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 Fringe (short story) The Fringe (short story) "The Fringe" is a science fiction short story by American writer Orson Scott Card, originally published in the October 1985 issue of "The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction". It was later reprinted in his short story collection "The Folk of the Fringe" and in "Future on Ice", a short story collection edited by Card. In a post-apocalyptic United States, Timothy Carpenter is a wheelchair-using teacher in a small farming community. When he discovers that the farm foreman, the bishop and some other men are stealing food from the other farmers, he reports this to the