sure beside, you may gain
with the Grace of Heaven and by following my plain words.
You will go from this place unto the Island of Ceylon, and there
proceed to Samanala or Adam's Peak, the same being the most
notable mountain of the Island. From the Resting House at the
foot of the Peak you will then ascend, following the track of
the Pilgrims, until you have passed the First Set of Chains.
Between these and the Second there lies a stretch of Forest, in
which, still following the track, you will come to a Tree, the
trunk of which branches into seven parts and again unites.
This Tree is noticeable and cannot be missed. From its base you
must proceed at a right angle to the left-hand edge of the track
for thirty-two paces, and you will come to a Stone shaped like a
Man's Head, of great size, but easily moved. Beneath this Stone
lies the Secret of the Great Ruby; and yet not all, for the rest
is graven on the Key, of which mention shall already have been
made to you.

"These precautions I have taken that none may surprise this
Secret but its right possessor; and also that none may without
due reflection undertake this task, inasmuch as it is
prophesied that 'Even as the Heart of the Ruby is Blood and its
Eyes a Flaming Fire, so shall it be for them that would possess
it: Fire shall be their portion and Blood their inheritance for
ever.'

"This prophecy I had from an aged priest, whose bones lie
beneath the Stone, and upon whose Sacred clasp is the Secret
written. This and all else may God pardon. Amen.

"A. T."

"He visiteth the iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children unto
the third and fourth generation."

[To this extraordinary document was appended a note in another
handwriting.]

"There is little doubt that the Ruby now in the possession of
Mr. Amos Trenoweth is the veritable Great Ruby of which the
traveller Marco Polo speaks. But, however this may be, I know
from the testimony of my own eyes that the stone is of
inestimable worth, being of the rarest colour, and in size
greatly beyond any Ruby that ever I saw. The stone is spoken
of, in addition to such writers as Mr. Trenoweth quotes, by
Friar Jordanus (in the fourteenth century), who mentions it as
'so large that it cannot be grasped in the closed hand'; and
I