To
the memory of
that most illustrious story-teller,

ALEXANDRE DUMAS PÈRE

Whose books gave me enormous pleasure when I was a boy.

Whose heroes, while subject to normal human frailties, set a splendid example to the young of courage, loyalty and endurance—for which reason I have modelled the heroes of my own books on them.

And whose very slender short story, ‘The Corsican Brothers’, while having no resemblance whatever in period, subject, background or plot to The Satanist, gave me the idea of using identical twins as two of my principal characters in it.