THE SPECKLED BAND
SUMMARY
One morning Helen Stoner went
to visit Sherlock Holmes at his flat in Baker Street in London, there was also
Dr. Watson in the flat. Helen began crying, her face was very white and she
looked tired and unhappy. She told Holmes that she was very afraid of death,
because she had grey hair, thirty years old and was near to get married, the
same hair, the same years old and the same situation of her sister when she
died. So Holmes asked Helen how her sister had died, and she told: “It was in a
stormy night, I heard a woman's scream and after that my sister opened her door
and fell to the ground, her face was white and she only could say: Help me
Helen! Help me! I'm dying, It was the band, The speckled band.” Holmes heard it
and said: “Please, tell me more.” And Helen Told: “I live in a village in the
country, near London, with my stepfather, he is a violent man, all the people
are afraid of him and his wild Indians animals which run freely in my garden.
My sister was near to marry a young man when she died, I don't want to die like
my sister Julia, I'm also near to get marry with a dear friend, Can you see Mr.
Holmes?” Holmes answered: “I see Helen, Could we go to your house and see the
rooms?, But your stepfather must not know about it.” And Helen said: “Oh yes,
he is in London now, so he won't know about your visit.” Then they went to the
house. When Holmes got into Julia's rooms he saw a bell-rope near an air-vent
that ended in the stepfather's room, Holmes also saw that the bed was fixed to the floor, and
after thinking a minute he said: “I think you are in danger Helen, please let
us come here in the night.” Helen agreed. When they went to the house that
night it was very silently, they waited in Julia's room for three hours, but nothing
happened, and just then they heard a whistle and the sound of falling metal,
suddenly Holmes jumped up the bed and hit strongly the bell-rope, after that
they heard silence for a minute and next the scream of a man, and then silence
again. “It's finished!” said Holmes. They went to the stepfather's room and saw
him dead, with a strange yellow speckled band round his neck, the speckled band
was a snake, an Indian snake with a strong poison that could kill in seconds.
Holmes said: “Dr. Watson it is over, when I hit the bell-rope the snake got
angry and came back through the air-vent and killed Helen's stepfather, I'm not
sorry about that, if the snake had come down through the bell-rope and gone on
to the bed we would be dead, like Julia has died.” Helen Stoner finally got
married and got a happy life, but never, never could forget about the speckled
band.
END