The Adventure of the Speckled Band
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40 free The Adventure of the Speckled Band trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Adventure of the Speckled Band is one of the best-loved Sherlock Holmes stories, and the one its own author liked most. A terrified young woman arrives at Baker Street at dawn, her sister's strange dying words still unexplained, and by nightfall Holmes and Watson are keeping watch in a dark bedroom at Stoke Moran. This quiz follows the case from start to finish: Helen Stoner's account of life with Dr Grimesby Roylott, the odd details Holmes notices in the bedrooms, the tense vigil and the grim ending. It also covers how the story was first published and the stage, screen and game versions that followed. It is written for students revising the story for class, teachers who want a ready-made check on the reading, and Holmes fans testing their memory. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you can play it straight through or print it for a group.
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Q 01In The Speckled Band, which animal does Watson mistake for a hideous, distorted child on the dark lawn at Stoke Moran?
A baboon
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.
Q 02In The Speckled Band, which sound does Julia Stoner hear at about three in the morning in the nights before she dies?
A low whistle
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.
Q 03In The Speckled Band, Dr Roylott bends a steel poker to threaten Holmes; what does Holmes do with it afterwards?
Straightens it again
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.
Q 04In The Speckled Band, which snake does Holmes call the deadliest in India when the killer is finally revealed?
A swamp adder
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.
Q 05In The Speckled Band, why does Dr Grimesby Roylott want to stop Julia and Helen Stoner from marrying?
He would lose their income
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.
Q 06In The Speckled Band, what does Holmes find when he tugs the bell-rope hanging beside the bed at Stoke Moran?
It is a dummy
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.
Q 07Who wrote and produced the 1910 London stage play of The Speckled Band, clashing with its star Lyn Harding?
Arthur Conan Doyle
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.
Q 08In The Speckled Band, who has had the good sense to light the Baker Street fire before Helen Stoner tells her story?
Mrs Hudson
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.
Q 09In The Speckled Band, how is Dr Grimesby Roylott of Stoke Moran related to Helen Stoner, who begs Holmes for help?
Her stepfather
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.
Q 10In The Speckled Band, whom does Holmes wrongly suspect at first because of Julia Stoner's dying words about a band?
The gipsies
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.
Q 11In The Speckled Band, what excuse does Dr Roylott use to move Helen Stoner into the bedroom where Julia died?
Building repairs
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.
Q 12In The Speckled Band, which crime in India earned Dr Grimesby Roylott a long prison term and nearly a death sentence?
Killing his butler
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.
Q 13In The Speckled Band, which item in Dr Roylott's bedroom does Holmes think was used to train the snake to return?
Q 21In The Speckled Band, in which English county does the Roylott family seat of Stoke Moran stand?
Surrey
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.
Q 22In The Speckled Band, at which London station does Helen Stoner arrive by the first train of the morning?
Waterloo
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.
Q 23In The Speckled Band, what does Helen Stoner say linked her so closely to Julia that she sensed disaster that night?
They were twins
A saucer of milk
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.
Q 14In 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
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.
Q 15In The Speckled Band, which animal's catlike whine do Holmes and Watson hear at the window during their night vigil?
A cheetah
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.
Q 16In The Speckled Band, which habit of thought does Holmes admit misled him, after his first theory proves wrong?
Reasoning from insufficient data
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.
Q 17In The Speckled Band, where is the snake when Holmes and Watson enter Dr Roylott's room after the terrible scream?
Around his head
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.
Q 18In The Speckled Band, how does Holmes say he feels about indirectly causing the death of Dr Grimesby Roylott?
Barely troubled by it
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.
Q 19In The Speckled Band, in which Indian city did Dr Roylott build a large medical practice before his disgrace?
Calcutta
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.
Q 20In The Speckled Band, how did the mother of Helen and Julia Stoner die, eight years before Helen consults Holmes?
A railway accident
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.
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.
Q 24In The Speckled Band, the metallic clang Helen Stoner hears as Julia dies proves to be what closing?
An iron safe
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.
Q 25In The Speckled Band, which smell in Julia Stoner's bedroom leads Holmes to deduce a ventilator before he sees one?
Cigar smoke
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.
Q 26In 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
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.
Q 27In The Speckled Band, what does the official inquiry decide caused the death of Dr Grimesby Roylott?
A mishap with a dangerous pet
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.
Q 28Which monthly periodical first published The Speckled Band in February 1892, with nine illustrations?
The Strand Magazine
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.
Q 29The 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
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.
Q 30Which actor played Sherlock Holmes in Granada Television's 1984 adaptation of The Speckled Band?
Jeremy Brett
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.