Arthur Conan Doyle · 1892
Questions on the text, each answered in the book’s own words, with the minute you hear it.
Challenge a friend: 123BookWarThe text
Answer A quarter-past seven
“the clock on the mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I blinked up at him in some surprise”
Answer In the palm of her left glove
“I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm of your left glove.”
Answer Seven
“The left arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven places. The marks are perfectly fresh.”
Answer Leatherhead
“I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo.”
Answer An opal tiara
“Ah yes, I recall the case; it was concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, Watson.”
Answer Calcutta
“enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he established a large practice.”
Answer His native butler
“he beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital sentence.”
Answer The local blacksmith
“Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a stream”
Answer A cheetah and a baboon
“he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the villagers almost as much as their master.”
Answer Miss Honoria Westphail
“an aunt, my mother’s maiden sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow”
Answer A half-pay major of marines
“Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged.”
Answer About three in the morning
“during the last few nights I have always, about three in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle.”
Answer The charred stump of a match
“In her right hand was found the charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box.”
Answer Percy Armitage
“His name is Armitage—Percy Armitage—the second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading.”
Answer Five little livid spots
“Five little livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed upon the white wrist.”
Answer The poker
“He stepped swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with his huge brown hands.”
Answer £ 250
“Each daughter can claim an income of £ 250, in case of marriage.”
Answer An Eley’s No. 2
“An Eley’s No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen who can twist steel pokers into knots.”
Answer The claws of a crab
“with a high central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, thrown out on each side.”
Answer A small saucer of milk
“He took up a small saucer of milk which stood on the top of it.”
Answer Palmer and Pritchard
“Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. This man strikes even deeper”
Answer Eleven
“just at the stroke of eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us.”
Answer A small jet of steam escaping from a kettle
“a very gentle, soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping continually from a kettle.”
Answer Ten
“He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent”
Answer Into the iron safe
“carrying it at arm’s length, threw it into the iron safe, which he closed upon it.”
“The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” The Strand Magazine, February 1892; collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1892. Public domain.