The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-06-22

Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, l at his heels, with the cooked pistol in my hand.
 It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. Beside this table. on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimes by Roylott clad in a long gray dress ing-gown, his bare ankles protruding beneath and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we had noticed dur ing the day. His chin was cooked upward and his eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with brownish speckIes, which seemed to be bound tightly round his head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion.
 .eThe band. the speckled band!'' whispered Holmes.
 I took a step forward. In an in stant his strange headgear began to among his hair the squat diamond shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent.
 "It is a swamp adder" cried Holmes; '-the deadHest snake 2- E1l- dia. He mas died within ten s41cnds of being bitten. Violence does, in truth, recoi1 upon the violent, and the schooner falls into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this creature back into it's den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to some place of shelter, and let the county police know what has hap pened.''
 
 and throwing the moose around the l reptiles neck, he drew it from it's l horrid perch. and carrying it at | arms length, threw it into the iron safe, which he closed upon il. Such are the true facts of the death | of Dr. GrimeSby RoylOtt, of Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I | has already run to too great a length, | by telling how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we convey | ed her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow. of how the slow process of official in quiry came to the conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indlscreet- ly playing with 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 en- tirely erroneous conclusion which shows, my dear Watson, how danger ous it always is to reason from in- sufficient data. The presence of the gypsieS, and the use of the word band which was used by the poor girl, no doubt to explain the appear ance which she had caught hurried glimpse of by the light of her match,
 were sufficient to put me upon an en- tirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly reconsider ed my position when, however, it be- came clear to me that whatever dan ger threatened an occupant of the room could not come either from the wind ow 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 dummy, and that the bed was clamped to the floor, instantly gave rise 70 the sus- picion that the rope was there as bIfd ge for mething passing through the hole, and coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, ard when I coupled it with my nished with a supply of creatures from India. I felt that l was proba- bly 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 one as would occur to a clever and ruthless man who had had an Eastern train ing. The rapidity with which such poison wOuIC take eHeCI "Ou4u etI9o from his point of view. be an ad- vantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could distfn- guish the two little dark puncEures which would show where the poison fangs had done their work
 Then I thought of the whistle Of course he must recall the snake be- fore the morning light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, prob ably by the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summon ed. He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he thought best, with the certainty that 1t 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
 -1 had come to these conclusions