40 Fun Facts About The Adventure of the Speckled Band

In The Speckled Band, which animal does Watson mistake for a hideous, distorted child on the dark lawn at Stoke Moran?

A baboon is an odd choice for one of Dr Roylott's Indian animals: baboons are native to Africa and Arabia, not India. Holmes grips Watson's wrist like a vice before he laughs.

In The Speckled Band, which sound does Julia Stoner hear at about three in the morning in the nights before she dies?

A low whistle is how Dr Roylott calls his snake back before daylight can reveal it. Julia, a light sleeper, cannot tell whether it comes from the next room or from the lawn.

In The Speckled Band, Dr Roylott bends a steel poker to threaten Holmes; what does Holmes do with it afterwards?

Straightens it again, with one sudden effort, once the doctor has stormed out. Holmes remarks that his own grip is not much more feeble than his bullying visitor's.

In The Speckled Band, which snake does Holmes call the deadliest in India when the killer is finally revealed?

A swamp adder like the story's does not exist: no real snake matches its description. Holmes reckons its victim died within ten seconds of being bitten.

In The Speckled Band, why does Dr Grimesby Roylott want to stop Julia and Helen Stoner from marrying?

He would lose their income: their mother's will gives each daughter £250 a year on marriage. With her legacy now yielding only £750, even one wedding would cripple him.

In The Speckled Band, what does Holmes find when he tugs the bell-rope hanging beside the bed at Stoke Moran?

It is a dummy, not even attached to a wire, and is fastened to a hook just above the ventilator. Holmes concludes it was hung there as a bridge for something to reach the bed.

Who wrote and produced the 1910 London stage play of The Speckled Band, clashing with its star Lyn Harding?

Arthur Conan Doyle staged the play at the Adelphi Theatre, which he had leased at his own expense. He also named the story his favourite of all his Holmes tales.

In The Speckled Band, who has had the good sense to light the Baker Street fire before Helen Stoner tells her story?

Mrs Hudson was the first person knocked up by Helen's dawn call; she woke Holmes, who woke Watson at a quarter past seven. Holmes, normally a late riser, was already fully dressed.

In The Speckled Band, how is Dr Grimesby Roylott of Stoke Moran related to Helen Stoner, who begs Holmes for help?

Her stepfather married her widowed mother in India when Helen was two years old. Holmes spots that she is shielding him: his grip has left five livid marks on her wrist.

In The Speckled Band, whom does Holmes wrongly suspect at first because of Julia Stoner's dying words about a band?

The gipsies camp on the estate as Dr Roylott's only friends, and Helen wonders if their spotted handkerchiefs explain the phrase. Holmes later admits the idea put him on an entirely wrong scent.

In The Speckled Band, what excuse does Dr Roylott use to move Helen Stoner into the bedroom where Julia died?

Building repairs pierce her bedroom wall two days before she comes to Baker Street, yet Holmes sees no pressing need for them. Helen suspects they were only a pretext to move her.

In The Speckled Band, which crime in India earned Dr Grimesby Roylott a long prison term and nearly a death sentence?

Killing his butler came in a fit of anger over some robberies at his house; he beat the man to death. The family's violent temper, Helen says, was made worse by his years in the tropics.

In The Speckled Band, which item in Dr Roylott's bedroom does Holmes think was used to train the snake to return?

A saucer of milk stands in the doctor's room although, as Helen points out, the household keeps no cat. Holmes thinks it lured the snake home when it was summoned.

In The Speckled Band, what does Holmes use to lash at the snake as it comes down the bell-rope in the dark?

A long thin cane lies ready beside Holmes on the bed through the hours of waiting. His blows rouse the snake's temper and drive it back through the ventilator.

In The Speckled Band, which animal's catlike whine do Holmes and Watson hear at the window during their night vigil?

A cheetah roams the grounds because Dr Roylott collects Indian animals sent over by a correspondent. Cheetahs really did live wild in India in the 1880s, though they later died out there.

In The Speckled Band, which habit of thought does Holmes admit misled him, after his first theory proves wrong?

Reasoning from insufficient data had led Holmes to an entirely erroneous conclusion, he tells Watson on the journey home. He dropped the idea once he saw nothing could enter by door or window.

In The Speckled Band, where is the snake when Holmes and Watson enter Dr Roylott's room after the terrible scream?

Around his head, bound tightly like a peculiar yellow band with brownish speckles. Only when Watson steps forward does the strange headgear move and rear up from the dead man's hair.

In The Speckled Band, how does Holmes say he feels about indirectly causing the death of Dr Grimesby Roylott?

Barely troubled by it: Holmes says the death is not likely to weigh very heavily on his conscience. His blows had roused the snake's temper, so it flew at the first person it saw.

In The Speckled Band, in which Indian city did Dr Roylott build a large medical practice before his disgrace?

Calcutta is where Roylott went once a relative's loan had paid for his medical degree, and where his skill and force of character won him patients. He came home a morose, disappointed man.

In The Speckled Band, how did the mother of Helen and Julia Stoner die, eight years before Helen consults Holmes?

A railway accident near Crewe killed her soon after the family came back from India. Dr Roylott then gave up trying to practise in London and took the girls to Stoke Moran.

In The Speckled Band, in which English county does the Roylott family seat of Stoke Moran stand?

Surrey holds Stoke Moran on its western border, and the Roylott estates once spread into two neighbouring counties. Wasteful heirs left only a few acres and a heavily mortgaged house.

In The Speckled Band, at which London station does Helen Stoner arrive by the first train of the morning?

Waterloo is where her train from Leatherhead comes in, after a dog-cart ride that began before six. Holmes and Watson set out from the same station that afternoon.

In The Speckled Band, what does Helen Stoner say linked her so closely to Julia that she sensed disaster that night?

They were twins, two years old when their mother remarried and thirty when Julia died. Both sisters' hair had begun to whiten early under the strain of life at Stoke Moran.

In The Speckled Band, the metallic clang Helen Stoner hears as Julia dies proves to be what closing?

An iron safe in the doctor's bedroom served as the snake's den by day, and he slammed its door in haste. Holmes had first guessed the clang was a shutter bar falling back into place.

In The Speckled Band, which smell in Julia Stoner's bedroom leads Holmes to deduce a ventilator before he sees one?

Cigar smoke from the doctor's strong Indian cigars bothered Julia in the next bedroom on the night she died. Holmes reasons there must be a small opening between the two.

In The Speckled Band, which oddity about the bed in Julia Stoner's bedroom does Holmes notice and Watson miss?

It is clamped to the floor so that it always sits in the same place under the ventilator and the rope. Holmes points out that the lady could never move her bed.

In The Speckled Band, what does the official inquiry decide caused the death of Dr Grimesby Roylott?

A mishap with a dangerous pet is the verdict: the inquiry finds he was indiscreetly playing with it. Watson says rumours had made the affair sound even more terrible than the truth.

Which monthly periodical first published The Speckled Band in February 1892, with nine illustrations?

The Strand Magazine ran all twelve of the Adventures between July 1891 and June 1892. The Holmes stories boosted its subscriptions, letting their author demand more for the next set.

The Speckled Band is an early classic of which kind of puzzle, pioneered by Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue?

A locked-room mystery is one where the crime seems impossible: Julia's door was fastened inside and her shutters barred. Poe's 1841 tale is generally considered the first of the kind.

Which actor played Sherlock Holmes in Granada Television's 1984 adaptation of The Speckled Band?

Jeremy Brett faced Jeremy Kemp as Dr Roylott in the sixth episode of Granada's first series. Brett went on to play Holmes in 41 episodes over ten years.

Which video game series retold The Speckled Band in a case featuring a detective named Herlock Sholmes?

Ace Attorney did it in The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures, whose second episode is titled The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band. In Japan the detective keeps his real name, Sherlock Holmes.

In The Speckled Band, Holmes likens Dr Roylott to Palmer and Pritchard, real Victorian doctors notorious as what?

Poisoners both: William Palmer was hanged in 1856 for murdering a friend with strychnine, and Edward Pritchard in 1865 over the deaths of his wife and mother-in-law. Holmes calls a doctor gone wrong the first of criminals.

In The Speckled Band, which villager did Dr Roylott hurl over a parapet into a stream the week before Helen's visit?

The local blacksmith went into the stream, and Helen paid over all the money she could gather to hush it up. Two of the doctor's earlier brawls had already ended in the police-court.

In The Speckled Band, which spring flowers does Holmes blandly discuss while Dr Roylott rages at him in Baker Street?

Crocuses are said to promise well, Holmes tells him, after first remarking that it is a little cold for the time of year. The calm small talk only makes the doctor scream louder.

In The Speckled Band, where in London does Holmes walk to read the will of Helen Stoner's late mother?

Doctors' Commons was the old home of London's probate lawyers, but its premises were sold in 1865 and soon demolished. The story is set in 1883, so Holmes visits a place already gone.

In The Speckled Band, what is the name of the man Helen Stoner plans to marry in the spring?

Percy Armitage, a friend of many years, proposed a month before Helen came to Baker Street. He treats her fears as the fancies of a nervous woman, which is why she turns to Holmes.

In The Speckled Band, Helen Stoner hears of Holmes from Mrs Farintosh, whose case involved which piece of jewellery?

An opal tiara was at the centre of the Farintosh case, which Holmes looks up in a small case-book from his desk. It is one of the untold cases: he says it happened before Watson's time.

Which actor made his first credited film appearance playing Sherlock Holmes in the 1931 film of The Speckled Band?

Raymond Massey played the detective opposite Lyn Harding, who repeated his stage role as the villain. The film gave Holmes a modern office complete with secretaries and stenographers.

Which snake comes through a ventilator in the 1891 article thought to have inspired The Speckled Band?

A boa constrictor drops in on a sleeping captain in Called on by a Boa Constrictor, a West African tale from Cassell's Saturday Journal. He raises the alarm by ringing an old bell.

In The Speckled Band, which profession does Holmes want the trap driver to think he and Watson follow?

Architects is the cover Holmes chooses, hoping it will stop the driver's gossip about two strangers bound for Stoke Moran. He and Watson then cross the fields by a footpath to meet Helen.