"Again I see him, leaning back in one of the luxurious chairs with which his room was furnished. I see his indolent, athletic figure; his pale, sharp, clean-shaven features; his curly black hair; his strong, unscrupulous mouth. And again I feel the clear beam of his wonderful eye, cold and luminous as a star, shining into my brain—sifting the very secrets of my heart."

They eye cold and luminous as a star and shining into Bunny's brain, is already suggestive, but black curly hair? I'm only beginning to read E. W. Hornung's "The Amateur Cracksman", but it seems to be set as about the same time as Doyle's Sherlock Holmes texts, when men would generally have hair smoothed by pomade, no? So curly hair is memorable. Do you think that Raffles has influenced our Sherlock's look?