to the ground. Maurice knew right away that he had b e en hit. But this gun had fired no bullets. All it had done was fre eze him into place, unable to move. He lay there rooted to the ground, help足 less, as the strange creatures headed straight towards him. After some time- he was not sure how long-_ Mau r ice b e gan to re gain his ability to move ab out, but he could not walk properly and felt weak and groggy. He heard a strange whistling noise echoing in his ears, which rose to a high pitch. Painfully glancing upwards, the stricken farmer watched the odd helicopter climb into the sky and fly away. The lavender thieves had disappeared, taking some of his crop with them, presumably having left the way they came -inside their flying egg. Maurice never forgot that day. He later admit足 ted that he felt as if something else must have happened to him in the time that he lay on the ground. His memory of it was hazy and unclear, but it was there. He was not frightened by what had taken place, even though he suspected that 揃 h e had b e e n tak e n aboa r d th e stra ng e helicopter- that he had be en "spacenapped." For a long time he re fused to talk about this part of his story even to his wife. All he would say was that the aliens would never make some足 one go aboard unless they had really wanted to do so. He, apparently, had be en willing to help them in their explorations. W hen shown a picture of what patrolman L onnie Zamora saw at Socorro, New Mexico, just 80
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