The Adventure of the Speckled Band the snake wrong, a theory that the swamp adder was an artificial hybrid between the Mexican Gila monster ("Heloderma suspectum") and "Naja naja". His speculation suggests that Doyle might have hidden a double-meaning in Holmes' words. What Holmes said, reported by Watson, was "It is a swamp adder, the deadliest snake in India"; but Klauber suggested what Holmes really said was "It is a "samp-aderm", the deadliest skink in India." "Samp-aderm" can be translated "snake-Gila-monster": "Samp" is Hindi for snake, and the suffix "aderm" is derived from "heloderm", the common or vernacular name of the Gila monster generally used by
The Last Word (Greene short story) though he is frustrated by the modern world's skepticism, he believes that that very skepticism may yet be what keeps Christianity alive. The Last Word (Greene short story) "The Last Word" is a short story by author Graham Greene, written in 1988 (see 1988 in literature). It first appeared in "The Independent" but can also be found in collections of his short fiction, notably the Penguin edition of "The Last Word and Other Stories", for which it is the lead story. The story, written toward the end of Greene's life, reflects his frustration at the declining influence of religion, particularly