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 Fifth Quarter (short story) The Fifth Quarter (short story) "The Fifth Quarter" is a short story by American author Stephen King, originally published in the April 1972 issue of "Cavalier" (under the pen name John Swithen) and later collected in King's 1993 collection "Nightmares & Dreamscapes". It was filmed as an episode of the TNT miniseries "Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King". In the notes for this story, King remarks "Bachman again or maybe George Stark", a reference to his pseudonym Richard Bachman whose "relationship" with him was the basis of the character George Stark for the novel "The Dark Half".