The Strand Magazine, Vol. 27, No. 161, May 1904

One damp evening at 221B Baker Street finds Sherlock Holmes exchanging the usual news with a weary Inspector Lestrade. Lestrade reports a baffling series of break‑ins in which plaster busts of Napoleon are smashed, first at a picture dealer on Kennington Road and then at the home and consulting room of Dr. Barnicot, a physician famed for his Napoleonic collection. Both scenes are left with shattered fragments and no clue to the perpetrator, prompting Holmes to take an interest.

Holmes is intrigued by the sheer irrationality of a crime driven by an obsessive hatred of the French emperor and begins to map the odd consistency of the targets. He notes the identical plaster casts, the proximity of the locations, and a shadowy figure who seems determined to obliterate any representation of Napoleon. As Holmes and Watson step onto the fog‑filled streets of South London, the stage is set for a pursuit that promises clever deduction and a touch of eccentricity.