What are Sherlock Holmes' traits in "The Adventure of the Speckled Band"?

The main Sherlock Holmes trait that shines through this story is his step-by-step reliance on observation and rationality to solve a crime. For example, he startles Miss Stoner on first meeting her when he states she came in that morning on the left side of a dogcart. He explains it is his powers of observation and reason that lead him to that conclusion:

The left arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven places. The marks are perfectly fresh.

We also watch him as he very carefully examines Miss Stoner's bedroom from outside and inside the house, carefully noting everything that seems odd. His approach is utterly meticulous, methodical, and factual. At the end, he is, characteristically, brutally honest about his process. He doesn't want to display his genius or "wow" people—simply to clearly explain his method. Therefore, he is quite open in stating he was misled at first about the speckled band, thinking it was the nearby gypsy group, not a snake.

While Holmes is not a warm, fuzzy, huggable person, he is caring in his own way, and he shows his characteristic detached thoughtfulness in this story. He is concerned about Miss Stoner's terror, and he also makes an effort to rouse Watson from bed early in the morning, knowing he probably will want to be part of this mystery from the start.

Sherlock Holmes's most famous characteristic is, of course, his preternatural ability for deductive reasoning. He demonstrates this ability early in the story when he deduces that Helen Stoner has travelled that morning "in a dog-cart, along heavy roads." He explains to her that the spatters of mud on the left arm of her jacket could only have been produced by a dog-cart, "and then only when you sit on the left-hand side of the driver."

Another characteristic common to Sherlock Holmes in many of the stories is his seemingly imperturbable demeanour. He is rarely alarmed, frightened, or excitable. This is demonstrated in "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" when he is confronted by the large, imposing figure of Dr. Roylott. Dr. Roylott threatens and tries to bully Holmes, but Holmes responds with an almost mocking indifference. When Dr. Roylott demands to know what Helen Stoner has said to Holmes, Holmes responds, "I have heard that the crocuses promise well." When Dr. Roylott calls Holmes a "busybody," a "meddler" and a "Scotland Yard Jack-in-office," Holmes merely smiles and "chuckle(s) heartily."

What is Sherlock Holmes' attitude in "The Adventure of the Speckled Band"?

The attitude of Sherlock Holmes as regards the case of Helen Stoner in "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" might be described as a mixture of defiance, determination, professional curiosity, and sympathy for the client. Holmes is often depicted as being cold, cerebral, and unemotional. However, he does show sympathy for ladies in distress in a number of the Sherlock Holmes stories. For example, he helps a young woman in "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist" and another in "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches." In "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," Holmes' sympathies for Helen Stoner are heightened when he sees the black-and-blue bruises on her wrist.

“Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather.”
“Why, what do you mean?”
For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed upon the white wrist.
“You have been cruelly used,” said Holmes.

Holmes becomes even more determined to help the frightened girl when Dr. Roylott bursts into the room and tries to frighten Holmes into staying out of his affairs.

"Don't you dare to meddle with my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here.” He stepped swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with his huge brown hands.

“See that you keep yourself out of my grip,” he snarled, and hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the room.

Holmes remains his usual calm, cool, and collected self, but he is not a man to be intimidated by a ruffian and a scoundrel. The fact that Dr. Roylott has ordered Holmes to drop the case only intensifies Holmes' motivation to get to the bottom of it. Dr. Roylott appears only this one time while he is alive, but his intrusion and his threats emphasize the fact that the story is based on a conflict of man against man. Although Roylott does not reappear until he is found dead at the end, his hostility and suspicion create an aura of danger during the whole time that Holmes and Watson are at Stoke Moran. They feel Roylott's evil malice while they are waiting in the pitch-dark room right next to his. It is not until they find him dead, with his own poisonous snake wrapped around his head, that the grim battle of wills and wits between these two strong men is resolved in Holmes' favor.

Holmes is tenacious. When he decides to solve a problem involving a crime or a possible crime, he will not stop pondering and investigating until he has arrived at the truth. In "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," he not only protects the terrified girl who has come to him for advice and assistance, but he solves the two-year-old "locked room murder mystery" of the death of Helen's sister Julia.

Dr. Watson is a great admirer of Sherlock Holmes. That is why he has elected to study his friend's unique methods and to write extensively about his cases. Holmes frequently refers to Watson as his "Boswell." James Boswell devoted many years to writing The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., out of his great admiration for that distinguished English man of letters. Watson presents his novels and short stories, including "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," to the reading public as factual studies in detection and criminology, although they are really only pure fiction--or what Graham Greene called "entertainments."  It is because of Dr. Watson's high regard for Holmes, along with the fact that Watson has plenty of leisure time on his hands and the advantage of being Holmes' close friend and confidant, that he is willing and able to devote so much of his time to recording and analyzing the great detective's cases.

At the end of "The Red-Headed League," which Watson also presents as a real case and not as an adventure story, Watson praises Holmes' success in terms that show how much he admires his good friend.

“You reasoned it out beautifully,” I exclaimed in unfeigned admiration. “It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings true.”

“It saved me from ennui,” he answered, yawning. “Alas! I already feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little problems help me to do so.”

“And you are a benefactor of the race,” said I.

And at the very end of "The Final Problem," Watson, who believes Holmes has fallen to his death with Professor Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls, offers this final tribute which shows that his accounts of Holmes' genius were inspired by a sense of duty to make his admiration more widely appreciated.

Of their terrible chief [Moriarity] few details came out during the proceedings, and if I have now been compelled to make a clear statement of his career it is due to those injudicious champions who have endeavored to clear his memory by attacks upon him whom I shall ever regard as the best and the wisest man whom I have ever known.

Watson's attitude toward Holmes explains why he is delighted to write about his friend's achievements and why he is always willing to assist him in his investigations, even at the risk of his life, as he does in "The Adventure of the Speckled Band."