask for a
paired response first if you feel students will need a little more
support starting their response.
Fortnightly quiz How do you want to capture understanding? Mini whiteboards?
Students complete quiz. Physical ‘tickets’?
If all correct, do extension by asking students to turn a wrong Hand signals?
answer into a right one. If incorrect, address misconception and
explain correct answer/get other student to explain correct
answer.
 Tuesday 19 December 2023
Explain what happened at each location in The Blue
Carbuncle.
Location What happened
221b Baker Street Holmes’s house; where he learns about the
case
Tottenham Court Road
Do Now

Where Henry Baker dropped his goose

The Hotel Cosmopolitan

Where the Countess’s blue carbuncle was
The Alpha stolen
Covent Garden Market Where Henry Baker bought his goose
117 Brixton Road Where the landlord of The Alpha bought his
geese

Where the salesman in Covent Garden sourced

his geese

Extension: Why do you think Arthur Conan Doyle wanted to

use real locations that people knew?
 Sherlock Holmes has traced the goose that hid the blue carbuncle
through London.
Turn to page 199. After reading, you will have to answer these
The Blue Carbuncle

questions:
1. Who helped John Ryder cover
up the crime?
2. How did the blue carbuncle get
inside the goose?
3. How did James Ryder lose the
goose with the jewel in it?
4. What does Sherlock Holmes do
with James Ryder?
5. Why?
 The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us
with half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure
whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe.
Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back windfall – payout
in the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during
The Blue Carbuncle

our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion,
and the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the
nervous tension within him.
“Here we are!” said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the
room. “The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look
cold, Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my
slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then!
You want to know what became of those geese?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I
imagine in which you were interested—white, with a black bar
across the tail.”
Ryder quivered with emotion. “Oh, sir,” he cried, “can you
tell me where it went to?”
“It came here.”
“Here?”
 “Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don’t wonder
that you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was
dead—the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. I bonniest – prettiest
have it here in my museum.”
Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the
The Blue Carbuncle

mantelpiece with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-

box and held up the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star,
with a cold, brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood
glaring with a drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to
disown it.
“The game’s up, Ryder,” said Holmes quietly. “Hold up,
man, or you’ll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his not got blood …
chair, Watson. He’s not got blood enough to go in for felony impunity – i.e. he’s
with impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a not brave enough to
little more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!” do a crime with
For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the confidence and
brandy brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat courage
staring with frightened eyes at his accuser.
shrimp – weakling
 “I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs
which I could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell
me. Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case
complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the
Countess of Morcar’s?”
The Blue Carbuncle

“It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it,” said he in a

crackling voice.
“I see—her ladyship’s waiting-maid. Well, the temptation
of sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it
has been for better men before you; but you were not very
scrupulous in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that
there is the making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that scrupulous –
this man Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such honourable,
matter before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily conscientious
upon him. What did you do, then? You made some small job in
my lady’s room—you and your confederate Cusack—and you
managed that he should be the man sent for. Then, when he had
left, you rifled the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this
unfortunate man arrested. You then—” confederate – friend,
partner
 Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and
clutched at my companion’s knees. “For God’s sake, have
mercy!” he shrieked. “Think of my father! Of my mother! It
would break their hearts. I never went wrong before! I never will
again. I swear it. I’ll swear it on a Bible. Oh, don’t bring it into
The Blue Carbuncle

court! For Christ’s sake, don’t!”

“Get back into your chair!” said Holmes sternly. “It is very
well to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of sternly – seriouisly
this poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew
nothing.” in the dock – i.e.
“I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then accuse Horner of the
the charge against him will break down.” crime
“Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true
account of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and
how came the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for
there lies your only hope of safety.”
 Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. “I will tell parched – dry,
you it just as it happened, sir,” said he. “When Horner had been cracked
arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get
away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment
the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my
The Blue Carbuncle

room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be

safe. I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my
sister’s house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and
lived in Brixton Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. commission –
All the way there every man I met seemed to me to be a errand, job
policeman or a detective; and, for all that it was a cold night, the
sweat was pouring down my face before I came to the Brixton
Road. My sister asked me what was the matter, and why I was so
pale; but I told her that I had been upset by the jewel robbery at
the hotel. Then I went into the back yard and smoked a pipe and
wondered what it would be best to do.
 “I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, Went to the bad –
and has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he became a criminal
had met me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and
how they could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would Pentonville – a
be true to me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made famous prison
The Blue Carbuncle

up my mind to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take

him into my confidence. He would show me how to turn the take him into my
stone into money. But how to get to him in safety? I thought of confidence – tell him
the agonies I had gone through in coming from the hotel. I might my secret
at any moment be seized and searched, and there would be the
stone in my waistcoat pocket. I was leaning against the wall at
the time and looking at the geese which were waddling about
round my feet, and suddenly an idea came into my head which
showed me how I could beat the best detective that ever lived.
 “My sister had told me some weeks before that I might
have the pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew
that she was always as good as her word. I would take my goose
now, and in it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a
little shed in the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds—
The Blue Carbuncle

a fine big one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying
its bill open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger
could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass along
its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped and
struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the matter.
As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and fluttered off
among the others.
“ ‘Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?’ says she.
“ ‘Well,’ said I, ‘you said you’d give me one for
Christmas, and I was feeling which was the fattest.’
“ ‘Oh,’ says she, ‘we’ve set yours aside for you—Jem’s
bird, we call it. It’s the big white one over yonder. There’s
twenty-six of them, which makes one for you, and one for us,
and two dozen for the market.’
The Blue Carbuncle Turn and talk to your partner about the first two questions:

1. Who helped John Ryder cover up the crime?

Catherine Cusack, the countess’s maid, helped
James Ryder to steal the blue carbuncle.

2. How did the blue carbuncle get inside the goose?

James Ryder’s sister owned a goose farm. She said that
she would give him a goose for Christmas. James Ryder
hid the jewel in the goose.
 “ ‘Thank you, Maggie,’ says I; ‘but if it is all the same to
you, I’d rather have that one I was handling just now.’
“ ‘The other is a good three pound heavier,’ said she, ‘and
we fattened it expressly for you.’ three pound – about
“ ‘Never mind. I’ll have the other, and I’ll take it now,’ 1.5kg
The Blue Carbuncle

said I.
“ ‘Oh, just as you like,’ said she, a little huffed. ‘Which is
it you want, then?’
“ ‘That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle
of the flock.’
“ ‘Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.’
“Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the
bird all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he
was a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed
until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My
heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I
knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird,
rushed back to my sister’s, and hurried into the back yard. There
was not a bird to be seen there.
“ ‘Where are they all, Maggie?’ I cried.
“ ‘Gone to the dealer’s, Jem.’
 “ ‘Which dealer’s?’
“ ‘Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.’
“ ‘But was there another with a barred tail?’ I asked, ‘the
same as the one I chose?’
“ ‘Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could
The Blue Carbuncle

never tell them apart.’

“Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as
my feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had
sold the lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to
where they had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well,
he has always answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am
going mad. Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now—and
now I am myself a branded thief, without ever having touched
the wealth for which I sold my character. God help me! God
help me!” He burst into convulsive sobbing, with his face buried
in his hands.
There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy convulsive – heavy
breathing and by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes’
finger-tips upon the edge of the table. Then my friend rose and
threw open the door.
“Get out!” said he.
“What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!”
 “No more words. Get out!”
And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a
clatter upon the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of
running footfalls from the street.
“After all, Watson,” said Holmes, reaching up his hand for retained – paid
The Blue Carbuncle

his clay pipe, “I am not retained by the police to supply their

deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; deficiencies –
but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must weaknesses
collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just
possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong commuting –
again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and committing
you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of
forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and felony – crime
whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you
will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin gaol – jail
another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief
feature.” goal-bird – criminal

whimsical – unusual,
silly,
 Turn and talk to your partner, answering the final three
questions
The Blue Carbuncle

How did James Ryder lose the goose with the jewel in it?
There were two geese that looked the same. James Ryder
picked up the wrong goose.

What does Sherlock Holmes do with James Ryder?

Sherlock Holmes lets James Ryder go.

Why does Sherlock do this?

Sherlock Holmes lets James Ryder go because it is
Christmas and he thinks that Ryder has learned his lesson.
 Sherlock Holmes lets James Ryder go.
• It is Christmas which is the season of forgiveness.
• Holmes also thinks that James Ryder has learned his lesson.
He will not commit a crime again.
James Ryder

Discuss these
questions in pairs.

1. Do you agree with what Holmes did?

2. Do you think he did the right thing?
3. Why should Holmes have handed James Ryder into the
police?
4. Why should Holmes have let Ryder go?
 Write down the reasons why Holmes was right to let James Ryder go and
Tick and fix your answers
why he should have handed him to the police.

Reasons Holmes should let James Reasons Holmes should hand

Ryder go James Ryder over to the police
James Ryder

It is Christmas, the season of Henry Baker is a thief. There

forgiveness. should be a consequence to his
Henry Baker seems extremely crime.
sorry for what he did. Baker’s plan included framing
someone else (Horner) for the
Not only is he sorry, he is crime.
terrified. Committing crimes is The Police force was founded in
too stressful for him to do it London precisely to stop these
again. kinds of criminals.
Ye a r 8: She rlo c k
Ho lm e s Henry Baker didn’t get to
use the wealth the blue Sherlock Holmes can’t be sure
Na m e :
carbuncle could have given him. Baker won’t steal again.
p. 25
 You need to write an answer to this question:
Should Sherlock Holmes have let
James Ryder go free?
James Ryder

You should write about both sides of the argument and the
come to a conclusion.
 When you’ve finished, check your writing.

 Check 1: Does every sentence start with a capital

letter?
Check your writing

 Check 2: Does every sentence end with a full stop?

 Check 3: Do all names start with a capital letter?
 Check 4: Have you spelt names correctly? e.g.
Holmes
 Fortnightly quiz
Circle your answers to the fortnightly quiz
Mastery
 Fortnightly quiz
Tick and fix your answers

1. C, D 6. A, B, D
2. D, E 7. B, D, E
Review

3. B, D 8. E
4. B, D, E 9. A
5. B 10. D, E
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