[Stoke Moran estate. A path leads across the fields to the tumbledown Manor House. To one side is the TARDIS, with two tents pitched beside it. In front of the tents is a small campfire, unlit. Around it sit Polly (who is indeed wearing a speckled headscarf), Ben, and the Second Doctor. The Doctor is enjoying himself fussing around with the fire, while Polly and Ben just look cold, wet and miserable.

Sally / Holmes (now wearing the traditional though non-canonical ulster and deerstalker) and Larry / Watson enter.]

Sally / Holmes:
Excuse me, is this the way to the manor house?

Polly [curtly] :
Yes.

Sally / Holmes [producing the sonic screwdriver] :
It looks like you're having trouble there. Do you want a light?

Doctor:
No thanks, I've got one of my own.

[He produces his own sonic screwdriver, and aims it at the fire, which promptly ignites.]

Ben:
Why the blazes couldn't you have done that half an hour ago?

Doctor:
Now, Ben, where would the fun be in that?

Ben:
We might at least have had something to eat by now!

Polly:
Leave us alone, you two.

Sally / Holmes:
Oh. Goodbye, then.

[They walk to the manor house itself. Nyssa / Helen greets them.]

Sally / Holmes:
Hello again. Did you know your stepfather came to see us just after you left?

Nyssa / Helen:
No! So, he's following me.

Sally / Holmes:
I'm afraid so. Now, suppose you show us round?

Nyssa / Helen:
What for?

Larry / Watson:
We're going to find out how these gypsies are getting in.

Sally / Holmes:
If the gypsies are getting in.

[They walk around the outside of the house, then go in.]

Izzy / Narrator:
Holmes refused to examine Helen's room.

Sally / Holmes:
Sorry, but I can't go detecting in a construction site. Health and Safety At Work Act, 1974.

Izzy / Narrator:
Mickey Smith, you've got a lot to answer for.

[They enter Julia's room.]

Sally / Holmes:
You bar the windows, and I'll go outside and see if I can break in.

[Helen / Nyssa does so. Sally / Holmes and Larry / Watson leave, and we hear various muffled bumps and thumps.]

Sally's voice:
Seems pretty impregnable. I don't think your gypsies could have got in after all.

Larry's voice:
Ah, but didn't the chief gypsy have one of those sonic screwdriver things?

Sally's voice:
Let's give that a go, then.

[The sound of the screwdriver is heard. The shutters rattle but don't open.]

Sally's voice:
They must be deadlock sealed. Either that, or I've got the setting wrong. Hang on a moment.

[Several more bursts of screwdriver activity. The shutters remain closed and don't even rattle. There is a flash of coloured light.]

Larry's voice:
Pretty, I'll give you that.

[Sally / Holmes and Larry / Watson come back in. Nyssa / Helen opens the shutters; the outer surfaces are now etched with psychedelic patterns.]

Sally / Holmes:
Let's take a look at the room.

[She glances over it.]

Sally / Holmes:
That bell-pull looks quite new. What happens if you pull it?

Nyssa / Helen:
Don't know. Never tried.

Sally / Holmes:
What happened to intellectual curiosity round these parts?

Nyssa / Helen:
I think the Myrka ate it.

[Sally / Holmes pulls the rope. It doesn't move.]

Sally / Holmes:
That's not much good. It's just a dummy. And why would the builder put that ventilator here on an internal wall, when it should be over there?

Nyssa / Helen:
If you'd seen the sort of cheap builders my stepfather insists we hire, you'd be amazed that they managed to put it on a wall at all.

Sally / Holmes [thinks about this] :
Reasonable.

Nyssa / Helen:
What do we do now?

Sally / Holmes:
Well, Watson and I are going down to the pub.

Larry / Watson:
That's the first sensible thing you've said all day.

Sally / Holmes:
We'll be back after your stepfather's gone to bed, and you'll have to be ready to let us in at the window.

[The Crown Inn, which looks suspiciously like a redressed This Time Round. Sally / Holmes and Larry / Watson are sitting at a table, with a number of glasses in front of them].

Sally / Holmes:
Excellent ale, this. Have you guessed what's going on yet, Watson?

Larry / Watson:
It seems to me, Holmes, that the gypsies couldn't get in through the window.

Sally / Holmes:
So?

Larry / Watson:
I think, right, they're using Devil's-Foot Root. One of them climbs up on the roof at night and drops it down the chimney. Then the fumes build up in the room and poison the occupant. The whistle's a signal that the gypsy's done his stuff, and the ventilator's so that Doctor Roylott can test the air and tell when it's safe to go in.

Sally / Holmes:
I thought you said it was the gypsies doing this?

Larry / Watson:
Yes, but Roylott's obviously the brains behind them. You saw that gypsy leader - he couldn't think his way out of a paper bag.

Izzy looked up briefly at an incoherent protest from the little Second Doctor, and returned to the book.

Sally / Holmes:
An ingenious hypothesis, my dear Watson. Now explain the bellrope.

Larry / Watson:
Cowboy builders. You heard what Miss Stoner said. Perhaps he got the gypsies to do that as well.

Sally / Holmes:
The scary thing is, your theory is actually quite plausible. Of course, it's completely wrong, me being the detective and you being the sidekick. Drink up, we've got to get back to the house.

[Julia's bedroom. The two detectives approach, not completely steadily, across the lawn. Nyssa / Helen helps them in through the window, and departs.]

Izzy / Narrator:
Helen went back to her own bedroom while Holmes and Watson lay in wait. They didn't dare make a sound for fear that Doctor Roylott would hear them and get suspicious.

[Sally / Holmes places a matchbox and candle by the bed. Then she blows out the lamp, and sits down beside Larry / Watson.]

Izzy / Narrator:
Then they waited silently in the dark for hours and hours.

[Darkness, in which all we can see are the dim outlines of Sally / Holmes and Larry / Watson, sitting side by side on the bed. In the distance a church clock strikes three.]

[A light is momentarily seen behind the ventilator; then it goes out.]

Izzy / Narrator:
Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. Holmes and Watson sat with straining ears.

Jovial voice:
Right, let's be having yer.

Sally / Holmes:
Quick, Watson, a light!

[Larry / Watson strikes a match, but drops it. It lands on the eiderdown, which bursts into flames.]

Sally / Holmes:
Not quite what I had in mind.

[Larry / Watson grabs the eiderdown, throws it to the floor and stamps on it. But too late: the flames have already spread to the rest of the bedding — and, crucially, the bellrope.]

Jovial voice:
Ouch! I'm not going down that.

Gastridge's voice:
Get back in there, you stupid creature!

Jovial voice:
Not for what you're paying me.

[A whip cracks.]

Jovial voice:
Oh, so you want to play it rough, eh?

[An awful pause, then:]

Gastridge's voice [giving it all he's got, and that's a considerable amount] :
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHH!!!

Izzy / Narrator:
They say that away down in the village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the sleepers from their beds.

Larry / Watson:
No kidding.

[He notices that the bellrope and bed are still on fire, and throws a jug of water over them. Darkness again.]

Sally / Holmes:
I think it's all over now. Let's go and check Dr. Roylott's room.

[Gastridge / Roylott's room. Gastridge / Roylott himself is sitting in a chair, apparently dead. On his shoulder is a speckled brown snake.

The snake addresses Sally / Holmes in the same Yorkshire accent we heard earlier.]

Snake:
How do, lass.

Sally / Holmes:
You can talk?

Snake:
Crikey, she's bright, this one.

Sally / Holmes:
Who are you?

Snake:
I'm usually referred to as the Mara. Pleasure to meet you. Forgive me not shaking hands, but I haven't got any. How d'you feel about a little nibble?

[The snake begins to glide towards Sally and Larry.]

Sally / Holmes:
Luckily, since I met the Weeping Angels, I always carry one of these.

[From her pocket she extracts a small mirror, and holds it in the snake's face.]

Snake:
Hmmm. I don't think brown's really my colour.

[It turns red.]

Sally / Holmes:
That was supposed to destroy you!

Snake:
Don't believe everything you hear about me.

[Our gallant detectives back away as the snake advances.]

Snake:
Dear oh dear. You aren't putting up much of a struggle, are you? That Tegan had a lot more fight in her. Not that it helped her in the end.

Sally / Holmes:
Watson, your gun!

Snake:
Now that's more like it. How's his aim, though? Nice lad, but he don't look the brightest bulb in the chandelier, if you get my meaning.

[Larry / Watson fumbles for his gun and drops it. Trying to reach for it while keeping his eyes on the snake, he stumbles and grabs Sally / Holmes for support. She, in turn, clutches at a tall bookcase, which falls onto the snake. There is a nasty splat, and then silence.]

Sally / Holmes:
Come on, let's get Miss Stoner to safety.

Izzy / Narrator:
So they took Helen to stay with her aunt in Harrow, and left all the clearing up to the regular police.

[Benton, scratching his head, looks at the scorched remains of the bed, and then writes very slowly in his notebook. We hear his thoughts.]

Benton [vo; slowly, as he writes] :
Spontaneous human combustion. [He licks his pencil.] That'll be the third this year.

[Benton is now seen standing over Gastridge / Roylott, writing.]

Benton (vo) :
The bookcase fell over, and the crash gave him such a shock he had a heart attack and died. This detecting lark is easy.

Izzy / Narrator:
And on the way back to London, Holmes explained the mystery to Watson.

Larry / Watson:
So how come, if the snake venom kills in seconds, Julia managed to open the door and give the vital clue before collapsing?

Sally / Holmes:
I hadn't thought of that. Perhaps the snake didn't get such a good shot at her.

Larry / Watson:
Or perhaps the venom works slowly, so Roylott was still alive when we got to him.

Sally / Holmes:
What an unpleasant thought. But didn't you check his pulse? You're supposed to be the doctor.

Larry / Watson:
I was a bit busy at the time, what with that snake creature. Let's just say you were right and leave it at that. Astounding, Holmes.

Sally / Holmes:
Elementary.

Izzy / Narrator:
And so they all lived happily ever after. Well, the ones who were still alive at the end, anyway.

[The Manor grounds. The Doctor is cooking sausages over his fire. Polly and Ben are trying to warm themselves by it, but they still look cold, wet and miserable.]

Polly:
And about time too!

[She and Ben dash into the TARDIS. The Doctor continues to cook.]