116 (eBook)

Rick Grunder (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2020 | 1. Auflage
554 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-0-9814708-6-3 (ISBN)

A Biblio Mystery with a dog . . . and a twist!Sol and Anna Slyde sit down to dinner at their forest home in rural New York and hear a message on the answering machine that will change and threaten their lives. A bizarre manuscript has been missing since 1828, and the mysterious caller from the West is sending Sol a huge retainer to find it. "e;I can't explain how significant this would be,"e; warns their jealous friend Margie -known to her customers as "e;Joh"e; . . . "e;Imagine if the Ark of the Covenant could be found, and in it, an older version of the Bible than anyone has seen before. Suppose George Washington's love letters turned up somewhere, and they weren't written to Martha. Hell, let's have a flying saucer land in Washington and actually stay around for photos and an interview. The hundred and sixteen pages are the ultimate quest of any Mormon historian, and we have to presume they were destroyed long ago. But if you can turn them up - and convince us they're real - your $10,000 won't be enough to buy a single page from the pile."e;Plunge into an unfamiliar culture at a lake town in western Idaho, then on to Utah and finally East where Joh's expertise uncovers shades of New York Sol never imagined. Their billionaire client opens doors they can't afford to close, but there is always a price. "e;We often hear,"e; responds bookseller Mabel, "e;that one should avoid the very appearance of evil."e; Her tone is so dry that Sol can't tell if Mabel likes evil or not. Perfect for mystery buffs who savor an atmosphere of murder more than the blood - and as much fun for Mormons to read as their friends -or a few of their foes!

THE TELEPHONE RANG at a quarter past ten. Anna had started to watch a movie, but she’d soon dozed off in her overstuffed rocker with Marcus The Dog curled at her feet. She awoke easily, accustomed to late-night calls from insomniac collectors or fellow dealers with fresh discoveries that couldn’t wait until morning. She reached for the receiver and cleared her throat.

“Hello?”

She winced at the shrill insult of a fax tone, and grumbled her way dutifully back to the office room to push the “start” button. They received so few faxes that it made no sense to pay for separate lines. By the time Anna got to the machine, she could hear Sol coming downstairs. His real work was up in the proverbial “back room” such as every dealer uses to sort material, or to impress customers with the idea that there is always another treasure in the offing, just waiting to be shown to the right person for the right price. Sol had probably been listening for the phone. He stepped to the fax machine as the first page rolled out.

The copy was crooked, and there was no cover sheet. Not very professional. The 801 area code confirmed that this was the message from Utah. Under more normal circumstances, Mr. Young probably relied on secretaries for such tasks. The text had been photocopied from a book - evidently the “Doctrine and Covenants,” according to a header at the top of the copied page. It looked something like the Bible, with references to Elijah and the priesthood. Sol stared blankly, hardly comprehending. Was he dealing with a high-class kook here? A new chapter began in the upper portion of a page 5, and as Sol read on, he got his first real exposure to the peculiar nature of the Latter-day Saints …

SECTION 3

Revelation given to Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Harmony, Pennsylvania, July 1828, relating to the loss of 116 pages of manuscript translated from the first part of the Book of Mormon, which was called the “Book of Lehi.” The Prophet had reluctantly allowed these pages to pass from his custody to that of Martin Harris, who had served for a brief period as scribe in the translation of the Book of Mormon. The revelation was given through the Urim and Thummim …

However arcane the presentation might be, this mention of a lost manuscript was something Sol could understand. He appreciated the pagination information, and he easily imagined what such a piece might look like. Sturdy, off-white paper, about eight by twelve and a half inches (give or take a little): fifty-eight leaves written front and back, probably in black ink turning brown. The first two or three leaves would likely be worn and soiled; the same for a leaf or two at the end. They were probably assembled in gatherings like thin, hand-sewn notebooks, or else left loose in wide letter sheets folded in half to form two leaves each.

The pages were probably hand-numbered. Over the years, some of the leaves might have been lost from the group. Sol had handled so much paper from the 1820s that he could see the manuscript in his mind’s eye. He wondered about the spelling and the handwriting: Would it be neat and readable, or would he encounter a shambles of bad form in a messy hand?

Were lots of Mormon manuscripts lost during the early days? Sol certainly lived in the right region to find them. Yet in a quarter-century of business, few original Mormon writings had come his way. What little he did find struck him as strange and obscure. As he read the rest of the fax, he had to blink at the transparency of Joseph Smith’s refusal to attempt a re-dictation of the stolen material …

9 Therefore, you have delivered them up, yea, that which was sacred, unto wickedness.

10 And, behold, Satan hath put it into their hearts to alter the words which you have caused to be written, or which you have translated, which have gone out of your hands.

11 And behold, I say unto you, that because they have altered the words, they read contrary from that which you translated and caused to be written;

12 And, on this wise, the devil has sought to lay a cunning plan, that he may destroy this work;

13 For he hath put into their hearts to do this, that by lying they may say they have caught you in the words which you have pretended to translate.

14 Verily, I say unto you, that I will not suffer that Satan shall accomplish his evil design in this thing.

15 For behold, he has put it into their hearts to get thee to tempt the Lord thy God, in asking to translate it over again.

16 And then, behold, they say and think in their hearts—We will see if God has given him power to translate; if so, he will also give him power again;

17 And if God giveth him power again, or if he translates again, or, in other words, if he bringeth forth the same words, behold, we have the same with us, and we have altered them;

18 Therefore they will not agree, and we will say he has lied in his words, and that he has no gift, and that he has no power;

These verses appeared in the final two pages of the fax, photocopied from something called “SECTION 10. Revelation given to Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Harmony, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 1828.” Sol realized suddenly that this awkwardly composed text was supposed to be a spiritual message direct from Jesus to Joseph Smith. But it rationalized, surely. The revelation explained that certain unknown thieves had taken the manuscript. It even told what they planned to do with it. So why couldn’t Jesus just tell Smith where the pages were? Sol began to fashion a reasonable excuse to offer Preston Young, some graceful way to get out of this project and be done with such nonsense.

The phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Solomon? This is Preston. Did you get my fax?”

“Bright and clear. I just finished reading it. I take it that the manuscript which is discussed there is the thing you’re looking for?”

“Its … loss has been regretted for a very long time.” Young spoke tentatively. “The young Prophet learned a hard lesson when he let those pages go, especially when the Lord forbade him to fall into the trap of translating the stolen scripture a second time.”

Sol had met his share of odd-balls. When he first started buying and selling rare books, he tolerated every customer who came his way. But after countless boring conversations over the years, and many lost efforts, he learned to offend certain people up front, and be rid of them quickly. Here was such a situation now. He would speak his mind politely, but without equivocating. “Even allowing for the eccentricities of religion,” Sol began, “I have to confess, Preston, that portions of what you have sent me are troublesome, to say the least.”

“I know what you mean,” Young replied. “Who actually stole the manuscript, for instance, and who had custody of it at the time when the Lord …”

Young wasn’t getting the point.

“Obviously,” Sol cut in, “you realize that your belief system is your own, and it forms no part of mine. I’m forced to ask logical questions, like whether Joseph Smith was even capable of dictating 116 pages a second time, to match his original missing version. The excuse he gives in his ‘revelation’ for not re-translating the words makes no sense at all, at least not to me, and this forces questions about other aspects of the story as well.”

That should dispose of Young quickly, but collectors can be obstinate, and they are often obsessed. Young’s unruffled response came as a simple question:

“Even if you don’t accept Joseph Smith’s story, Solomon, why would that matter in our simple business transaction?”

Cool. Very cool and determined.

“Please, just call me ‘Sol.’ Clearly, Preston, you do believe in this, but I’d hate to see you taken advantage of by some unscrupulous person. Joseph Smith claimed that those stolen pages contained part of the ancient Book of Mormon. Yet the Lord wouldn’t let him re-dictate that part, because thieves were still holding the manuscript?”

“Yes, exactly,” agreed Young, “The Book of Lehi.”

Sol had been reading the name wrong, apparently. Young pronounced it “LEE-high” like the Lehigh River in Pennsylvania.

“In fact,” persisted Young enthusiastically, “the Lord knew in ancient times that this theft would take place. It was foreseen indirectly by a prophet who lived in the fourth century A.D.”

“Where … was this premonition recorded?” In the back of his head, Sol could hear music rising from “The Twilight Zone.”

“In the Book of Mormon!”

Logical questions weren’t going to work with...

Erscheint lt. Verlag	20.8.2020
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Krimi / Thriller / Horror
ISBN-10	0-9814708-6-6 / 0981470866
ISBN-13	978-0-9814708-6-3 / 9780981470863

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