The Adventure of the Speckled Band that of Dr Roylott. Holmes and Watson arrange to spend the night in Helen's room. In darkness they wait; suddenly, a slight metallic noise and a dim light through the ventilator prompt Holmes to action. Quickly lighting a candle, he discovers on the bell cord the "speckled band"—a venomous snake. He strikes the snake with a stick, driving it back through the ventilator. Agitated, it attacks Roylott, who had been waiting for it to return after killing Helen. Holmes identifies the snake as a "swamp adder" and reveals to Watson the motive: the late wife's will had provided an annual
The Dark Between the Stars (short story collection) The Dark Between the Stars (short story collection) The Dark Between the Stars is a 1981 collection of previously-published science fiction short stories by American writer Poul Anderson. Thomas M. Wagner of SFReviews.net wrote that the publisher's marketing of the book as a collection of science fiction horror stories is "totally misleading" and noted "no unifying theme present in these stories remotely related to the horrors of the universe, whatever those might be." Wagner went on to say that the anthology includes some "must-reads" and that "even a middling Poul Anderson story is quite a bit better than what you're