{"product_id":"2940013681460","title":"The Phantom Coach and other stories","description":"The circumstances I am about to relate to you have truth to recommend\u003cbr\u003ethem. They happened to myself, and my recollection of them is as vivid\u003cbr\u003eas if they had taken place only yesterday. Twenty years, however, have\u003cbr\u003egone by since that night. During those twenty years I have told the\u003cbr\u003estory to but one other person. I tell it now with a reluctance which I\u003cbr\u003efind it difficult to overcome. All I entreat, meanwhile, is that you\u003cbr\u003ewill abstain from forcing your own conclusions upon me. I want nothing\u003cbr\u003eexplained away. I desire no arguments. My mind on this subject is\u003cbr\u003equite made up, and, having the testimony of my own senses to rely\u003cbr\u003eupon, I prefer to abide by it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWell! It was just twenty years ago, and within a day or two of the end\u003cbr\u003eof the grouse season. I had been out all day with my gun, and had had\u003cbr\u003eno sport to speak of. The wind was due east; the month, December; the\u003cbr\u003eplace, a bleak wide moor in the far north of England. And I had lost\u003cbr\u003emy way. It was not a pleasant place in which to lose one's way, with\u003cbr\u003ethe first feathery flakes of a coming snowstorm just fluttering down\u003cbr\u003eupon the heather, and the leaden evening closing in all around. I\u003cbr\u003eshaded my eyes with my hand, and staled anxiously into the gathering\u003cbr\u003edarkness, where the purple moorland melted into a range of low hills,\u003cbr\u003esome ten or twelve miles distant. Not the faintest smoke-wreath, not\u003cbr\u003ethe tiniest cultivated patch, or fence, or sheep-track, met my eyes in\u003cbr\u003eany direction. There was nothing for it but to walk on, and take my\u003cbr\u003echance of finding what shelter I could, by the way. So I shouldered my\u003cbr\u003egun again, and pushed wearily forward; for I had been on foot since an\u003cbr\u003ehour after daybreak, and had eaten nothing since breakfast.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMeanwhile, the snow began to come down with ominous steadiness, and\u003cbr\u003ethe wind fell. After this, the cold became more intense, and the night\u003cbr\u003ecame rapidly up. As for me, my prospects darkened with the darkening\u003cbr\u003esky, and my heart grew heavy as I thought how my young wife was\u003cbr\u003ealready watching for me through the window of our little inn parlour,\u003cbr\u003eand thought of all the suffering in store for her throughout this\u003cbr\u003eweary night. We had been married four months, and, having spent our\u003cbr\u003eautumn in the Highlands, were now lodging in a remote little village\u003cbr\u003esituated just on the verge of the great English moorlands. We were\u003cbr\u003every much in love, and, of course, very happy. This morning, when we\u003cbr\u003eparted, she had implored me to return before dusk, and I had promised\u003cbr\u003eher that I would. What would I not have given to have kept my word!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEven now, weary as I was, I felt that with a supper, an hour's rest,\u003cbr\u003eand a guide, I might still get back to her before midnight, if only\u003cbr\u003eguide and shelter could be found.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd all this time, the snow fell and the night thickened. I stopped\u003cbr\u003eand shouted every now and then, but my shouts seemed only to make the\u003cbr\u003esilence deeper. Then a vague sense of uneasiness came upon me, and I\u003cbr\u003ebegan to remember stories of travellers who had walked on and on in\u003cbr\u003ethe falling snow until, wearied out, they were fain to lie down and\u003cbr\u003esleep their lives away. Would it be possible, I asked myself, to keep\u003cbr\u003eon thus through all the long dark night? Would there not come a time\u003cbr\u003ewhen my limbs must fail, and my resolution give way? When I, too, must\u003cbr\u003esleep the sleep of death. Death! I shuddered. How hard to die just\u003cbr\u003enow, when life lay all so bright before me! How hard for my darling,\u003cbr\u003ewhose whole loving heart but that thought was not to be borne! To\u003cbr\u003ebanish it, I shouted again, louder and longer, and then listened\u003cbr\u003eeagerly. Was my shout answered, or did I only fancy that I heard a\u003cbr\u003efar-off cry? I halloed again, and again the echo followed. Then a\u003cbr\u003ewavering speck of light came suddenly out of the dark, shifting,\u003cbr\u003edisappearing, growing momentarily nearer and brighter. Running towards\u003cbr\u003eit at full speed, I found myself, to my great joy, face to face with\u003cbr\u003ean old man and a lantern.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47068909830384,"sku":"2940013681460","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013681460_p0.jpg?v=1763584309","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013681460","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}