furiously with his cane at the bell-pull.
"You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?"
But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I heard
a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my weary
eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which my friend
lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face was deadly
pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had ceased to strike and
was gazing up at the ventilator when suddenly there broke from the
silence of the night the most horrible cry to which I have ever
listened. It swelled up louder and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and
fear and anger all mingled in the one dreadful shriek. They say that
away down in the village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry
raised the sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts,
and I stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of
it had died away into the silence from which it rose.
"What can it mean?" I gasped.
"It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, after
all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will enter Dr.
Roylott's room."
With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the corridor.
Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply from within.
Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his heels, with the
cocked pistol in my hand.
It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a
dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant beam of
light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. Beside this
table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott clad in a long
grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding beneath, and his feet
thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. Across his lap lay the
short stock with the long lash which we had noticed during the day.
His chin was cocked upward and his eyes were fixed in a dreadful,
rigid stare at the corner of the ceiling. Round his brow he had a
peculiar yellow band, with brownish speckles, which seemed to be
bound tightly round his head. As we entered he made neither sound nor
motion.
"The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes.
I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began to
move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat
diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent.
"It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in India.
He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence does, in
truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit
which he digs for another. Let us thrust this creature back into its
den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to some place of shelter and
let the county police know what has happened."
As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, and
throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from its
horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into the iron
safe, which he closed upon it.
Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of
Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a narrative
which has already run to too great a length by telling how we broke
the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed her by the
morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, of how the slow
process of official inquiry came to the conclusion that the doctor
met his fate while indiscreetly playing with a dangerous pet. The
little which I had yet to learn of the case was told me by Sherlock
Holmes as we travelled back next day.
"I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which
shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from
insufficient data. 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. The rapidity with which such a poison would take effect
would also, from his point of view, be an advantage. 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 or might not bite the
occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but sooner
or later she must fall a victim.
"I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his room.
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. Having once made up my
mind, you know the steps which I took in order to put the matter to
the proof. I heard the creature hiss as I have no doubt that you did
also, and I instantly lit the light and attacked it."
"With the result of driving it through the ventilator."
"And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master at
the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and roused its
snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person it saw. In this
way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. Grimesby Roylott's
death, and I cannot say that it is likely to weigh very heavily upon
my conscience."
THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB
Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr.
Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, there
were only two which I was the means of introducing to his
notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel
Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a finer
field for an acute and original observer, but the other was so
strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that it may
be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it gave my
friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of reasoning by
which he achieved such remarkable results. The story has, I believe,
been told more than once in the newspapers, but, like all such
narratives, its effect is much less striking when set forth en bloc
in a single half-column of print than when the facts slowly evolve
before your own eyes, and the mystery clears gradually away as each
new discovery furnishes a step which leads on to the complete truth.
At the time the circumstances made a deep impression upon me, and the
lapse of two years has hardly served to weaken the effect.
It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the
events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned to
civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker Street
rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally even
persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come and
visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I happened to
live at no very great distance from Paddington Station, I got a few
patients from among the officials. One of these, whom I had cured of
a painful and lingering disease, was never weary of advertising my
virtues and of endeavouring to send me on every sufferer over whom he
might have any influence.
One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by the
maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come from
Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I dressed
hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases were seldom
trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my old ally, the
guard, came out of the room and closed the door tightly behind him.
"I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his
shoulder; "he's all right."
"What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was
some strange creature which he had caged up in my room.
"It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him round
myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe and sound.
I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the same as you." And
off he went, this trusty tout, without even giving me time to thank
him.
I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the
table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a soft
cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of his
hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all over with
bloodstains. He was young, not more than five-and-twenty, I should
say, with a strong, masculine face; but he was exceedingly pale and
gave me the impression of a man who was suffering from some strong
agitation, which it took all his strength of mind to control.
"I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I have
had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by train this
morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I might find a
doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me here. I gave the maid
a card, but I see that she has left it upon the side-table."
I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic
engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name,
style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have kept
you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You are
fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself a
monotonous occupation."
"Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and laughed.
He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, leaning back in
his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical instincts rose up
against that laugh.
"Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out some
water from a caraffe.
It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical
outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis is
over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very weary and
pale-looking.
"I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped.
"Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, and
the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks.
"That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would kindly
attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb used to
be."
He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even my
hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four protruding
fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the thumb should have
been. It had been hacked or torn right out from the roots.
"Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have
bled considerably."
"Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must
have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that it
was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very tightly
round the wrist and braced it up with a twig."
"Excellent! You should have been a surgeon."
"It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own
province."
"This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very heavy
and sharp instrument."
"A thing like a cleaver," said he.
"An accident, I presume?"
"By no means."
"What! a murderous attack?"
"Very murderous indeed."
"You horrify me."
