_To Whom It May Concern:_
_Few words are best, as Sir Philip Sidney once wrote in challenging an
enemy. The present account will be accepted as a challenge by the vast
army of skeptics of which I once made one. Therefore I write it brief
and bald. If my story seems unsteady in spots, that is because the hand
that writes it still quivers from my recent ordeal._
_Shifting the metaphor from duello to military engagement, this is but
the first gun of the bombardment. Even now sworn statements are being
prepared by all others who survived the strange and, in some degree,
unthinkable adventure I am recounting. After that, every great psychic
investigator in the country, as well as some from Europe, will begin
researches. I wish that my friends and brother-magicians, Houdini and
Thurston, had lived to bear a hand in them._
_I must apologize for the strong admixture of the personal element in
my narrative. Some may feel that I err against good taste. My humble
argument is that I was not merely an observer, but an actor, albeit a
clumsy one, throughout the drama._
_As to the setting forth of matters which many will call impossible,
let me smile in advance. Things happen and have always happened, that
defy the narrow science of test-tube and formula. I can only say again
that I am writing the truth, and that my statement will be supported by
my companions in the adventure._