It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light.
Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.
I confess, my dear fellow, that I am very much in your debt."
He had never said as much before, and I must admit that his words gave me keen pleasure, for I had often been piqued by his indifference to my admiration and to the attempts which I had made to give publicity to his methods.
I was proud, too, to think that I had so far mastered his system as to apply it in a way which earned his approval.
He now took the stick from my hands and examined it for a few minutes with his naked eyes.
Then with an expression of interest he laid down his cigarette, and carrying the cane to the window, he looked over it again with a convex lens.
"Interesting, though elementary," said he as he returned to his favourite corner of the settee. "There are certainly one or two indications upon the stick. It gives us the basis for several deductions."
"Has anything escaped me?" I asked with some self-importance. "I trust that there is nothing of consequence which I have overlooked?"
"I am afraid, my dear Watson, that most of your conclusions were erroneous.