Lost in translation

I've been trying to read the the Japanese translation of "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder". So far I'm about one page down, first learning kanji piecemeal then plunging into the text.

One particular sentence in the translation just wouldn't make sense to me, it's where Holmes is lamenting the death of Moriarti:

けちな窃盗事件、理不尽な強盗事件、無益な傷害事件――手がかりを握るその男にとって、すべてをひとつの穴に結びつけることができた。

その男 - is he talking about Moriarti? But Moriarti wasn't holding the clues in his hand. Finally I turned to the original,

Petty thefts, wanton assaults, purposeless outrage ― to the man who held the clue all could be worked into one connected whole.

Oh, Holmes is talking about himself.

Bummer. I found a hole in the translation. And I had chosen a Holmes story specifically, because the subject matter was so familiar to me. Well, no matter, I'll press on. Original stories in Japanese are just way too daunting for now.