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above the ground. It circled a few times and landed in a nearby pasture. Barclay grabbed his rifle and went to investigate. When he was about thirty yards from the ship, he was met “‘by an ordinary mortal” who asked him to put his gun aside. “Who are you?”’ Mr. Barclay asked. “Never mind about my name; call it Smith,” the man replied. “I want some lubricating oil and a couple of cold chisels if you can get them, and some bluestone. I suppose the saw mill hard by has the two former articles, and the telegraph operator has the bluestone. Here’s a ten-dollar bill; take it and get us those articles and keep the change for your trouble.” Mr. Barclay reportedly asked him, ‘‘What have you got down there? Let me go and see it.” “No,” the man said quickly. ‘We cannot permit you to approach any nearer, but do as we request you and your kindness will be appreciated, and we will call you some future day and reciprocate your kindness by taking you on a trip.” Barclay located some oil and the chisels, but he couldn’t get the bluestone. He returned and tried to give the man back the ten-dollar bill, but it was refused. ‘“‘Smith’’ shook hands with the Texan, thanked him, and asked him not to follow him to the object. Barclay asked him where he was from and where he was going. OM. 2-9) OL 2H “From anywhere,” Smith answered. ‘“‘But we will be in Greece day after tomorrow.” He climbed aboard the object, there was a whirring noise, and it was gone “‘like a shot,”’ according to Barclay. The newspapers in Rockland, Texas, said that he was “‘perfectly reliable.” That same night ‘‘a prominent farmer’’ near Josserand, Texas, also had a confrontation with the airship pilots. Mr. Frank Nichols claimed that he was awakened around midnight by the whirring of machinery. “Upon looking out, he was startled upon beholding brilliant lights streaming from a ponderous vessel of strange proportions, which rested upon the ground in his cornfield.”’ Like Barclay, he went outside to investigate. Before he’d gotten very far he was met by two men with buckets who asked for permission to draw water from his well. He told them to go ahead, and they invited him to visit their ship. There he said he conversed freely with six or eight individuals and apparently was shown the machin- ery, which “‘was so complicated that in his short interview he could gain no knowledge of its workings.” Nichols said that they told him that “‘five of these ships were built in The Grand Deception / 77