TO THOMAS ARTHUR NELSON（LOTHIAN AND BORDER HORSE）

TO THOMAS ARTHUR NELSON（LOTHIAN AND BORDER HORSE）

My Dear Tommy，

You and I have long cherished^[1]an affection for that elemental type of tale which Americans call the‘dime novel^[2]’and which we know as the‘shocker’—the romance where the incidents defy the probabilities，and march just inside the borders of the possible．During an illness last winter I exhausted my store of those aids to cheerfulness，and was driven to write one for myself．This little volume is the result，and I should like to put your name on it in memory of our long friendship，in the days when the wildest fictions^[3]are so much less improbable than the facts．

J．B．

【注释】

[1]cherish vt．珍爱，怀抱（希望等）

[2]dime novel n．故事动人但毫无文学价值的小说

[3]fiction n．虚构，编造，小说