Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure Of The Speckled Band

In the mystery story Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Speckled Band by Arthur Conan Doyle, Helen Stoner, the twin sister of the deceased Julia Stoner, showed up in Sherlock Holmes’ office, begging him to work on the case of her sister’s death. Helen had noticed a few strange symptoms before the night of Julia’s death: hearing a strange whistling noise late in the night, her hair turning white, and being woken in the middle of the night by random and mysterious noises. Since all these symptoms began to happen to Helen herself, she became scared for her own life. She fled from her home, the Stoke Moran Mansion, to London, England to seek the advice of Sherlock Holmes, for she had heard of him when he solved a crime for a friend of hers.

Watson, decided to visit Stoke Moran and investigate the events surrounding Julia’s death. The detectives discovered many interesting clues to help them solve the crime, for example: a leopard paw print outside Julia’s room window, and that the window shutters were locked from the inside. Inside the mansion, they discovered that Helen’s room, which was Julia’s old room, was next door to Dr. Roylott’s room. The floors in Helen’s room were solid, and her stepfather’s cigarette smoke could be smelled in her room through a vent above the bed. Also, there was a brand new servant bell rope hung beside the bed, which did nothing when pulled, and was unnecessary due to the fact that Julia and Helen had no servants and did everything themselves. Lastly in Helen’s room, the bed was clamped to floor so it could not be

Roylott’s bedroom, which showed various random objects. In the doctor’s room there was a metal safe in the corner, another servant bell that does not ring, a tiny leash, and a saucer of milk. The leash was strange because it had a collar that was considerably small. The saucer of milk was also quite strange because the family did not have a pet dog or a cat.

After deciding to stay the night, Holmes and Watson waited until Roylott was asleep, and then snuck into Helen’s room and stayed awake there while Helen slept in her old room. Sherlock saw something climbing down the servant bell and whacked it several times with a cane. Frightened, it climbed swiftly back up the rope and through the vent, where it went into Roylott’s room and killed him.

The creature turned out to be a trained swamp adder, the most venomous snake in India. The snake was the speckled band that Julia had describe in her last words. Dr. Roylott was essentially the one who killed his daughter, because he used his venomous snake to climb through the vent, down the servant rope, onto the girl’s bed, and bite her on the scalp, killing her moments later. Dr. Roylott wanted to kill his engaged daughters because they would have become the heirs of his deceased wife’s abundant money, which he wanted only for himself. Since they were engaged, due to entailment during those times, all inherited money would be bestowed upon the daughters’ husbands.