CASSETTE AVAILABLE

SHERLOCK HOLMES
SHORT STORIES
Sherlock Holmes is the greatest
detective of them all. He sits in his
room, and smokes his pipe. He
listens, and watches, and thinks. He
listens to the steps coming up his
stairs; he watches the door opening
— and he knows what question the
stranger will ask.
In these three of his best stories,
Holmes has three visitors to the
famous flat in Baker Street — visitors
who bring their troubles to the only
man in the world who can help them.

OXFORD BOOKWORMS take students

through six stages towards real
reading in English. Each one has been
chosen for its enjoyment value and
its quality of writing.

Cover illustration by Alan Morrison

Oxford University Press

ISBN 0-19-421650-0
Sherlock Holmes
Short Stories

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

retold by
Clare West

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

 The Speckled Band

1
Helen's Story

At the time of this story, I was still living at my friend

Sherlock Holmes's flat in Baker Street in London. Very
early one morning, a young woman, dressed in black,
came to see us. She looked tired and unhappy, and her
face was very white. 'I'm afraid! Afraid of death,
Mr Holmes!' she cried. 'Please help me! I'm not thirty
yet and look at my grey hair! I'm so afraid!'

Very early one morning, a young woman, dressed in black,

came to see us.
2 Sherlock Holmes Short Stories The Speckled Band 3

'Just sit down and tell us your story,' said Holmes run freely around the garden. A friend sends them to
kindly. him from India. And the animals are not the only wild
'My name is Helen Stoner,' she began, 'and I live things in the garden; there are also gipsies. My
with my stepfather, Dr Grimesby Roylott, near a stepfather likes these wild people, and they can come
village in the country. His family was once very rich, and go where they like. Poor Julia and I had very
but they had no money when my stepfather was born. unhappy lives. We had no servants. They always left
So he studied to be a doctor, and went out to India. He because they were afraid of my stepfather, and we had
met and married my mother there, when my sister Julia to do all the work in the house. Julia was only thirty
and I were very young. Our father was dead, you see.' when she died, and her hair was already grey, like my
'Your mother had some money, perhaps?' asked hair now.'
Sherlock Holmes. 'When did she die?' asked Sherlock Holmes.
'Oh yes, mother had a lot of money, so my 'She died two years ago, and that's why I'm here. We
stepfather wasn't poor any more.' never met anybody in the country, but sometimes we
'Tell me more about him, Miss Stoner,' said Holmes. visited some of my family who live near London. There
'Well, he's a violent man. In India he once got Julia met a young man who asked to marry her. My
angry with his Indian servant and killed him! He had stepfather agreed, but soon after this she died.' Miss
to go to prison because of that, and then we all came Stoner put her hand over her eyes and cried for a
back to England. Mother died in an accident eight minute.
years ago. So my stepfather got all her money, but if Sherlock Holmes was listening with his eyes closed,
Julia or I marry, he must pay us £250 every year.' but now he opened them and looked at Helen Stoner.
'And now you live with him in the country,' said 'Tell me everything about her death,' he said.
Holmes. 'I can remember it all very well. It was a terrible
'Yes, but he stays at home and never sees anybody, time!' she answered. 'Our three bedrooms are all
Mr Holmes!' answered Helen Stoner. 'He's more and downstairs. First there is my stepfather's room. Julia's
more violent now, and sometimes has fights with the room is next to his, and my room is next to Julia's. The
people from the village. Everybody's afraid of him rooms all have windows on the garden side of the
now, and they run away when they see him. And house, and doors which open into the corridor. One
they're also afraid of his Indian wild animals which evening our stepfather was smoking his strong Indian
4 Sherlock Holmes Short Stories The Speckled Band 5

cigarettes in his room. Julia couldn't sleep because she

could smell them in her room, so she came into my
room to talk to me. Before she went back to bed, she
said to me, "Helen, have you ever heard a whistle in
the middle of the night?"
I was surprised. "No," I said.
"It's strange," she said. "Sometimes I hear a whistle,
but I don't know where it comes from. Why don't you
hear it?"
I laughed and said, "I sleep better than you do." So
Julia went to her room, and locked the door after her.'
'Why did you lock your doors?' asked Sherlock
Holmes. 'My sister's face was white and afraid, and she was crying.'
'We were afraid of the wild animals, and the gipsies,'
she answered. help her, but we could do nothing. And so my dear,
'Please go on,' said Holmes. dear sister died.'
'I couldn't sleep that night. It was a very stormy 'Are you sure about the whistle and the sound of
night, with a lot of wind and rain. Suddenly I heard a falling metal?' asked Holmes.
woman's scream. It was my sister's voice. I ran into the 'I think so,' answered Helen. 'But it was a very wild,
corridor, and just then I heard a whistle, and a minute stormy night. Perhaps I made a mistake. The police
later the sound of falling metal. I didn't know what it couldn't understand why my sister died. Her door was
was. I ran to my sister's door. She opened it and fell to locked and nobody could get into her room. They
the ground. Her face was white and afraid, and she didn't find any poison in her body. And what was "the
was crying, "Help me, help me, Helen, I'm ill, I'm speckled band"? Gipsies wear something like that
dying!" I put my arms around her, and she cried out in round their necks. I think she died because she was so
a terrible voice: "Helen! Oh my God, Helen! It was the afraid, but I don't know what she was afraid of.
band! The speckled band!" She wanted to say more, Perhaps it was the gipsies. What do you think,
but she couldn't. I called my stepfather, who tried to Mr Holmes?'
 6 Sherlock Holmes Short Stories The Speckled Band 7

Holmes thought for a minute. 'Hmm,' he said.

'That is a difficult question. But please go on.'
'That was two years ago,' Helen Stoner said. 'I have
been very lonely without my sister, but a month ago a
dear friend asked me to marry him. My stepfather has
agreed, and so we're going to marry soon. But two
days ago I had to move to my sister's old bedroom,
because some men are mending my bedroom wall, and
last night I heard that whistle again! I ran out of the
house immediately and came to London to ask for
your help. Please help me, Mr Holmes! I don't want to
die like Julia!'
'We must move fast,' said Holmes. 'If we go to your
house today, can we look at these rooms? But your gipsies, the whistle, the band - they are more difficult
stepfather must not know.'
to understand, but I think I have an answer.'
'He's in London today, so he won't see you. Oh When we arrived, Helen Stoner showed us the three
thank you, Mr Holmes, I feel better already.' bedrooms. We saw her room first.
'Why are they mending your bedroom wall?' asked
2 Holmes. 'There's nothing wrong with it.'
'You're right,' she said. 'I think it was a plan to
Holmes and Watson Visit the House move me into my sister's room.'
'Yes,' said Holmes. We went into Julia's room, and
Holmes went out for the morning, but he came back at
Holmes looked at the windows carefully.
lunch-time. We then went by train into the country,
'Nobody could come in from outside,' he said. Then
and took a taxi to Dr Roylott's house. 'You see,' said
he looked round the room. 'Why is that bell-rope
Holmes to me, 'our dangerous friend Roylott needs the
there, just over the bed?'
girls' money, because he only has £750 a year from his
'My stepfather put it there two years ago. It's for
dead wife. I found that out this morning. But the
calling a servant, but Julia and I never used it because
8 Sherlock Holmes Short Stories The Speckled Band 9

we didn't have any servants. He also put in that air- box. 'Now, Miss Stoner,' he said, 'I think your life is in
vent on the wall between his room and this one.' danger. Tonight my friend Watson and I must spend
Holmes pulled the rope. 'But it doesn't work,' he the night in your sister's room, where you are sleeping
said. 'How strange! And it's just over the air-vent. at the moment.'
That also is interesting. Why have an air-vent on an Helen Stoner and I looked at him in surprise.
inside wall? Air-vents are usually on outside walls.' 'Yes, we must,' he went on. 'We'll take a room in a
Then we went into Dr Roylott's room. Holmes saw hotel in the village. When your stepfather goes to bed,
a large metal box near the wall. put a light in your sister's bedroom window and leave
'My stepfather keeps business papers in there,' said it open. Then go into your old room and we'll get into
Helen. your sister's room through the window. We'll wait for
'Does he keep a cat in there too?' asked Holmes. the sound of the whistle and the falling metal.'
'Look!' There was some milk on a plate on top of the 'How did my sister die, Mr Holmes? Do you know?

'Does your stepfather keep a cat in there too?' asked Holmes. 'Now goodbye, Miss Stoner, and don't be afraid,' said Holmes.
10 Sherlock Holmes Short Stories

Please tell me!' said Helen. She put her hand on 3

Sherlock Holmes's arm.
'I must find out more before I tell you, Miss Stoner. Death in the Night
Now goodbye, and don't be afraid,' replied Sherlock
Holmes. That night we went back to the house. When we saw
We walked to the village, and Holmes said to me, Helen Stoner's light, Holmes and I got in quietly
Tonight will be dangerous, Watson. Roylott is a very through the window. Then we waited silently in the
violent man.' middle bedroom in the dark. We waited for three
'But if I can help, Holmes, I shall come with you,' I hours and did not move. Suddenly we saw a light and
said. heard a sound from Dr Roylott's room. But nothing
'Thank you, Watson. I'll need your help. Did you see happened, and again we waited in the dark. Then there
the bell-rope, and the air-vent? I knew about the air- was another sound, a very quiet sound . . . Immediately
vent before we came. Of course there is a hole between Holmes jumped up and hit the bell-rope hard.
the two rooms. That explains why Helen's sister could 'Can you see it, Watson?' he shouted. But I saw
smell Dr Roylott's cigarette.' nothing. There was a quiet whistle. We both looked up
'My dear Holmes! How clever of you!' I cried. at the air-vent, and suddenly we heard a terrible cry in
'And did you see the bed? It's fixed to the floor. She the next room. Then the house was silent again.
can't move it. It must stay under the rope, which is
near the air-vent.'
'Holmes!' I cried. 'I begin to understand! What a
terrible crime!'
'Yes, this doctor is a very clever man. But we can
stop him, I think, Watson.'

Immediately Holmes jumped up and hit the bell-rope hard.

12 Sherlock Holmes Short Stories The Speckled Band 13

'But how did you know about the snake, Holmes?' I

asked.
'At first, Watson, I thought that it was the gipsies.
But then I understood. I thought that perhaps some-
thing came through the air-vent, down the bell-rope
and on to the bed. Then there was the milk - and of
course, snakes drink milk. It was easy for the Doctor to
get Indian animals. And because he was a doctor, he
knew that this snake's poison is difficult to find in a
dead body. So every night he put the snake through the
air-vent, and it went down the bell-rope on to the bed.
Of course, nobody must see the snake, so every night
he whistled to call it back. The sound of metal falling
Round his head was a strange, yellow speckled band.
He was dead. was the door of the metal box, which was the snake's
home. Perhaps the snake came through the air-vent
'What does it mean?' I asked. My voice was shaking. many times before it killed Julia. But in the end it killed
'It's finished,' answered Holmes. 'Let's go and see.' her. And Helen, too, nearly died because of this snake.
We went into Dr Roylott's room. The metal box was 'But tonight, when I hit the snake on the rope, it was
open. Roylott was sitting on a chair, and his eyes were angry and went back through the air-vent. And so it
fixed on the air-vent. Round his head was a strange, killed the Doctor. I'm not sorry about that.'
yellow speckled band. He was dead. Soon after this Helen Stoner married her young man
'The band! The speckled band!' said Holmes very and tried to forget the terrible deaths of her sister and
quietly. The band moved and began to turn its head. stepfather. But she never really forgot the speckled
'Be careful, Watson! It's a snake, an Indian snake - band.
and its poison can kill very quickly,' Holmes cried.
'Roylott died immediately. We must put the snake
back in its box.' Very, very carefully, Holmes took the
snake and threw it into the metal box.