Sherlock Holmes door Arthur Conan Doyle

Title: Three adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Writer: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Published by: Addison Wesley Longman Limited London. First edition: 1998. Read edition: 1998. Designer: Rob Nuyten. Main Character: Sherlock Holmes. Number pages: 55 pages. Explain the title: I think they have selected this title because: When the snake came down at Julia’s bed, Julia thought it was a speckled band but it was a very poisonous snake. The snake was also the cause of the death of Julia. That is the general subject of the book. That’s the reason I think they selected this title. There were three stories in the book, I read the first one “The speckled band.” Summary This story is about Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, who were living in Bakerstreet. On one day a lady called Helen Stoner visited Sherlock Holmes, and asked him to help her. She is a family member of a rich family “The Roylotts.” The lady starts with her story, that two years ago her sister Julia was killed. Helen hasn't been well after her sister died, every night she hears a whistle and she doesn't know where it comes from. That's why she went to Sherlock Holmes. "First I explain you the plan of the house. All our bedrooms were on the ground floor; first Dr Roylott's, then Julia's, and third was my room. They all open out on the same passage. All our windows open out in the garden." After that she tells about the night that her sister died. "Dr Roylott went earlier to bed than us. Later on we also went to bed, but my sister Julia came into my room and said that she couldn't sleep because she smells smoke of cigarettes of Dr Roylott. Then I asked her if she ever heard a whistle in her sleep, and she said no. We went to bed and locked our doors. We locked them, because we don't feel safe for Dr Roylott's wild animals. Later that night, I couldn't sleep because of the stormy weather, I heard a terrible scream. It was my sister!!! Then I heard a whistle and a sound of falling metal. I ran to her room, and she was shaking and I held her, but that didn't matter because a few seconds later her knees gave well and she felt. She said a few words before she died, something as: “It was the band, Helen! The speckled Band". Then she died. "And I still hear a whistle sometimes at night. I’m still afraid, and even more when my stepfather two days ago asked me to sleep in Julia's room, because some repairs had to be done in my own room. So I had to sleep in her bed, and I couldn't sleep. Please help me Mister Holmes! So Holmes went a few days later to Helen. There he directly wanted to see the bedrooms. He looked carefully around. He said that if the doors were locked at night, no one could come into the rooms by way of the passage. And if the windows were shut it also wasn't possible to get by way of the windows inside. So the guilty one must be in this house he concluded. Then he went to Julia's room and look very slowly around. He sat down and the first thing he saw was that the bell rope, laying with the end of it on the bed, was newer than the other things in the room. It was placed there two years ago, around the same time her sister died. Then he was standing on the bed, and pulled the bell rope. He noticed that the bell rope was fake. The second thing he saw was that the ventilator didn't let fresh air from outside in the room, but that it goes into another room. After that they went to Dr Roylott's room. It was a larger room, with a round table, a comfortable chair, and large iron chest. Then he saw a strange thing; a bowl of milk on the chest. There was also a snake in the house. Holmes had seen enough and explained the murder of Helen's sister Julia. Your sister Julia was killed by a snake. That snake reacts on a high whistle so that the snake would return to his master. It was easy to put a snake through a ventilator, and a rope could help the snake get down and up. When the snake lands on the bed, and Julia would suddenly move the snake would bite. He kept the snake in the iron chest, and when Dr Roylott closes this chest it sounds like falling metal…. This is how it all went Helen!!! The next night Holmes want to sleep in the room of Julia. When he was in the room he put at the bell. After that there came a snake out of the ventilator. Holmes hold his stick for the gap of the ventilator. The snake went back, and died Dr Roylott. After that Holmes went into Dr Roylott’s room and shut down the snake.
My own opinion I found it very exiting at the moment that Helen heard her sister screaming, because that is the moment that her sister is going dead. Suddenly I heard the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew it was my sister’s voice. I sprang from my bed and rushed into the passage. As I opened my door, I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and a second later a noise of metal falling. As I ran down the passage my sister’s door was unlocked and I saw her appear, her face pale with terror, her hands stretched out for help. Her whole body was moving to and for as if she was drunk. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but her knees gave way and she fell to the ground. She seemed in terrible pain. “Oh, my God! Helen,” she whispered. “It was the band! The speckled band!” She pointed in the direction of the doctor’s room, but could say no more. This quote stood at page 13. I found the moment that Holmes was inspected Julia’s room a very serious moment because Holmes looked to every part of the room and discovered the bell and the ventilator. His eyes travelled round and round, and up and down, seeing every part of the room. ‘When that bell rings, who answers it?’ he asked. He pointed to a thick bell rope which hung down beside the bed. The end of it was lying on the bed. ‘It goes to the servant’s room.’ ‘It looks newer than the other things?’ ‘Yes, it was only put there two years ago.’ ‘Your sister asked for it, I suppose?’ ‘No, I am sure she never used it. We get what we want for ourselves. There isn’t often a servant in the house.’ ‘Then it doesn’t seem necessary to have a bell.’ Holmes walked over to the bed, and spent some time staring at it. Then he took the bell rope in his hand and pulled it. ‘Why, it isn’t a real bell!’ he said. ‘Won’t it ring?’ ‘No, it isn’t even joined to anything. This is very interesting – you can see it is held to the wall by a nail, just above where the little opening of the ventilator is.’ ‘But how silly! I’ve never noticed that before.’ ‘Very strange!’ said Holmes quietly. ‘Also, what a strange thing to put a ventilator that goes into another room, and not to the fresh air outside!’ This quote stood at page 34. I found the end of the book also very nice because Holmes killed the very poisonous snake that killed Julia. ‘You see it, Watson?’ he called. ‘You see it?’ I saw nothing. I heard a low clear whistle. But I could see that Homes’s face was deadly pale and filled with terror and hate. I reached for the lamp and lit it. Holmes stopped still and looked at the ventilator. Suddenly there was the most terrible cry I have ever heard. It grew louder and louder, pain and fear and anger was in it. It struck cold in our hearts to hear it. At last it died away and there was silence. ‘What can it mean?’ I whispered. ‘It means that it is all over,’ Holmes answered. ‘And perhaps, after all, it is the best thing that could happen. Take your pistol. We must go into Dr Roylott’s room.’ We took the lamp and entered the doctor’s room. I had my pistol ready to fire. There was a lighted lamp on the table. The iron chest was open. The doctor sat on a chair. His head was up and his eyes were fixed in a terrible stare. Round his head there was a yellow band with brown spots. He did not move as we came in the room. ‘The band! The speckled band!’ whispered Holmes. I took a step forward. At once the band moved and I saw it was a snake. Holmes cried, ‘The most dangerous snake in India! The swamp adder! In ten seconds after being bitten, het must have died.’ As the snake moved towards us I shot it through the head. I was shaking at the sight of it. The sound of the shot seemed to wake us from a terrible dream. This quote stood at page 54.