CHAPTER I ON THE ARIZONA HILLS I am a very old man ; how old I do not know .
Possibly I am a hundred , possibly more ; but I can not tell because I have never aged as other men , nor do I remember any childhood .
So far as I can recollect I have always been a man , a man of about thirty .
I appear today as I did forty years and more ago , and yet I feel that I can not go on living forever ; that some day I shall die the real death from which there is no resurrection .
I do not know why I should fear death , I who have died twice and am still alive ; but yet I have the same horror of it as you who have never died , and it is because of this terror of death , I believe , that I am so convinced of my mortality .
And because of this conviction I have determined to write down the story of the interesting periods of my life and of my death .
I can not explain the phenomena ; I can only set down here in the words of an ordinary soldier of fortune a chronicle of the strange events that befell me during the ten years that my dead body lay undiscovered in an Arizona cave .
I have never told this story , nor shall mortal man see this manuscript until after I have passed over for eternity .
I know that the average human mind will not believe what it can not grasp , and so I do not purpose being pilloried by the public , the pulpit , and the press , and held up as a colossal liar when I am but telling the simple truths which some day science will substantiate .
Possibly the suggestions which I gained upon Mars , and the knowledge which I can set down in this chronicle , will aid in an earlier understanding of the mysteries of our sister planet ; mysteries to you , but no longer mysteries to me .
My name is John Carter ; I am better known as Captain Jack Carter of Virginia .
At the close of the Civil War I found myself possessed of several hundred thousand dollars ( Confederate ) and a captain 's commission in the cavalry arm of an army which no longer existed ; the servant of a state which had vanished with the hopes of the South .
Masterless , penniless , and with my only means of livelihood , fighting , gone , I determined to work my way to the southwest and attempt to retrieve my fallen fortunes in a search for gold .
I spent nearly a year prospecting in company with another Confederate officer , Captain James K. Powell of Richmond .
We were extremely fortunate , for late in the winter of 1865 , after many hardships and privations , we located the most remarkable gold-bearing quartz vein that our wildest dreams had ever pictured .
Powell , who was a mining engineer by education , stated that we had uncovered over a million dollars worth of ore in a trifle over three months .
As our equipment was crude in the extreme we decided that one of us must return to civilization , purchase the necessary machinery and return with a sufficient force of men properly to work the mine .
As Powell was familiar with the country , as well as with the mechanical requirements of mining we determined that it would be best for him to make the trip .
It was agreed that I was to hold down our claim against the remote possibility of its being jumped by some wandering prospector .
On March 3 , 1866 , Powell and I packed his provisions on two of our burros , and bidding me good-bye he mounted his horse , and started down the mountainside toward the valley , across which led the first stage of his journey .
The morning of Powell 's departure was , like nearly all Arizona mornings , clear and beautiful ; I could see him and his little pack animals picking their way down the mountainside toward the valley , and all during the morning I would catch occasional glimpses of them as they topped a hog back or came out upon a level plateau .
My last sight of Powell was about three in the afternoon as he entered the shadows of the range on the opposite side of the valley .
Some half hour later I happened to glance casually across the valley and was much surprised to note three little dots in about the same place I had last seen my friend and his two pack animals .
I am not given to needless worrying , but the more I tried to convince myself that all was well with Powell , and that the dots I had seen on his trail were antelope or wild horses , the less I was able to assure myself .
Since we had entered the territory we had not seen a hostile Indian , and we had , therefore , become careless in the extreme , and were wont to ridicule the stories we had heard of the great numbers of these vicious marauders that were supposed to haunt the trails , taking their toll in lives and torture of every white party which fell into their merciless clutches .
Powell , I knew , was well armed and , further , an experienced Indian fighter ; but I too had lived and fought for years among the Sioux in the North , and I knew that his chances were small against a party of cunning trailing Apaches .
Finally I could endure the suspense no longer , and , arming myself with my two Colt revolvers and a carbine , I strapped two belts of cartridges about me and catching my saddle horse , started down the trail taken by Powell in the morning .
As soon as I reached comparatively level ground I urged my mount into a canter and continued this , where the going permitted , until , close upon dusk , I discovered the point where other tracks joined those of Powell .
They were the tracks of unshod ponies , three of them , and the ponies had been galloping .
I followed rapidly until , darkness shutting down , I was forced to await the rising of the moon , and given an opportunity to speculate on the question of the wisdom of my chase .
Possibly I had conjured up impossible dangers , like some nervous old housewife , and when I should catch up with Powell would get a good laugh for my pains .
However , I am not prone to sensitiveness , and the following of a sense of duty , wherever it may lead , has always been a kind of fetich with me throughout my life ; which may account for the honors bestowed upon me by three republics and the decorations and friendships of an old and powerful emperor and several lesser kings , in whose service my sword has been red many a time .
About nine o'clock the moon was sufficiently bright for me to proceed on my way and I had no difficulty in following the trail at a fast walk , and in some places at a brisk trot until , about midnight , I reached the water hole where Powell had expected to camp .
I came upon the spot unexpectedly , finding it entirely deserted , with no signs of having been recently occupied as a camp .
I was interested to note that the tracks of the pursuing horsemen , for such I was now convinced they must be , continued after Powell with only a brief stop at the hole for water ; and always at the same rate of speed as his .
I was positive now that the trailers were Apaches and that they wished to capture Powell alive for the fiendish pleasure of the torture , so I urged my horse onward at a most dangerous pace , hoping against hope that I would catch up with the red rascals before they attacked him .
Further speculation was suddenly cut short by the faint report of two shots far ahead of me .
I knew that Powell would need me now if ever , and I instantly urged my horse to his topmost speed up the narrow and difficult mountain trail .
I had forged ahead for perhaps a mile or more without hearing further sounds , when the trail suddenly debouched onto a small , open plateau near the summit of the pass .
I had passed through a narrow , overhanging gorge just before entering suddenly upon this table land , and the sight which met my eyes filled me with consternation and dismay .
The little stretch of level land was white with Indian tepees , and there were probably half a thousand red warriors clustered around some object near the center of the camp .
Their attention was so wholly riveted to this point of interest that they did not notice me , and I easily could have turned back into the dark recesses of the gorge and made my escape with perfect safety .
The fact , however , that this thought did not occur to me until the following day removes any possible right to a claim to heroism to which the narration of this episode might possibly otherwise entitle me .
I do not believe that I am made of the stuff which constitutes heroes , because , in all of the hundreds of instances that my voluntary acts have placed me face to face with death , I can not recall a single one where any alternative step to that I took occurred to me until many hours later .
My mind is evidently so constituted that I am subconsciously forced into the path of duty without recourse to tiresome mental processes .
However that may be , I have never regretted that cowardice is not optional with me .
In this instance I was , of course , positive that Powell was the center of attraction , but whether I thought or acted first I do not know , but within an instant from the moment the scene broke upon my view I had whipped out my revolvers and was charging down upon the entire army of warriors , shooting rapidly , and whooping at the top of my lungs .
Singlehanded , I could not have pursued better tactics , for the red men , convinced by sudden surprise that not less than a regiment of regulars was upon them , turned and fled in every direction for their bows , arrows , and rifles .
The view which their hurried routing disclosed filled me with apprehension and with rage .
Under the clear rays of the Arizona moon lay Powell , his body fairly bristling with the hostile arrows of the braves .
That he was already dead I could not but be convinced , and yet I would have saved his body from mutilation at the hands of the Apaches as quickly as I would have saved the man himself from death .
Riding close to him I reached down from the saddle , and grasping his cartridge belt drew him up across the withers of my mount .
A backward glance convinced me that to return by the way I had come would be more hazardous than to continue across the plateau , so , putting spurs to my poor beast , I made a dash for the opening to the pass which I could distinguish on the far side of the table land .