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The Speckled Band

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Brief overview

Holmes proves Dr. Roylott killed his stepdaughter with an Indian snake, which then kills him.

  1. The dummy bell-rope was a bridge, not a bellIt rang nothing and was fastened to a hook beside the ventilator, above a bed clamped to the floor.
  2. Money was the motive behind both weddingsEach daughter could claim two hundred and fifty pounds a year on marriage, crippling Roylott's remaining seven hundred and fifty.
  3. Holmes admits reasoning from insufficient data misled himThe gypsies and the word "band" first pointed him entirely the wrong way, as he told Watson on the journey home.
Executive Summary AI
  • Helen Stoner comes to Baker Street before seven in the morning, telling Holmes and Watson she lives at Stoke Moran on the Surrey border with her stepfather, Dr. Grimesby Roylott, who returned from Calcutta violent and ruinous after beating his butler to death.
  • Two years ago her twin sister Julia, a fortnight before her wedding, died in a locked room after a low whistle and a metallic clang, gasping "Oh, my God, Helen! It was the band, the speckled band!"
  • Holmes reads the dead mother's will at Doctor's Commons and finds the motive: an income once near eleven hundred pounds is now seven hundred and fifty, and each daughter can claim two hundred and fifty pounds on marriage.
  • At Stoke Moran, with Helen moved into her sister's room on the pretext of repairs, Holmes finds a dummy bell-rope hanging beside a bed clamped to the floor, beneath a ventilator opening into Roylott's chamber, along with a safe, a saucer of milk and a looped dog-lash.
  • After a dark vigil in the room, Holmes lashes at the bell-rope, a dreadful cry comes from next door, and they find Roylott dead with a swamp adder coiled round his head — the deadliest snake in India, which killed him within ten seconds.
Key Quote
“It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror.”
— Helen Stoner
Key Quote
“These are very deep waters”
— Sherlock Holmes
Key Quote
“Why, it's a dummy”
— Sherlock Holmes

Transcript

0:00 VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND. On glancing over my notes of the seventy-odd cases in which I have, during the last eight years,
0:30 studied the methods of my friend Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number
0:37 merely strange, but none commonplace. For, working as he did rather for the love of his art than for
0:44 the acquirement of wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation which did not tend towards the unusual and even the fantastic
0:54 of all these varied cases however i cannot recall any which presented more singular features than that which was associated with the well-known surrey family of the Roylots of Stoke Moran.
1:06 The events in question occurred in the early days of my association with Holmes,
1:11 when we were sharing rooms as bachelors in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed
1:16 them upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the time, from which I have only been
1:22 freed during the month by the untimely death of the lady to whom
1:25 the pledge was given. It is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I have
1:31 reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the death of Dr. Grimsby-Roylett which tend
1:36 to make the matter even more terrible than the truth. It was early in April in the year 83 that
1:43 I woke one morning to find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my bed. He was a late riser as a rule, and as the clock on the mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter past seven, I blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. "'Very sorry to knock you up, Watson,' said he,
2:07 "'but it's the common lot this morning.
2:09 Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up.
2:11 She retorted upon me, and I on you.'
2:14 "'What is it, then, a fire?'
2:15 "'No, a client.
2:18 It seems that a young lady has arrived in a considerable state of excitement,
2:22 who insists upon seeing me.
2:24 She is waiting now in the sitting-room.
2:26 Now, when young ladies wander about the metropolis at this hour of the morning,
2:30 and knock sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is something very pressing which
2:34 they have to communicate. Should it prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure,
2:39 wish to follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should call you and give
2:43 you the chance. My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything.
2:48 I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his professional investigations,
2:53 and in admiring the rapid deductions, as swift as intuition, and yet always founded on a logical
2:59 basis, with which he unravelled the problems which were submitted to him. I rapidly threw
3:04 on my clothes,
3:05 and was ready in a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A lady,
3:10 dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in the window, rose as we entered.
3:16 "'Good morning, madam,' said Holmes cheerily.
3:19 "'My name is Sherlock Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson,
3:24 before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, before whom you can
3:25 speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense
3:30 to light the fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot coffee, for I observe that
3:36 you are shivering.' "'It is not cold which makes me shiver,' said the woman, in a low voice, changing her seat as requested, "'what then?'
3:47 "'It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror.'
3:51 She raised her veil as she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable state of agitation,

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