I inscribe this book of adventure
to my son
Arthur John Rider Haggard
In the hope that in days to come
he, and many other boys whom I shall never know, may,
in the acts and thoughts of Allan Quatermain
and his companions, as herein recorded,
find something to help him and them to reach
to what, with Sir Henry Curtis, I hold to be the
highest rank whereto we can attain—
the state and dignity of English Gentlemen
1887