The Valensole "saucer":
Nervous breakdown for the author of the story
VALENSOLE (C.P.). -- Valensole lives since Sunday a not very common multitude and the district of
the Olivol became a famous place of pilgrimage. It is there, indeed, in the broad middle of the
bright colored campaign, where gilded fields of corn mixes with the blue of the lavender
plantations, that Mr. Masse says to have seen a mysterious machine.
Except for the trampling of a few square meters of ground and a hole similar to that left by a
ripped off pole, that's all that the curious can now see. They are however numerous to come to
contemplate this field, and the way which leads there, at any moment of the day, is jammed
by cars arrivine from the departments of the Var, of the Rhone delta, of Vaucluse, the Seine
and even of Belgium. The visitors arrive on the spot with the same desire to discover something
strange. They all go away with the same feeling of disappointment.
Indeed, this small field does not show any anomaly likely to give birth to a human being
any sensation. It smeels good of lavender and the wind sweeping it yesterday, did not transport
radioactive ["pellicule", sic, instead of "particle"], but only dust, red like the ground of the plate.
In the village, the affair already passed out of topicality. The gendarmes, harrassed
with questions during two days, found serenity again and can deal with the current affairs.
As for the author of the account, Mr. Maurice Masse, certain inhabitants of Valensole firmly dissuaded
us to meet him. This man is said to be since yesterday morning, in state of nervous breakdown.
This disturbing news was confirmed to us by several worthy of faith witnesses. Moreover, any
no time did we indulge in considering the people who have some knowledge of this
case by near or by far, as having been credulous. We have quite simply, as our mission of
informers requires, acted with prudence. Our duty did not command us to exploit a
case unashamingly that now is afflicting a man and a whole family who would have done
better without all the troubles caused by a noisy publicity.
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