The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1921-02-25
FoREwoRD.

To the Reader Of this Work:
In submitting Captain Carriers
strange manuscript to you I'm BOOK
form. I believe that few words rela-
tive to this remarkable personality
viii be of interest
My first recollection Of Captain Car
ter is Of the few months he spent at
my fathers home i'm Virginia. just
prior to the opening of the Civil war.
] was then a child of but five years
yet I we'll remember the tall. dark.
smooth-faced. athletic man whom /
called Uncle Jack.
He seemed always to be laughing
and he entered into the sports of the
children with the same hearty good
fellowship he displayed toward those
pastimes in which the men and w0m-
en of his own age INDUCED: or he
would sit for an hour at a time enter
tanning INV old grandmother with
stories Of his strange. wild life in all
parts Of the world. We all loved him.
and our slaves fairly worshiped the
ground he trOd.
He was q splendid specimen Of man
hood. standing a good two inches over
six feet. broad Of shoulder and mar
row of hip 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. rejecting
strong and loyal character, filled with
fire and initiative.
When the war broke out he left rs.
nor did I see him again for some fif-
teen or sixteen years When he re-
turned have seen him sit for hours
gazing off into space. his face set in
look Of wistfui longing and hopeless
misery; and at night he would sit thus
looking up into the heavens. at what
did not know until | read his manu-
script years afterward
He remained with US for about a
year and then went 10 New York,
where he purchased a little place on
the Hudson, where I visited him.
He told me at this time that if any
thing should happen to him he wished
me to take charge of his estate. and
he gave me kew to q compartment
i'm the safe which stood i'm his study,
telling me would find his Will there
he had me pledge myself to carry out
with absolute fidelity.
After I had retired for the night
have seen him from my window stand
Ing In the moonlight on the brink Of
the bluff overlooking the Hudson with
his arms stretched out to the heavens
as though in appeal.
Several months after had returned
bone from NV last visit. the first of
March. 1856. 7 think. received tele-
cram from him asking me to come to
him at once.
| arrived ut the little station about
mile from his grounds. and the |
livery man told me ne had some very |
had news for me: the Captain had !!
been found dead shortly after day |
light that very morning by the watch
man attached 10 an adjoining prop |
erty.
For some reason this news did not |
surprise me. hut I hurried out TO his |
place rs quickly as possible.
The Waterman who had discovered |
him related the few details connected |
with the finding of the body. 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 /
sDot II flashed upon me that il WAS /
the identical one where I had seen
him on those other nights with his
arms raised in suppIication, 10 the
skies
Left alone in the study. opened
the safe and Withdrew the contents of
the drawer in which he had told me !
would find my Instructions. He direct
ed thafI remove his body to Virginia
without emhalming. and that he he
laid in an open coffin within tomb
which he previously had had con
structed and which. as laten-learned
was we'll ventilated. His further in
structions related 10 this manuscript
which I was TO retain sealed and nm
rad. just az found il, for eleven
Years: nor was I 70 divulge Is con-
tents until twenty-one years after his
death.
strange feature about the tomb.
where his body still lies. is that the
massive door is equipped with
single. huge gold-plated spring lock
which can be opened only from the in
side.
Yours very sincerely.
EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS.