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the slow process of official inquiry came to the conclusion that the doctor met his 
fate while indiscreetly playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to 
learn of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back next day. 

"I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which shows, my 
dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from insufficient data. The 
presence of the gipsies, and the use of the word 'band,' which was used by the poor 
girl, no doubt, to explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of 
by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an entirely wrong scent. 
I can only claim the merit that I instantly reconsidered my position when, however, 
it became clear to me that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room 
could not come either from the window or the door. My attention was speedily 
drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this ventilator, and to the bell-rope 
which hung down to the bed. The discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed 
was clamped to the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was there 
as a bridge for something passing through the hole and coming to the bed. The idea 
of a snake instantly occurred to me, and when I coupled it with my knowledge that 
the doctor was furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I was 
probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of poison which could not 
possibly be discovered by any chemical test was just such a one as would occur 
to a clever and ruthless man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with 
which such a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be an 
advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could distinguish the 
two little dark punctures which would show where the poison fangs had done their 
work. Then I thought of the whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the 
morning light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by the use of 
the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. He would put it through 
this ventilator at the hour that he thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl 
down the rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the occupant, perhaps 
she might escape every night for a week, but sooner or later she must fall a victim. 

"I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his room. An in- 
spection of his chair showed me that he had been in the habit of standing on it, 
which of course would be necessary in order that he should reach the ventilator. 
The sight of the safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough 
to finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic clang heard 
by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather hastily closing the door of 
his safe upon its terrible occupant. Having once made up my mind, you know the 
steps which I took in order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss 
as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the light and attacked it." 

"With the result of driving it through the ventilator." 

"And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master at the other side. 
Some of the blows of my cane came home and roused its snakish temper, so that it 
flew upon the first person it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible 
for Dr. Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to weigh very 
heavily upon my conscience." 



Adventure IX 



The Adventure Of The 
Engineer's Thumb 



F all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. Sher- 
lock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, there were 
only two which I was the means of introducing to his notice — that of 
Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel Warburton's madness. Of 
these the latter may have afforded a finer field for an acute and original observer, 
but the other was so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that it 
may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it gave my friend 
fewer openings for those deductive methods of reasoning by which he achieved 
such remarkable results. The story has, I believe, been told more than once in the 
newspapers, but, like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when set 
forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the facts slowly evolve be- 
fore your own eyes, and the mystery clears gradually away as each new discovery 
furnishes a step which leads on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances 
made a deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly served to 
weaken the effect. 

It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the events oc- 
curred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned to civil practice and 
had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker Street rooms, although I continually 
visited him and occasionally even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so 
far as to come and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I happened 
to live at no very great distance from Paddington Station, I got a few patients from 
among the officials. One of these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering 
disease, was never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send 
me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. 

One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by the maid 
tapping at the door to announce that two men had come from Paddington and were 
waiting in the consulting-room. I dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that 
railway cases were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my