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Las aventuras de Sherlock Holmes
The Adventure of the Speckled Band
Capítulo 8, Página 31
With
a
serious
expression,
he
lit
the
lamp
and
led
the
way
down
the
corridor.
Twice
he
knocked
on
the
chamber
door
without
any
response.
Then
he
turned
the
handle
and
entered,
I
following
closely
with
my
pistol
ready.
What
we
saw
was
unusual.
On
the
table
was
a
dark-lantern,
its
shutter
half
open,
casting
a
bright
light
on
an
iron
safe,
its
door
ajar.
Next
to
the
table,
on
a
wooden
chair,
sat
Dr.
Grimesby
Roylott
in
a
long
grey
dressing-gown,
his
bare
ankles
showing,
his
feet
in
red
Turkish
slippers.
Across
his
lap
lay
the
short
stick
with
the
long
lash
we
had
noticed
earlier.
His
chin
was
tilted
up,
and
his
eyes
stared
rigidly
at
the
ceiling
corner.
Around
his
brow
was
a
strange
yellow
band
with
brown
spots,
tightly
wrapped
around
his
head.
As
we
entered,
he
neither
moved
nor
made
a
sound.
“The
band!
The
speckled
band!”
whispered
Holmes.
I
stepped
forward.
Instantly,
his
odd
headgear
began
to
move,
and
from
his
hair
emerged
the
squat,
diamond-shaped
head
and
puffed
neck
of
a
vile
snake.
“It’s
a
swamp
adder!”
cried
Holmes;
“the
deadliest
snake
in
India.
He
died
within
ten
seconds
of
being
bitten.
Violence
truly
rebounds
on
the
violent,
and
the
plotter
falls
into
his
own
trap.
Let’s
put
this
creature
back
in
its
den,
and
then
we
can
move
Miss
Stoner
to
safety
and
inform
the
county
police
of
what
happened.”
As
he
spoke,
he
swiftly
grabbed
the
dog-whip
from
the
dead
man’s
lap,
looped
it
around
the
snake’s
neck,
and
pulled
it
from
its
terrible
perch.
Holding
it
at
arm’s
length,
he
threw
it
into
the
iron
safe
and
closed
it.
These
are
the
true
facts
of
Dr.
Grimesby
Roylott’s
death
at
Stoke
Moran.
There’s
no
need
to
extend
this
story
by
describing
how
we
broke
the
sad
news
to
the
frightened
girl,
how
we
took
her
by
the
morning
train
to
her
kind
aunt
in
Harrow,
or
how
the
official
inquiry
concluded
that
the
doctor
died
while
carelessly
handling
a
dangerous
pet.
The
rest
of
the
case
was
explained
to
me
by
Sherlock
Holmes
as
we
traveled
back
the
next
day.
“I
had,”
he
said,
“come
to
a
completely
wrong
conclusion,
showing
how
dangerous
it
is
to
reason
from
insufficient
data,
my
dear
Watson.
The
presence
of
the
gypsies
and
the
use
of
the
word
‘band,’
which
the
poor
girl
used
to
describe
what
she
glimpsed
by
match
light,
led
me
astray.
I
can
only
claim
the
merit
of
reconsidering
my
position
when
it
became
clear
that
the
threat
could
not
come
from
the
window
or
door.
My
attention
quickly
turned,
as
I
told
you,
to
the
ventilator
and
the
bell-rope
hanging
to
the
bed.
Discovering
it
was
a
dummy,
and
the
bed
was
fixed
to
the
floor,
suggested
the
rope
was
a
bridge
for
something
coming
through
the
hole
to
the
bed.
The
idea
of
a
snake
came
to
me,
and
knowing
the
doctor
had
creatures
from
India,
I
felt
I
was
on
the
right
track.
Using
a
poison
that
couldn’t
be
detected
by
any
chemical
test
was
just
the
kind
of
idea
a
clever,
ruthless
man
with
Eastern
training
would
have.
The
speed
of
such
a
poison’s
effect
would
also
be
an
advantage
from
his
perspective.
Only
a
very
sharp-eyed
coroner
could
spot
the
two
small
dark
punctures
from
the
poison
fangs.
Then
I
thought
of
the
whistle.
Of
course,
he
had
to
call
the
snake
back
before
morning
light
revealed
it
to
the
victim.
He
probably
trained
it
to
return
with
milk,
as
we
saw.
He
would
send
it
through
the
ventilator
at
the
right
time,
knowing
it
would
crawl
down
the
rope
onto
the
bed.
It
might
not
bite
every
night,
but
eventually,
she
would
be
a
victim.”
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Las aventuras de Sherlock Holmes — B2 Inglés | Cuentana