In 1975, a Swiss Caretaker named Eduard "Billy" Meier disappeared on his motorbike into a forest near his village. He returned with several clear photographs of a large, silvery disk hovering in the sky. Over the next five years, Meier produced hundreds of bright, detailed photographs. He also recorded the sounds of "beamships," collected several metal samples, and made films of the ship in flight.
在 1975 年間，瑞士有一位名叫愛德華．比利．邁爾（Eduard "Billy" Meier）的工廠看守人員，他單獨騎著摩托車，由所居住的農莊裡，沿著鄉間小徑逐漸消失在附近的茂密森林中。不久之後，他帶回許多拍到的清晰照片；都是些銀色大大的幽浮照片。接下來的五年多，邁爾又陸續拍了好幾百張類似的幽浮清晰照片；並且錄到了幽浮的聲音；還拍攝到幽浮盤旋空中的影片；甚至蒐集到了一些有關幽浮的金屬樣本。
Dozens of witnesses have seen the beamships and corroborated Meier's fantastic story. His evidence, investigated by a professional security team headed by a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, has been examined by scientists at IBM, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Arizona State University, and the Mc Donnell Douglas aeronautics company.
有好幾十位一起參與邁爾神奇經歷的人，他們也曾目睹過那些被他稱之為「光船」（beamships）的幽浮。他的事蹟與證物，曾經歷過以美國退休空軍上校所帶領的專業保全團隊的調查；也曾被任職於 IBM、NASA 噴射推進實驗室、亞利桑那大學與麥道（Mc Donnell Douglas）航空公司等許許多多的科學專業人員們檢驗過。
For the past three years, Gary Kinder, author of the highly acclaimed Victim: The Other Side of Murder, has investigated the Meier story. Here, in a thoroughly compelling narrative, Kinder presents all sides of this controversial case - the most remarkable, well-documented UFO story in history.過去三年來，
蓋里．金德（Gary Kinder）（備受好評的書籍《Victim: The Other Side of Murder》之作者）對邁爾現象進行了深入的調查。在這完全可信賴的紀錄資料裡，作者呈現了此一飽受爭議事件的全貌 —— 有史以來最不可思議、資料最詳實的幽浮故事。
【切換到《中譯版》】
PART 1 - EDUARD MEIER
第一部 愛德華．邁爾
Late on a cold and rainy November night in 1976, a Volkswagen and a small German-built Ford wound through the islands of darkened forest in the hills southeast of Zurich. The rain fell so hard for so long that the back roads had turned to mud and the rain dripped from the needles of tall evergreens soaking the forest floor until it was spongy. Then, the temperature cooled and large wet flakes of snow now mixed with the rain as the Volkswagen, followed by the Ford, slithered through the mud past the shadowy presence of an old farmhouse and headed further into the darkness. Wearing a gray leather jacket, a man with his left arm severed just above the elbow rode in the passenger seat of the lead car; though the driver could see nothing save the wet path before him pelted by silver rain, the man with one arm seemed able to see past the veil of darkness, to know where he was and where he was going. Above the muffled beating of the rain, he directed the driver through the darkness across a swampy meadow, down a prominent rise, to the edge of another forest, where he told the driver to stop.
1976 年 11 月一個陰冷多雨的晚上，蘇黎世（Zurich）南方山區，一部福斯汽車及一部福特小轎車，正穿過一座座星羅棋佈的陰暗森林。因為雨下得又大又久，使得道路變得泥濘不堪。雨滴從常青樹上滴落，逐漸把整個森林地表浸透。天寒地凍，雪雨紛飛，朦朧的老農莊漸行漸遠，福斯和福特兩部汽車一前一後緩緩地滑行，駛向黑暗的前方。前一部車上，坐著一位穿著灰色皮夾克，左手肘以下被截肢的乘客。由於雨下得很大，造成道路濕滑，使得司機無法看清前方，但是這位獨臂人似乎能看穿黑暗的面紗，並且很明白他當時身在何處，及將往何處去。汽車低沉的聲音蓋過了雨聲，獨臂人要求司機穿過沼澤般的草地，到達森林旁突起的一塊山坡地，並且指揮司機停下來。
The car engine died quickly, and only the rain splashing on the metal roof now broke the silence. Then the headlights of both cars dimmed and went out, and the driver could see nothing in the blackness. Neither he nor a passenger in the backseat had seen anything since the headlights swept past the ghostly farmhouse a few miles back. The man with one arm instructed the driver that they were to wait for him there, that he would return in perhaps an hour, perhaps longer, he could never be sure. Then with no further word he opened the door and they watched his silhouette disappear quickly through the rain into the dark of the forest.
車子的引擎立刻停止，只有雨滴在車蓋上飛濺著，打破了寧靜的氣氛。兩部車的大燈都非常昏暗且微弱，使得司機在黑暗中不太容易看清楚任何事物。其實從幾英里前那幢鬼魅般的農莊一路開過來，司機和坐在後座的乘客都看不清前方。這時候，獨臂人命令司機在這兒等他，並且告訴他們大約一小時或更久他才會回來，他也無法確定回來的時間。他沒有再多說話，打開車門後，他的身影迅速消失在雨中，並進入黑暗的森林裡。
For over a year the driver had accompanied the one-armed man to such sites, a half hour, sometimes an hour, from the village. As months passed the journeys had taken place later at night and the sites had become increasingly remote. For someone alone, waiting in the darkness, they could be frightening. This night the presence of the other people, the man in the backseat, the man and woman in the Ford, eased the fear as he waited.
一年多以來，這一位司機曾經陪獨臂人到過許多地方。有時候停留半小時，有時候一小時。經過幾個月後，類似行程發生的時間越來越晚，而且地點也逐漸變遠。任何人單獨在黑暗中等待都是令人恐懼的，還好這個夜晚後座有乘客，另一部車上也有一男一女陪伴著，使得司機不再那麼害怕。
Outside, the rain and wet snow continued to fall, and the driver realized they would have to mount chains on the rear tires or they would never be able to drive through the deepening mud up the rise and back several miles to the main road. If they bogged down in the mud, they would have to spend the night in the two cars.
在車外，雨和雪不停地下著，司機想到他必須在前輪裝上鐵鍊，才能在泥濘不堪的雪泥上行駛，目前他們所在的位置距離主要的公路有數英里之遙，萬一他們陷於泥淖中，將得花去整晚的時間來處理這兩部車子。
The men got out of the cars, and illuminated by the headlights, they stood in the rain and mud jacking up first the Volkswagen then the Ford. The rear tires of each car had to be raised, one at a time, then lowered, and the jack stand repositioned again in the mud and pumped again until the next tire rose inches from the ground. The chains were heavy and difficult to manipulate, especially with fingers wet and numb from the cold. The woman sat in one car then the other, dozing as the men worked.
Before each chain was in place, nearly an hour had passed, and the three men were now soaked to their skins and chilled by the icy rain running in rivulets down their faces. Finally they were satisfied with the tautness of the chains, and as they began stamping about, trying to get warm, they suddenly heard a strange sound above the trees.
這些人走出車外，站在雨中。他們利用大燈來照明，首先頂起福斯，然後是福特，兩部車的前輪都需要裝上鐵鍊。用又冷又僵的手裝鏈條，會覺得鏈條特別沉重，而且不易安裝，此時車上的女子正在車內打瞌睡。裝鏈條共花了大約一個小時的時間，雪雨灑在臉上像條小河似的，使他們三個人看起來更加狼狽不堪。好不容易裝好了鏈條，他們試著暖車，突然間，樹上傳來奇怪的聲音。
"A singing noise," recalled one of the men.
“一種像歌聲的雜音。”其中一人回憶道。
They peered upward into the rain. Except for the constant flow of water dripping from the pine needles, the trees stood motionless, but still the noise was that of strong wind.
The eerie sound, a high-pitched warble that pierced the falling rain, moved slowly over their heads. They followed its course with their eyes, straining to see; then suddenly the noise began to subside, and the one-armed man stood with them in the light not two feet away.
他們在雨中往上看，雨滴從松針上落下。樹林是靜止的，但強烈的聲響仍然持續著。這是一種令人毛骨悚然的聲音，類似高音調的顫抖聲。落下的雨滴在他們頭上緩慢移動，流經他們的眼睛，影響了他們的視線。突然間，嘈雜的聲音開始下沉，此時獨臂人已經和他們一起站立在離光線不到兩英尺遠的地方。
"We didn't see him or hear him walk," remembered another. "Just all of a sudden he was there."
“我們沒有看見或聽到他走過來，”另一個人回憶說，“好像突然間他就已經在那兒了。”
The noise in the trees had awakened the woman, who got out of the car to see the three men in their darkened and soggy clothes huddled together in the beam of the headlights and looking up into the trees. She closed the door and took one step into the mud, glancing down for only a moment. When she raised her eyes again quickly, what she saw startled her: the man with one arm was suddenly standing in the headlight beam only a few feet away, with his back to her.
樹林中的嘈雜聲吵醒了車內的女子，她走出車子，看見三個穿著又濕又黑衣服的男人站在一起，他們不約而同沿著大燈的方向凝視著樹林上方。她關上車門，才走了一步就踩進了爛泥中，她向下看了一下腳，當她抬起頭來時，看見了令她驚訝的一幕：獨臂人突然出現在大燈前僅幾英尺的地方，而且背對著她。
"In the time I looked down and up again, a split second," she remembered, "he practically grew out of the ground in front of me."
“當時我只是低下頭看了一眼，就這麼一瞬間，”她回憶著，“他就像是從地上突然冒出來似的。”
The man with one arm appeared almost like an apparition in their midst. They stared at him through the rain and saw that his hair was dry; they reached for his hand, and his skin was warm to their touch. As he stood in the bright light saying nothing, they could see the rain and wet flakes of snow just beginning to form dark speckles on the bone-dry leather of his coat.
獨臂人就像幽靈似地出現在他們眼前。他們穿過雨盯著他看，他的頭髮是乾的；他們握著他的手，他們接觸到他溫暖的皮膚。當他站在大燈前，嘴裡說著“沒什麼，沒什麼”時，他們可以看見雨水和雪片在他乾皮夾克上開始融化。
ONE
第一章 怪異的邁爾
History first mentions the village of Hinwil, Switzerland in a document dated 745. Thirty miles southeast of Zurich, it nestles in a landscape of rolling green hills pocketed by large islands of forest a hundred feet tall, with the Alps rising in the distance. Hinwil itself, perhaps, would disappoint the tourist looking for the charm of alpine architecture: though chalk-white chalets shuttered in green rise from the village core and scatter among the hills, many stark buildings constructed of concrete have risen in their midst. They resemble not so much the quaint cottages in travel brochures as they do utilitarian apartment buildings erected in the 1950s and '60s in the United States.
在一份陳舊的 745 號文件中，第一次談到瑞士欣維爾（Hinwil）鎮這個村莊。它位於蘇黎世（Zurich）東南方三十英里處，依偎在風景如畫、四季如春的小山丘旁，周邊環繞著非常大的島狀森林，林中長滿了一百英尺高的樹木，阿爾卑斯山脈在遠處聳立著。比起高大迷人的阿爾卑斯山，欣維爾鎮的觀光資源是不會引起遊客興趣的，雖然美麗的農舍小屋圍繞在村落四周，並散佈在小山丘上，但仍然有些僵硬的混凝土建築夾雜其中，類似美國建於 1950 至 1960 年以出租為目的的公寓建築，它們完全沒有農舍小屋那份恬靜的感覺。
［中文編輯者註：本書中所有「地名」之中文譯名，如在「維基百科」中已有正式譯名，原則上均依據其譯名（並設定網址鏈結以供參考）為主；至於「人名」，除非是大家而熟能詳，且於「維基百科」中有中譯名字可查者，原則上儘量以原創中譯為主，望讀者諒察！］
But a short distance from the village center, along the street Wihaldenstrasse, stands a three-story farmhouse built a hundred years ago. During the mid-1970s, summer grape vines climbed the sunny south wall of the old house. Flowers filled a stone water trough to the north near the entrance, and small birds fluttered in an aviary built of wood and wire. To the south and east of the house lay a small green field, and to the north and west stood more of the cold, institutional apartment buildings.
沿著維哈爾登（Wihaldenstrasse）大街，離鎮中心不遠的地方，聳立著一棟三層樓高的百年老農舍。70 年代中期開始，葡萄藤爬滿了老農舍向陽的南面牆壁；農舍北面入口處的石製水池內開滿了美麗的花朵，木製鳥籠內的小鳥拍動著翅膀，一副優閑的樣子，房子的東南方有一小塊綠地延展著；而在它的北邊及西邊聳立著幾幢冷清的公寓建築。
The community of Hinwil had acquired the old farm years before and built the surrounding apartments to house senior citizens. Though the farmhouse someday soon would be torn down to make room for more apartments, the community now rented the house for a nominal sum to an unemployed night watchman, Eduard Meier. Meier lived in the house with his Greek wife, Kaliope, nicknamed Popi, and three small children-a girl, Nina, a boy, Atlantis, and the baby, Bashenko. They had been living in the house since December 1973 though they had lived elsewhere in Hinwil for two years.
很早以前欣維爾鎮公所就擁有老農舍的所有權，並且在它周圍建了公寓來收容年長的鎮民。雖然農舍不久也要拆除改建公寓，鎮公所當時仍以很低的價錢將農舍租給了一個失業的巡夜人，他的名字叫愛德華．邁爾（Eduard Meier）。邁爾一家人都住在裡面，他希臘籍的太太凱莉普（Kaliope），小名波比（Popi），他的三個小孩，女兒莉娜（Nina），兒子亞特藍提斯（Atlantis）和襁褓中的二兒子巴遜科（Bashenko）。他們一家在欣維爾鎮某個地方住了兩年後，於 1973 年 12 月才住進這個房子。
Meier, a man of thirty-seven, had a sixth-grade education. He was not a very big man, maybe five feet, seven inches tall, but he was thick-chested and strong. His face was handsome, set off by unusual greenish-hazel eyes. According to village records, Meier's professions were "bird breeder, iron layer, night watchman." He held a permit to carry a gun because he had once worked as night security in a factory.
邁爾是個 37 歲的男子，受過六年的基礎教育。他並不是一個非常高大的人，大約只有 5 英尺 7 英寸（約 170 公分）高，胸寬體壯，英俊的臉龐由一雙淺綠褐色的眼眸襯托著。根據戶籍記載，邁爾的職業曾經是“養鳥人、打鐵匠、夜間巡夜人”，因為必須維護受雇工廠夜間的安全，所以允許他佩帶手槍。
In a former house, a tiny three-room row house contiguous to the Hinwil village museum, Meier had kept a cage out back filled with nearly two hundred birds. He had been employed then as a night guard and, consequently, was often at home during the day. But many people in the neighborhood avoided talking to Meier because he was "different." He spoke a great deal about Moses and said things other people did not understand. Julios and Erika Kagi knew the Meiers better than other neighbors did because they had a daughter the same age as Nina and the two girls often played together. "He had a terrific fantasy," remembered Erika Kagi, "and I could not agree with his philosophy. But he was not a bad person. He was not even odd; he just had his own ideas and believed whatever he said." Said another neighbor, "Meier lives the way he wants to and does not adapt to anyone else's way of living."
邁爾以前住的房子鄰近欣維爾鎮博物館，房內只有三間格局很小的房間，那時邁爾管理養著約兩百隻小鳥的鳥籠。現在他受雇從事夜間警衛，因此他幾乎白天都在家中。但是鄰居們都儘量避免和邁爾說話，因為他“不太一樣”。朱利奧（Julios）和艾瑞卡．凱吉（Erika Kagi）夫婦較其它鄰居瞭解邁爾一家人，因為他們的女兒和邁爾的女兒莉娜年齡相近，且常常在一起玩耍。艾瑞卡曾說：“邁爾有一個奇妙的幻想，我對他思考的邏輯方式不敢苟同，但是一般而言他既不壞也不怪，他只不過有他自己的想法，而且固執己見罷了。”另外一位鄰居則說：“邁爾活在他自己的世界裡，無法接受別人的生活方式。”
Meier had only one arm. His left arm had been severed just above the elbow in a bus accident in 1965, as he traveled from India, through Turkey, and back to Switzerland. Still, when part of the barn adjacent to the small house collapsed, Julios Kagi saw Meier rebuild the wall alone by holding the boards in place with his shoulder stump while he positioned and pounded nails with his one hand. "He was faster with one hand than other people are with two," recalled Kagi.
邁爾只有一隻手臂，因為他在 1965 年由印度經土耳其回瑞士時，不幸遇上車禍，左肘以下就被截肢了。農舍旁穀倉小屋的屋角經常有崩塌的現象，朱利奧看過邁爾獨自用一隻手加以修復。“他一隻手工作的速度比正常人用兩隻手還快。”朱利奧回憶說。
Again out of a job, Meier now supported his family on the 700 francs provided him every month by the government for the loss of his arm. To supplement their income, the Meiers kept chickens in the attic of the old farmhouse, and Popi sold eggs to the neighbors.
To neighbors living in the apartment buildings overlooking the front door of the farmhouse, Meier seemed to be always home. In a culture that values hard work and conformity, the neighbors saw him as a singular and idle man, often lost in thought, as though the weight of the world rested upon his shoulders, and they began to talk.
車禍後邁爾失業了，由於他失去一隻手臂，政府每個月提供七百法郎以供他家庭開銷。為了增加收入，邁爾在老農莊內養雞，太太波比則將雞蛋賣給鄰居賺點錢貼補家用。住在公寓裡的鄰居們可以很容易地俯視農莊大門，他們覺得邁爾很少出門，似乎總是在家裡。以當地重視勞動及團體精神的文化風格來看，鄰居們認為邁爾是一個孤僻又懶散的人，經常胡思亂想，有時甚至覺得整個世界的重擔都落在他的肩上，他們對他頗有微詞。
Then, on the afternoon of January 28, 1975, a cold day but warmer than most at that time of the year, Eduard Meier left the farmhouse on his moped, towing a tiny wagon behind him. He wound through the streets of Hinwil, steering with one hand, the empty left sleeve of his leather jacket jerking in the wind. Working his way out of town, he eventually came to a country road, which he followed for a time, then disappeared into the forest of a nature conservancy. A few hours later, he returned to the farmhouse without telling anyone where he had been.
1975 年 1 月 28 日下午，天氣雖然寒冷，但仍比往年此時溫暖些。邁爾騎著摩托車離開了農莊，車後還拖著一輛小拖車，他單手駕駛著摩托車，皮衣的左袖空蕩蕩地隨風飄動。車子經過了欣維爾鎮的街道，離開了村莊，駛上產業道路，又開了一陣子，便消失在自然保護區的森林裡。幾個小時後，他重回農莊，但是沒有告訴任何人他去了哪裡。
Several days passed, during which the neighbors saw Meier dawdling around the house, seemingly as always without purpose. Then, one afternoon, he again pulled his moped from a storage room, pedaled it down the driveway until the tiny motor kicked over, and rode through the village out into the country. Soon, he was lost from view in another of the islands of forest surrounding Hinwil. When he returned, as before, he told no one where he had been or why he had been there. But the Swiss are observant and curious people, and the neighbors noted his peculiar comings and goings.
過了幾天，鄰居們看見邁爾漫無目的地繞著房子走來走去。而後有一天下午，他又從倉庫中推出摩托車，用力踩著踏板發動引擎，接著騎上它，在欣維爾鎮旁的森林中消失了。臨去之前他沒有告訴任何人要去哪裡，以及為什麼要去。瑞士人是個敏感又好奇的民族，因此鄰居們也特別注意到了邁爾奇特的行為。
Within weeks, Meier was traveling regularly into the forest, guiding his moped with one hand, the tiny wagon behind. Each trip seemed to take him along a new path in a new direction through town and out into the country highways, often for as long as an hour. Later, many of his trips took him into the hills. Sometimes, he would disappear in the early afternoon and not be seen again before supper; other times, he would sneak from the house at one or two in the morning and not return till dawn.
每週邁爾都很規律地進入森林，而且每次出遊都是單手騎著摩托車，後面拖著小拖車。穿過市區後幾乎他每次都沿著不同方向，不同路徑到達產業道路。一般而言，整個旅程大約花費一個小時。之後好幾次出遊，他改往小山丘，有時午後出發．直到吃晚飯才回來；有時淩晨一、兩點才鬼鬼祟祟出門，黎明回來。
"He had to go away again and again," Popi remembered. "He would come home for five minutes, fix himself a cup of coffee, and hop, he was gone again. It was bad at night. You'd be sleeping peacefully and the kids were quiet in bed. All of a sudden, he would get up, get dressed, and be gone. You know? You think your husband is lying in bed next to you, but he is gone. I did not know anything. All he said was that he was going to work."
“他一再地回來又出去，”波比回憶著說，“他經常利用回家 5 分鐘的時間給自己沖杯咖啡，高興時還會跳舞，然後又出去了。在晚上那就更嚴重，大家都安穩地睡著，孩子們也都安靜地上了床。突然間，他起床穿好衣服就出去了。你能想像這種感覺嗎？躺在身旁的先生會莫名其妙地出去，他總是說要去工作，除此之外，我完全不知道他在做什麼。”
As the weeks passed, Meier's journeys through town and into the forests began to occur three, four, even five times a week. And his frequent departures rubbed against the grain of order and routine so conscientiously observed by his neighbors. The more he disappeared, the more they talked.
幾個星期過去了，邁爾的情形越來越嚴重，他每週進入森林的次數由剛開始時的三次，增加為四次，最近甚至五次。在鄰居的眼中，他的行為和一般人大不相同，他們對他的不滿隨著他消失次數的增多而增加。
"The people in the neighborhood didn't know any thing about what was going on," said Popi, "but they were very curious. They could tell me, to the minute, when he left on his moped and when he came back. It was always the same questions. 'Why did he come home so late?' Sometimes he got up in the middle of the night and left, so they would hear the moped. And when he did this, it was even worse with the people the next day. 'Why did he leave last night?' 'Where did he go?' I would say nothing. I wasn't interested. They are just Schnuriwiiber [gossips]."
“鄰居根本不知道發生了什麼事情，”波比說，“但是他們非常好奇且觀察入微，他們能告訴我邁爾出去和回家的確切時間。而且他們總是問著相同的問題：‘為什麼他總是那麼晚才回到家呢？’有時，他在半夜起床，接著就離開了，所以鄰居都可以聽到摩托車的聲音。‘為什麼他昨天深夜還出去？他到底去哪裡呢？’聽到這些話，我能說些什麼呢？因為我也完全不清楚。”
On clear nights, neighbors living in the apartment building just above the farmhouse saw Meier standing in the alleyway to the west and watching the sky through binoculars for hours. On nights when he did not leave the house, neighbors to the east saw a light burning on the second floor late into the night.
一個明朗的夜晚；住在公寓的鄰居看見邁爾花了好幾個鐘頭站在小巷裡，面向西方透過雙筒望遠鏡向天空搜尋。邁爾沒有離開家的晚上，東邊公寓的鄰居有時會看見農莊二樓有火光，而且燃燒整個晚上。
A week, a month, maybe two months passed, Popi could not remember. Then, one afternoon, as the two of them stood in the small living room on the second floor of the house, her husband handed her photographs.
"What do you think of this?" he asked. But Popi only stared at the pictures.
波比記不清是一星期、一個月還是兩個月前，某一天下午她和她先生站在二樓窄小的客廳裡，她先生手上拿著一些照片。他說：“你覺得這些怎麼樣？”波比緊緊盯視著那些照片。
"I was shocked," she recalled, "because I saw something completely new, and I did not want to believe that this existed. He said nothing at all. Didn't explain. Not one word." Her husband merely picked up the pictures and left the room, as Popi yelled at him for wasting his time taking pictures when money for the family was so scarce.
她回憶說：“我當時被嚇住了，因為我看見一些對我而言完全新鮮的事物，而我實在不願相信它們是存在的。但他什麼也沒說，沒有任何解釋。”她先生只是又拿回照片，然後離開了房間。此時，波比大叫著：“家裡都沒有錢生活了，你還要浪費時間去拍這些照片。”
Meier next took the photographs to his friend Jakobus Bertschinger, whom he had met while working at the Piatti gravel pit years earlier. Though Jakobus was twelve years younger than Meier, the two men had struck up a lasting friendship. They spent much time together, talking about Meier's experiences during the twelve years he had traveled back and forth through India and the Middle East. But Jakobus, too, seemed confused by the photographs Meier showed to him. He even laughed, but he promised to help his friend in any way he could.
邁爾接著將這些照片拿給他的朋友傑卡布．伯辛格（Jakobus Bertschinger）看，這位老兄是幾年前和他一起在比堤（Piatti）採石場工作的夥伴。雖然傑卡布比邁爾小 12 歲，但是他們倆卻是忘年之交，他們常在一起聊邁爾在印度及中東旅行的各種經驗。傑卡布看了邁爾拿出來的照片後非常困惑不解，但他笑了一下，他仍然願意盡其所能地幫助他的朋友。
With a loan from Jakobus, Meier placed a small classified ad in the German publication Esotera. The ad solicited people interested in forming a group to discuss natural life, logic, and truth-things "metaphysical."
邁爾向傑卡布借了一些錢在德國雜誌上刊登了一則小廣告，目的是要將對自然生命、邏輯、真理及超自然現象等有興趣的人，組織成一個團體彼此分享、討論。
Several more months passed. Through the summer and fall of 1975, the neighbors along Wihaldenstrasse watched Meier continue his frequent trips into the foothills and forests at all times of the day and night. On his little green moped, he often was seen at the edge of the open road, putt-putting along, twenty, maybe twenty-five miles an hour, passed constantly by the much larger and faster automobiles. But then, something new entered Meier's routine: one Saturday afternoon, a half-dozen cars appeared at the farmhouse and remained till late at night.
幾個月過去了，1975 年夏秋期間，鄰居沿著維哈爾登大街經常看見邁爾不分晝夜地到山上丘陵地及樹林中。他騎著綠色的小摩托車，經常被發現在產業道路旁行進，時速只有 20 至 25 英里，汽車常從他身旁呼嘯而過。然而邁爾例行性的生活中終於有新的事情發生了。一個星期六的下午，有六部汽車出現在農莊，而且一直停留到晚上。
The neighbors did not understand why people came to see this man. He was poor and handicapped, with an unkempt wife who spoke little of their language. He did not work, and his habits seemed strange. But over the weeks and months, not only did the visitors continue to come, but their numbers increased. In the tiny parlor on the second story, the man with the single arm and unusual hazel eyes spoke to these people for hours. When they left, the neighbors heard Popi screaming at him.
鄰居們都無法理解，為什麼這些人要來拜訪這個怪人。這個人又窮又殘廢，娶的老婆不太能溝通又邋遢，更何況他沒有工作又有些奇怪的嗜好。但是自此之後幾個星期甚至幾個月，拜訪者都從未間斷，而且人數越來越多。在二樓的小客廳裡，這個獨臂且帶著綠褐色眼珠的人跟這些人談了好幾個鐘頭，當他們離開後，鄰居聽到了波比對丈夫的怒罵聲。
For many months, the neighbors watched Meier disappear frequently at odd hours and saw the cars on Saturday afternoons filling the narrow alleyway, running alongside No. 10 Wihaldenstrasse, and spilling onto the streets of Hinwil.
幾個月以來，鄰居注意到邁爾經常在奇怪的時間消失，週六的下午卻常常看見一些來拜訪他的車子沿著維哈爾登大街 10 號的窄巷停靠著，並且一直排到了大街上。
（第一章 結束）
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