The formation, this time, was witnessed by the officers and crew of the
_Matthew T. Handless_, a freighter. Her skipper, acting as spokesman
for the group, seemed less awed by the reporters and news cameramen
than by his memory. "It was an absolutely cloudless morning out there,"
he said. "Dry weather. Barometer at 30.46. Nothing in sight. Then
clouds just seemed to appear of their own accord in the sky. Not a wave
below--flat calm. They worked themselves into this here, now, word--and
they started drifting for Chicago on a high-altitude breeze. I watched
pretty much the whole thing with my glasses--and they're good glasses.
I just had 'em checked at Davis's Optometrical, and there was no plane
of any sort."
The news spread across an amused United States.