The answers he gave amazed me. I picked up the phone and called the Air Force Press Branch. After some delay, I was told that Major Boggs was being briefed for assignment to Germany. An interview would be almost impossible. “He wasn’t too busy to talk with I.N.S.,” I said. “All I want is thirty minutes.” Later, Jack Shea, a civilian press official I had known for some time, arranged for the meeting. I was also to talk with General Sory Smith, Deputy Director for Air Information. Major Jesse Stay, a Press Branch officer, took me to General Smith’s office for the interview. Both Jesse and Jack Shea, pleasant, obliging chaps who had helped me in the past, tried earnestly to convince me the saucers didn’t exist. Jesse was still trying when Major Boggs came in. Boggs looked to be in his twenties, younger than I had expected. He was trim, well built, with a quietly alert face. Two rows of ribbons testified to his wartime service. When Jesse Stay introduced me, Boggs gave me a curiously searching look. It could have been merely his usual way of appraising people he met. But all through our talk, I had a strong feeling that he was on his guard. I had written out some questions, but first I mentioned the I.N.S. story. “Were you quoted correctly on the Mantell case?” I asked. “Yes, I was.” Major Boggs looked me squarely in the eye. “Captain Mantell was chasing the planet Venus.” It was so incredible that I shook my head. “Major, Venus; was practically invisible that day. We’ve checked with astronomers. Is that the official Air Force answer?” “Yes, it is,” Boggs said. His eyes never left my face. I glanced across at General Sory Smith, then back at the intelligence major. “That’s a flat contradiction of Project ‘Saucer’s’ report. Last April, after they had checked for fifteen months, they said positively it was _not_ Venus. It was still unidentified.” Boggs said, in a slow, unruffled voice, “They rechecked after that report.” “Why did they recheck, after fifteen months?” I asked him. “‘They must have gone over those figures long before that, for errors.” If my question annoyed him, Boggs gave no sign. There’s no other possible answer,” he said. “Mantell was chasing Venus.” CHAPTER XVII For a moment after Boggs’s last answer, I had an impulse to end the interview. I had a feeling I was facing a sphinx—a quiet, courteous sphinx in an Air Force uniform. I was sure now why Major Jerry Boggs had been chosen for his job, the all-important connecting link with the project at Wright Field. No one would ever catch this man off guard, no matter what secret was given him to conceal. And it was more than the result of Air Force Intelligence training. His manner, his voice carried conviction. He would have convinced anyone who had not carefully analyzed the Godman Field tragedy. I made one more attempt. “Do the Godman Field witnesses—Colonel Hix and the rest—believe the Venus answer?” “I haven’t asked them,” said Boggs, “so I couldn’t say.”