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 (Knight short story) was a woman and had the last word. I gestured toward the purple darkness outside. "Lost Earth? What do you call this?" She poised her hand on the switch. "Hell," she said. And I have remembered her voice, through ten thousand lonely years. About this story, Knight wrote "The Last Word" is one of three stories I have written using orthodox Christian materials - God, the devil, etc. - which proves that my childhood training had some use after all. The Last Word (Knight short story) "The Last Word" is a science fiction short story by American writer Damon Knight.