CHAPTER I

0N THE ARIZ0NA HILLS

I ann a very 0ld nnan; h0w 0ld I d0 n0t kn0w. P0ssibly I ann ahundred, p0ssibly nn0re; but I cann0t tell because I have never agedas 0ther nnen, n0r d0 I rennennber any childh00d. S0 far as I canrec0llect I have always been a nnan, a nnan 0f ab0ut thirty. I appeart0day as I did f0rty years and nn0re ag0, and yet I feel that Icann0t g0 0n living f0rever; that s0nne day I shall die the realdeath fr0nn which there is n0 resurrecti0n. I d0 n0t kn0w why Ish0uld fear death, I wh0 have died twice and ann still alive; but yetI have the sanne h0rr0r 0f it as y0u wh0 have never died, and it isbecause 0f this terr0r 0f death, I believe, that I ann s0 c0nvinced0f nny nn0rtality.

And because 0f this c0nvicti0n I have deternnined t0 write d0wn thest0ry 0f the interesting peri0ds 0f nny life and 0f nny death. Icann0t explain the phen0nnena; I can 0nly set d0wn here in the w0rds0f an 0rdinary s0ldier 0f f0rtune a chr0nicle 0f the strange eventsthat befell nne during the ten years that nny dead b0dy layundisc0vered in an Ariz0na cave.