45702 'Because this stick, though originally a very handsome one, has been so knocked about that I can hardly imagine a town practitioner carrying it.
45703 The thick iron ferrule is worn down, so it is evident that he has done a great amount of walking with it.'
45704 'Perfectly sound,' said Holmes.
45705 'And then again, there is the "friends of the CCH".
45706 I should guess that to be the Something Hunt, the local hunt to whose members he has possibly given some surgical assistance, and which has made him a small presentation in return.'
45707 'Really, Watson, you excel yourself,' said Holmes, pushing back his chair and lighting a cigarette.
45708 'I am bound to say that in all the accounts which you have been so good as to give of my own small achievements you have habitually underrated your own abilities.
45709 It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light.
45710 Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.
45711 I confess, my dear fellow, that I am very much in your debt.'
45712 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.
45713 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.
45714 He now took the stick from my hands and examined it for a few minutes with his naked eyes.
45715 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.