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) of the story "America". In that story, he tells about how the governor of Deseret, Sam Monson, met and had a baby with an American Indian woman when he was a teenager. As with many of Card's other literature, a Christian/Mormon influence is present in this 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