Sherlock Holmes is in a mood for sharing memories. Watson is lucky enough to learn something precious: Holmes very first case (or sort of).
When he was at College, young Sherlock had only one friend, Victor Trevor -met thanks to a collision with a dog... During summer, Holmes was invited to his friend's house, and met his father, a judge, a good and peaceful man.
But Mr Trevor was soon disturbed by Holmes's deductions about his past. And when a sailor came to visit him, an ancient knowledge, the man's distress became pathetic.
* source: Antiqua Print Gallery
As often with Doyle's short stories, half the story is the tale of what happened long ago. Here, young desperate men who didn't realise what a mutiny on a ship meant. They could have died, but survived, and then seized an opportunity to begin new lives... Until their past caught them up, after thirty years.
Trevor senior is a moving character, an illustration of a successful second chance. He is a seasoned and wise man, if not brave, and he is the one who says to a young student:
"I don't know how you manage it, Mr Holmes, but it seems to me that all detectives of facts and of fancy would be children in your hands. That's your line of life, sir, and you may take the word of a man who has seen the world".
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