The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-07-22
BLINKING TRIANGLE
MYSTIFIES CENSOR
Camp Pcrshing Officer Can
Account for Lights Only as
Vaccination of Spy.
WINKING LATE AT NIGHT
Anyway, How Did Two NUM-
ton Cars Happen to Blow
Up Near ROckland Lake?

Some military men. as Is recognized
IN the regulations which require them
to take their ginger ale at tables sep
arate from those that bear the sterner
drinks, are not to be trusted too far
when mngling with the populace. But
Cadet w. L. Hoffman is known to be
singularly abstemious and trustworthy
youth. Although he passed the four
hnal hours OF Saturday night In that
gay company which made the Sparkill
IN. " Seventh Annual Firemen's Ba-
xaar so conspicuous a success. II can be
set down that what he says he saw he
saw.
And that, with the wreckage of the
great munition car blowup still on view
at Valley Cottage. N. Y, is what gives
the case In hand its unquestionably
mysterio-scientific aspect.
II was well past midnight when Cadet
Capt. Hoffman. speeding back by auto
mobile from the firemen's bazaar to
Camp Pershlng, where 600 boys are
passing their vacations in apprenticeship
20 Mars. hit a grade which betokened
the nearness of Hook Mountain.
Up the mountain and over the top
Cadet Capt. Hoffman's car struggled in
darkness. The Captain was on the down
grade when he first noticed the lights.
There were three of them. set about $50
feet apart and forming a perfect tri-
angle. The uppermost Of them sur
mounted the very dizziest peak of Hook
Mountain. which rises in stately gran
deur to the extent of some 500 feet above
the waters Of Rockland Lake.
Home Trail Easiest to Pursue.
They were winking lights As one
blinked on another would blink out.
Only rarely were all points OF the tri-
angle defined. Cadet Capt. Hoffman was
once within a quarter mile OF them. and
then he decided the lights were calcium
flares. But the home trail led away
from them and he pursued It,
When the Captain reached Camp Per-
shing. on the opposite shore of Rockland
Lake. the mysterious lights still glowed.
They were the last thing he saw through
the opened flap Of his tent before sleep
closed his eyes and cut short vigil he
he had determined should last out the
night.
At 1880 yesterday morning freight
train which included a couple of ammu-
milton cars rambled through Valley Cot
tage, q mile south of Camp Pershing and
well within the evil sphere of influence
of the Hook Mountain lights. At 1881.
or thereabouts. the ammunition cars had
disappeared. A great smoke cloud and
the memory of a great crash. in which
the tinkling of sundry broken windows
in Valley Cottage had played a sub
strain. was all that remained of them.
Awakened by the explosion. Cadet
Capt HOFFMAN at once reported the
lights. Others about the camp remem-
bered having seen them of recent nights.
An exploring party was sent across the
lake to investigate Hook Mountain. but
by that time Hook Mountain assayed
400 per cent. pure. There was no trace
OF lights nor places where lights had
been. No spies were found lurking in
the familiar caves.
Major Babcock. the Camp Perehing
censor. subsequently communicated the
facts to THE SUN, which until the mo-
ment of his telephone call had heard
nothing Of the explosions nor the lights.
And not much more about Camp Per-
shing.
Just Getting Things Right.
my only interest" said the Major.
sis to see that you get things right. No
doubt there was a direct connection be-
tween the lights and the blowup. They
were probably a signal to the wreckers
preaching"
But how" the Major was asked
"could spies on the mountain have in
formation that would be news to other
spies near enough to the train to cause
the explosion"
Never having been a spy" said Major
Babcock coldy. II personally cannot
pretend to explain. On the other hand
the lights might have been signals to
Bpies across the Hudson"
why should lights be used when the
telephone service Is so excellent for one
thing and boats are SO plentiful for an
other?"
II have told you am not a spy"
The Impotence OF the Major was
marked. But I am sure that for pur-
poses Of their own spies set those lights"
Wouldn't 1t be a rather public way OF
signalling secrets to light up the side OF
q mountain
mo more stupid a thing than many
others that spies have been caught at"
said the Major.
From other quarters came sugges-
ton that the lights had deeper scien-
tlfic significance; that rays from them
had combined to waylay the munition
train and cause the explosion.
This latter theory. 1t is promised, will
have the fullest investigation.