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veracity. The next day, police officials from the nearby town of Rhayader formed a searching party and completely scoured the countryside. They probed the well with grappling hooks and thoroughly interrogated all those who had been present on the preceding evening. In spite of the fact that it was obvious from Oliver's footsteps in the snow that he had never reached the well or turned aside from the straight line that he was keeping toward his destination, the police insisted upon satisfying themselves with a complete investigation. There was only one conclusion that the authorities were able to render: Oliver Thomas had inexplicably vanished - straight up. But where had Oliver gone and what or who had taken him? The boy was much too heavy for any known bird to have snatched, certainly too large for any of the birds of Wales. At the 1909 stage in their development, airplanes, had enough difficulty getting themselves airborne without plucking up unwilling passengers by means of some kind of skyhook. Eleven people heard Oliver Thomas shout: "They've got me!" Choice of words when one panics is very important and always revealing. It would seem that the boy had got a good look at the "they" who were snatching him up, or else it seems likely that he would have shouted that an "it," a "something," or "a giant bird" had got him. But even in his great fright, young Oliver Thomas repeated over and over again that "they" had him. "They" also, occasionally, snatch animals. On the afternoon of April 21, 1897 a prosperous cattleman near Yates Center, Kansas reported to authorities that an airship had hauled one of his heifers up into its hold. The rancher, Alexander Hamilton, was a former member of the state legislature and was known across Kansas as a man of total Hamilton told the Farmer's Advocate for its April 23rd issue: "Last Monday night, about 10:30, we were awakened by a noise among the cattle ... upon going to the door, | saw to my utter astonishment an airship slowly descending upon my cow lot, about 40 rods from the house.