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
What Goes Up (short story) What Goes Up (short story) "What Goes Up" is a science fiction short story by English writer Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1956, and later anthologized in" Tales from the White Hart". Like the rest of the collection, it is a frame story set in the fictional pub "White Hart", where Harry Purvis narrates the secondary tale. The title is a reference to the common phrase "What goes up must come down". The story narrated by Purvis is provoked by the entry of a U.F.O. enthusiast into the "White Hart." In order to quell his stories, Purvis spins a