Shallet suggested this solution: that Gorman had chased one of the
Navy's giant cosmic-ray research balloons. Each of these huge balloons
is lighted, so that night-flying planes will not collide with the gas
bag or the instrument case suspended below. Shallett concluded that
Gorman was suffering from a combination of vertigo and confusion with
the light on the balloon.

As already mentioned, these huge Navy balloons are filled with only a
small amount of helium before their release at Minneapolis. They then
rise swiftly to very high altitudes, unless a leak develops. In
Shallett's words, "These balloons travel high and fast. . . ."

Fargo is about two hundred miles from Minneapolis. Normally, a
cosmic-ray research balloon would have reached a very high altitude by
the time it had drifted this far. The only possible answer to its
low-altitude sighting would be a serious leak.

If a leaking balloon had come down to one thousand feet at Fargo, it
would either have remained at that height or kept on descending. The
mystery light was observed at this altitude moving at high speed. If a
Cub's outline was visible against the lighted football field, the
massive shape of even a partly deflated balloon would have stood out
like an elephant. Even before release, the partially inflated gas bags
are almost a hundred feet tall. The crowd at the football game would
certainly have seen such a monstrous shape above the glare of the
floodlights, for the plastic balloons gleam brightly

{p. 95}

in any light rays. The two C.A.A. men, watching with binoculars, could