I come, in conclusion, to my reason for now breaking the silence of thirteen years and giving Mirlees' manuscript to the world. When the document reached me I read it several times from beginning to end, with astonishment that deepened rather than dwindled, and then put it away in a place of safety as the writer had requested. This was not because I believed--to quote Mirlees' words--there was "a doom in it"; as I have made clear in the foregoing paragraph, I found myself unable to accept that theory. But there were other considerations. It seemed to me that the statements made by Mirlees were so daring, so sensational, so flatly contradictory of what has passed for history during two millenniums, that they would be greeted with incredulity--perhaps even resentment--on all sides, and that the ultimate result would be to damage Mirlees' well-earned repute as an orientalist and scholar. There were, as I knew, rival "authorities" who would possibly even welcome such an opportunity to throw discredit on the whole of his life-work. Now, however, the aspect of affairs is rapidly changing. With the great strides recently made in the art of air-travel it seems likely that before long the last secrets of this vast continent of Asia will be wrenched from her. Where previously a mere handful of indomitable adventurers have been able to cross the awful heights of Northern Tibet on foot, taking months of the most tremendous exertion and peril in the crossing, soon the perfected swift planes of modern explorers will be traversing that unique region of the globe in a few days. Then the race which Mirlees describes as lurking hidden beyond the great mountain barrier will be discovered willy-nilly to the world at large; and it is my most earnest wish that the fame of having first placed upon record a description of this people and their supposed origin and history should be awarded to the man who struggled so gallantly and suffered so much in winning through to their secret land. I knew Mirlees as a trusty comrade, a brilliant scholar, and a most disinterested seeker after truth. He deserved greatly of his fellow man for his services in exploring and making better known these little-known portions of the earth, and it is no more than common justice that the credit for his last and greatest discovery should go to him and no other.