The Adventure of the Speckled Band

The Adventure of the Speckled Band is a Sherlock Holmes short story by Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1892 and collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Helen Stoner's sister died in a room locked from the inside, with no mark on her, saying only that she had heard a whistle and seen a band of speckled light. Helen is about to be married and has been moved into that room because of building work, and she is now hearing the whistle as well. Dr Grimesby Roylott is a large, violent man who has spent the family's money and who brought back interests from India, including the animals he keeps on the grounds. Holmes takes the case and goes down to the house, and the solution depends on the fittings of the room rather than on anybody breaking into it.

Conan Doyle thought it one of his best stories, and he adapted it for the stage himself. It is the tenth of the short stories and one of the most frequently reprinted.