 If the unknown proposition p has implications for the events in the story, another problem arises. Take the example mentioned by Lewis. Suppose, as many think, that the swamp adder in “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” (1892) was intended by Doyle to be a Russell’s viper (Lewis 1978 [1983: 271]; but cf. Byrne 1993: 25, note 5). In the story, Holmes concludes that the murder victim in the story was killed by the snake’s climbing down a fake bell-rope. The Russell’s viper is a constrictor, however, so it cannot physically climb ropes, and hence  Analysis 1  suggests that it is true in “The Speckled Band” that Holmes bungled (Lewis 1978 [1983: 271]). But this would clearly be the wrong conclusion to draw: what is true in the story is that Holmes was right. The fact that Conan Doyle was ignorant of a little known biological fact should not affect what is true in the Holmes stories.