{"product_id":"2940014557887","title":"A Princess of Mars","description":"To the Reader of this Work:\u003cbr\u003eIn submitting Captain Carter's strange manuscript to you in book\u003cbr\u003eform, I believe that a few words relative to this remarkable personality\u003cbr\u003ewill be of interest.\u003cbr\u003eMy first recollection of Captain Carter is of the few months he spent at\u003cbr\u003emy father's home in Virginia, just prior to the opening of the civil war. I\u003cbr\u003ewas then a child of but five years, yet I well remember the tall, dark,\u003cbr\u003esmooth-faced, athletic man whom I called Uncle Jack.\u003cbr\u003eHe seemed always to be laughing; and he entered into the sports of the\u003cbr\u003echildren with the same hearty good fellowship he displayed toward\u003cbr\u003ethose pastimes in which the men and women of his own age indulged; or\u003cbr\u003ehe would sit for an hour at a time entertaining my old grandmother with\u003cbr\u003estories of his strange, wild life in all parts of the world. We all loved him,\u003cbr\u003eand our slaves fairly worshipped the ground he trod.\u003cbr\u003eHe was a splendid specimen of manhood, standing a good two inches\u003cbr\u003eover six feet, broad of shoulder and narrow of hip, with the carriage of\u003cbr\u003ethe trained fighting man. His features were regular and clear cut, his hair\u003cbr\u003eblack and closely cropped, while his eyes were of a steel gray, reflecting\u003cbr\u003ea strong and loyal character, filled with fire and initiative. His manners\u003cbr\u003ewere perfect, and his courtliness was that of a typical southern gentleman\u003cbr\u003eof the highest type.\u003cbr\u003eHis horsemanship, especially after hounds, was a marvel and delight\u003cbr\u003eeven in that country of magnificent horsemen. I have often heard my\u003cbr\u003efather caution him against his wild recklessness, but he would only\u003cbr\u003elaugh, and say that the tumble that killed him would be from the back of\u003cbr\u003ea horse yet unfoaled.\u003cbr\u003eWhen the war broke out he left us, nor did I see him again for some fifteen\u003cbr\u003eor sixteen years. When he returned it was without warning, and I\u003cbr\u003ewas much surprised to note that he had not aged apparently a moment,\u003cbr\u003enor had he changed in any other outward way. He was, when others\u003cbr\u003ewere with him, the same genial, happy fellow we had known of old, but\u003cbr\u003ewhen he thought himself alone I have seen him sit for hours gazing off\u003cbr\u003einto space, his face set in a look of wistful longing and hopeless misery;\u003cbr\u003eand at night he would sit thus looking up into the heavens, at what I did\u003cbr\u003enot know until I read his manuscript years afterward.\u003cbr\u003eHe told us that he had been prospecting and mining in Arizona part of\u003cbr\u003ethe time since the war; and that he had been very successful was evidenced\u003cbr\u003eby the unlimited amount of money with which he was supplied.\u003cbr\u003e3\u003cbr\u003eAs to the details of his life during these years he was very reticent, in fact\u003cbr\u003ehe would not talk of them at all.\u003cbr\u003eHe remained with us for about a year and then went to New York,\u003cbr\u003ewhere he purchased a little place on the Hudson, where I visited him\u003cbr\u003eonce a year on the occasions of my trips to the New York market—my\u003cbr\u003efather and I owning and operating a string of general stores throughout\u003cbr\u003eVirginia at that time. Captain Carter had a small but beautiful cottage,\u003cbr\u003esituated on a bluff overlooking the river, and during one of my last visits,\u003cbr\u003ein the winter of 1885, I observed he was much occupied in writing, I\u003cbr\u003epresume now, upon this manuscript.\u003cbr\u003eHe told me at this time that if anything should happen to him he\u003cbr\u003ewished me to take charge of his estate, and he gave me a key to a compartment\u003cbr\u003ein the safe which stood in his study, telling me I would find his\u003cbr\u003ewill there and some personal instructions which he had me pledge myself\u003cbr\u003eto carry out with absolute fidelity.\u003cbr\u003eAfter I had retired for the night I have seen him from my window\u003cbr\u003estanding in the moonlight on the brink of the bluff overlooking the Hudson\u003cbr\u003ewith his arms stretched out to the heavens as though in appeal. I\u003cbr\u003ethought at the time that he was praying, although I never understood\u003cbr\u003ethat he was in the strict sense of the term a religious man.\u003cbr\u003eSeveral months after I had returned home from my last visit, the first\u003cbr\u003eof March, 1886, I think, I received a telegram from him asking me to\u003cbr\u003ecome to him at once. I had always been his favorite among the younger\u003cbr\u003egeneration of Carters and so I hastened to comply with his demand.\u003cbr\u003eI arrived at the little station, about a mile from his grounds, on the\u003cbr\u003emorning of March 4, 1886, and when I asked the livery man to drive me\u003cbr\u003eout to Captain Carter's he replied that if I was a friend of the Captain's he\u003cbr\u003ehad some very bad news for me; the Captain had been found dead\u003cbr\u003eshortly after daylight that very morning by the watchman attached to an\u003cbr\u003eadjoining property.\u003cbr\u003eFor some reason this news did not surprise me, but I hurried out to his\u003cbr\u003eplace as quickly as possible, so that I could take charge of the body and\u003cbr\u003eof his affairs.\u003cbr\u003eI found the watchman who had discovered him, together with the local\u003cbr\u003epolice chief and several townspeople, assembled in his little study","brand":"All classic book warehouse","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47069298262256,"sku":"2940014557887","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014557887_p0.jpg?v=1763610927","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014557887","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}