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 this man who seemed prepared to pontificate his way out of any dilemma. But Sol could resort to authority as well . . .
“I have to tell you, Preston, that beyond the obvious self-substantiating character of your argument, the story has unmistakable problems. Let me confine myself to an area in which I have some expertise. Smith’s ‘revelation’ warns that if he re-dictates the missing material, the people who stole his first manuscript will produce it - with their alterations - as an unfavorable comparison to his second attempt. Is that right, so far?”
“Why yes!” Young sounded jubilant. “I must say, Sol, you phrase it almost more concisely than the Lord himself!”
Sol kept his composure, and continued . . .
“But this argument bears no comparison to the reality of the situation, Preston. I’ve worked with papers from that period for more than twenty-five years. Thousands of them. There’s no way anyone could have altered your Book of Lehi substantially without the changes being obvious. You can’t erase the ink they used without leaving a serious blemish in the paper. Nor could anyone insert text afterward. People wrote deliberately, and used every precious inch available. They left no room for words that would be perfectly evident as later additions. It doesn’t take an expert to see when something has been changed or added to an old manuscript.”
Young thought for a moment, and continued unflappable: “They could have re-written the whole thing on fresh paper, using Joseph’s translation as a basis for their altered text.”
“In which case,” Sol persisted, “leaving aside the pesky problem of handwriting, they would naturally have wanted to destroy the true original immediately afterward, in order to protect themselves from discovery and arrest, thus leaving nothing for me to locate for you in modern times.”
“But they didn’t,” Young answered, strangely unaffected. “No re-translation was done, so no altered version was put forth. Whoever stole the 116 pages in 1828 would have kept them, since the Lord revealed to the Prophet that the thieves had his original manuscript, with clear intention to use it against the Church.”
What church? Young was erecting new goalposts now, and this conversation was getting tiresome.
“But if a second dictation was never attempted,” Sol concluded, “then, once the Book of Mormon was published without the missing portion, what would have been a thief’s purpose in preserving the stolen manuscript? It could have served as evidence to convict the conspirators of theft.”
“Ah, but here we come full circle to the real point at hand,” Young exulted softly. His voice became charged with something strange, and he had to pause for air before he could finish . . .
“As you must know by now, Solomon, . . . Sol . . . I am in possession of confidential information that the 116 pages have been found. And now that we’ve spoken, I’m sure we have much more to share.”
______________________
Sorry! I couldn't resist.
https://www.virginlamb.com