By one of those curious but happy chances which sometimes occur in life, Sir W---- was still more astonished to discover that the name of the author was not only familiar to him, but that he actually had once owned a slight acquaintance with him. More than this, Sir W----, who is one of my dearest and oldest friends, knew that I had been intimate with the writer of this parchment, who (as he thought) had been dead for some years. Sir W---- therefore, though greatly puzzled by the whole inscrutable occurrence, very wisely made no further mention of his discovery, but on his return to England brought the manuscript direct to me at my room in the British Museum. After a long discussion between us, Sir W---- voluntarily made over all arrangements in the matter of publishing or suppressing the contents of the scroll to myself, and indeed, so to speak, washed his hands of all further responsibility in the matter, which had apparently somewhat affected his nerves or his spirits. I have only to add, with regard to the original owner of the MS., that Sir W----, when at Lima, showed the metal case to various persons employed at the museum there, and that all these experts unanimously declared that this object itself could never have been produced by any of the aboriginal inhabitants of Peru; whilst the metal, a species of platinum, was, so far as they were aware, unknown on our planet. And this verdict of the officials at Lima is, I believe, perfectly correct. As to the authenticity of the MS., I may at once state that the account contained therein coincides in every particular with the evidence that was produced at the time of its alleged author's mysterious disappearance. I have had for many years an intimate acquaintance, amounting to a cordial friendship, with the writer, A---- B----. I do not necessarily concur with all that he states later on as to his exceptional mental gifts; nor do I consider his close self-analysis as altogether a correct one. Still, I think his own views on his attainments, his natural genius, his complete failure, and his outlook on life are sincere. Though highly nervous and sensitive by nature, and a prey to constant fits of depression, neither I nor any of his friends, would ever have suspected him of a tendency to suicide. We were indeed, all of us, fully as surprised as we were grieved to learn through the newspapers of November ----, 19--, the details of what we most assuredly at that date considered to have been his own deliberate act of self-destruction. For there can be no question but that A---- B---- had made beforehand plans for his contemplated disappearance; the letter of instruction he wrote to his brother, the careful packing of his valuables at his lodgings, and the sudden payment on the morning that he was last seen of certain outstanding bills clearly point to this surmise. We are however now confronted since the strange discovery of the manuscript with two theories as to his end; did A---- B----