It is typical of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories that the great detective explains his whole line of reasoning--almost invariably to his friend and biographer Dr. Watson--near the very end of the story. This is understandable, since the usual pattern of these stories is to describe what Holmes says and does through the eyes and ears of Watson, but not to tell what Holmes might be thinking. Watson himself usually sees the same things as Holmes, since they are both together at the scene, but Watson is not capable of making the same kinds of deductions as his friend. Since the reader is getting the whole narrative from Watson, the reader is challenged to make his own deductions from the evidence. These deductions may be correct or incorrect, or partially correct and partially incorrect, but the reader cannot be sure about his suspicions or conclusions until he reaches the end of the story. In "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," Sherlock Holmes explains all of his observations and deductions in detail as follows:
"The presence of the gipsies, and the use of the word ‘band,’ which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not come either from the window or the door. My attention was speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless man who had had an Eastern training....It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the rope and land on the bed. It might...
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or might not bite the occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but sooner or later she must fall a victim.
"An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant.
The presence of the gipsies was intended to put the reader as well as Sherlock Holmes "upon an entirely wrong scent." It was only too obvious from the beginning that the terrible Dr. Roylott must be the villain in the piece. The gipsies make it just vaguely possible that someone other than Roylott was responsible for Julia's death and is planning to murder her sister Helen. But even if the gipsies are directly responsible for killing Julia, that still doesn't exonerate Dr. Roylott. He is on exceptionally friendly terms with this "band" of gipsies who camp on his estate. He could have paid them to kill Julia, and he could be paying them to kill Helen.
It is only when Sherlock Holmes, accompanied by his faithful friend Dr. Watson, inspects the room in which Helen is now sleeping, along with the room directly next door which is occupied by her stepfather, that he is able to put the pieces of the puzzle together. In Helen's room he first notices the ventilator and the bell-rope. He quickly discovers that the bell-rope is a dummy, which suggests that it is there for some sinister purpose. Then when he finds that the bed has been bolted to the floor so that it cannot be moved to any other part of the room, the idea of a snake, as he says, occurs to him instantly. Holmes is expecting to find evidence of the existence of a poisonous snake even before he enters Dr. Roylott's room. A man with Roylott's scientific background and knowledge of Indian animals could possess a snake whose venom would not be detected upon autopsy.
Then Holmes and Watson go into Dr. Roylott's room. There the detective finds clues that convince him he has solved the mystery. The four most important clues in the room are the chair, the safe, the saucer of milk, and the whipcord with a loop on the end. Holmes could see that Roylott had been standing on the chair in order to put the snake through the ventilator. Holmes assumes that Roylott keeps the snake in the safe and that the snake must be there inside it right now. The milk must have been used to train the snake to return through the ventilator, and the whipcord must have been used to handle the dangerous swamp adder.
Holmes already knew before coming down to Stoke Moran that Dr. Roylott was having financial troubles and that he was legally bound to pay either stepdaughter one-third of the income from the girls' mother's estate when either of them got married. That would have meant financial ruin for Roylott. Julia died shortly before she was to be married. Helen was not in danger for two full years--but then she became engaged to be married within a month or six weeks. It was right after Roylott learned of Helen's engagement that he found an excuse to move her into the room next to his, and she had only been occupying the room for two nights when she first heard the whistle which, as she tells Holmes, had been the herald of her sister's death.
What are the clues Holmes uses to solve the mystery in "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?
The Adventure of The Speckled Band is just the kind of unusual case that Sherlock Holmes loves to get his teeth into. Very little seems to make much sense until Holmes painstakingly pieces together the various clues to solve this most perplexing of mysteries.
There are many clues, all of them expertly used by Conan Doyle to create the maximum amount of mystery and suspense. A good clue should reveal something important but not too much. No one clue should provide the key to the entire story; together they should give us the full picture.
The clues start with the title of the book itself. We think we know what the word "speckled" means. We also know the various meanings of the word "band." However, if you put them together it is all rather ambiguous. However, it is powerful enough to keep us guessing and wanting to read on, especially as they were Julia's very last words before her tragic end.
It is important for Holmes to build up a picture of Helen Stoner's domestic life in order to understand the circumstances in which her sister Julia died. He is able to do this as soon as he meets Helen for the first time. She looks much older than her years, and her clothes are splashed with mud. She also has the second half of a return ticket in her glove. From all of these clues Holmes correctly deduces that Helen left home in a hurry, took a dog-cart to the train station, and caught the earliest possible train to London.
More generally, Holmes is able to deduce that Helen's home life is an unhappy one; the bruising on her wrists is a clear indication of this. This impression is further compounded when Holmes first encounters the violent, ill-tempered Dr. Roylott.
While at Stoke Moran, Holmes examines the will of Mrs. Stoner, Helen and Julia's mother. In it, he discovers that Roylott's share of the estate will decline sharply if Helen and Julia should marry. Because Julia was killed just before her marriage and Helen is herself soon to be married, it is not surprising that Helen fears for her life.
We can see Holmes piecing the clues together to point towards a solution of the mystery. However, there is still much more to be done. We may well suspect that Roylott had something to do with Julia's death, but we need to know how he did it.
This leads us onto the next clue. Stoke Moran is in a frightful state of dilapidation, yet the wing where Helen and Roylott live is currently being refurbished. Why is this? Perhaps the structure of the building is in some way related to the mystery? Again, we see that the clue both reveals and conceals. If Miss Stoner's room is locked and shuttered from the inside, then how could someone possibly get in? Holmes appears confused, although we are not privy to his innermost thoughts. Perhaps he is thinking that the cause of Julia's death was not someone, but some thing. After all, Dr. Roylott does seem to have a rather unhealthy obsession with dangerous, exotic animals; perhaps he has also deduced that whatever killed her did not come from outside the house but from inside.
These suspicions are confirmed as Holmes begins to search Julia's room. First of all, there is the fake bell-pull that is not attached to anything. Then there is the ventilation duct which leads to Roylott's room and not outside. Also, the bed is nailed to the floor, implying that someone wanted Julia and Helen to remain in one place at night, a place near the ventilation shaft.
A search of Roylott's room turns up more clues. There is a saucer of milk on top of the safe. It just is not the right size for a domestic pet. We also know that Roylott owns a cheetah and a baboon. When Holmes sees a dog whip hung on the corner of Roylott's bed with a loop much too small for a dog, it seems at last that Holmes has just about solved the mystery.
When the final truth is revealed, we can retrace our steps and see how each clue pointed toward the terrifying denouement while keeping us in suspense all along.
What are the clues Holmes uses to solve the mystery in "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?
The Adventure of the Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a story in which Sherlock Holmes and his faithful chronicler Watson come to the help of Helen Stoner. Several clues are presented along the way that help Holmes solve the mystery.
First, we have Helen's sister's dying words, "the speckled band." Next, we have the will of Helen's mother, which shows that Roylston will benefit from the sisters' death.
When Holmes arrives at Stoke Moran, he discovers three more clues, the bed anchored to the floor, what appears to be a nonfunctional bell pull, and a small hole that leads between Helen's bedroom and that of Roylston. Another clue is the insistence of Roylston that the young women must sleep in that specific bedroom, despite the fact that Helen is naturally reluctant to sleep in the room where her sister died.
How did Holmes and Watson solve the mystery of the "speckled band"?
When Miss Helen Stoner brought her case to Mr. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, Holmes had some suspicions about what might be happening to her. Miss Stoner fears that someone is trying to kill her. She has recently become engaged and while sleeping in her sister's room she hears strange sounds in the night. Miss Stoner is afraid that whatever killed her sister while she was engaged to be married is coming to kill her as well.
When Miss Stoner leaves and her stepfather angrily bursts into the apartment, threatening Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson, Holmes naturally wonders why Dr. Roylott would have been so angry about Helen's visit. Holmes and Watson then visit the estate where Miss Stoner and Dr. Roylott live and inspect the premises. They agree to spend the night in Miss Stoner's room to try and hear the same strange sounds that have her so worried. They do hear animals romping outside--Miss Stoner explained that her stepfather kept many exotic pets-- before a whistling and clanging disturbs them. Discerning that the sound is coming from a grate in the wall, Holmes whacks at it with his cane.
On the other side, Dr. Roylott is bitten by the now-angry swamp adder he was trying to send through the wall. When Holmes and Watson emerge from Helen's room, they find Dr. Roylott dead and wearing a spotted yellow bandanna around his forehead-- the speckled band.
Holmes often solves his cases quite early in investigation, but still must prove himself to be right by allowing events to play out to some extent. This was just one such case where Holmes had put together the suspect, motive, and means long before the moment when Dr. Roylott planned to strike, but needed to catch him in the act. When Holmes and Watson finally see Dr. Roylott dead in his room, the case has officially been solved and remedied.