This is the true story of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should carry on with a story which has already become too long. We told the sad news to the terrified girl, and we took her by the morning train to her good aunt in Harrow. Later there was an official inquiry which came to the conclusion that the doctor had died while unwisely playing with a dangerous pet. The little bit which I did not know about the case was told to me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back the next day.

"I had," he said, "started with completely the wrong idea. This shows, my dear Watson, that it is dangerous to try to think logically without enough information. The gypsies, and the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt to explain the appearance of the thing which she saw quickly by the light of her match, were sufficient to give me the wrong idea. I can only say that I instantly changed my mind when, however, it became clear to me that whatever danger threatened somebody in the room could not come in through the window or the door."

"So then I looked carefully, as I have already told you, at this ventilator, and at the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. I found that this was a dummy, and that the bed was fixed to the floor. This made me suspect that the rope was there as a bridge for something coming through the hole and down to the bed. At once I thought of a snake, and when I discovered that the doctor had a supply of animals from India, I felt that I was probably correct."