"That leaves Russian or American missiles," I said, "as Steele first suggested. But there are some points that just won"t fit the missile theory."

"You"ve left out one answer," said Purdy.

"What"s that?"

"Interplanetary."

"You"re kidding!" I said.

"I didn"t say I believed it," said Purdy. "I just say it"s possible."

DuBarry was watching me. "I know how you feel. That"s how it hit me when Ken first said it,"

"I"ve heard it before," I said. "But I never took it seriously."

"Maybe this will interest you," Purdy said. He gave me a note from Sam Boal:

"Just talked with D-------," the note ran. (D------- is a prominent aeronautical engineer, the designer of a world-famous plane.) "He believes the disks may be interplanetary and that the Air Force knows it--or at least suspects it. I"m enclosing sketches showing how he thinks the disks operate."

"He"s not the first one who told us that," said Purdy. "We"ve heard the same thing from other engineers. Over a dozen airline pilots think they"re coining from out in s.p.a.ce. And there"s a rocket expert at Wright Field who"s warned Project "Saucer" that the things are interplanetary. That"s why I"m not writing it off."

"Have you read the Project "Saucer" ideas on s.p.a.ce travel?" DuBarry asked me. I told him my copy hadn"t reached me. He read me some marked paragraphs in his copy of the preliminary report:

{p. 52}

""There has been speculation that the aerial phenomena might actually be some form of penetration from another planet . . . the existence of intelligent life on Mars is not impossible but is completely unproven . . . the possibility of intelligent life on the Planet Venus is not considered completely unreasonable by astronomers . . . Scientists concede that living organisms might develop in chemical environments which are strange to us . . . in the next fifty years we will almost certainly start exploring s.p.a.ce . . . the chance of s.p.a.ce travelers existing at planets attached to neighboring stars is very much greater than the chance of s.p.a.ce-traveling Martians. The one can be viewed as almost a certainty . . .""

DuBarry handed me the report. "Here--I practically know it by heart.

Take it with you. You can send it back later."

"I know the s.p.a.ce-travel idea sounds silly at first," said Purdy, "but it"s the only answer that explains all the sightings-especially those in the last century."

He asked DuBarry to give me their file of historic reports. While John was getting it, Purdy went on:

"Be careful about this man Steele. After what he said about "moral responsibility" I"m sure he"s planted."

I thought back to Steele"s warning. I told Purdy: "If he had the s.p.a.ce thing in mind, maybe he"s right. It could set off a panic that would make that Orson Welles thing look like a picnic."

"Certainly it could," Purdy said. "We"d have to handle it carefully-if it turned out to be the truth. But I think the Air Force is making a mistake, if that"s what they"re hiding. It could break the wrong way and be serious."

John DuBarry came back with the file of old reports.

"It might interest you to know," he said, "that the Air Force checked all these old sightings too."

The idea was still a difficult one for me to believe.

"Those s.p.a.ce-travel suggestions might be a trick," I said. "The Air Force may be hinting at that to hide the guided-missile secret."

"Yes, but later on they deny the s.p.a.ce thing," said Purdy. "It looks as if they"re trying to put people on guard and then play it down, so they won"t get scared."

{p. 53}

As I put the historic reports file in my brief case, Purdy handed me a letter from an investigator named Hilton, who had been working in the Southwest. I skimmed over his letter.

Hilton had heard of some unusual night sightings in New Mexico. The story had been hushed up, but he had learned some details from a pilot at Albuquerque.

One of these mysterious "flying lights" had been seen at Las Vegas, on December 8, 1948--just one month before Mantell was killed in Kentucky. It was too dark to make out the shape behind the light, but all witnesses had agreed on its performance. The thing had climbed at tremendous speed, its upward motion shown by a bright green light.

Though the green glow was much brighter than a plane"s running light, all plane schedules were carefully checked.

"I think they were trying to pin it on a jet fighter," the Albuquerque pilot told Hilton. "But there weren"t any jets near there. Anyway, the thing climbed too fast. It must have been making close to nine hundred miles an hour."

The Air Force had also checked balloon release times--apparently just for the record, since no balloon could even approach the saucer"s terrific ascent. Again, they drew a blank.

"From the way this was hushed up," Hilton commented, "they seem to be worried about this group of sightings. I"ve heard two reports that the F.B.I. is tied into the deal somehow, but that"s as far as I can get."

"See if you can get any lead on that," Purdy told me. "That F.B.I.

business puzzles me. Where would they come in?"

I said I would try to find out. But it was almost four months before we learned the answer: The F.B.I. men had been witnesses. (This was later admitted in an obscure cross-reference in the final Project "Saucer" report. But all official answers to the strange green-light sightings had been carefully omitted. The cases concerned were 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 230, and 231, which will be discussed later.)

{p. 54}

"When you go back to Washington," said Purdy, "see what reaction you get to the interplanetary idea."

I had a pretty good idea what the reaction would be, but I nodded.

"O.K. I"ll go flag a s.p.a.ce ship and be on my way."

"O.K.--gag it up," said Purdy. "But don"t sell it short, If by any chance it"s true, it"ll be the biggest story since the birth of Christ."

{p. 55}

CHAPTER VII

IT WAS DARK when the airliner limousine reached La Guardia Field. I had intended taking an earlier plane, but DuBarry persuaded me to stay over for dinner.

We dropped into the Algonquin, next door to True"s office building.

Halfway through dinner, I asked John what he thought of the s.p.a.ce-travel answer.

"Oh, it"s possible," he said cautiously. "The time and s.p.a.ce angles make it hard to take, but if we"re planning to explore s.p.a.ce within fifty years, there"s no reason some other planet people couldn"t do it. Of course, if they"ve been observing us for over a century, as those old sightings seem to indicate, they must be far ahead of us, at least in technical progress."

Later on, he said thoughtfully, "Even though it"s possible, I hate to think it"s the answer. just imagine the impact on the world. We"d have to reorient our whole lives--and things are complicated enough already."

Standing at the gate, waiting for my plane to be called, I thought over that angle. a.s.suming that s.p.a.ce travel was the solution--which I still couldn"t believe-what would be the effect on the world?

It was a hard thing to picture. So much depended on the visitors from s.p.a.ce. What would their purpose be? Would they be peaceful or hostile?

Why had they been observing the earth so intensively in the past few years?