The Retired Conan's Man

(sorry for the tortured title...!)

'The Retired Colourman' shows us a Holmes in philosophical mood. As he has just seen the decrepit form of Josiah Amberley leave 221b it's easy to assume he is thinking on his case. But is it not possible that Holmes is, prompted by the shambling form of Amberley, himself considering retirement, and the possible Pros and Cons of such a decision?

In CREE (as we have seen) there is case to be made that Holmes is on the brink of considering retirement. There are a good many touches in RETI that can be discerned as backing this up. 

The character of Barker seems important in this connection. Is he really a "hated rival" as Holmes says? The phrase seems lightly ironic. Their behaviour and conversation, indeed the way in which they can be said to have 'teamed up' on this case, seems much more friendly than that - although of course there is such a thing as friendly rivalry. 

Is Barker more than merely a rival detective? Is he, or has he at one time been, an avowed student of Holmes, or his methods? (and therefore presumably a reader of Watson's stories?) Is he possibly even more than that - could Barker be a former Baker Street Irregular, an industrious and clever street urchin who makes his way up in the world to follow in his 'master's' footsteps?

*

Conan  Doyle himself seems almost to be positing Barker not so much as a rival of Holmes but his potential replacement.

'Baker Street: The Next Generation'? Consider ACD's placing of the story in the final collection 'The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes' - he puts it last, even though that honour (if the stories had been placed in order of original publication) should really have gone to 'Shoscombe Old Place'. He has some reason for wishing this to be 'the last word', for this story to leave a particular lasting impression.

Consider also ACD's Preface to 'The Casebook', which seems him 'breaking cover' for the first time and acknowledging his own authorship rather than Dr Watson's (who of course 'wrote' the Preface to the collection of  'His Last Bow'). It is in this rather wonderful preface that he posits Holmes and Watson ascending to a fictional "Valhalla", where they "may for a time find a place, while some more astute sleuth with some even less astute comrade may fill the stage which they have vacated."

Might not Barker have been this very sleuth? The text of RETI establishes most of the main points - his methods, a striking 'reader-friendly' appearance (complete with idiosyncratic sunglasses), his vexatious relationship with a conventional Police Inspector who considers him a meddler... only a sidekick is missing, but who is to say that some Watson-like character is not waiting for him somewhere along the Surrey shore, ready to admiringly exclaim, "But that's incredible, Barker!"

Which leaves the thought - have fans and writers been 'wrong' to cling to Holmes and continue writing up 'new' cases for him? Should they perhaps have taken Doyle's hint, left Holmes and Watson alone in their Valhalla and begun instead fleshing out Barker and his world?

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