Parchment is
durable--almost imperishable. Matters of little moment are rarely
consigned to parchment, since, for the mere ordinary purposes of
drawing or writing, it is not nearly so well adapted as paper. This
reflection suggested some meaning--some relevancy--in the
death's-head. I did not fail to observe, also, the _form_ of the
parchment. Although one of its corners had been, by some accident,
destroyed, it could be seen that the original form was oblong. It was
just such a slip, indeed, as might have been chosen for a
memorandum--for a record of something to be long remembered and
carefully preserved."
"But," I interposed, "you say that the skull was _not_ upon the
parchment when you made the drawing of the beetle. How, then, do you
trace any connection between the boat and the skull--since this
latter, according to your own admission, must have been designed (God
only knows how or by whom) at some period subsequent to your sketching
the _scarabaeus_?"
"Ah, hereupon turns the whole mystery; although the secret, at this
point, I had comparatively little difficulty in solving. My steps were
sure, and could afford but a single result. I reasoned, for example,
thus: When I drew the _scarabaeus_, there was no skull apparent upon
the parchment. When I had completed the drawing I gave it to you, and
observed you narrowly until you returned it, _You_, therefore, did not
design the skull, and no one else was present to do it.
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