A West African Adventure" in Cassell's Saturday Journal, published in February 1891. Richard Lancelyn Green, the editor of the 2000 Oxford paperback edition of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, surmises that Doyle's source for the story appears to have been the article named "Called on by a Boa Constrictor. Holmes admits his attack on the snake may make him indirectly responsible for Roylott's demise, but he does not foresee it troubling him. Roylott plotted to remove both of his stepdaughters before they married to avoid losing most of the fortune he controlled. Holmes identifies the snake as an Indian swamp adder and reveals to Watson the motive: the late wife's will had provided an annual income of £750 sterling, of which each daughter could claim one third upon marriage. Agitated, it fatally attacks Roylott, who had been waiting for it to return after killing Helen. He strikes at the snake with his riding crop, driving it back through the ventilator.
Quickly lighting a candle, he discovers on the bell cord the "speckled band"-a venomous snake. In darkness, they wait until about three in the morning suddenly, a slight metallic noise and a dim light through the ventilator prompt Holmes to action. Holmes and Watson arrange to spend the night in Helen's room. Among the strange features that he discovers are a bed anchored to the floor, a bell cord that is not attached to any bell, and a ventilator hole between Helen's temporary room and that of Dr. Undaunted, Holmes proceeds to the courthouse, where he examines Helen's late mother's will, and then to the countryside.Īt Stoke Moran, Holmes scrutinizes the premises inside and out. Roylott himself, who threatens him should he interfere. Before he can leave, he is visited by Dr. He plans a visit to the manor later in the day. Holmes listens carefully to Helen's story and agrees to take the case. Before Helen's sister's death, he had modifications made inside the house and is now having the outside wall repaired, forcing Helen to move into the room where her sister died. For some time, he has been making changes to the house. He is friendly with a band of Gypsies on the property, and he has a cheetah and a baboon as pets. Roylott also keeps strange company at the estate. She has begun to hear strange noises and observe strange activities around Stoke Moran, the impoverished and heavily mortgaged estate where she and her stepfather live.ĭr. Helen had heard her sister's dying words, "The speckled band!" but could not decode their meaning. Helen's twin sister died almost two years earlier, shortly before she was to be married. He is also the impoverished last survivor of what was once a wealthy but violent, ill-tempered and amoral Anglo-Saxon aristocratic family of Surrey, and has already served a jail sentence for killing his Indian butler in a rage. Roylott is a doctor who practised in Calcutta, India, and was married to Helen's late mother when she was a widow living there. Grimesby Roylott, is threatening her life. Watson rise early one morning to meet a young woman named Helen Stoner who fears that her stepfather, Dr. Doyle famously clashed with Harding over several details of the script, but later reconciled with him after the universal success of the play. The role of Sherlock Holmes was played by H. The theatrical adaptation was written and produced by Doyle himself, directed by and starring Lyn Harding as Grimesby Roylott. It is also part of the exhibit at the Sherlock Holmes Museum. It has been adapted for television, film, theatre, radio, and a video game. The story, alongside the rest of the Sherlock Holmes canon, has become a defining part of detective fiction. Tinged with Gothic elements, it is considered by many to be one of Doyle's finest works, with the author himself calling it his best story. "The Speckled Band" is a classic locked-room mystery that deals with the themes of parental greed, inheritance and freedom. It was originally published in Strand Magazine in February 1892. "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" is one of 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the eighth story of twelve in the collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The Adventure of the Speckled Band at Wikisource
Roylott (left) confronts Holmes and Watson
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