The Man with the Black Feather Historical Preface: The Sandalwood Box

In which a sombre visitor delivers a mysterious sandalwood box to the narrator, professing it to be the bequest of the late Theophrastus Longuet, and then vanishes as enigmatically as he appeared. The narrator, initially wearied by the contents, soon finds himself drawn into a tale of such extraordinary nature that scepticism gives way to curious belief.