In submitting Captain Carter's strange manuscript to you in book form, I believe that a few words relative to this remarkable1 personality will be of interest.
My first recollection of Captain Carter is of the few months he spent at my father's home in Virginia, just prior to the opening of the civil war. I was then a child of but five years, yet I well remember the tall, dark, smooth-faced, athletic2 man whom I called Uncle Jack3.
He seemed always to be laughing; and he entered into the sports of the children with the same hearty4 good fellowship he displayed toward those pastimes in which the men and women of his own age indulged; or he would sit for an hour at a time entertaining my old grandmother with stories of his strange, wild life in all parts of the world. We all loved him, and our slaves fairly worshipped the ground he trod.
He was a splendid specimen6 of manhood, standing7 a good two inches over six feet, broad of shoulder and narrow of hip5, with the carriage of the trained fighting man. His features were regular and clear cut, his hair black and closely cropped, while his eyes were of a steel gray, reflecting a strong and loyal character, filled with fire and initiative. His manners were perfect, and his courtliness was that of a typical southern gentleman of the highest type.
His horsemanship, especially after hounds, was a marvel8 and delight even in that country of magnificent horsemen. I have often heard my father caution him against his wild recklessness, but he would only laugh, and say that the tumble that killed him would be from the back of a horse yet unfoaled.
When the war broke out he left us, nor did I see him again for some fifteen or sixteen years. When he returned it was without warning, and I was much surprised to note that he had not aged9 apparently10 a moment, nor had he changed in any other outward way. He was, when others were with him, the same genial11, happy fellow we had known of old, but when he thought himself alone I have seen him sit for hours gazing off into space, his face set in a look of wistful longing12 and hopeless misery13; and at night he would sit thus looking up into the heavens, at what I did not know until I read his manuscript years afterward14.
He told us that he had been prospecting15 and mining in Arizona part of the time since the war; and that he had been very successful was evidenced by the unlimited16 amount of money with which he was supplied. As to the details of his life during these years he was very reticent17, in fact he would not talk of them at all.
He remained with us for about a year and then went to New York, where he purchased a little place on the Hudson, where I visited him once a year on the occasions of my trips to the New York market—my father and I owning and operating a string of general stores throughout Virginia at that time. Captain Carter had a small but beautiful cottage, situated18 on a bluff19 overlooking the river, and during one of my last visits, in the winter of 1885, I observed he was much occupied in writing, I presume now, upon this manuscript.
He told me at this time that if anything should happen to him he wished me to take charge of his estate, and he gave me a key to a compartment20 in the safe which stood in his study, telling me I would find his will there and some personal instructions which he had me pledge myself to carry out with absolute fidelity21.
After I had retired22 for the night I have seen him from my window standing in the moonlight on the brink23 of the bluff overlooking the Hudson with his arms stretched out to the heavens as though in appeal. I thought at the time that he was praying, although I never understood that he was in the strict sense of the term a religious man.
Several months after I had returned home from my last visit, the first of March, 1886, I think, I received a telegram from him asking me to come to him at once. I had always been his favorite among the younger generation of Carters and so I hastened to comply with his demand.
I arrived at the little station, about a mile from his grounds, on the morning of March 4, 1886, and when I asked the livery man to drive me out to Captain Carter's he replied that if I was a friend of the Captain's he had some very bad news for me; the Captain had been found dead shortly after daylight that very morning by the watchman attached to an adjoining property.
For some reason this news did not surprise me, but I hurried out to his place as quickly as possible, so that I could take charge of the body and of his affairs.
I found the watchman who had discovered him, together with the local police chief and several townspeople, assembled in his little study. The watchman related the few details connected with the finding of the body, which he said had been still warm when he came upon it. It lay, he said, stretched full length in the snow with the arms outstretched above the head toward the edge of the bluff, and when he showed me the spot it flashed upon me that it was the identical one where I had seen him on those other nights, with his arms raised in supplication24 to the skies.
There were no marks of violence on the body, and with the aid of a local physician the coroner's jury quickly reached a decision of death from heart failure. Left alone in the study, I opened the safe and withdrew the contents of the drawer in which he had told me I would find my instructions. They were in part peculiar25 indeed, but I have followed them to each last detail as faithfully as I was able.
He directed that I remove his body to Virginia without embalming26, and that he be laid in an open coffin27 within a tomb which he previously28 had had constructed and which, as I later learned, was well ventilated. The instructions impressed upon me that I must personally see that this was carried out just as he directed, even in secrecy29 if necessary.
His property was left in such a way that I was to receive the entire income for twenty-five years, when the principal was to become mine. His further instructions related to this manuscript which I was to retain sealed and unread, just as I found it, for eleven years; nor was I to divulge30 its contents until twenty-one years after his death.
A strange feature about the tomb, where his body still lies, is that the massive door is equipped with a single, huge gold-plated spring lock which can be opened only from the inside.
Yours very sincerely,
Edgar Rice Burroughs.
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1 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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2 athletic | |
adj.擅长运动的,强健的;活跃的,体格健壮的 | |
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3 jack | |
n.插座,千斤顶,男人;v.抬起,提醒,扛举;n.(Jake)杰克 | |
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4 hearty | |
adj.热情友好的;衷心的;尽情的,纵情的 | |
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5 hip | |
n.臀部,髋;屋脊 | |
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6 specimen | |
n.样本,标本 | |
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7 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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8 marvel | |
vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异;n.令人惊异的事 | |
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9 aged | |
adj.年老的,陈年的 | |
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10 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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11 genial | |
adj.亲切的,和蔼的,愉快的,脾气好的 | |
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12 longing | |
n.(for)渴望 | |
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13 misery | |
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
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14 afterward | |
adv.后来;以后 | |
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15 prospecting | |
n.探矿 | |
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16 unlimited | |
adj.无限的,不受控制的,无条件的 | |
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17 reticent | |
adj.沉默寡言的;言不如意的 | |
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18 situated | |
adj.坐落在...的,处于某种境地的 | |
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19 bluff | |
v.虚张声势,用假象骗人;n.虚张声势,欺骗 | |
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20 compartment | |
n.卧车包房,隔间;分隔的空间 | |
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21 fidelity | |
n.忠诚,忠实;精确 | |
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22 retired | |
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的 | |
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23 brink | |
n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘,边沿 | |
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24 supplication | |
n.恳求,祈愿,哀求 | |
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25 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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26 embalming | |
v.保存(尸体)不腐( embalm的现在分词 );使不被遗忘;使充满香气 | |
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27 coffin | |
n.棺材,灵柩 | |
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28 previously | |
adv.以前,先前(地) | |
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29 secrecy | |
n.秘密,保密,隐蔽 | |
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30 divulge | |
v.泄漏(秘密等);宣布,公布 | |
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