would be found to have caused the jump in radiation. But
nothing out of the ordinary occurred during these tests either.

It was tentatively concluded, the scientist continued, that the
abnormally high radiation readings were "officially" due to some
freakish equipment malfunction and that the objects sighted visually
were birds or airplanes. A report to this effect was made to military
authorities, but since the conclusion stated that no flying saucers
were involved, the report went into some unknown file. Project Blue
Book never got it.

Shortly after the second UFO-radiation episode the research group
finished its work. It was at this time that the scientist had first
become aware of the incidents he related to me. A friend of his, one
of the men involved in the sightings, had sent the details in a letter.

As the story of the sightings spread it was widely discussed in
scientific circles, with the result that the conclusion, an equipment
malfunction, began to be more seriously questioned. Among the
scientists who felt that further investigation of such phenomena was
in order, were the man to whom I was talking and some of the people
who had made the original sightings.

About a year later the scientist and these original investigators
were working together. They decided to make a few more tests, on
their own time, but with radiation-detection equipment so designed
that the possibility of malfunction would be almost nil. They formed
a group of people who were interested in the project, and on evenings
and weekends assembled and set up their equipment in an abandoned
building on a small mountain peak. To insure privacy and to avoid
arousing undue interest among people not in on the project, the
scientist and his colleagues told everyone that they had formed a
mineral club. The "mineral club" deception covered their weekend
expeditions because "rock hounds" are notorious for their addiction
to scrambling around on mountains in search for specimens.

The equipment that the group had installed in the abandoned building
was designed to be self-operating. Geiger tubes were arranged in a
pattern so that some idea as to the direction of the radiation source
could be obtained. During the original sightings the equipment-
malfunction factor could not be definitely established or refuted
because certain critical data had not been measured.

To get data on visual sightings, the "mineral club" had to rely on
the flying sa