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The Adventure of the Speckled Band, one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the eighth of the twelve Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The story was first published in the Strand Magazine in February 1892. Conan Doyle later revealed that he thought this was his best Holmes story.
Doyle wrote and produced a play based on the story, it premiered at the Adelphi Theatre, London in June, 1910.
Synopsis
Miss Helen Stoner goes to Sherlock Holmes about her stepfather, who made her move into a room with some very odd features, including a bed bolted to the floor. It was also the room that Stoner's sister had slept in before she died suspiciously.
A number of other details about the case are quite mysterious. There is the low whistling sound sometimes heard late at night. There is the strange metallic clank. There is the strange bell cord that doesn't seem to work any bell. There are also Miss Stoner's sister's dying words about a "speckled band".
After arranging for Miss Stoner to spend the night elsewhere, Holmes and Watson contrive to be in Miss Stoner's room one night without her stepfather's knowledge. Holmes believes that he has already deduced the solution to the mystery, and this test of his theory turns out to be successful. They hear the strange whistle, and Holmes sees what the bell cord is really for, although Watson doesn't! Within minutes, the whole mystery is explained, and the villain pays dearly for his crime.
The story is marred somewhat by a scientific blunder: Arthur Conan Doyle was apparently unaware that snakes are deaf.
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The Adventure of the Speckled Band
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