🎧🍃The adventure of the speckled band | 🎧🍃 Sherlock Holmes | Mystery Stories | Audiobooks with subs

The Adventure of the Speckled Band" is one of 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the eighth story of twelve in the collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It was originally published in Strand Magazine in February 1892.
"The Speckled Band" is a classic locked-room mystery that deals with the themes of parental greed, inheritance and freedom. Tinged with Gothic elements, it is considered by many to be one of Doyle's finest works, with the author himself calling it his best story. The story, alongside the rest of the Sherlock Holmes canon, has become a defining part of detective fiction. It has been adapted for television, film, theatre, radio and a video game. It is part of the exhibit at the Sherlock Holmes Museum. The theatrical adaptation was written and produced by Doyle himself, directed by and starring Lyn Harding as Grimesby Roylott. The role of Holmes was played by H. A. Saintsbury. Doyle famously clashed with Harding over several details of the script, but later reconciled with him after the universal success of the play.
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Plot
The death of Julia Stoner.
Holmes strikes at the speckled band.
The death of Dr. Roylott.
In April 1883, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson rise early one morning to meet a young woman named Helen Stoner, who is in great fear of her life. She explains that her mother married her stepfather, Dr. Grimesby Roylott, in India when Helen and her twin sister Julia were two years old. Dr. Roylott is the impoverished sole survivor of a formerly wealthy but ill-tempered and amoral aristocratic Anglo-Saxon family in Surrey. He had served time in an Indian prison for killing his Indian butler in a rage. Afterwards, Roylott had moved to England, and retired after Helen's mother was killed in a railway accident eight years prior.
Helen reveals to Holmes that her mother's will provided for an annual income, handled by Roylott, which both daughters could claim a share upon marriage. The sisters did not live happily, but when Julia got engaged two years prior, they looked forward to more joyous times. Shortly before her wedding day, Julia confided in Helen that she had heard a low whistle in the night. That same night, Helen was startled out of bed by her sister's scream. Helen found Julia at her door, warning of "the speckled band" shortly before dying. The official inquest was unable to determine the cause of death: the room was securely locked both inside and outside, and the doctors could find no poison.
Two years on, Helen had gotten engaged, and was looking forward to her new life. However, when Roylott started repairs outside the house, she had to move into her sister's old room. The night before, she heard the whistle which heralded her sister's death; terrified, she approached Holmes.
After Holmes agrees to take the case, he is visited by Roylott, who threatens to harm him if he interferes. Undaunted, Holmes leaves for the courthouse to examine Helen's mother's will, concluding that if both daughters married, Roylott would not have much to live on. He and Watson then travel to Stoke Moran, where he scrutinizes the premises. Within Helen's room, he discovers her bed is anchored to the floor, an unconnected bell cord has been installed, and a ventilator hole connects her room to Roylott's. In Roylott's room, they notice a large safe and a saucer of milk.
Holmes warns Helen to move to her old room that night, while he and Watson stay in Helen's room. After a tense wait, they hear a slight metallic noise and see a dim light through the ventilator, followed by a hissing sound. Holmes lights a candle and strikes at the bell cord, and they hear a terrifying scream. Holmes and Watson go to Roylott's room, where they see the "speckled band" - a venomous snake which Holmes identifies as the most poisonous snake in India. Angered by Holmes' blows, the snake had attacked Roylott, killing him. Though Holmes also admits to indirectly killing Roylott, he does not foresee it troubling him and chooses not to tell the police Roylott's full motive to spare Helen any further grief.

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