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 The Speckled Band

 Synopsis
HELEN STONER begs Holmes to save her from her violent stepfather GRIMESBY ROYLOTT. Under the terms of her mother’s will, he inherited everything, but a certain sum would be due to Helen and her sister JULIA upon their marriages. However, Julia died two years ago under mysterious circumstances, just after becoming engaged. For a few nights, Helen had heard a clear, low whistle. Then one night, Julia screamed. Rushing to her sister’s aid, Helen found her dying in agony, crying “It was the band – the speckled band”. The doctors could find no mark of violence or trace of poison.

Now Helen is herself engaged, and her stepfather’s renovation work has forced her into Julia’s old room – where she has heard the mysterious whistle. Holmes agrees to help her – and Roylott turns up at Baker Street and threatens him. Investigating Roylott’s house, Holmes finds an unused bell-pull in Helen’s room, and a lash and a saucer of milk in Roylott’s. He and Watson keep a vigil in Helen’s room, and are attacked by a poisonous swamp adder. Roylott had kept it as a pet, had trained it, and had enticed it into Helen’s room nightly, hoping to kill her and keep her share of the inheritance. Holmes forces the adder back into Roylott’s room, where it bites and kills him.


 Comments
With its atmospheric evocation of Holmes and Watson’s night vigil, and its melodramatic solution, The Speckled Band is one of the most famous short stories about Sherlock Holmes. It was certainly one of Conan Doyle’s favourite stories. Conan Doyle himself wrote a stage adaptation of this story. He was pleased by the success of the play, but disappointed that the real snake which the company used was dismissed by the critics as unconvincing!

Under the laws of Victorian England, women’s money was held in charge for them by a parent or guardian, until they found a husband. Then all their money and property belonged to their husband absolutely. These laws were a rich source of inspiration to Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Sherlock Holmes contain various examples of girls being abused by desperate cads who are determined to get their hands on their inheritance. Roylott is probably the worst of them all, but for other examples see The Copper Beaches, A Case of Identity and The Solitary Cyclist.


Sherlock Holmes / Romeo & Juliet / Dorian Gray